The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction

“Train stops in Philadelphia.” Red Whiskers rolled a smoke and passed it along, rolled one for himself. “I’ll go out to Mont Clare and see the folks.”

That sparked a grin from Handle-Bar. “Should we just ride the train, or give it a rob?”

Red Whiskers grinned back. “Just riding’s fine. This time.”

“Eastward Ho it is, then.” Handle-Bar smoothed his moustache. Neither man was used to being in one place for long. “So she’s gone to New York?”

After a noisy slurp of coffee, Red Whiskers nodded.

“There’s a train heading East in ten minutes on track five.”

“You’re a sneaky cuss, ain’t you?

“Knew you’d follow her, one way or t’other.”

A railroad man in a dark blue uniform and a Pennsylvania Railroad cap walked through the restaurant. “New York train departing. Five minutes, track five. Stopping Philadelphia …”

The two settled their tabs and hoisted their carpet bags. Handle-Bar called, “Another time, sweetheart,” to their waitress, who was already busy setting up for the next patron.

The men ambled out on bowed legs to where they’d left the crates with their saddles in the care of a Negro porter. “Track Five,” Handle-Bar told the porter, handing him two bits. “The eastbound Pennsylvania Railroad train.”

2

Glass shattering. Shouting. Obscenities. Blasphemies.

The clamour broke as they grappled with their braces, half dressed, boots to come, bickering over who would boil the coffee.

Dutch Tonneman threw open the front door. Snow was piled high on the porch, covering the half dozen bottles of milk in their metal nest. Rooster Bullard stood on the street near his milk wagon swinging a ragged, dirty boy in mid-air, all the while screaming threats and curses.

Cold snow bit into Dutch’s bare feet as he slipped and slid down the six icy steps to the street.

“Hold on there, Rooster!”

“The little rat’s been after stealing my milk for weeks, Inspector. Today I got him.” Rooster’s beaky nose twitched. The milkman shook the wailing boy by the scruff of his raggedy collar. “The Inspector’s gonna put you in the Tombs, where you belong.”

“No! No!” the boy yelled, blubbering. “There’s little ones hungry. Ain’t fair.”

Dutch clapped Rooster on the back and Rooster dropped the boy in the snow. “Okay, Rooster, we got him. You got your route.”

Bo Clancy, boots on, stomped down the steps. “And this don’t happen again, right, kid?”

Rooster adjusted his cap and climbed into his milk wagon. “I’ll run the little snot down I see him ’round me again.” The milkman flicked the horse, and the milk wagon groaned, spokes squeaking as it moved off down the street to the next group of houses.

“So what do we got here?” Bo looked down at the cowering boy. To Dutch, he said, “You like walking barefoot in the snow?”

“How many of you at home?” Dutch asked the boy.

“Four. Another on the way.” Snivelling. “What’ll happen to them if you put me in the Tombs?”

“Where’s your da?”

“On the wharfs, daytimes, sir, Callahan’s at night.”

Dutch dusted off the snow from the metal container of six bottles resting on the stairs. “Here you, boy, take these, but I don’t ever want to see you stealing like this again. Next time you feel it creeping on, you come to see Inspector Tonneman at the House on Mulberry Street.”

He and Bo watched the boy grab the container and run off towards Second Avenue.

Bo said, “A fine howdy do, my tender-hearted Coz. You give a little thief the milk for our coffee, he’ll be robbin’ banks by the time he’s fifteen.”

The cousins were a study in contrasts.

Bo Clancy, a big, dark-haired Irishman, sported a substantial moustache. At thirty-five, he was the elder, by two years. His cousin John “Dutch” Tonneman was of equal height but trimmer, his ruddy complexion and thick yellow hair inherited from his ancestor Pieter Tonneman, a Dutchman who’d been the first sheriff of New York.

The cousins lived together in Dutch’s shabby Grand Street home like overgrown boys: empty beer bottles, dirty plates, mice kept in check only by Finn the cantankerous orange tomcat who’d appeared one evening a month ago — like Meg Tonneman had sent him to keep her house clean, like she was coming back to the old neighbourhood. But all along Grand Street the neighbourhood was changing, filling with foreigners, and English was no longer the only language on the street.

What with Ma living in Jersey City to help Annie, now that his sister’s weak heart had made her an invalid, and her with her brood of seven, Dutch had thought to sell the house. But Ma wouldn’t hear of it. Still and all, he couldn’t blame Ma for not wanting to give up her marriage home.

This snowy dawn was not an ordinary one for the two Inspectors. They’d been summoned to Police Commissioner Murphy’s office, their concern being that, with a new police commissioner about to put his arse down at 300 Mulberry Street in less than a month, their special positions with the New York Police Department were about to be eliminated.

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