Read Online The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas - Free Book Online Page A

change.”
    “Mrs. DeVere and Mrs. Carrick are both married,” I pointed out.
    “True. It is a hard choice. We lose a lot of sisters to marriage. I’ve turned down several offers myself. It is a difficult decision to remain celibate.”
    I tried hard not to blush, but I’d never heard a young woman speak so frankly.
    “So are there many young women like you in the East End just now?”
    “Oh, yes, dozens. Social work is a respectable use of time for young, unmarried women these days. But enough about me. Do you like being a detective?”
    “Mr. Barker prefers the term ‘enquiry agent.’”
    “What is the difference?”
    “We take the moral high ground, so to speak. A detective is willing to break the law in order to solve whatever case he is working on. He may break into a house to obtain information.”
    “So you’ve never broken a law to obtain information?” Miss Potter asked.
    “Well, we’ve bent it a little once or twice.”
    “And are you not a former criminal?”
    “I was, in a way, but it was complicated.”
    “Your distinctions have quite gone out the window, then, sir.”
    “Allow me to return the compliment, Miss Potter. You are good.”
    “You haven’t answered my question, Mr. Llewelyn,” she pursued. “Do you like being a detective?”
    “No, no. You cannot put me off that easily, Miss Potter. You followed me here for a purpose. What was it, may I ask?”
    “I thought I might help you,” she said, looking down at a handkerchief she was kneading in her hands. “I could volunteer at the C.O.S. again. Miss Hill would be glad to take me back. Perhaps I might overhear something said by one of the patrons that would lead you to Gwendolyn and her abductors.”
    I wanted to tell her that we were no longer looking for a white slave ring but instead a madman. However, it was not my secret to reveal.
    “What do you think?” she pressed.
    “It doesn’t matter what I think,” I retorted. “It is what my employer thinks that is important. I don’t know what he shall say. He keeps a bachelor’s home and offices, I should warn you. Why do you wish to help, anyway?”
    “Aren’t white slave rings a social problem, sir?”
    “They are,” I admitted.
    “You do wish Gwendolyn to be saved and these criminals caught?”
    “Of course.”
    “Then I suppose it is female detectives you don’t like.”
    She argued well, I gave her that, but then, most women do.
    “You’re building a straw man,” I reasoned. “I have neither criticized female detectives, denied wanting Miss DeVere to be found, nor claimed that white slavery was not a social problem. I merely wondered about your personal motives.”
    “You’re protective of your employer.”
    “I’m not sure he needs protection, but he doesn’t need to be interrupted in his work.”
    “Very well,” she said. “I do have personal reasons. I want to be able to say, if only for my own sake, that I have worked for a professional investigator. It makes me feel I too am a professional and not a rich girl playing games. Tell your Mr. Barker I expect to be paid.”
    “Do not consider yourself hired just yet, but I shall speak to him tonight. Will you be at the Katherine Building tomorrow?”
    “Of course not,” she replied. “It’s Sunday.”
    “Then I shall send word of my employer’s decision,” I said, rising from the bench. “I bid you good afternoon, Miss Potter.” I raised my hat to her and left the park. The Guv would be waiting for me, and also, I thought it best to be the one to end the conversation. It was the only control I had.
    As I hurried out of the park, my mind gathered impressions. Beatrice Potter was a beautiful and intelligent young woman and seemed genuinely committed to bringing about reform in the East End. I did not think, however, that the girl was being truthful about her motives for wishing to join us in the hunt for Gwendolyn DeVere.

7
    “H ERE THEY ARE, SIR,” I SAID, LAYING THE newly typed pages on my