Page 85 of Molly Boys
“Then you and I will find the truth together,” Shaw said plainly. “If this Underside exists and it’s capable of somehow containing a monster like Baxter… well, that’s worth finding out, I’d say. Between us, if we can uncover who Elias and his companions are, and what The Underside really is, then we can make certain monsters like Baxter are punished accordingly.”
“You’re talking about a secret underground investigation,” Archie mused as he stared at Shaw. “One only we know about.”
“Yes.” Shaw nodded. “Think about it, an investigation not bound by the chain of command and bureaucracy. It will exist for one reason only, to find the truth and to stop monsters like Baxter. I’m a physician. I swore an oath to do no harm, but what I saw last night shook me to my core. I can’t sit by and pretend I didn’t witness the impossible. The world we know is changing, Archie.”
“I know,” he muttered, frowning.
Shaw levered himself awkwardly from the chair and, leaning heavily on his crutches, he hopped over to stand in front of Archie.
“Write the report, give them Harold,” Shaw said quietly. “I’ll perform the autopsy. I suspect Edmund used some kind of poison on his father. Most likely cyanide, it’s the most efficient, but the result is still the same. His heart stopped, which is what my report will say. Harold Baxter was a man of advancing years, the strain of losing his business, of feeling his son unable to contribute to their family legacy, and the police raiding his factory… his heart gave out on him. That’s all anyone needs to know. No trial, no newspapers sensationalising a killer, let it fade quietly into the records.”
“We’d need to come up with an explanation for Edmund’s disappearance,” Archie mused.
“Between us we can come up with something,” Shaw replied. “If I have to, I could always smuggle out one of the cadavers from the Royal College and we could stage his death, or we could falsify an admittance form for one of the asylums.”
Archie regarded him seriously, surprised either of them were even considering this. “If we do this, we’d both be crossing a professional line we can’t come back from,” he murmured. “Falsifying reports and impeding an official investigation as well as breaking a dozen other rules could see us both on the wrong side of a prison cell.”
“After what we saw last night, I think we may have worse things to be afraid of than a prison cell,” Shaw said.
Was he right? Archie wondered as he studied the man before him. What they had witnessed the previous night had been shocking, but were there more people out there like Baxter? More manmade monsters and unnatural creatures lurking in the darkness?
Archie had spent his whole life wanting nothing more than to be a policeman, but being a detective inspector needed to be more than just making sure society adhered to a list of laws, many of them hundreds of years old and hopelessly outdated for their new, modern world. This threat they were facing was beyond Archie’s wildest nightmares. Shaw was right in saying no one would believe them, not without proof.
Archie closed his eyes briefly. All he could think about was those twelve young men who had been so brutally butchered, their lives snatched away, and for what? To create a monster?
Archie opened his eyes. His lips thinned to form a firm, determined line, his spine straightened, and he nodded, holding out his hand to Shaw.
Shaw’s hand gripped Archie’s firmly and his answering nod sealed the agreement between them. From this moment on, their lives and their careers were inextricably bound to each other.
Releasing Archie’s hand, Shaw’s grip returned to his crutches as he turned and headed toward the door. Pausing at the last moment, he glanced back at Archie.
“Last night in Baxter’s laboratory,” he said quietly. “You called Lord Stanley, ‘Everett’… I heard you.”
An icy cold sweat swept over Archie, drenching him in panic.
“I wasn’t that far away when you lifted him from the table and hid from Baxter.”
Archie’s stomach seized up. If Robert had been close enough to hear him call Everett by his first name, that meant he had to have been close enough to see…
His mind swept back to the incredibly private moment when he’d cradled Everett in his arms, the blue of the lord’s eyes widening in realisation that Archie had come for him. The way Everett had lifted his hand and cupped his face, brushing his thumb over Archie’s lip, couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than intimacy.
Archie drew in a slow breath, swallowing past the knot of fear in his throat. “Robert,” he began, “what you saw–”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Inspector,” he interrupted. “I was in a great deal of pain from my broken leg,” Shaw said pointedly, a soft smile curving the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t see anything.”
Giving a little nod of farewell, he hobbled to the door. “Oh and make sure you come to dinner,” he threw over his shoulder. “Peg is looking forward to meeting you… woman can’t cook worth a damn though,” he muttered under his breath.
As he left the office and the door clicked closed, Archie released the breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding.
Turning back to his desk, he sat down in his chair and picked up his pen once more. Once he’d written and turned in the report that could potentially end his career, he needed to see if Everett was alright with his own eyes.
* * *
“How is he?” Archie asked Henry as he stepped through the door.
“He’s resting.” Henry took Archie’s coat and hung it on the coat stand near the door, along with his bowler hat. “But he’s fine.” Henry drew in a shaky breath. “Thank you so much for finding him, Inspector.” Henry’s voice shook slightly, betraying how much he cared for his employer. “I was so afraid he would end up like those other young men.”
“There are no thanks needed, Henry,” Archie rumbled in a gruff voice, not knowing what else to say. He could hardly admit that the thought of not finding Everett in time had almost driven him to his knees. “Am I able to see him?” he asked uncertainly, unclear of the etiquette in this awkward situation.