Steampunk Jack

Chapter 20

“Remind me to visit my banker tomorrow.” James commented with a yawn. Anne’s small apartment, while comfortably appointed for one or two people, had tiny beds and James had surrendered the floor to Anne. The ghost had pointed out she did not really need a bed, but had been overruled. James was, after all, a proper English gentleman.

“Why? I’m not going to put a strain on you with repairing the shop so if that’s a problem, don’t. The shop isn’t something that matters… anymore.”

James smiled. He could tell it hurt Anne to say that, and that fact warmed his heart. “Nothing of the sort. I’ve just spent all the cash I had on hand, including what I had withdrawn to pay Elbert for the shop in the first place. I’ve never been one for writing vouchers, so I’m going to need to acquire a bit more currency. All I have left is the few quid I’m carrying, and twenty pounds in the safe.”

Anne raised an eyebrow at that. Twenty pounds was a fair sum of money, at least for the short term. Of course, having seen James spend money several times over their short, though she blushed as she admitted to herself intense, relationship she knew he was used to making purchases very much on impulse.

“Once you have finished your classes, I’ll remind you.” She assured him. “Especially since I know you’ll be distracted by your world of obscure numbers and physical laws.”

James gave a bark of laughter. “I’m being told my course of study is obscure by a witch! I’m not sure how to take that!”

“At least magic makes sense.” James snorted in response to her statement.

Turning a corner they quickly came to James’s little shop-cum-residence. James frowned at the roof. “The storm took the windmill down completely, last night.” He sighed.

“And you’ll enjoy repairing it.” Anne grinned at the sour look he turned on her. “We both know that is the truth, James, so don’t bother trying to glare me into submission.”

“Well…” He shrugged and smiled shyly. “I did have a few improvements I’ve been meaning to make.”

“Professor! Where the devil were you?” Emily called out from the front of Porter and Son. She was watching a few of her father’s more burly employee’s load a boiler body onto a wagon. “I tried knocking this morning, and you weren’t about.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t just go on in.” He replied, walking over to her. “Was it important?”

“No. I just wanted to tell you I have what’s left of that windmill of yours in the back. The bloody thing came crashing down around midnight, it did. You should have seen the lightning! The thunder was like an explosion going off at one point!”

James frowned, and then shrugged. The storm had had a lot of wind and rain where they had been, but the thunder hadn’t seemed that bad. Still, Whitechapel was a fair walk, and it’s possible the worst of the storm missed the besieged area of London. “Sounds exciting. Where’s this boiler going to? It’s an odd size.”

“It’s for St. Mary’s.” She replied. “The church is terribly drafty, especially in winter, and Da decided to donate a new one when the rector was about looking into hiring for repairs.”

“That’s an expensive thing to be donating.” Anne observed James quoting her for the spirit deaf Emily.

The girl shrugged. “We’ve had a very good year, especially after making all those cabs. Da has always been the religious sort, and most of what we used was left over metal from earlier jobs that weren’t quite right for anything we were working on right now. We won’t suffer for doing it.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it.” James commented. “I’m needing to grab my class plan and head over to the campus.”

“Have a good day, professor.”

James waved with a smile, and soon was unlocking his door. As he pushed it open, he frowned. “Do you smell smoke?”

“I don’t smell anything.” Anne admitted. “Why?”

“Because I do, and nothing was lit when we left.” He pushed open the door and threw open the windows shade. At first nothing looked out of place, until his eyes settled on his small safe, the door of which stood wide open. “I didn’t open that.”

Jogging over, Anne right behind him, James dropped to one knee and looked at the door, which was heavily damaged and smeared with powder residue’s, and into the vault it’s self. He pulled out several bundles of papers, some scorched from the explosion that had forced the thing open, and others still undamaged. One item he retrieved was the locking wallet of Elbert’s.”

“It doesn’t look like much is gone.” Anne commented.

“It’s what is that worries me.” James replied. “You’re book is gone, as is the small number of bank notes I still had. They didn’t take the deed for the shop, any of my stock certificates…” He unlocked the wallet and snorted. “And they completely missed the deed to your shop. Since it was right next to the book I suppose I should compliment Elbert.”

Anne crouched next to him, half through him. “Are you sure we didn’t still have the book up stairs?”

“I locked it up before we left.” James replied. “Unfortunately it’s gone.”

“But the spell!” Anne cried. “I didn’t have you write the whole thing down yet. Without the book we won’t be able to find my killer.”

James frowned. “Calm down and let us think for a moment.” He said. “This wasn’t some random misfortune.”

“What do you mean?”

James pushed the door closed, showing her the burn marks on the iron safe. “This is a fairly low grade safe, but it’s still beyond the faculties of your average robber. Whoever it was who cracked it knew what they were doing.” He gestured his head at a small scattering of scorched parchment on the floor. “They had rigged a device of black powder in a funnel… I think the army calls such things a shaped explosive charge… so that the full force of the explosion would destroy the lock. That’s a professional act as much as a criminal one.”

“So a talented thief broke in. It doesn’t get my book back!”

“But it might.” James said, standing. “Elbert said he was going to stay and finish cleaning your shop, right?”

“Yes… Why?”

“The only people who knew I had a safe here are people who have been in my home.” James explained. “Emily knows the combination, actually, so she wouldn’t have. Her father knows I don’t keep enough cash on hand to make it worth while. Elbert was with us and rogue or not I doubt he would have done this. Obviously it was neither you nor I.”

“Then who.”

“The only person not taken into account who has recently been in my shop, and who wanted that book, was your father.” James concluded. “He most likely has your book. And with Elbert’s help, I intend to get it back.” James, his shoulders set, collected a cricket bat from an umbrella stand that contained it, a pry bar, and various other sundries including an umbrella, and gestured for Anne to follow him out. “I’ll ask Emily to run and summon a constable for me, and then go to the campus to cancel my classes due to the break in. Then we’ll grab Elbert and the two of us can hold a… gentlemanly conversation with your father.”

“I have to admit Professor. I didn’t take you for the vengeful sort.” Elbert observed as they strode up the London Street where Richard Swain lived.

“Usually, I’m not.” James admitted. “But Anne in distress does seem to have an affect on me.”

“Sweet on my cousin are you. That’s a lovely thing gov.” Elbert said with a chuckle. “Morbid and perhaps creepy, but lovely just the same.”

“Um… Thank you?”

“You two can’t just go and confront my father!” Anne yelled, not due to anger but just so Elbert could hear her. “He’ll deny it!”

“Bah… He’ll try. Then we’ll bust his kneecaps for him.” Elbert said, waving her concern off.

“And end up in prison!”

James looked over at the angry, and frightened, ghost. “We aren’t going to bust his kneecaps… and I mean that Elbert. We might intimidate him a bit, but he’d have to explain why he would have been here to the police as well. Considering the fact that I reported the crime appropriately he’d be putting himself in the cell right next to our own.”

“Well. Here we are.” Elbert said, gesturing to one of the several town house doors. James preceded him up the small stair to the front door where the scientist knocked. Elbert just shook his head. “You are new at this, aren’t you?” He observed.

“How do you mean?”

Elbert shrugged, reared back, and kicked the door in. The wooden slab slammed into a male form that grunted, and fell back as Elbert delivered another solid kick to it. Then the rogue charged in.

James, startled, could only chase after when the sound of shattering glass broke him out of his shock. He burst in, himself, to find Richard Swain lying dazed on the floor, a shattered vase scattered around him and Elbert glaring down at him with a second flower pot in his hand. “So where’s the book Dick. We know you stole it, and we’ll be taking it back.”

The bigger, but injured man shook his head and groaned. “Elbert?” He asked. “When the bloody hell did you grow a spine.”

“When you hurt Anne, and you bloody well know that.” Elbert replied. “She may have been an annoying little bint, but she was the closest thing to a sister I had.”

“Don’t you call me a bint Elbert Swain!” the woman in question yelled in his ear. “I knew this was a stupid idea. You’re both going to get arrested!”

“Shut it.” Elbert instructed, having heard her thanks to the yelling. When Richard closed his mouth and stared at the man in confusion Elbert rolled his eyes. “Not you!”

“Where’s the book, Richard.” James asked, in a more civil tone then Elbert’s. “I realize lying to you about having it was rude of me, and I apologize, but it was not left to you. You can not make use of it, so there is no reason to hand it over. If it’s money that is the issue, I can pay you.”

“Bah. You couldn’t pay what its worth to me.” Richard sneered. “But it doesn’t matter either way. The bastard I paid to steal it from you didn’t deliver.”

“What do you mean?”

“He kept it for himself.” Anne’s father growled. “Met with me, just as we agreed, but told me he knew what he had. Seems a good safecracker and art thief like himself has dealt with objects of mystical significance in the past, or some such rot. He told me he’d let me in on where the auction would be for a hundred pounds.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“Where’s the auction?” James asked.

“I don’t know.” The man admitted. “I didn’t have one hundred pounds on hand to pay, and he didn’t want to wait for me to collect it. I guess neither of us gets it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Elbert muttered. “Come on Jimmy. I might be able to track our man, or at least this auction, down.” The younger Swain man turned and walked out the door, dropping the vase he was holding and letting it shatter on the ground.

“Lovely home you have here.” James commented as he stepped out after Elbert. “Though you’ll need a new lock. I’d apologize, but I’m in need of a new safe, after all.”

“How the bloody hell is Elbert going to find an auction for occult items?” Anne demanded as they gave chase after her already running cousin.

“I don’t know, but somehow it doesn’t surprise me that he can.” James admitted.