Fitzrovia Twilight (Nick Valentine Book 1) Read Free

ground his cigarette out. “If you’ve no more questions I think I’ll be going.” He made to stand but Carruthers leapt to his feet.
    “You’ll be going nowhere until you tell me all you know about this.”
    “I already have. What I think you want is my help; you just don’t know how to ask for it. How about you tell me why you were watching Ramona and maybe I can help you fill in some of the gaps?”
    The younger man paced the room, shooting glances at Nick before finally settling behind the chair.
    “What I’m about to tell you is confidential. Cortez was Spanish, on the surface of it, a Republican sympathiser from Madrid working over here as a dancer.”
    Nick nodded.
    “We have reason to believe, though, that that was a cover and her real loyalty lay slightly farther to the right. She came to London from Italy and had plenty of opportunity to mix with the fascists there in her role as a nightclub entertainer. We’re not sure if she may have been turned to the cause there, or indeed sent there by elements in Madrid. As you are only too aware, the Soho demimonde gives people the opportunity to mix with all kinds of foreign elements and it’s devilishly hard to keep an eye on it all.” He sat down in exasperation.
    “We’ve got Italians, Spanish, French, Swiss, Jews, God forbid, even Germans multiplying in the streets of Soho, drinking together in bars, all bringing in strange ideas of nationalism, religious fervour, bolshevism, any other kind of ‘ism’ you can mention and all kinds of strange customs. It will not have escaped your notice that Europe seems to be heading towards a tense period once more. My job is to try and monitor all these types; it’s near impossible.”
    “I shouldn’t think everyone that’s come here is looking to overthrow our government, or their own. Some people actually like the freedom they get here,” Nick observed.
    “And that’s the kind of thinking that’s dangerous. We’ve already had the war to end all wars; we can’t afford another.”
    “Economically or idealistically?” Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.
    “Both. The point is, we’re trying to observe a multitude of elements, most of whom seem to cooperate and fall out faster than we can keep up. It’s bad enough that these people are fermenting trouble in their homelands but some of them may be even plotting outrages here as part of some wider game. We just don’t know.”
    “And Ramona was a lead?”
    “She was moving in circles that brought her to our attention, specifically with some of the German company she was keeping. We’re increasingly worried about the situation in Germany and in particular the aims of some factions with respect to Britain.”
    “Do you know the names of anyone she met?”
    “Yes, we observed her talking to men affiliated with the Italian Government and with the German National Socialists on two occasions at clubs.”
    To Carruthers’ obvious astonishment, Nick let out a laugh.
    “Talking to men? She was a nightclub hostess.”
    “Quite, but these men were not savoury types.”
    “Most men in nightclubs aren’t,” observed Nick dryly.
    “Something you would know all about.”
    “You know what I think? I think you’re clutching at straws because you’re frightened of what you don’t know. Maybe Ramona was a lead, maybe she wasn’t, but when you heard I’d reported the murder you leapt on it because it slotted into place because of my past. You hoped if you leaned on me you might learn something new. Or, should I say, something, because you seem to have an awful lot of nothing at the moment.”
    Carruthers shuffled his feet. “It’s complicated. We don’t want to compromise what we’ve got.”
    “You don’t appear to have an awful lot,” Nick sniffed.
    “We have you.”
    “I already told you–”
    Carruthers waved his hand impatiently. “Irrelevant. You can help us, you’re trained in this, you know these streets, these people, the clubs and bars they