Capítulo 4: Chapter 4
On their way to Beatrice's apartment, Lewis and Garret were having a conversation as to how they got themselves in this situation.
"Are you sure we can find her with 'our experience?'" Garrett asked.
"Thanks to that, we are able to navigate the entirety of London."
"Good point, but... how about we find her outside our 'navigation skills?'"
"That's where critical thinking comes in."
Later, they arrived at the doorstep of the apartment when Lewis suddenly spoke, "I'm glad you came by the way. It seems like your reputation is on the line."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember when Madam Eleanor looked at you when you told her we'll keep everything in secret? I thought her gaze was peculiar. Then I looked more and I saw a gaze of... suspicion. Perhaps she found out about the incident. The ladies might have remembered your face and told the madam. Emily is less likely, she would not do that."
"What now?" Garrett worried.
"Our success might change their perception of you to a gentleman. They will be less likely to fear you and the madam might come to fully respect you. At least that's what I think."
Garrett was somehow a little bit relieved and said, "Let's hope that happens."
Lewis smiled and looked at the door. "It seems so quiet," he described. Garrett then proceeded to knock on the door.
Waited for seconds, Garrett knocked again but to no avail. "Bollocks! She's not here."
"What do you expect? She's missing." Lewis suggested, "Let's ask people nearby."
An old lady from the sidewalk noticed the two men and yelled, "Are you looking for the lady, gentlemen?"
"Looks like she knows Ms. Thomas," said Garrett.
He and Lewis approached the old lady and interrogated her. "Do you know where Beatrice Thomas went?" Garrett questioned.
"I ate breakfast just now so I have not seen her today," the old lady answered. "She might be still tired. I heard her ballet company had a show last night. Give her some time."
She was unaware of the postponement of "The Lost Swan" and both men looked at each other realizing it.
Lewis told the old lady, "I want to ask a trivial question."
"You're welcome to," the old lady kindly replied.
"Have you seen her leaving this house yesterday?"
"Oh, yes indeed. I even told her a good morning before getting in a carriage."
"In a carriage, you say," Garrett intriguingly responded. "What did it look like?"
"I think it was mostly black with a little bit of gold on the sides."
Lewis spotted a carriage that matched the old lady's description that was farther behind her. He pointed to the carriage. "You mean like that carriage?"
The old lady turned around and looked at the carriage and positively answered, "Oh yes, that carriage. The horses too."
The coachman at the front of the carriage just turned to the same street with them when he made eye contact. At the same time, he saw Lewis pointing fingers towards his direction. As he did, he immediately looked away and turned his carriage around.
The gentlemen wondered about the coachman's decision to turn around. Garrett shouted at him, "Excuse me, mister!"
Instead of stopping, the carriage suddenly changed its speed to fast. Whips were heard from a distance. It was as if the coachman was afraid of something... or of Garrett.
Lewis and Garrett were even more surprised that the latter yelled. "Oi, stop right there!"
"We have to stop him!" Lewis exclaimed.
Garrett quickly spotted a wagon with its two horses, empty. "Guess we have to borrow that one!"
He and Lewis ran towards the wagon and he whipped the horses as soon as they rode, leaving the old lady behind. "I wonder what their problem is."
The owner found out his wagon was taken and yelled, "Hey, my wagon!"
The men kept their eyes on the carriage as they would try to stop it. As Lewis kept looking at the carriage, he spoke of its appearance, "Black and gold on the sides… isn't that the one we saw yesterday?"
"What?!"
"The carriage that was going fast!"
"You mean that one we saw yesterday?"
"That's what I just said, Garrett!"
The coachman kept looking back at the chasing wagon and he continuously whipped his horse to go faster. But the wagon would catch up to him since his carriage only had one horse compared to the wagon's two.
"Now that's horsepower!" Garrett shouted as he whips on the horses repeatedly too.
"Please stop the carriage!" Lewis shouted at the coachman, begging.
The coachman did not listen to his heed. Garrett was not surprised by it. "This bloke's stubborn, innit?"
Lewis thought of a crazy idea. He went to the wagon and instructed Garrett, "Get the wagon beside the carriage!"
"What are you up to?" Garrett asked.
"I'll jump over."
"Are you blaine?!"
"Well what choice do we have if he doesn't stop?"
Garrett did the instruction anyway, whipping at the horses more. Lewis had himself ready to jump. "Don't fall off, mate!" said Garrett.
Lewis jumped over to the roof of the carriage and the coachman heard the sound from behind. He was so shocked he instinctively pulled the brakes of his carriage. The horseshoes frictioned with the ground surface when the horse's master pulled the reins.
The carriage began to lose its control and Lewis lost his balance . He shouted while gripping onto the sides, "We just want to talk to you!"
Garrett realized the carriage was losing control so he gently rammed it to avoid colliding with the side of the road. It went on until they finally stopped.
The people witnessed the chase with mumbles. Garrett got off the wagon while Lewis quickly got down the carriage. When they just did, they already saw the coachman running away. "Oi, he's gettin' away."
The man tried to run away but was quickly tackled by Garrett.
"Ugh, get off me!" He tried to escape but with Garrett's build it was futile. "Who are you? Are you one of them? Please let me go! I'll give you what you want, just leave me alone!"
"Them? Who are they?" Garrett wondered while holding the man down.
Lewis, who found the situation messy, told Garrett, "I think that's enough."
Garrett let go of the coachman and the latter did not attempt to escape this time. He rubbed all of the dirt on his clothes. "Don't worry, mister," said Lewis. "We just want to interrogate you."
"I-interrogate me?"
The coachman did not look calm at all so Lewis invited him to sit down somewhere. Meanwhile, Garrett fixed the mess by pulling the carriage and the wagon they "borrowed" at the side of the road.
"The ride and the wagon are at the side," Garrett informed the two men on the bench.
The coachman calmed down for a few moments and started to speak, "What is it that you want to ask?"
Lewis and Garrett looked at each as to who should ask first, but then it was Lewis who decided to start the interrogation. However, he did not want to ask about Beatrice immediately. "Before we ask you the question, we want to know why you were running from us. What we are suspicious of."
"He even said 'they.'" Garrett told Lewis. "He must be scared of some blokes. Prolly a gang. Maybe it's those Untamed bastards."
The coachman answered, "I thought you men were one of the men who hijacked my carriage."
"Hijacked?" Lewis reacted.
"First thing that already occurred in the morning. I could not even get passengers yesterday! Fortunately, I was able to find the carriage and my horse at Whitechapel. I spent the whole day searching."
Lewis then remembered the time when he and Garrett saw the fast carriage yesterday. Not only it had the same colors, but also the same horse as he was currently looking at right now. A brown one.
"I'm certain his carriage is the one we saw yesterday, Garrett."
Garrett responded while looking at the carriage, "You're right."
"Although, I did not see the driver because it went too fast. I thought it could've been you, mister."
The coachman denied, "It was not me! I would never drive that fast. Oh my, what have they done to my carriage..."
"Where'd you find your ride exactly? Where in Whitechapel?" Garrett questioned.
"In an alley at the north of the borough," the coachman replied.
Garrett asked more, "Who stole it, by the way?"
"I don't know who they are. I have nothing to do with those scoundrels!"
Lewis and Garrett perceived it was no use asking about Beatrice. The coachman told them he did not get a passenger, meaning he did not have Beatrice as his passenger. They presumed she was inside the carriage that went fast yesterday.
And now they set on to the next location.
Capítulo 5: Chapter 5
Lewis and Garrett arrived at the alley the coachman told located north of Whitechapel. They turned sight on the further parts of it.
"You think Ms. Thomas is here?" Garrett asked Lewis.
"Only one way to find out," Lewis replied while glancing at his friend. He then began walking in the alley and Garrett followed.
The sun was still bright yet the alley was dark. "It's like water and oil," Lewis mumbled. Inside the alley they met children playing hopscotch and few people passing by.
Lewis approached the children, rested his forearms on his thigh while bending his knee slightly and greeted, "How are you doing?"
They momentarily stopped playing. "We're playing hopscotch, mister," one child responded.
Another jokingly asked him, "Would you like to play with us?" The children laughed and Lewis laughed it off as well.
"I want to ask," Lewis told the children. "Have you seen a group of men with a woman getting dragged out of a carriage yesterday?"
The children looked at each other, hesitating to answer. Despite the hesitations, one answered, "We saw men in three dragging a woman here in the alley. We were hiding on the wall over there. They are terrifying."
"So they kidnapped her," Garrett assumed. "I mean if that's how it looked..."
One suddenly spoke, "It wasn't the first time that has happened. Apparently, those same men were doing the same thing with different women."
Lewis and Garrett were not expecting the information. Things just got more serious. "How frequently?" Lewis questioned that child.
"I think it was every few weeks."
Garrett commented, "That's a lot of ruddy ladies!"
Lewis looked at him thinking such information could not be more shivering. He looked at the children again and asked one more, "Do you know which house they brought those women?"
The children left their standing places to start walking further in the alley and the first child told Lewis, "Follow us, mister." Lewis and Garrett then started following them.
They walked left and right until they finally reached what looked to be the back of an apartment. The first child spoke in a low-pitched voice, "This is where they bring women. They drag them with clothes covering their mouths."
"And that's what you saw yesterday?" Lewis tried to confirm, also whispering. The rest of the children nodded. "Guess we have to go in then," said Garrett.
"We wish you luck rescuing her," the first child greeted the men. The rest nodded again and then left. Lewis looked at the leaving children and told Garrett, "I did not get a chance to thank them."
Lewis and Garrett took steps on the front of the door. Lewis was not sure whether to knock on the door or not.
Without second thoughts, Garrett bashed on the door with his might. The sound was so loud Lewis flinched. "Get in," Garrett notified. Lewis looked around first before going inside.
They were welcomed by the messy living room. Like some fight happened. And the filth as well. "What mess this is," Lewis reacted.
"I'll check up the apples," Garrett told Lewis as he was going up to the second floor.
Lewis kept looking around the room and started looking for useful clues.
He managed to find nothing... except stains of blood on an area of the floor. He examined it by rubbing with his finger and brought it closer to his nose.
It smelled human blood.
Lewis then went upstairs to check on Garrett. "Found something?" he asked.
"Still looking," Garret answered while searching the drawers of the table.
Besides the table, the second floor only had a chair that fell off, a bed, a hanging light and three windows where the sunlight would come in.
"I found letters!" Garrett exclaimed. Lewis approached him and asked for the content of the letters. Letters with an emitting mixture of women's scents. They read together with Garrett holding the letters.
"Boss, I would like to have a share of money for the development of my men here in Whitechapel."
"'A share of money,' he says," Garrett reacted.
"I wonder how much," said Lewis.
They continued to read more of the letters.
"Dear Amelia, meet me at the pub near the river in Southwark. We are going to have a lovely night... Bring the letter with you with your scent."
"Dear Lucy, meet me at the church in Lambeth. I promise to take care of you tomorrow. Bring this letter with you with your scent."
"Dear Kennedy, let us meet at the garden near the monument at the Strand. I am a man of my word. And bring this letter with you with your scent."
Garrett was already suspecting the sender being a womanizer. "Bloody hell, how many ladies does this bloke have?"
Lewis noticed a couple of things from the letter. "Look at the top right of the letters. The dates."
The dates were written on January 25, February 14 and March 4 respectively.
The names of the sender, however, went by different names. Ethan Fletcher, Jenson Evans and Ruben Armstrong respectively. However, they were sure they were written by the same person because of the handwriting.
Another letter awaited behind that for the girl named Kennedy. Garrett switched the letter to the one awaiting them.
"March 14, 1867... Dear Beatrice... This might be it, Garrett!" Lewis suddenly exclaimed. "This letter was written last week. Let's keep reading."
"Meet me at my home at the west of Whitechapel tomorrow afternoon. It has the fanciest features of all of the borough. Bring this letter with you with that scent of yours.
Alfred Willis."
"Another with those 'bring this letter with your scent," Garrett annoyingly commented. "What's the bloomin' big deal?'"
Meanwhile, Lewis thought of the 'fanciest house in the borough' written on the letter. Whenever they would stroll at the borough, one house stood out the most for them. It had colorful walls and golden windows and balconies. Passerbys including them could not take their eyes off of it.
"The fanciest house in the borough... It's THAT house, Garrett."
Garrett put down the letters on the table and suggested, "Should we go to that fanciest house in the borough?"
Lewis agreed. They left the letters on the table and went downstairs to get out of the house. As they were about to get out from where they went in, they heard men talking outside with the same accents as Garrett's.
"Men..." spoke Lewis. "Let's go to the front."
He and Garrett walked towards the front door, ignoring the mess they were welcomed in. They were able to escape the men outside the backdoor, but they did not know about other men's presence out the front.
As soon as they opened the door, it made the sound and three men in red immediately looked. Both were spotted. "Untamed blokes!" Garrett yelled.
The Untamed thugs rushed at Lewis and Garrett as they were in a fighting position. Punches were thrown at them but they evaded those and countered with parries and punches.
It was already a mess outside. So much noise that the men who just went in from the back went out again to help. Their help was in vain so long as they were outwitted.
Lewis was heavily breathing from the brawl that just happened. Bodies were on the ground with groans. Garrett aggressively talked to one of them by holding the coat upward with two hands. "Wotcher doin' 'ere?! Honest guv!"
Feared by the aggression, the man, who looked young and cowardly, talked, "I-I'm just accompanying them—"
Garrett was not easily convinced of the response and started to shake him. "Bollocks! You're here for something, otherwise just runnin' the streets!"
The man gave in and answered Garrett properly, "W-we're just here for the letters the boss told us!"
He continued, "I was invited 'ere to get something. The bleedin' two told us they'll go at the back while the three of us stayed 'ere to 'ave a look out."
"What are you gettin'?"
"Letters! Letters full of scents!"
Lewis heard the answer and he quickly ran back upstairs for the letters.
Garrett continued to interrogate. "Wotcher gonna do to the bleedin' letters?"
"Th-they told me they'll send it to the boss and then we'll run the streets after."
Lewis went back and showed it to the struggling untamed thug who was trying to scream for help. "Do you mean these letters?"
Garrett asked the thug again, "Who's your boss anyway?"
"He goes by many names. Don't matter if I tell all of those names to you."
Lewis asked, "What does he look like then?"
"Pale face, long hair, and a beautiful man."
The answer prompted Lewis and Garrett to look at each other. The latter looked back at the thug and asked once more, "And where do you suppose to bring the letters, eh?"
"West of the borough, fanciest house of all."
"That says it all." Garrett punched the thug to knock out his consciousness after the interrogation on him.
Questions kept coming at them. Who was that boss? Was he part of the Untamed? Was Beatrice Thomas really there?
As of that moment, they remained unanswered.
Garrett pointed to the carriage with a thumb finger and told Lewis, "Oi, let's get their ride."
"Might as well use their carriage," Lewis seconded.
They took the carriage the thugs brought as they headed towards the fanciest house of Whitechapel.
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