‘I’m sorry that you have to deal with such people.’
‘They’re not the sort of women you imagine, Mummy. Very few of them do it by choice. They’re driven into it by poverty or by some cruel person who has a hold over them. Some are still only girls, really,’ Alice went on. ‘One of them told us that she turned to prostitution when her husband was killed at the front. It was the only way she could support herself and the baby. We tried to point out the dangers to her.’
Ellen pursed her lips. ‘It’s such an unsavoury side of life.’
‘That’s why the inspector gave me the job. She wanted to open my eyes.’
‘It sounds as if she wanted to punish you, Alice.’
‘Gale Force does that in various ways every day.’
‘You don’t have to put up with it, you know.’
‘If I’m not in the building,’ said Alice, cheerfully, ‘then I’m out of her range. Also, I’m getting an education, of sorts.’
‘Your father had that kind of education when he was on the night shift. He was a bobby on the beat in those days, of course. To spare my blushes, he didn’t tell me about some of the encounters he must have had. But if you really want to know about prostitutes,’ said Ellen, ‘you should talk to your Uncle Raymond.’
Alice laughed. ‘Why? I didn’t think he’d have any dealings with them.’
‘He doesn’t, in the sense that you mean. But work in the Salvation Army makes him look in the darkest corners of London. He offers help to anyone in need, regardless of how they earn a living.’
‘I’d forgotten that. Maybe I will have a chat with Uncle Raymond.’
‘I know that he shielded a prostitute on one occasion,’ said Ellen. ‘She was terrified of being beaten up by the man who tricked her into selling her body. Your uncle let her stay there for the best part of a week.’
It was a sobering reminder of the routine work that the Salvation Army did in the capital. Raymond Marmion was a tireless man with a huge fund of compassion. He gave advice, sympathy and practical assistance to a wide circle of people. A talk with him might well prepare Alice for some of the sights she was bound to come across in the course of her patrol.
‘When are you going to see Joe again?’ asked Ellen.
‘I wish I knew, Mummy.’
‘It doesn’t get any better with the passage of time.’
‘Are you trying to warn me off marrying a policeman?’
‘I’d never do that, Alice. You’ve made the right choice. Stick by it.’
Alice was sad. ‘If only I could hear Daddy say that!’
‘You will one day,’ said Ellen. ‘He’s already starting to mellow.’
‘Well, why didn’t you say so, you fool?’ yelled Marmion, angrily. ‘The car must be available at all times. It’s your job to make sure that it is.’
‘I’m sorry, Inspector.’
‘If you knew there was a problem, you should have reported it.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said the driver, cowering under the onslaught.
‘That’s why we have mechanics. They keep our vehicles on the road.’
‘I didn’t think that the problem was serious.’
‘Get it fixed.’
‘I don’t have any tools.’
‘Then find someone who has,’ said Marmion, pointing a finger down the road. ‘We passed a garage on our way here. When you heard that noise in the engine, why didn’t you stop and ask for help?’
He made an effort to rein in his temper. Ordinarily, the driver was extremely dependable, working at all hours without complaint. But he had slipped up on this occasion. As a result, the car had broken down and both of them were now standing on the pavement beside it. To get to the police station would only take Marmion a ten-minute walk but that wasn’t the point. Reliability of transport was vital. Had they been speeding to an emergency, the breakdown could have had critical results. The driver clearly didn’t need to be told that. He was writhing with embarrassment.
‘It’s never happened before, sir,’ he argued in his defence.
‘I know,’ said Marmion, anger subsiding, ‘and it’s my fault as much as yours. I heard that strange noise when you did. I should have insisted you pulled into that garage. Sorry I lost my temper.’
‘I deserved it, Inspector.’
‘I’ll go on foot now. Bring the car when it’s been repaired. And if it turns out to be beyond repair,’ he added, ‘we’ll have to borrow one from the police station. We can’t solve a murder case by riding around on bicycles.’
The driver’s laugh was more out of relief than amusement. He was grateful that his reprimand was over. Marmion rarely lost his temper but, when he did, he could be very scathing. The driver was still feeling the force of the blast.
Marmion set off with long strides. His brisk walk got him to the police station where he found Joe Keedy awaiting him. He got no sympathy from the sergeant.
‘Now you know how I have to manage,’ said Keedy. ‘While you’ve had a chauffeur, I’ve had to walk everywhere or use public transport.’
‘We can’t all have a car at our disposal, Joe.’
‘Neither of us does at the moment.’
Marmion sat opposite him and heard about the visit to Sadie Radcliffe. He was intrigued to learn new intelligence about Florrie Duncan. It transpired that she was not the dutiful daughter that her parents had spoken about. According to Sadie — working on information supplied by Agnes Collier — there’d been a serious rift in the family before Florrie’s marriage. Because of her parents’ strong objections to her choice of husband, Florrie had moved out of her home and into a flat. Neither her mother’s pleas nor her father’s hectoring had been able to bring her back. In the wake of their son-in-law’s death, the parents had expected their daughter to turn to them for comfort but Florrie made a point of avoiding them.
‘I talked to the men who’ve been knocking on doors in the area,’ said Keedy, ‘and they told a similar story. It’s not a happy family and Mr Ingles is disliked by his neighbours.’
‘That’s because he’s so objectionable,’ said Marmion. ‘But you haven’t told me what it was that was likely to wipe the smile off his face and that of his wife.’
‘I’m not sure if this is true or just idle tittle-tattle.’
‘What did Mrs Radcliffe tell you?’
‘Her daughter had the feeling that Florrie was pregnant.’
‘That could be good news if it was her husband’s child.’
‘It can’t possibly be, Harv. The dates don’t fit.’
‘Well,’ said Marmion, sitting back to absorb the news, ‘that could mean that there were six victims of that explosion. From her parents’ point of view, it might be just as well that the post-mortem didn’t reveal signs of pregnancy. How certain was Mrs Radcliffe that her daughter was telling the truth?’
‘Agnes Collier had a child of her own. She knew the signals.’
‘Did she have any idea who the father was?’
‘No, Harv, but it does show Florrie in a different light. She was obviously a young woman who enjoyed life,’ said Keedy. ‘We’ll never know if the baby was an accident or a deliberate means of scandalising her parents.’
‘I’d go for the first explanation, Joe. Florrie may have fallen out with them but she’d know the terrible stigma that a child born outside wedlock would bear. It would make life very uncomfortable for mother and child. No woman would want that.’
‘I wonder if the father knew about what had happened. They could always have got married, I suppose.’
‘Not if he was already married,’ Marmion pointed out. ‘Or he could have been some careless chap who simply wanted a bit of fun and wasn’t prepared to face the consequences. Either way, he’d have left Florrie to cope on her own.’
‘Unless …’
They were both thinking the same thing. Someone who was confronted with the information that he’d fathered a child might have taken extreme measures to get rid of it. If he and Florrie had been close, he’d know the date of her birthday and be aware that the party was taking place in the outhouse at the pub. Again, the likelihood was that the man worked at the factory and therefore had access to materials that could be used to fashion a bomb. Marmion slipped a hand into an inside pocket and took out the lists that Leighton Hubbard had drawn up for him. One of the names could well belong to Florrie Duncan’s lover. They might have a second suspect. Herbert Wylie had apparently acted because he’d been rejected by a woman. It was the opposite case here. A man’s advances had been welcomed and he’d taken his pleasure with Florrie. What could have moved him to contemplate murder was the pressing need to remove her and her child from his life.