The Body in the Fog Read Free

voice.
    ‘And even if you get nothing from Inspector Denham, we’ve got something out of that business tonight,’ said Tom cheerfully. He picked up the man’s weapon from the
mantelpiece above the fire and turned it around in his hand, watching the firelight flash from the sharp blade. ‘Good knife,’ he said admiringly.
    ‘So it is,’ said Alfie, taking it from him. ‘Feel the edge of that, Sammy, carefully now. I’ll just touch it to your finger.’
    ‘Knife like that would shave you if you had a beard,’ said Sammy, his sensitive finger feeling the razor-sharp blade.
    Alfie frowned. That word ‘shave’ reminded him of something. He glanced across at Jack. Jack was a good fellow who had just saved Alfie’s life by running ahead and releasing
Mutsy from the cellar. He had a disappointed look on his face now – he was upset about Jemmy’s murder and wanted to talk about that, not the post office raid. Alfie decided to try out
the puzzle about Jemmy on Sammy.
    Sammy Sykes was eleven years old and he had been blind from the age of two. He has other gifts , the boys’ grandfather used to say whenever his daughter wailed about her son’s
blindness. And that was true. Sammy was gifted. He sang beautifully, could memorise any song and reach the highest notes without effort. He also had a brain as sharp as a razor, extraordinary
hearing and an amazing ability to tell people’s thoughts from the sound of their voices.
    ‘Sammy,’ said Alfie, ‘what do you make of this? When Jack and me saw the dead body of old Jemmy, I had a good look at him and I saw that his beard had been trimmed. He had a
ginger beard. Well, it was sort of neatened off and it seemed to be kind of shaved around the ears and along the line of the cheek.’
    ‘Jemmy went to the barber’s, had a haircut and shave and then dropped dead with the shock,’ said Tom, laughing at his own wit.
    ‘What about his hair?’ asked Sammy.
    ‘Dunno,’ said Alfie. ‘He was wearing that big old cap. Never saw him without it. It didn’t show much in the way of hair as far as I can remember.’
    Sammy shook his head slowly. ‘Can’t think of no reason why anyone would shave him. He must have done it himself.’
    ‘I suppose so,’ said Alfie, ‘but it don’t make sense.’
    ‘He dosses down in Opium Sal’s place, don’t he?’ said Sammy. ‘Perhaps one of her customers did it to him – for a joke, like.’
    ‘Could be,’ said Alfie. Sal had an opium den down by the Hungerford Stairs. Most of the people who went there to smoke opium were so out of their minds on the drug that they might do
anything, but they would be more likely to shave half his beard off, or something like that. And Jemmy was a vicious fighter who would never let those drug-crazed people do anything to him.
    Alfie moved the problem to the back of his mind and looked across at his cousin. ‘Jack, I don’t think we can do anything about old Jemmy,’ he said patiently. ‘He probably
had it coming to him. Do you remember him with Bert? You know, Bert the Tosher, the geezer that works in sewers. Jemmy half-killed him over that gold thing Bert found in the Tyburn sewer. And
there’s Opium Sal. She hated him. I think that he had some sort of hold over her. Otherwise she’d never have allowed him to doss down in her den.’
    ‘Well, that’s just it – gives us lots of suspects,’ said Jack eagerly. ‘And I heard someone shouting at Jemmy last night as we passed him before we went fishing
– someone with a funny sort of voice, not a toff. There was a bit of an argument going on. Don’t you threaten me , Jemmy was yelling. And then he dropped his voice a bit, but I
still heard it.’ Jack looked around at the other three boys and continued dramatically. ‘ If there’s any murdering to be done, then I’ll be the one to do it ,
that’s what Jemmy said.’
    Alfie stared at Jack and then shrugged his shoulders. ‘Looks like I was right when I said it were a