The Woman of Gratz

3: Getting their (wo)man

When WPC Lilian Pearce and Miss Lucy Baines followed Corvoisier out of a side door of South Place chapel, they did not have any definite plans about what they would do if they caught him, only that they must not let him out of their sight. Pearce was worried at first that Corvoisier might realise that he was being followed, but once out of the Chapel he set off at such a run down the street that she spent no further time worrying about it and just gave chase, with Lucy panting behind. Both girls were young and fit, and Corvoisier was older and less fit, but he had a good start on them and the streets were dark; and the further east they went, the darker the streets became.

Lucy began to realise that while running up and down stairs all day is good training, it's not as good as the regular fitness regime of policewomen - she was getting left behind. The streets were now virtually unlit, and she had completely lost sight of Pearce, never mind Corvoisier, but she did not dare stop running because she had no idea where she was. 'Pearce!' she panted, then stumbled over an obstacle on the pavement and fell headlong into the dark.

She hit something soft. For a horrible moment she thought she had fallen over a dead body; then she realised that it was a breathing body. Completely winded by her fall, she tried to get up, only to feel arms go about her and hear a male voice said: 'Well! It's a while since a young woman fell into my arms.'

'I'm terribly sorry,' she panted, 'are you hurt? It was an accident.' She tried to wriggle free, and to her great relief the other let her go, so that she could scramble off him and get to her feet.

'Are you hurt?' she repeated, bending down to try to see him in the dark.

'Bruised, battered - but I don't think anything's broken,' said the voice. It sounded like the voice of a middle-aged man, an educated man, not the voice one expects to encounter alone in an empty street on a dark night, but certainly preferable to many other sorts of voices.

'I'm so pleased. I'm so sorry I fell over you - I was chasing an anarchist.'

'A what?'

'An anarchist - Oh, I ought to explain: my name's Lucy Baines and I sometimes work with the Three Just Men - I'm helping the police at the moment, we're after an anarchist.'

'I see,' said the voice, in the tones of one who doesn't. Lucy heard him get to his feet. 'I'm Edward Davies, formerly Captain Edward Davies, an officer in His Majesty's Army, wounded in His Majesty's Service, now unfitted for normal work - you know how it is.'

'Yes,' said Lucy, sadly. She knew how it was. Her own fianc\u00e9, Mark Leicester, was too young to have fought in the Great War, but of those who had returned alive, many were wounded and had never been able to get work since their discharge from the army. Even many who were perfectly fit could not find work. 'Pleased to meet you,' she added, holding out a hand in what she hoped was the general direction of his right hand. 'I'm sorry I dropped in on you so suddenly.'

'I won't say, "It was nothing", because my ribs are still recovering, but I will say, "the pleasure of our meeting wipes out the pain",' said Davies, finding her hand and shaking it. 'Whom were you chasing, did you say?'

'An anarchist' - but at that moment Pearce's voice interrupted them. 'Baines! Where are you?'

'Here! I've found someone - Mr Edward Davies.'

Pearce came down the street, a mere shadow in the darkness. 'I've lost Corvoisier,' she said angrily, 'or to tell you the truth he's got into an old factory and I can't get in.' She looked at the shadow which was Davies. 'Mr Edward Davies, did you say?'

'Captain Edward Davies, at your service, ma'am,' said Davies, in a tone which was both respectful and humorous.

'Can you climb walls with glass on top? Or give me a leg up said wall?'