He stuffed the rest of his toast into his mouth and stood up.

She started to say that he shouldn’t come because it could be dangerous, and because he really couldn’t help. Then she knew that both were wrong. Instead she took the last swallow of her tea and stood up as well. He needed to be part of this.

She already knew all she could learn of Rupert, and none of it helped. Now she needed to know more of Mickey Parfitt, the business in general and his part in it in particular. Her first instinct was to protect Scuff from the details of such a trade. Then she remembered with misery that he was already more familiar with them than she was. The only question was how much reminding him of them might increase his nightmares.

Or would he ever get over them if he always looked the other way? Might they even grow larger and larger, fed by her belief that they were too terrible to be faced?

“Where are we gonna begin?” he asked, standing by the front door.

“That’s the problem,” Hester admitted. “There are a lot of ‘maybes’ and not much certainty. It might be useful to speak to Rupert’s friends, but I doubt they would say anything to me if it made them look bad, which most of it would.”

Scuff’s face was creased up with disgust.

“We can try other prostitutes,” she suggested. “There may have been talk that we could follow up, but I think that could take a long time. Squeaky Robinson gave me a few names we can begin with.”

Scuff looked at her guardedly. “Wot kind o’ people?”

“People who owe Squeaky a favor or two. And I know some like that myself—a couple of brothel-keepers, an abortionist, an apothecary.”

“I could go an’ ask Mr. Crow? If yer like?” he offered.

“We could go and ask,” she corrected him. “I think that’s an excellent idea. But do you know where to find him?”

“Course I do, but it in’t no decent place fer a lady ter come.” Now he looked worried.

“Scuff,” she said seriously, “I’ll make a bargain with you …”

He stared at her dubiously.

“I’ll look out for you, but not look after you, if you do the same for me.” She held out her hand to shake on it.

He considered for a moment or two, then gripped it in his small, thin fingers and shook. “Deal,” he confirmed.

They went straight from Paradise Place to Princes Stairs and took the ferry across to Wapping, past the police station that Monk commanded. Then they turned west along the High Street, at Scuff’s direction, toward the Pool of London and the biggest docks.