By the time Lapsewood and Tanner reached Whitechapel, the three-legged Jack Russell was the only dog left and there were four black dots on Lapsewood’s list. Four infected houses.
Tanner cradled the remaining dog in his arms as they walked silently toward their next destination, St Winifred’s School.
‘We can find more dogs if you don’t want to send her in,’ said Lapsewood.
‘Don’t be soft,’ said Tanner. ‘She’s only a dead dog. Aren’t you, Lil’ Mags?’ He tickled the dog under her chin and she let out a contented bark.
‘We’ll need more, anyway,’ said Lapsewood kindly. ‘We may as well get them now.’
‘We’ll get more when we need more,’ replied Tanner. ‘Come on now, let’s get this done.’
Lapsewood stopped outside the school. An imposing, redbrick building, it was empty and deserted so late at night. They had both got into the habit of checking carefully for signs of Black Rot first, to avoid wasting dogs, but Tanner studied this one extra diligently.
‘I told you, we can get another dog if you’re worried,’ said Lapsewood.
‘No,’ replied Tanner. He placed Lil’ Mags down and held up a bedpost he had pinched from the poet’s bed. Lil’ Mags sniffed it eagerly, excited that it was finally her turn to play the game of fetch.
‘Good luck, Lil’ Mags,’ whispered Tanner and he lobbed the bedpost in.
The Jack Russell looked up at him and, for a moment, Lapsewood thought the dog wasn’t going to follow it, but she turned around and bounded in, vanishing inside the building.
Lapsewood said nothing while they waited, but the look of relief on Tanner’s face was plain enough to see when the dog came out with the bedpost between her teeth.
‘Good girl,’ said Tanner, playfully trying to get the bedpost off her. ‘Good girl.’
They stepped through the wall into a large school hall where they were instantly accosted by the ghost of a woman wearing a green dress and a blood-soaked apron, her red hair tied up on top of her head.
‘Och, at last, you’ve come,’ she exclaimed. ‘I was beginning to think I’d been forgotten about. I suppose General Colt sent you.’
‘Yes,’ said Lapsewood. They were standing in amongst rows of wooden desks. It took Lapsewood back to his own school days. Tanner was happily patting Lil’ Mags. ‘Are you Doris McNally?’
‘I was the last time I checked, aye. Try telling this school that, though. It thinks I’m its ghost.’
Lapsewood looked down at the list. ‘It says it should be Janey Brown.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that,’ said Doris, holding up her copy of the London Tenancy List. ‘I’ve been visiting Janey for years. Poor girl was locked in the cellar as punishment for talking. Only the schoolmaster forgot about her, didn’t he? She died of starvation, her poor frail body discovered by a teacher a week later. Sad story, but a lovely girl. Not one of the moaners. The ones who die in their own homes are always worse. It’s always the wallpaper with that lot.’
‘What happened to Janey?’ asked Lapsewood.
‘I wish I knew. When I got here, Janey was’ne here.’
‘But we checked. The school is not infected,’ said Lapsewood.
‘I guess the Black Rot must go when the building gets a new Resident,’ replied Tanner.
‘Infected? Black Rot?’ exclaimed Doris. ‘What are you two blathering about?’
‘It’s happening all over London,’ said Lapsewood. ‘Residents are going missing.’
‘I think I’d have heard about something like that,’ replied Doris. ‘I’ve been working as an Outreach Worker since you were still breathing air into your lungs.’
‘Of course,’ said Lapsewood to Tanner. ‘She wouldn’t have learnt about it until she stepped into an infected house.’
‘By which time it would have been too late,’ agreed Tanner.
‘I’ve no idea what you’re on about, but since you’re here this place can have one of you as its new Resident.’
Doris turned to Ether Dust and flew at the outside wall but, rather than flying straight through it, she rematerialised as she smacked into it and fell to the ground with a thud. Tanner laughed. Lapsewood walked over to give her a hand up.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘I can’ne be stuck in this place for the rest of eternity. I did’ne die here. There are rules about these things.’ Doris leaned against the outside wall. ‘I’m a prisoner,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I’m a prisoner, stuck in here with these wee bairns repeating sums for all eternity.’
‘I’ll go back to the Bureau and submit my findings,’ said Lapsewood. ‘I’m sure General Colt will find a way to get you out. He did send me to find you after all.’
‘There’s nothing to be done. Of all people I should know that.’
‘Of course there is. They can probably get Extraction documents or something. You do work for the Bureau.’
She shook her head sadly. ‘I’ve done this job long enough to know that all you can do for a Resident is support them, because the house will never let them go. You make out like you’re helping. You listen to their complaints, but there’s nothing you can actually do.’
Lapsewood patted her back awkwardly and said, ‘I will do something about this. I promise.’
‘Thank you,’ said Doris. ‘But I don’t think there’s anything to be done. Acceptance. That’s what I tell new Residents. Acceptance is the first step. Once you accept you’re never getting out then you can start to get on with things.’ She sighed. ‘It’s not so easy to tell yourself that.’
Stepping out of the school into the street, Lapsewood allowed an easy smile to spread across his face. He had done it. He had found Doris McNally.
All he had to do now was to write up his findings, return to the Bureau and tell them what he had discovered. When they saw what a good job he had done, not only in locating Doris McNally but in discovering the Black Rot problem, he would be rewarded. Perhaps he would be given a new assignment or maybe Colonel Penhaligan would get wind of it and request that he come back and work for him. He had showed them all. He was Prowler material after all. He imagined Alice’s face when he returned the hero. The man who saved London.
‘What’s next?’ asked Tanner.
Lapsewood held out the London Tenancy List. ‘I must return. You need to carry on,’ he said.
‘I don’t need to do nothing,’ replied Tanner.
‘We’ll need a proper map of infected structures if we’re to deal with this problem.’
‘We?’
‘The Bureau.’
‘I don’t work for the Bureau. Remember, I’m just helping you out.’
‘And I’m asking you to keep doing that,’ said Lapsewood. ‘Can’t you see how important this is? Something is very wrong here and it will affect all of us if we do not deal with it immediately. There’s much more at stake. If ghosts keep going missing the problem will grow and grow until it won’t be safe to enter any building in London.’
‘Someone else’s problem, ain’t it?’ replied Tanner, shrugging. ‘I said I’d help you find Doris, but we’ve done that now.’
‘Accepting responsibility for the problems of others is the only way to achieve a civilised, organised society. Caring for one another is what makes us human.’
‘You might not have noticed, but we’re dead, mate. We ain’t part of society no more.’
‘We still have a responsibility.’
‘Not me.’
‘So what will it take for you to carry on helping me?’
‘You could try asking, I suppose.’
‘That’s what I have been doing.’
‘Not really.’ Tanner shrugged. ‘Try dropping all this you need to do this and we need to do that stuff and actually ask me . . . nicely.’
‘Will you take the list and carry on checking for infected houses?’ asked Lapsewood.
‘What’s the word you’re searching for?’
‘Please,’ said Lapsewood.
‘Yeah, all right.’ Tanner took the list. ‘Since you asked so nicely, I will continue feeding dogs to houses.’
‘Thank you,’ said Lapsewood.
‘I’m getting new ones, though. I ain’t risking Lil’ Mags again.’
Lapsewood smiled. ‘I thought she was just a dog.’
‘Yeah, well. Sometimes dogs are more reliable than people.’
Lapsewood shook Tanner’s hand and said solemnly, ‘Thank you, Tanner. I’ll be back.’
Tanner laughed. ‘Sombre sort of fella, ain’t you, Lapsewood?’
Lapsewood smiled, then turned to Ether Dust and drifted up into the sky.