The Diamond Thief Read Free Page A

the number of petty crimes always went up when the circus was in town. He’d thought it would do no harm to take a look at the grounds and the people, especially now, with the Shah’s visit. So he’d done a bit of a patrol, just to see if he could get a whiff of any shenanigans before they happened.
    None of the other detectives had been willing to join him. They all thought he was too young to be part of their team anyway, and mocked his ideas at every opportunity. Besides, it was time for their dinners, and it was a miserable night to be out and about. Thaddeus had gone anyway, alone. He’d been standing outside the big top making notes when he’d heard a whisper that the final act was the most amazing anyone had ever seen. Astounding, the whisper had said. Not to be missed. He’d stuck his head inside, just out of curiosity.
    And there she was. A girl who seemed to fly without wings, as perfectly as a bird. He’d been instantly fascinated, and couldn’t help pushing his way to a seat in the front row, just to watch her. And when she’d fallen –
    Even the thought of it made his heart freeze in his chest. The memory of her plummeting to the ground was horrifying. Before he’d known what he was doing, he’d been over the barrier and running, desperate to catch her … to save her.
    The door to his room clicked shut behind him and Thaddeus leaned against it, raising his eyes to the ceiling. Of course it was a trick. They were circus folk – their whole lives were about tricks. He should have known better. She probably had a wire attached so she couldn’t reach the ground anyway, for goodness’ sake. What a fool! She was probably laughing at him right now, standing around the campfire with the rest of them. Still, he wondered who she was and where she had come from. He thought her accent had been French, but he couldn’t be sure over the noise of the crowd. And she spoke such good English. Where had she learned that? He’d looked for the posters outside, but on the line for her act all it said was ‘Little Bird’.
    Shaking himself, Thaddeus pushed away from the door and glanced at his clock, ticking away quietly on the mantel. It was almost one in the morning, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep.
    Thaddeus glanced at his workbench. On it were the night-glasses he’d been working on with the Professor – their latest joint invention. Thaddeus was convinced that a modern police force needed modern machines, and his friend the Professor agreed with him. He wasn’t really a professor – that had just been his nickname ever since Thaddeus had known him. In fact, Thaddeus wasn’t even sure what the man’s real name was, as for some reason, the Professor preferred people not to know. He was a mechanical genius and ever since they’d met, he and Thaddeus had shared their ideas for weird and wonderful gadgets.
    The night-glasses, though – they were another level of brilliance altogether. If they managed to perfect their invention, Thaddeus and the Professor believed that they could make it possible to see in the dark, just as if it were day, even if a person was in a pitch-black room. If they got it right, the darkest corners of London’s dingiest streets and dens would be visible to the police. It would be a revolution.
    The glasses weren’t perfect yet, but they would be soon. In fact, Thaddeus had been hoping they’d be ready for the Shah’s arrival. The other coppers kept insisting that the Koh-i Noor and the Darya-ye Noor were ‘as safe as houses’ inside the Tower, but Thaddeus wasn’t so sure. The gems weren’t being kept in the Jewel House, which was specially reinforced. Queen Victoria wanted to make a proper occasion out of the visit, and had decreed that both stones be put on display in the Long Hall. It made Thaddeus very nervous indeed, especially since her Majesty had also decided to throw a week of receptions for the richest and most important people in the land to show off the