Churchyard and Hawke Read Online Free
ex-footman when Enid surprised them in the Laneglos grounds yesterday was asking questions about a grand summer ball that’s being held there in a couple of weeks time. Do you know anything about it?’
‘Of course!’ Talwyn stopped what she was doing in order to enlighten Amos. ‘It’s an annual charity event. I have never attended it myself but it is the social event of the year. Everyone who lays claim to being part of Cornish society will be there, showing off the latest fashions.’
‘. . . And no doubt displaying their most expensive jewellery too.’ Amos mused. ‘It would make a tempting target for a gang of well organised thieves. I’ll have a word with the Chief Constable tomorrow and see if he’ll agree to me making a trip to London to find out all I can about young Jimmy Banks and his dubious friends.’
CHAPTER 3
Four days after their visit to Laneglos, Amos travelled by train with Harvey Halloran to London. They crossed from Cornwall to Devon via the newly-opened railway bridge that now towered above the River Tamar, the waterway which formed a natural border between the two counties.
Amos had reported the happenings at Laneglos, together with his suspicion that a major crime was being planned, to the Cornwall Chief Constable. An ex-army man, the County’s senior policeman was having a great many problems recruiting for his force, not least the opposition of many of the gentry at having such a force imposed upon them. He was alarmed at the prospect of a serious crime being perpetrated against one of Cornwall’s most influential landowners and readily gave Amos permission to go to London to meet with Constable Churchyard of the Metropolitan Police taking Harvey with him, the drilling of new recruits being suspended for the immediate future.
Tom Churchyard met the two Cornish policemen at Paddington Station, in London. He was younger than Amos had expected, being no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, but en route to Scotland Yard where they were to have a meeting with a senior detective, Amos learned that Churchyard, like himself, had joined the Royal Marines as a young boy and seen action in a number of places in the world before leaving to join the Metropolitan Police three years before.
Brought up in the East End of London prior to joining the Royal Marines, he was immediately sent back to his birthplace to help keep order in the most lawless district of the whole of London.
Churchyard’s knowledge of the area and the families who resided there gave him a distinct advantage over most of his colleagues and he quickly gained a reputation as the man to speak to if information was needed about any of the many criminals dwelling in the warren of dingy streets and alleyways of Hoxton.
The young policeman was tall and clean cut and, although he addressed the Cornish police superintendent as ‘sir’ and showed him the deference his rank demanded, his manner was in no way servile. Amos thought that despite his lowly origins Tom Churchyard considered himself the equal of anyone he was likely to meet with, whatever the other’s station in life.
As an ex-member of the Metropolitan Police himself, Amos realized it was an attitude that would not please Tom Churchyard’s superior officers. His knowledge of the notorious Hoxton area and the fact that he was exceptionally good at his work secured his place in the London force, but it was unlikely he would ever gain promotion.
Nevertheless, Amos took an instant liking to the young Constable and on the way to Scotland Yard in a Hackney carriage, asked him how well he knew Jimmy Banks, alias Jem Smith.
‘Well enough,’ Churchyard replied, ‘Although I’ve never arrested him I’ve taken most of his family in at one time or another. They’re a thoroughly nasty lot who between them have been guilty of just about every crime in the book. Jimmy is a thief too - he could hardly be anything else with his background - but he’s probably the
‘Of course!’ Talwyn stopped what she was doing in order to enlighten Amos. ‘It’s an annual charity event. I have never attended it myself but it is the social event of the year. Everyone who lays claim to being part of Cornish society will be there, showing off the latest fashions.’
‘. . . And no doubt displaying their most expensive jewellery too.’ Amos mused. ‘It would make a tempting target for a gang of well organised thieves. I’ll have a word with the Chief Constable tomorrow and see if he’ll agree to me making a trip to London to find out all I can about young Jimmy Banks and his dubious friends.’
CHAPTER 3
Four days after their visit to Laneglos, Amos travelled by train with Harvey Halloran to London. They crossed from Cornwall to Devon via the newly-opened railway bridge that now towered above the River Tamar, the waterway which formed a natural border between the two counties.
Amos had reported the happenings at Laneglos, together with his suspicion that a major crime was being planned, to the Cornwall Chief Constable. An ex-army man, the County’s senior policeman was having a great many problems recruiting for his force, not least the opposition of many of the gentry at having such a force imposed upon them. He was alarmed at the prospect of a serious crime being perpetrated against one of Cornwall’s most influential landowners and readily gave Amos permission to go to London to meet with Constable Churchyard of the Metropolitan Police taking Harvey with him, the drilling of new recruits being suspended for the immediate future.
Tom Churchyard met the two Cornish policemen at Paddington Station, in London. He was younger than Amos had expected, being no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, but en route to Scotland Yard where they were to have a meeting with a senior detective, Amos learned that Churchyard, like himself, had joined the Royal Marines as a young boy and seen action in a number of places in the world before leaving to join the Metropolitan Police three years before.
Brought up in the East End of London prior to joining the Royal Marines, he was immediately sent back to his birthplace to help keep order in the most lawless district of the whole of London.
Churchyard’s knowledge of the area and the families who resided there gave him a distinct advantage over most of his colleagues and he quickly gained a reputation as the man to speak to if information was needed about any of the many criminals dwelling in the warren of dingy streets and alleyways of Hoxton.
The young policeman was tall and clean cut and, although he addressed the Cornish police superintendent as ‘sir’ and showed him the deference his rank demanded, his manner was in no way servile. Amos thought that despite his lowly origins Tom Churchyard considered himself the equal of anyone he was likely to meet with, whatever the other’s station in life.
As an ex-member of the Metropolitan Police himself, Amos realized it was an attitude that would not please Tom Churchyard’s superior officers. His knowledge of the notorious Hoxton area and the fact that he was exceptionally good at his work secured his place in the London force, but it was unlikely he would ever gain promotion.
Nevertheless, Amos took an instant liking to the young Constable and on the way to Scotland Yard in a Hackney carriage, asked him how well he knew Jimmy Banks, alias Jem Smith.
‘Well enough,’ Churchyard replied, ‘Although I’ve never arrested him I’ve taken most of his family in at one time or another. They’re a thoroughly nasty lot who between them have been guilty of just about every crime in the book. Jimmy is a thief too - he could hardly be anything else with his background - but he’s probably the
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