Sewer Mayhem Page 2

  CHAPTER TWO

  The bell tingled as Jacob Hicks opened the door of Posh Nosh Delicatessen on Woolaston Road. The shop was busy, as was normal on a Saturday morning, but instead of having eyes for the food on display, the customers stood together in little groups, whispering under their breaths.

  ‘There you are, Jacob,’ Emily Norton said. She was standing on tiptoes behind the counter, trying to get a glimpse of the police cars that had congregated in front of another shop, further up the street. ‘What has happened? Do you know?’

  Jacob glanced out of the window and shook his head. ‘Sorry, I have no idea.’

  ‘Didn’t you go to have a look?’ Emily’s eyes were big and round. ‘What’s happened to your curiosity?’

  ‘I left it at home.’ He smiled at her indignance. ‘I’ve got things to do and only have time to get some cheese for my mother.’

  ‘There was a burglary,’ Mrs Potts said. She leaned so close to Jacob that her shoulder touched his. He stepped aside a bit.

  ‘Actually, someone said it was a drugs bust,’ Ambrose Pickering said, his eyes glittering. ‘Imagine that. Drugs, here in Milbury.’

  Mrs Potts sniffed. ‘We’ve had our fair share of crime this spring, young man, what with the allotment murders. Don’t need any more big city stuff going on here.’

  Emily had come round the counter and wiped her hands on her apron, before opening the door.

  ‘Emily! What on earth are you doing!’ Peggie Dawson said. ‘Come back here right now and serve the customers.’

  ‘But something has happened and I want to know what.’ Emily closed the door, just as another police car came by, blue lights flashing.

  ‘You can do whatever you like after your shift is finished.’ Peggy grabbed a piece of cheese from the counter and waved it at Jacob. ‘Some Wensleydale for Dot, Jacob?’

  ‘Umm… She wanted to try something new,’ Jacob said, as always somewhat flustered in Peggy’s presence. He sniffed the air a bit. ‘Have you got the Stinking Bishop in, Peggy? There is a different kind of aroma in here than normal.’

  Peggy glared at Jacob. ‘That’s not a cheese smell. That’s a sewer smell.’

  ‘Oh.’ Jacob glanced down at his hands, trying to avoid looking at her eyes, even though they were a lovely grey.

  ‘Just ask Dave about it,’ Peggy continued. ‘It’s all his fault.’

  ‘Oh… Perhaps I will.’ There was a silence between them. Then Jacob randomly pointed at a yellowish cheese, with an almost black wax rind. ‘Can I have some of that?’

  Peggy picked it up. ‘This is the Snowdonia Black Bomber. Quite strong. Do you think Dot will like it?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Jacob’s eye went from one cheese to another and sighed. ‘Just give me some Red Leicester instead.’

  With deft hands Peggy cut some cheese, wrapped it and handed it over. ‘That’ll be two pounds, thanks.’

  As he walked out of the shop, Emily whispered to him. ‘Please find out what happened.’

  * * *

  Jacob stood still on the pavement for a second, wondering what to do. Quickly take the cheese to his mother, and get on with his plans for the day, or satisfy his own curiosity?

  He looked at the police cars further up the street. Perhaps the slight hill made them more visible, but there seemed to be quite a few of them. Also, the pavement was closed off with blue and white crime scene tape and a crowd had gathered. A quick look wouldn’t hurt.

  As he neared the crowd he could hear Mrs Jefferson’s voice ring out above the murmur of the other voices. ‘Murdered… yes… He had an antique hatpin sticking out of his chest. No doubt he surprised the burglar.’

  Jacob glanced at the gable and saw that the shop in question was Field’s Watches & Clocks.

  ‘What on earth is the matter here…’ A tall, spindly, but immaculately dressed man pushed through the crowd. ‘Why can’t things ever run normal here?’ He stopped in front of Jacob. ‘Do you know anything about this?’ His mouth drawn into a tight line, he looked at Jacob down his nose, taking in the somewhat shabby lab coat he was wearing.

  Jacob squared his shoulders and drew himself up a bit. ‘What makes you think I had anything to do with it, Spencer?’

  Spencer Peacock refrained from answering and turned to Mrs Jefferson. ‘Did I hear you say that someone was murdered?’

  Mrs Jefferson nodded her head, a gleam in her eyes. ‘It’s the young Mr Field, Nathaniel.’ She bent closer to Spencer. ‘I’d say if he’d only stuck to watches and clocks like his father did, this might never have happened.’

  ‘You might be right there.’ Spencer looked over the heads, surveying the situation. ‘This comes at a most inconvenient time. The judges of the Most Beautiful Local Shopping Street in England competition are due to visit in five weeks’ time and there’s still so much to do to beautify the street. A murder will reflect terribly on all of us, I’m afraid.’

  Jacob wasn’t listening to Spencer. A sudden coldness had hit him at the core at Mrs Jefferson’s words. Nate Field murdered? That was horrible. He couldn’t have been more than thirty. Jacob shook his head. Nate taking over the shop was just what the place had needed. How would Kenneth cope now that his son was dead?

  Jacob idly listened as the gossiping around him continued. Milbury could do with a few less of the likes of Mrs Jefferson and Mrs Potts. Stupid old biddies. His attention fell on a younger man at the edge of the crowd. He had his arm around a young woman; her face was white as a sheet and tears streamed down her face. Weren’t they Emily’s friend Samuela and her brother Lorenzo? Why was she so upset? Had Nate been her boyfriend?

  Jacob studied Lorenzo’s face. Being the oldest of the Bandoni siblings there was a definite concern for his sister as he looked down on her, but at the same time there was a kind of shiftiness in his eyes.

  All heads turned as a bright red Porsche convertible roared past, then came to a sudden halt along the pavement on the other side of the street. The handsome young man who drove the car, did a quick check of his appearance in the rear-view mirror, then got out. Lorenzo rolled his eyes as he took in the well-cut designer suit the man was wearing. He slammed the door of his car and walked across the street, peeling off his leather driving gloves.

  ‘What’s happened?’ he said, as he joined Samuela and Lorenzo.

  ‘Oh, Gianni,’ Samuela said, hugging him. ‘Nate has been murdered.’

  Gianni stared at his sister, blinking rapidly. ‘What do you mean, Sam? How… when…?’

  ‘We don’t know yet.’ Sam started crying again. ‘This is so awful.’

  A dark blue Mercedes stopped along the kerb, drawing Jacob’s attention away from the Bandoni siblings. He watched as Detective Chief Inspector Graham McDermott got out and with a scowl surveyed the gathered crowd, moustache bristling.

  ‘Always the same thing,’ McDermott said to Detective Constable Abe Monday, who had been driving the car. ‘And there’s your pal, Jacob Hicks. Trust him to be the first on the scene.’ McDermott glared at Jacob for a second, then made his way through the crowd and under the crime scene tape that was held up by a uniformed policeman.

  Abe shrugged his shoulders at Jacob, then followed McDermott to the shop. Jacob still wasn’t used seeing Abe in his plain clothes. After all, the young man had been Milbury’s neighbourhood cop for a number of years and only recently been promoted to CID.

  ‘And get those people out of here,’ McDermott’s voice was heard from the door.

  Jacob looked as the inspector stepped into the shop. Horrible man. There was never going to be any love lost between them.

  * * *

  ‘There you are,’ Emily said as she entered Jacob’s shed on his allotment. She’d been wondering what he had been doing all day, especially now that there had been another murder in Milbury. She watched as he scribbled a string of calculations on a piece of paper.

  ‘Isn’t it exciting?’ she said. ‘Another murder!’

  Jacob continued scribbling. �
�Murder is never exciting. A man lost his life.’

  ‘I know that.’ Emily rolled her eyes and plonked herself down on the grubby couch that sat along one of the walls. She sighed and took Trevor and Mike out of the pocket of her hoody. As her rats ran along the armrest, Emily looked at Jacob. She dragged her hand through her spikey blue hair. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been in here all day, doing boring calculations.’

  Jacob glanced at her. ‘Don’t tell me you took your rats with you to Posh Nosh today. Peggy’s going to find out sooner or later.’

  Emily cradled Trevor in the crook of her arm and stroked his back. ‘Aunt Peggy was even more a pain in the backside than usual today.’ Her eyes flashed as she looked at Jacob. ‘She didn’t even let me go down the street to check out the murder scene.’

  ‘She’s paying you to serve customers, not to look out of the window.’

  ‘Don’t you start.’

  Emily got up and studied the large computer that filled nearly the whole of the back wall. Green and yellow lights blinked at her. ‘Made any progress on your project lately?’

  Jacob turned to look at her. ‘Are you mocking me, or is this genuine interest?’

  ‘A genuine interest, of course! I want to find out what happened to my uncle just as much as you do.’

  ‘Well then, if you must know, I think I’m on the cusp of a breakthrough.’

  ‘Really?’

  Jacob nodded. ‘I think I can start testing soon. If only I had more time and didn’t have to teach as well.’

  ‘We all need to do things we don’t like.’ Emily smirked and got back to the couch. ‘Anyway, I think I detected a bit of an awkward moment between you and Aunt Peggy earlier in the shop.’

  Jacob studied her face, while Emily tried to keep from smiling.

  ‘You mean when Peggy told me off about that smell?’ Jacob said.

  ‘It’s been getting worse you know. Even Uncle Dave doesn’t know where it’s coming from.’ She picked up Trevor again. ‘But seriously. Aunt Peggy has as much a crush on you as you have on her. Everyone can see that.’

  Emily watched as Jacob’s face turned a satisfying red. Really, at their age it shouldn’t be so hard to get a date.

  ‘Er… talking about the shop, did you hear anything else about Nate Field’s murder?’ Jacob said.

  ‘Yes, actually. The police went door-to-door along all the shops on Woolaston Road and asked Aunt Peggy and me questions. It seems that there was a break-in and it looks like Nate surprised the burglar.’

  ‘Surprised him? That’s odd, as Nate doesn’t live above the shop. How can he have surprised him?’

  Emily shrugged. ‘I don’t know. That’s what the policeman said.’ She stroked Trevor between the ears and he almost melted away in her arms. ‘By the way, did you know Nate at all?’

  ‘No, not really,’ Jacob said. ‘Other than he and his father having the shop on Woolaston Road. Nate had already left school when I started teaching.’

  Jacob looked at Emily. ‘Do you know if Nate happened to be Samuela’s boyfriend?’

  ‘Actually, she prefers to be called Sam.’

  ‘Okay, Sam. Does she have a boyfriend?’

  Emily let Trevor crawl back into her hoody pocket. ‘No, she doesn’t have a boyfriend. What makes you think that?’

  ‘She was in the crowd at the crime scene and seemed very distressed.’

  ‘Well, yes. She was distressed. I went by the restaurant before I came here for a bit of a natter, but she was in tears. She told me that Nate was a friend of her brother Gianni and that they all liked him very much. Then Lorenzo came and shooed me away. Said I was upsetting her more.’ Emily picked up Mike, who had been dozing in the corner of the couch. ‘He’s very protective of her. I don’t like him very much.’

  Jacob shrugged. ‘I suppose that he didn’t want his sister to get more upset than she already was.’ He twirled a pencil in between his fingers. ‘I did teach Sam in school. She must be a bit younger than her brothers. A very bright girl with an interest in physics and biology. I was a bit surprised she started working in her father’s restaurant as a waitress when she left school. I had assumed she would want to go to college to study.’

  ‘But why wouldn’t Sam help out her family? The restaurant is doing well, especially now that they have a second star.’

  ‘I know. She’s loyal, but she seemed to have such a drive to get a career.’

  Emily got up, feeling a little annoyed at Jacob’s words. ‘Why couldn’t she make a career in the restaurant? Just because she’s helping out her family it can’t be a career?’

  Emily paced up and down the shed. ‘You should commend Sam for wanting to stick by her family, helping them out. You of all people should know that.’ She waved at the computer. ‘Haven’t you made it your life’s work to find out what happened to Robbie?’

  Jacob stared at her. Emily realised she’d been a bit unreasonable and sighed. ‘Sorry. It’s just that I don’t have many friends and I hate it when they get hurt.’

  ‘I understand. But there is nothing we can do.’

  ‘Isn’t there? Why not try and solve Nate’s murder.’ She leaned forward, her eyes bright. ‘Just like we did with the murders in the spring!’

  Jacob shook his head. ‘Not this time. I’m far too busy with my project. Besides, the police know what they’re doing.’

  ‘Since when do you think the police are competent enough?’ Emily crossed her arms and glared down on Jacob. ‘If you don’t help me, I’ll do it myself.’

  ‘Have fun.’

  Emily sniffed. Was he serious?

  ‘I’m gonna do it.’

  ‘Good luck.’ Jacob smiled at her.

  Emily turned on her heel and walked out. Stupid professor! He wouldn’t be able to keep his curiosity in check. He would join her, just wait and see!

  * * *

  Paddy

  After a good night’s sleep, everything looked a bit more sane again in the sewers this morning. Well, as long as you were able to ignore the big pile of jewellery in Gus and Leo’s digs.

  Despite that, Vinnie and I were hanging out with Gus and Leo. Leo’s story of the alligator had me thinking of ratlore. For although the events in the spring had made me realise that the older rats made up those stories to keep the little’uns out of trouble, I caught myself keeping an eye on the sewer in case the alligator popped up.

  And despite Leo’s reassuring words the evening before, Gus’ obsession with his treasure wasn’t dwindling; it was getting worse. He had made himself look ridiculous by putting a diamond ring around his tail to show it off, waving it in front of our noses.

  ‘And what about this one,’ he said. ‘Don’t you think this is a pretty one?’

  Leo rolled his eyes and slapped the end of Gus’ tail out of his face. ‘Stop that! Don’t you know how irritating that is?’

  ‘Irritating? What about this?’ Gus stuck his tail right under Leo’s nose, who grabbed it with his front paws and put his teeth in it. Gus shrieked.

  ‘Why did you do that?’

  ‘Why do you think? Ugh, you can be very annoying, you know.’

  ‘Mother always said you were the annoying one.’

  ‘Oh, really? I wish she were here now, to see how annoying you are today.’ Leo grabbed his brother’s tail again and started swinging it. Gus spun around and pummelled Leo in the chest with his paws. The ring slipped off Gus’ tail, clinked on the hard sewer floor and came to a halt in front of Vinnie’s feet. We both looked at it.

  ‘You would think my cousins were teenagers,’ he said, shaking his head.

  ‘Indeed.’

  We watched them squabble for a bit, then made our way back to the main sewer, just in time to see two rats coming towards us.

  ‘Hey,’ one of them said. ‘Are Gus and Leo in? We’ve got some news.’

  ‘Did I hear my name?’ Leo stuck his nose out of the side-pipe. His face lit up when he saw the two visitors. ‘Hey, Johnny. I haven’t seen you f
or a while. You’ve got to come into my digs and check out what we’ve found last night.’

  ‘Actually, we’re on our way to Ratville with some bad news, so perhaps some other time.’

  Leo’s whiskers drooped a little bit, but then he perked up. ‘That’s okay. Just come back whenever you have a chance. Our treasure will keep.’

  ‘My treasure, you mean.’ Gus joined us. ‘Look.’ He showed Johnny the ring, which was now back on his tail.

  Johnny’s ears widened as he pawed the ring. ‘Where did you find that?’

  ‘There’s more,’ Gus said, his eyes glittering. ‘Much more.’

  ‘Umm…’ The other rat with Johnny cleared his throat. ‘Perhaps we can get back to the matter at hand?’ He looked grimy. Dirt and dust covered his fur, his paws were covered in mud and he had cobwebs hanging from his whiskers.

  ‘Oh, yes, of course. Sorry.’ Johnny pointed at his companion. ‘This is Curtis. He’s my mother’s second-cousin and lives in Pocklington. I met him on my way back from Barmby Moor, where I was visiting some pals.’

  I looked at Curtis again. If he’d come all the way from Pocklington, that would explain his somewhat dishevelled appearance.

  ‘It’s not good news, I’m afraid,’ Curtis said. ‘The Mob arrived in Pocklington a few days ago from Hull. Rumours are they want to enlarge their territory all the way up to York.’

  ‘The Mob?’ Gus said. He stood rooted to the ground, his tail quivering. ‘Antonio and Donatella’s Mob?’

  ‘Yes. Well, that is, Victor and his two brothers, Dino and Sal.’

  ‘The Three Bambini,’ Leo said in a faint voice, the fur on his back all flat. ‘They’re on the warpath again.’

  I looked from Leo and Gus, to Vinnie, who also stood very quiet, and was stroking his whiskers in thought. I wasn’t sure how to react to this news. Of course I’d heard rumours about the Rat Mafia, but I’d never paid much attention to them. To me they had always sounded like some farcical characters, who lived too far away for me to worry about.