Bloody Relations by Don Gutteridge Page B

city.”
    â€œSo he abided by your rules?” It was hard to imagine anyone not doing so, Marc thought.
    â€œHe teased us a bit, that was all,” Carrie said.
    â€œHe did make us laugh, didn’t he, Mum?”
    â€œOh, how he could tell a story,” Molly added.
    â€œHe sounds like the perfect employee,” Marc said. “So tell us, Mrs. Burgess, why you summarily dismissed him yesterday morning and failed to inform your girls.”
    â€œI would have told them, of course, in good time and in my own way.” She turned slightly to the women. “You didn’t know it, but that fun-loving, likeable bear of a man was a gambler and, when it came to money, a bit of a wastrel.”
    Mrs. Burgess dismissed their quick protests. “I know this for a fact, for he used his good nature to prey upon mine. Very foolishly, I loaned him money.”
    â€œYou didn’t!” Molly cried, as if that possibility was unthinkable.
    â€œNot a lot. At least not all at once. But he pleaded with me,saying he’d lost his wages and more at that dive, the Tinker’s Dam, and the men up there were threatening to break his legs.”
    â€œThe Tinker’s Dam is the sinkhole of Toronto,” Cobb said with disgust.
    â€œSo it is,” Mrs. Burgess agreed. “At first I merely gave Michael advances on his wages. I called him in several times when he wasn’t really needed and we spent the evening tripping over him. But soon it became clear to me that he could never work off his debt.”
    â€œSo you decided to have it out with him yesterday?” Marc said.
    Mrs. Burgess sighed. “Yes, I did.” She looked at Molly next to her. “I’m sorry, luv, but I had no choice. He owed me thirty dollars. I told him he had to pay me what he owed within a week or leave my employ.”
    â€œHow did he respond?”
    Tears filled Mrs. Burgess’s eyes. “He laughed in my face. He said he owed more than that to the gamblers at the Tinker’s Dam. So what else was I to do? He hadn’t shown up when we needed him on Saturday and here he was on Monday morning asking for money again. I ordered him off the property. I told him I was going to put the word out in Irishtown, so he knew I meant business.”
    There was a collective gasp from the girls.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Marc asked.
    â€œHe would be persona non grata in Irishtown. If he was to put his big toe anywhere on our territory, a scout or tracker would know, and if he was fool enough to keep on coming, he’d be lucky to escape with his skull in one piece.”
    â€œSo you effectively banished him?”
    â€œI did, and he knew it.”
    â€œSo he cleared out. And all this happened yesterday morning?”
    â€œYes. The girls were still in town shopping after the ceremonies.”
    Marc hesitated before saying, “You do realize, Mrs. Burgess, that Michael Badger is the person most likely to have reason and opportunity to remove the key to the hatch from behind the picture?”
    Mrs. Burgess paled. “He did go into one of the rooms back there to collect his belongings, but—”
    â€œBut he may have become a desperate man, willing to attempt deeds quite out of keeping with his character.”
    The girls cried out in disbelief and anguish.
    â€œI think we have to entertain the unpalatable possibility that Michael Badger came through the escape hatch sometime last night.”
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    IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON WHEN MARC and Cobb wended their way back through the maze of Irishtown towards Lot Street. They had done all they could at Madame Renée’s. Mrs. Burgess and the girls, weary and wrung out as they were, were allowed to visit the undertaker to make arrangements for Sarah McConkey’s funeral on Thursday, the day after tomorrow.
    When they had departed, Marc and Cobb, using lanterns, went over every inch of the sprawling house in