William Monk 06 - Cain His Brother

which made him think that she did not include herself in the feeling, but it was too subtle to press, and far too delicate.
    “Does he ever go uptown to see him?” he said instead.
    “Caleb?” Her eyes widened. “No, not ’im. Caleb never goes uptown. Least, never that I knows. Look, mister, Caleb don’t live ’ere. ’E just comes ’ere w’en ’e feels like it. I in’t ’is keeper.”
    “But you are his woman.…”
    Suddenly there was a softness in her face. The harsh lines of anger and defense melted, taking years away from her, leaving her, for an instant in the uncertain light, the twenty-five-year-old woman she should have been, would have been in Genevieve’s place, or Drusilla’s.
    “Yeah,” she agreed, lifting her chin a fraction.
    “So when he asks you, you go uptown to see Angus.” He made it a conclusion, not a question.
    Again she was guarded. “Yeah. ’E told me ter go if he’s short on the rent. But I in’t never bin ter ’is ’ouse. Wouldn’t know w’ere to look fer it.”
    “But you know his place of business.”
    “Yeah. So?”
    “You went on the eighteenth of January, in the morning.”
    She hesitated only fractionally. Her eyes never left his, and she knew he must have spoken to Arbuthnot.
    “So wot if I did? ’E in’t complainin’.”
    “Caleb asked you?”
    “Like I told yer, I goes up if the rent’s up an’ Caleb or I in’t got it.”
    “So you go and ask Angus for it and he pays? Why, when Caleb despises him so much?”
    Her jaw tightened again. “Caleb don’ tell me. In’t my business. Jus’ wan’ed ter see ’is bruvver. They’s twins, yer know. That in’t like ordinary bruvvers. ’Is wife won’t neverstop that, not if she tries till ’er dyin’ day. Caleb in’t got no love for Angus, like Angus ’as for Caleb. Come if Caleb snaps ’is fingers, ’e does.” She said it with a kind of pride, and something towards Angus which could almost have been pity, were her loyalties not so plainly defined.
    “And Angus came this time?”
    “Yeah. Why? I tol’ yer, she won’t stop ’im!”
    “Did you see him that day?”
    “Yeah!”
    “I don’t mean in the office, I mean here in the Isle of Dogs.”
    “Not ’ere. I saw ’im in Lime’ouse, but ’e were comin’ this way. I s’pose ’e went over the West India Docks t’wards Blackwall an’ the river again.” She bent and put a piece of rotten wood into the stove and closed the door with a clatter.
    “But you saw him?” he persisted.
    “I jus’ said I saw ’im. Don’t yer ’ear good?”
    “Did you see him with Caleb?”
    She tipped some water out of a pail into a kettle and set it on the stove to boil.
    “I tol’ jer, I saw ’im goin’ inter the Docks t’wards Blackwall, an’ that’s w’ere Caleb said ’e were goin’ ter be. In’t that enough for yer?”
    “Is that where Caleb said to meet him?” he asked. “What instructions did you give Angus? Or did they always meet in the same place?”
    “Down by the Cattle Wharf at Cold’arbour, often as not,” she replied. “Any’ow, that’s wot ’e said that time, why?” She looked back at him. “ ’Oo cares? ’E in’t there now! Why yer askin’ me all these things? Ask ’im! ’E knows w’ere ’e went!”
    “Maybe he is still there,” Monk said, raising his eyebrows.
    She drew breath to mock him, then saw the seriousness beneath his tone, and suddenly doubt entered her.
    “Wot jer mean? Yer talkin’ daft!” She put her hands onher hips. “Look, wot jer come ’ere fer anyway? Wot jer want? If yer want Caleb, the more fool you! Go look fer ’im! If Angus sent yer, then tell me wot fer, an’ I’ll tell Caleb. ’E’ll come if ’e wants ter, and not if ’e don’t.”
    There was no point in trying to trick her.
    “No one has seen Angus since you did.” He looked her straight in the eyes—large, dark eyes with long lashes. “He never returned home.”
    “ ’E never went …” Her face paled under its dirt and paint. “Wotcher sayin’? ’E never ran orff! ’E’s got everyfink ’ere. ’As ’e done summink? Is ’e on the run from the rozzers, then?” A flicker of both amusement and pity touched her mouth.
    “I think it very unlikely,” he replied with an answering gleam of black laughter. Although even as he did so, he realized it was not a total impossibility, though it had never occurred to him before. “Far more probable that he is dead.”
    “Dead!” Her face blanched.