Free Dodger of the Dials by James Benmore

your benefactor is and shut your sharp mouth. I know my own fancy woman and she ain’t been near her old bawd since the very day I met her.’
    ‘No need to get all lit up, Dodge,’ Barney intervened in his meek manner. ‘We’re just thinking out loud, right, boys? We’re just crossing out names to see who’s left.’ But now even Mouse Flynn, who I had never known to utter a word of doubt against me, began to question my assurances.
    ‘You didn’t tell Lily about the necklace though did you, Dodger?’ he asked me. ‘Before you’d even stolen it? Did she know about the meeting today?’
    ‘Of course he did!’ Tom answered for me. ‘He’s always trying to impress her and saying too much. I’d wager she even tried it on when he got home this morning. She knows more about this job than you do, Mouse.’
    Mouse stared at me and asked if this was true. I took another long drag on my pipe and shrugged. ‘So?’ I said.
    Tom threw her hands into the air as if she was declaring the matter closed and Mouse groaned. Barney coughed and said that he had some barrels what needed attending to and he scuttled away.
    ‘You think Lily has told other crooks about our doings?’ I asked them in disbelief. ‘Well, that shows how little you know her then. Because she ain’t a Slade girl no more, she hates the man. She’s a Dawkins girl if anything.’
    Tom shook her head and sighed. Her manner now became less aggressive and accusing but this was replaced with a patronising edge I did not much care for either.
    ‘Listen, Dodger,’ she said and tried to pat my hand with hers. ‘We all know you’re safe. You’re probably the most honest man I’ve ever met which, to be fair, ain’t saying much. But have a think, why don’t you? Trusting your lady friend more than your own gang is the backward way around. Especially your lady friend.’
    Again I bridled at the way she saw fit to speak of my Lily and was about to take her to task. But I was shocked to see Mouse nodding along with her.
    ‘She makes a fair point Jack, he shrugged. ‘I love Lily to bits but you never know with some people, eh?’
    Thunderous applause erupted throughout the bar as the song reached its bawdy climax. I glanced over the saloon and bit my tongue in agitation at the unwelcome suggestions my friends was making. The notion that Lily might have betrayed me was one my mind wanted to reject but now that it had been placed in there it was like a flea I could not catch. Tom was right, I should not have been so free with my secrets, but I could not believe for one moment that Lily had any hand in this counter-robbery. Despite this, I wanted to get straight back to my crib so I could assure myself that they was all mistaken and – as the people in the bar began calling out for another tune – I stood up to put my coat backon. I then reached for my hat from off the peg as they both got to their feet also.
    ‘Right then,’ I told them in a huff, ‘I’m off home. But we shall continue this discussion tomorrow. Until then I expect the both of you to find out all you can about these rude bandits. Nobody steals from me, it ain’t the natural way of things.’
    Tom kept her eyes fixed on me, her face a question.
    ‘I, meanwhile, shall be making my own enquiries,’ I answered her look. ‘Lily has had nothing to do with any of this dirty business, of that I’m sure. But if it transpires that she has spoken out of school then I shall soon uncover it.’ I spoke then in a darker tone what even I myself did not recognise. ‘And I’ll settle the matter myself.’

Chapter 5

The End of Summer Fair
    In which the days begin to grow darker
    ‘Whatever happened to the fortune-telling pigs?’
    It was the following Saturday. Lily and I was walking arm-inarm past the many vendors of Bartholomew Fair and there was a familiar smell of roast pork about.
    ‘And all the jugglers and the decent harlequins,’ she continued. ‘This here carnival is a shadow of