Free Belle by Lesley Pearse Page B

trousers from the floor where he’d dropped them the previous night. He was fortunate in his lodgings in that Mrs Dumas was a widow who wanted company and something to do, rather than just money. Her terraced house in Percy Street, just off Tottenham Court Road, was very clean and comfortable, and she treated her three lodgers almost like members of her own family. Noah appreciated this, so he took it upon himself to do any small maintenance jobs, and always filled the coal buckets each day for her. As he ran lightly down the stairs he hoped that Mrs Dumas would keep her distance from the caller; he wouldn’t want her to know he’d been to a brothel.
    ‘Miss Davis is in the parlour,’ she said as he reached the hall. She was a tiny little woman of well over sixty, reminding Noah of a little bird with her sharply pointed nose and bright and beady eyes. She was standing by the door which led through to the kitchen, wearing the white frilly apron she always put over her dress in the mornings. ‘Come on into the kitchen when you’ve finished and I’ll make you breakfast,’ she said, her face alight with curiosity.
    The name Miss Davis meant nothing to Noah, but as he walked into the parlour, he recognized the slight woman in a black coat and rather severe cloche hat as the maid at Annie’s Place, whom Millie had called Mog.
    ‘I’m sorry to call so early, Mr Bayliss,’ she said, standing up and offering her hand. ‘I think you know where I’m from.’
    Noah nodded and shook her hand. ‘My landlady mentioned Millie.’
    ‘I’m sure you heard the terrible news about her murder?’ Mog said.
    Noah reeled back in shock. ‘Murder?’ he gasped.
    ‘Oh dear.’ The woman frowned and took a step nearer to him, reaching out her hand to touch his arm in a gesture of comfort. ‘I am so sorry, Mr Bayliss, to give you such a shock. It never occurred to me you wouldn’t know already, not with you being a reporter and it being in all the papers too.’
    Noah was so horrified and appalled that his wits left him temporarily and he couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say. He’d been out on insurance investigation for the past week and hadn’t bothered to buy a newspaper. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes and that embarrassed him. ‘I can’t believe it! Who would kill such a lovely girl? When was this? Has the killer been caught?’ he croaked out eventually, and had to hope Mog wouldn’t realize he’d had romantic dreams about Millie.
    Mog gently suggested they sat down and she told him the whole story. Noah found it curious that a woman who worked in a brothel should be so sensitive and kindly. She explained how she had been out for the evening and arrived home just after the police left, and she told the murder story through the eyes of the young girl who had witnessed it. As she got to the point where Annie, the girl’s mother, had lied to the police and said Belle slept through the whole thing, she had to dab tears from her eyes with a handkerchief.
    Noah hadn’t imagined Annie having a child, much less a fifteen-year-old living on the premises. Just from the way Mog spoke of her it was clear this young girl was very innocent and he could hardly bear to think she should have witnessed something so shocking.
    ‘But to make it even worse, now Belle has been snatched!’ Mog exclaimed, her voice rising in her distress. ‘Snatched right off the street! It were yesterday while we were at Millie’s funeral.’
    ‘Oh, my good God,’ Noah burst out. ‘You went to the police, I’m sure?’
    ‘Yes, of course, though little good it did us as they don’t know Belle saw the murder and they won’t be rushing around on our account. So we don’t know what to do. Then Annie remembered that you were an investigator and that you really liked Millie. So we hoped you might be willing to help us.’
    Noah the journalist couldn’t help but think this could be the scoop he’d always hoped for to make his