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Early the next morning, a Scotland Yard officer gave Gregory a note for Victor.
Gregory took the liberty of reading the message, so he could determine if he needed to wake them, despite their few hours of sleep last night.
Vic-stop by today when you have a moment—Barns.
Satisfied it could wait, he put the maids to work early since he ran a lean staff and presently, the house was brimming with guests. There was David, Jacko and his four boys, Vivian, and Charlotte.
Fortunately, the only one who woke up early was David, and he was satisfied with day-old scones which he took back to his room. The remainder of the guests did not wake until noon. At ten o’clock Xavier and Vic came down for breakfast. The cook provided the choice of oatmeal, bacon, and eggs.
Xavier chose oatmeal. Vic asked for all three.
Once they had consumed their meals, Gregory handed the Director’s note to Vic. Only Xavier snatched it from her hand before she had a chance to read it.
Gregory wasted no time scolding Xavier. “The note was addressed to Victor. Had it been addressed to you, I would have given it to you.”
Xavier ignored his scold and read the note. “Bloody Hell, he doesn’t say what he wants!”
Vic snatched the note from him, read it, then laughed. “He’s become very polite now.”
“Mark my word. The reason why he didn’t state ‘why’ we should stop by, is because we aren’t going to like it. He no doubt plans to arrest me,” Xavier warned.
“First of all, he only asked me to come see him. And secondly, I was planning to visit him anyway to discuss a few matters.”
“What are you up to now, Victor?” Xavier demanded.
“Nothing serious. First, I want to find out if he managed to arrest the Crime Lords for an actual crime. I realized last night, that arresting them just for showing up at the house might not impress a judge.”
Xavier laughed. “I can’t argue with your conclusion. And your second reason?”
“I want to teach his men why forgeries are a serious crime, and how they should go about shutting forgers down.”
“Do you even know how to do that?”
“I have some suggestions. However, I would greatly appreciate your assistance if you wished to come with me.”
Xavier glared up at the ceiling as he muttered, “God help us all! Exactly, where did you go and what did you learn yesterday?”
We went to Mr. Granger’s place of business, which happens to be in the same building as Mr. Ascot’s office, only Granger’s business is on the ground floor. So, in the future we can easily check up on Granger and encourage him to stay on the straight and narrow.”
“What precisely did you learn yesterday?” Xavier demanded.
“Well, I learned the code they use to warn others of trouble coming. They run electrical wiring which can transmit a sound or light signal from the watcher’s post beneath floorboards to the rooms that engage in illegal activity. In the situation I saw, it was sound, but David says he could create one with a bulb that goes on and off as well.
“According to Tubs, in these rooms, they will have a vault hiding behind a hidden door where they will quickly hide their forgeries before anyone arrives.”
“And how exactly will that help you.” Xavier asked.
“Well, the wiring, even when wrapped, sends out a signal that can be traced, even under floorboards. We can either disconnect it, or if they have already sent the alarm, we can send the never mind code.”
“And what if they change their codes now that you’ve threatened them?” Xavier challenged her.
“Well, assuming the police are dressed in street clothes, they can mull about with the customers, drop something and check to see if there is a button beneath the desk. If there is, with a simple device that David has made, they can follow the signal back to the forger’s office. However, I will advise them to take the person sitting at the desk with the warning button, and let him know, he’ll be going in first. In our recent effort, that caused the young man to tell us the truth.”
Xavier chuckled. “You actually do have something to teach them.”
“Well, I hope to have more. I want Granger to talk to the officers.”
“Why would he tell them anything?”
“Because he’s out of the business.”
“I assure you, he cannot possibly be out of the business. Cheating is rather like an addiction.”
“Tubs disagrees. While he doesn’t believe the other two men will reform, he believes Granger will.”
Xavier threw up his hands. “Tubs knows him better than I do. However, given it would probably get him killed, Granger will not share all his knowledge.”
Vic scowled. “But I thought forgers never killed people.”
Xavier rubbed his temples as if Vic had given him a headache. “They wouldn’t personally shoot Granger. However, if he sends the police after them, they will hire someone to retaliate.”
“What if Granger taught me the forgery trade?”
“I doubt he would agree to that.”
“He seems to like me,” Vic protested.
“Which is exactly why he would not teach you. Then the other two men would put a target on you. And if for a moment they believed Granger taught you anything about their trade, they’d send an assassin after him as well.”
Vic growled and left the room. She hurried up to see if David knew more about forgeries than she had already learned. When she entered, David had turned half his room into a classroom and all the boys were drawing on paper, while Arroo chewed on a bone.
Little Danny was in his crib. David lifted his son up and asked the boys to continue working while he stepped out to talk to Vic.
To her surprise, not one of the boys complained.
Once in the hall, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
She huffed in exasperation. “I want to teach the officers of Scotland Yard how to detect forgeries, only Xavier says I cannot.”
David considered the matter. “Well, locating a forger, should be easy, since they communicate trouble by a front desk with electrical wiring. Locating their stash of supplies to make forgeries should be in or near the room they work out of. A big magnet should locate the vault. All in all, this sounds like an easy arrest to me.”
“Xavier says they’ll send hit men after me.”
David frowned. “Isn’t that a possibility with every crime you solve? Honestly, without Tubs, you would have died long ago.”
“You’re right, and Xavier knows this. Damn it! He’s planning to teach the officers himself.” She hurried downstairs, only to discover Xavier missing. She rushed to Tubs’ room and got an eyeful. She softly closed the door to his room and then pounded on it with urgency. Less than two minutes later, Tubs answered the door.
“I’m sorry to disturb you after your late night, but Barns needs me to stop by and Xavier has disappeared.”
Tubs asked for three minutes and closed the door.
Vic leaned against the door, pleased with her cleverness. Whatever Xavier was planning, she would come out on top.
Three minutes later Tubs wore his heavy jacket, which meant he was loaded with guns of various sizes. Once in the carriage, Casey headed off to Scotland Yard. Tubs requested to know what was up.
“Well, Barns asked me to stop by, and I intend to teach some of his officers how to go after forgers.”
“That sounds like a useful education,” Tubs admitted. “We might want to stop by Grangers and let him know he needs to shut down his forgeries at once.”
“He should have stopped yesterday!”
“He has jobs he is already committed to. A couple of the jobs are for members of Parliament.” Tubs explained. “He should be out within a week.”
“Bloody Hell! We seem to have more criminals in Parliament than honest politicians!”
“No one said the Parliament was made of good men. It’s just made of rich men. Some are reasonably good while others are worse than the Crime Lords. But take my word on this: it doesn’t matter if they are good or bad, as a member of Parliament they can make you disappear without trial or jury. So, while you cannot touch those fellows, it is a small percentage of the forgeries, and you could improve many of the poor people’s lives if they can keep their homes that they have owned for generations.”
“What is happening to their homes?” Vic asked.
“A fellow in a fine suit will arrive and declare a block of houses are his. He’ll explain to the officer that all the people are squatters and he’s decided to raze the entire block to build fine homes. The officer will accept his word and he’ll have them torn down at once. Even if some of the people can provide a valid document, the officer will tell them to get it verified. Most of the poor have no clue how to do that, so they give up and leave their homes. For those determined to save their homes and try to discover how to get their document verified, it will take two days to get it confirmed and by then their houses are razed anyway.”
“That is outrageous!” Vic yelled.
“It is. And if it’s winter, most of the homeless will die. That’s how I lost my home. Fortunately, Samuel Sojourn owned property that he rented out to his workers.”
“No doubt he made a profit on that as well.”
Tubs chuckled. “He did, but it saved me from freezing.”
Vic leaned against his arm. “I’m very glad you didn’t freeze.” Vic stood up. “Come on. Let’s teach Scotland Yard how to stop forgeries.”