Page 54 of Who Will Remember (Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery #20)
Jamie Gallagher came in clutching his tattered cap in both hands, his face pale, his eyes bleak. The “young female” who slid into the room behind him was unknown to Sebastian, but from the looks of things she was still a girl, probably no more than fourteen or fifteen. Small and slightly built, she had even features, a light scattering of cinnamon freckles across her upturned nose, and thick, flaming red hair she wore tucked up under a plain bonnet. Her modest brown stuff gown was old but clean and made high at the neck with a round collar.
“I come t’ tell ye I’m the one who did it,” announced Jamie, his features stark and tense as he drew up just inside the doorway. “I’m the one killed Farnsworth, not Father Ambrose. I’ve tried tellin’ Bow Street, but they ain’t listenin’ to me. They think I’m just sayin’ it t’ try to save Father, but ye gotta believe me because it’s the truth. And if ye can’t help me get them t’ believe it, I don’t know what I’m gonna do because they’re gonna hang Father for sure—hang him for somethin’ I done!”
Sebastian glanced at Hero, who was just coming back down the stairs from handing Guinevere to Claire.
“Please, come in and have a seat,” she said, drawing the reluctant pair over to the fire, where they perched uncomfortably side by side at the edge of the sofa. “How about some nice hot tea?”
“Oh, no, ma’am,” stammered Jamie. “We wouldn’t want to be troublin’ ye.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” Hero said with a smile and quietly left the room again.
Sebastian rested one arm along the mantel and took a slow sip of his wine. “You’re going to need to tell me exactly what happened that night—the night you say you killed Farnsworth. From the very beginning.”
Jamie leaned forward, his hands now clenched tightly together between his knees. “Well, I was up near Swallow Street, ye see, and—”
“Why?” said Sebastian, interrupting him.
Jamie stared up at him, his lips parting and his eyes going wide. “What do ye mean, why ?”
“Why were you up there?”
The boy cast a nervous sideways glance at the girl beside him. “Sure then, but I just was, that’s all.” He obviously wasn’t as smooth a liar as Father Ambrose. “Lord Preston had rooms up there, ye see. On Saville Street.”
“So I have discovered. But how do you know that?”
The boy shrugged. “Just know it, I do. Anyways, I come face-to-face with him, ye see, sorta accidental-like, and he recognized me.”
“He recognized you? From when?”
Jamie shifted uncomfortably. “I reckon it was from when I’d lit into him earlier about what he done t’ Jenny.”
“I don’t believe I’ve heard about this confrontation. When did it occur?”
“A few days before, or thereabouts. Anyways, I guess he thought maybe I was gonna start in on him again because he got all red in the face and started in t’ shoutin’ at me, sayin’ as how he was gonna call the constables on me. So I ran.”
“You ran up Swallow Street?”
“Yes, sir. Only, he ran after me. He’s hollerin’, Stop! Thief! which weren’t nothin’ but a lie because I ain’t stole nothin’ from him. But me, I’m thinking there ain’t no way anybody’s gonna be takin’ the word of somebody like me against the likes of him. I can see there’s these three men standin’ a ways farther up the street, and I know if I run up there, they’re gonna grab me for sure. So when I spot that old archway, I’m thinkin’ there’ll be a passage through to King Street or somethin’. ’Course, I see real quick-like that it was a right stupid thing for me to ’ve done, on account of there weren’t no way out. So there I am, trapped in this courtyard with Farnsworth comin’ in after me. Only thing I can think t’ do is duck into the chapel. I can see there’s light comin’ through a hole in the back wall and I’m thinkin’ maybe I can squeeze through that. But it’s kinda high up, and I’m still tryin’ to climb that pile of rubble to get to it when he comes in after me.”
Sebastian was aware of Hero sliding back into the room to take up a position just inside the door. “So what did you do?”
Jamie scrubbed one hand down over his face. “Well, I tried kickin’ him away from me, but he just grabs me leg and drags me down, swearing at me somethin’ awful and sayin’ how he’s gonna be shuttin’ me up once and for all. So I kick him again, real good this time, and make a run for it. But I ain’t even made it to the door when he grabs me by the arm and swings me around so’s I go flying. I try to catch meself, but I can’t, and I land smack on me back on the floor. Knocked the wind outta me, it did. So I’m layin’ there, tryin’ to catch me breath, and Farnsworth, he’s smiling, ’cause he knows he’s got me now. He brings up that fancy walking stick of his—ye know the one he always used to carry? And I realize it’s got one of them little catches on the handle that ye push and it releases a blade.”
Jamie fell silent, his head bowed. The girl beside him reached out to take his hand, and he held on to her tightly. It was a moment before he managed to force himself to go on.
“I was that scared, I was—so scared I could hardly move. Then I started scrabblin’ around, trying to get up, and I whacks me hand against this big hunk of wood that’s layin’ there. So I grab it, and when Farnsworth comes at me with that knife, I hit him—just here.” Jamie paused to lift his left hand to his head. Except instead of pointing to the left side of his head he reached across his face to touch above his right ear.
“And then what happened?” said Sebastian. There was no doubt in his mind that this part of the boy’s tale, at least, was true.
Jamie squeezed his eyes shut and drew a deep, shuddering breath. “Me, I’m thinkin’ he’s gonna be comin’ at me again fer sure. Only, when he staggered back, I guess he tripped over some of the stuff that’s scattered all around there.” The boy swallowed hard. “There was this big piece of stone there, ye see, and he hit the back of his head on it when he fell. It made the most awful sound, like somebody crackin’ open a big ripe melon or somethin’. And then he just lay there.”
“What did you do?”
The boy rubbed his eyes with a splayed thumb and forefinger. “I dropped that piece of wood so’s I could grab that fancy little blade of his, and the walkin’ stick it’d come out of, too. All I could think of was gettin’ them away from him so’s he couldn’t come at me with ’em again. But then I took a better look at him, and I knew then he wasn’t gonna be comin’ at me again, that he was dead. So I ran.”
“Still holding the walking stick and dagger?”
The boy nodded. “Yes, sir. And I grabbed that big chunk o’ rock he fell on, too.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know why. I didn’t even realize I still had ’em ’til I’d nearly reached the Strand. Threw them all in the river on my way over the bridge.”
“And then you went to Father Ambrose?”
Jamie nodded again. “I’d worked myself up into something of a state by the time I got there, so it took Father a while to get out of me what’d happened. And then Father, he says to me that maybe I’m wrong, that for all we know, Lord Preston could’ve just got up and walked away by then, or maybe he’s layin’ there hurt. I kept sayin’, No, he’s dead. But Father, he says, There’s nothin’ for it, Jamie; we’re going to need to go and see. If he’s hurt, he may need help .”
Jamie paused, his head bowed, his chest heaving with the agitation of his breathing .
“Except Farnsworth was dead?” Sebastian said quietly.
Jamie nodded, his head still bowed, his gaze on the carpet at his feet. “Yes, sir. I says to Father, What am I gonna do? And Father, he says, Let me think for a moment. ” Jamie swallowed hard. “Me, I’m just wantin’ to get away from there as fast as I can. But Father, he says somebody might’ve seen Farnsworth chasing me—maybe those three men, or maybe somebody else. That scared me so much I thought maybe I was just gonna curl up and die right then and there. But Father, he says he’s got this idea that’s not only gonna make people think there’s no way a boy like me could’ve had anything to do with killin’ Farnsworth, but it’s gonna be so strange that it’ll get Bow Street t’ lookin’ in another direction entirely.”
“?‘To view things from a different perspective,’?” quoted Hero quietly.
Jamie looked up at her and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. That’s exactly what he said. He said if we could get Bow Street to take a look at Farnsworth’s life while they were trying t’ figure out who killed him, then maybe they’d find out he’d been murderin’ all those women— and find out who’s been doin’ it with him.”
Sebastian drained the last of his wine, then stood for a moment simply holding the empty glass. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was being left out of this tale—something important. But the boy’s story fit together far better than he’d expected it to. He said, “How did you and Father Ambrose know Farnsworth was killing young women?”
Jamie stared up at him, his jaw set hard, his nostrils flaring wide on a quickly indrawn breath.
Then the girl beside him cleared her throat and said in a hushed, broken voice, “I told them.”