London, Spring 1921
Why do I do it? It’s the perennial question. Indeed, why do I do it? It’s not merely the drink or the drugs, although they certainly play a part in this damned farrago. I admit that, but it’s something else as well: it’s me. It’s something inside of me—a devil or an evil spirit that has invaded me and drives me to reckless extravagance that puts my life on a knife edge. It’s a compulsion, an urge to challenge the fates as though I don’t care what happens to me. And yet I do care what happens to me, but I cannot fight this demon strain in my soul. In fact, some innate force within me bloody well encourages it.
These thoughts pounded in Daniel’s brain as he gazed with misty eyes at the spinning roulette wheel. The click, click of the dice as it ricocheted from one slot to another was like repetitive gunshots in his head. As usual, when the wheel was in motion, the participants, shadowy figures beyond the lights of the gaming table, remained silent, their eyes focused on the revolving wheel. The air was heavy with cigarette and cigar smoke creating, Daniel thought, an almost surreal, misty gothic aura, adding to his own sense of unreality. Was he really here in the casino? Had he really placed most of his money on number seven because it was his favourite number? Had he risked disaster on a whim? Or was this just a dream—the result of too much champagne and cocaine? These disparate questions formed themselves into a ball, rather like the ball on the roulette wheel, and thundered around his head.
The roulette wheel slowed. The gamblers peered harder. Click, click… click. It came to a halt, and the ball slotted neatly into a compartment.
‘Number nine,’ announced the dealer.
Number nine—not number seven. Daniel gazed across the green baize as his chips, along with those of the other losers, were raked away and placed before a fat, sweaty-faced man in a white dinner jacket sitting across from him, looking like an avaricious toad. His eyes flickered with greed, and he gave Daniel a leering grin as he placed his arms around the chips as one might hug a child.
Not seven, then, thought Daniel. Despite the dire consequences of this harsh reality, his contemplation of it was almost casual. In his inebriated state, he was immune to the implications of the tragedy that was about to overwhelm him. He took a long drink of whisky and gazed at the meagre pile of his remaining chips.
‘Please place your bets, gentlemen.’
Daniel gave a twisted smirk and moved the remainder of his chips across the baize to number seven. Number seven. Again. This time, he thought. This time. It’s got to be this time. If not, he was ruined. A little thought sparked at the back of his mind—well, that would be an interesting scenario in which to find myself, wouldn’t it? Of course, it wasn’t a clear-minded ass
essment of the possible perilous outcome, but then alcohol, drugs and his inherent recklessness were working in unison on his muddled mind. A thin trickle of sweat ran down the left side of his face; he wiped it away with a sudden irritated motion. Now was not the time to sweat!
Only the fat greasy gentleman was left playing this game this time. The rest of the gamblers had retired into smoky gloom, licking their penurious wounds. This was, in Daniel’s mind, a gambling stand-off—-a sort of gunfight at the roulette wheel corral. He gave a gentle smile at his cock-eyed analogy.
The roulette wheel began to spin. Daniel’s eyelids drooped as he peered at it, the whirling thing which seemed to break up into a mosaic of splintered images.
Click, click, click. Again came that fatal sound. The ball bounced around the wheel at speed, skipping past the seven slot with each revolution.
Daniel took another slug of whisky as his slender hopes began to crumble.
The fat greasy man leaned forward, a rictus smile plastered on his face. It was as if he already knew where the ball would land.
The wheel slowed and then gradually slithered to a stop. The ball plopped gently into the number nine slot. Again. Nine…not seven!
The fat greasy man gave a gentle chuckle.
Daniel resisted uttering a moan. He held it back; it would be rather undignified. Instead, he gave a gentle shrug of the shoulders aimed at his smug combatant, and then, rising somewhat unsteadily, he left the table.
Once outside the casino, he slumped down in a nearby doorway and lit a cigarette. Significantly, it was his last. ‘What now?’ whispered. ‘What the hell now?’
A loud, insistent knocking roused her from slumber. Hoisting herself on her pillow, she gazed at the luminous hands on the clock on the bedside table. It was tw
o in the morning. ‘Who the devil…?’ she muttered, slipping out of bed and grabbing a robe. Who the devil, indeed? It really could only be one person: Daniel, of course. What fresh hell is he bringing to me now?
As she approached the front door, the fusillade of knocks was still booming away. ‘Who is it?’ she asked, fairly certain of the response the query would receive.
‘It’s me, Bolly. I’m drowning. I need saving.’
Bolly gave a grunt, a mixture of annoyance and despair. She unlocked the door and opened it. The dishevelled shape of her brother stood before her. The cliché ‘like death warmed up’ floated into her mind. He was green around the gills, with moist bloodshot eyes, a slack jaw, and had that hunched, wavering stance of a drunk.
‘I’ve gone and done it, Bolly,’ he said, his voice full of slurred self-pity. ‘I’ve lost it all.’
She wasn’t quite sure exactly what he meant but was aware that it must be something terrible—or why in damnation had he come to her when the ground was about to open up beneath him and swallow him whole.
‘You’d better come in, then. We need to get you sobered up before we go any further. You’re not in a fit state to pour out all your woes in a coherent fashion at the moment.’ She took hold of his sleeve and dragged him inside. He obeyed meekly.
‘Into the kitchen with you,’ she said, adopting the tone of scolding mother to an irresponsible child. ‘We need to get a gallon of black coffee down your stupid neck,’ she snapped, pushing him forward.
Half an hour later, they sat opposite each other in the kitchen, Daniel having consumed several mugs of black coffee. He was a mite sober but, if anything, he looked more bedraggled and lost than he had done when he first arrived.
Bolly, stern of feature, took his hands, and said, ‘Now, you stupid boy, what have you gone and done this time?’
Daniel took a deep breath before replying. ‘I’ve lost it all.’
‘So you said. Lost what all?’
‘My money. I’ve squandered it on silly things….’
‘Men?’
He gave a guilty nod. ‘And gambling and…cocaine….’
She pulled her hands away and shook her head violently. ‘You are the most stupid of bastards. You irresponsible cretin…!’
‘I know. I know. I wish I were dead.’
‘Well, it certainly would be convenient for me. Do you really mean to
say you have lost it all?’
Another weary nod. ‘Yes. I am in debt to several people, and I’m in arrears with my landlord. I tried to win some money tonight to help pay for what I owe, but I lost it all. Lost it all.’ He rested his head on his arms and began to sob.
Bolly stared at him in despair. ‘And why come to me with your wretched tale of penury? What do you expect me to do? If it’s money you’re after, you have certainly come to the wrong person.’
‘I just need help.’
Bolly gave a heavy sigh. ‘What a pathetic devil you are. Give me strength. God, I need a drink’. She moved to one of cupboards and took out a bottle of brandy, and poured herself a large measure, which she downed in one go. She grimaced as the fiery liquid slid down her throat and began easing the tension in her body.
Daniel sat up in his chair and glanced at the bottle.
‘Forget it,’ Bolly snapped. ‘I reckon you’ve already had more than your fill of booze.’
‘What am I to do?’
‘I’m not sure. The middle of the night is not the best time to start formulating plans. We’ll have to give some thought in the morning. You camp down on the sofa in the sitting room, and we’ll put our thinking caps on tomorrow’.
Daniel nodded lamely. ‘Thanks.’
Despite his troubled mind, Daniel slept well. Curled in a protective foetal position on the couch, dreamless sleep came to him swiftly and deeply. Bolly, however, did not sleep. She lay on her back, her mind raging with thoughts and ideas. Gradually, through the fog of mixed contemplations, she reached the notion that if she was going to help Daniel squelch his way out of his particular mire (and she knew it wasn’t a matter of choice—she had to), then it would be useful if the machinations involved in such an endeavour gave her some pleasure as well, some enterprise that would benefit her also. As the timbers of a plot began to construct themselves in her brain, her eyes brightened, and her lips broadened into a wide smile.
Bolly was fully dressed and alert when she entered the sitting room the next morning. Daniel was still asleep, breathing gently. He was roused from his slumbers by B
olly’s firm hand. He dragged himself awake, eyes fluttering open. And he caught the pale light of morning filtering through the windows, and reality asserted itself once more, and a tight knot formed in the pit of his stomach.
He was led to the breakfast table and force-fed bacon and eggs and more black coffee. There was no conversation while he ate. Bolly sat across from him with a mug of tea and a slice of buttered toast, her brow creased in thought.
‘I feel almost human now,’ Daniel said as he pushed his empty plate to one side.
‘That will be a first,’ observed Bolly. ‘Now then, my lad, I’ve had a thought.’
Daniel’s eyes widened in pleasurable apprehension. ‘Let me have it.’
‘As I see it, you can’t just disappear and start again with a new identity as you have no funds for such an enterprise. And there is no way that you can accumulate a large amount of money reasonably or quickly by legal means. I cannot see you as a bank clerk or a farm labourer….’
Daniel gave a short laugh. ‘You’re damn right.’
‘Don’t sound so arrogant. Most of those poor sods who are chained to their desks or ploughing up the earth are decent, honest citizens who have more sense than to fritter away their inheritance on drugs and gambling.’
Daniel bowed his head. He was aware that he had to act the penitent for the sake of appearance. He needed Bolly’s help, and he wouldn’t get it unless he assumed a mask of contrition. ‘You’re right, of course,’ he said quietly.
‘I usually am. Now, as I was saying, the only way for you to build up the old bank balance is by stepping outside the law. Doing something on the naughty list. However, I can’t see you carrying out a bank robbery or shoplifting or anything as obvious as that.’
Daniel said nothing.
‘So, it has to be subtle, something that suits your devious ways.’
‘Like what.’
‘Blackmail.’
‘Blackmail?’
‘Obtaining money by veiled threats.’
‘I know what
blackmail is. But who do I blackmail, and how?
Bolly pursed her lips, and her eyes sparkled. ‘Have you heard of Ambrose De Lacy?’
Some three weeks later, Daniel and Bolly met and dined in a discreet restaurant in Soho. She passed over an envelope to him. ‘That is a hundred pounds—a loan, my dear, to help get you started. I shall want it back when you have sucked the old devil dry.’
Daniel took the envelope and blew her a kiss.
‘You are ready for this?’ she asked, a smile hovering on her lips.
‘Oh, yes. It will be a great adventure.’
‘Maybe, but treat it seriously.’
‘Oh, I will. A lot is at stake here. Believe me, I am more than ready and prepared to make certain sacrifices.’
Bolly’s eyes glittered wildly. ‘Good. He’ll be dining at the Café Royal on Thursday. The best of luck.’
Daniel laughed. ‘Luck won’t enter into it.’
Chapter Two
Two Months Later
‘Checkmate!’ Kishen laughed with delight and sat back in his chair.
‘You devil!’ cried Rupert Wilde, with a broad grin, shaking his fist at his companion. ‘You led me into that trap.’
Kishen’s eyes sparkled with amusement. ‘Of course. Isn’t that what chess is all about: to confound and ensnare your opponent?’
‘Sometimes it is wise to let your employer win,’ Wilde added light-heartedly.
‘I will consider it next time.’
‘Not sure there’ll be a next time if you’re going to play like that.’
The two men exchanged comfortable smiles.
Wilde rose from his chair and stretched. ‘Seriously, Kishen you’re a fine player. It’s good to be challenged by such a keen mind.’ He patted his associate on the back. ‘How about a cup of Earl Grey, eh?’
‘Certainly. I will prepare a brew.’
‘No, no. To the victor the spoils. ...
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