Joe left Trent’s Bookshop wondering what the hell a scrawled note from the scene of one of Jack The bloody Ripper’s victims had to do with Finny going missing… He stopped dead with the car door open. No… Put that thought right out of your head Joe old son. The Ripper didn’t kidnap his victims for a start, and he left the bodies in plain sight. He got into the car, but his thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone. But what about Booger? He was left in plain sight. Joe started the engine and pulled away. No, not the same. Booger was watching Finny, following her… and whoever took her would see that. So Booger had to be got rid off. No, not an attempt to kill Finny or she would have been found laying next to poor Booger. So why the note? And according to Trent, the note was saying that the Gold’s weren’t the ones that took her…? Joe didn’t get it. What he did get, was that he needed to talk to Moira again. But first, he needed to check in at the factory on the off chance Finny had turned up somewhere. While he watched the two kids sitting on the carpet weighing each other up, Bill’s thoughts turned to the twins. Why had they taken the girl? And Shelta’s expression. Bill was all too aware that sometimes people were brought to the house who didn’t leave in the same condition they arrived in, or even alive. Bill put the numbers together and they added up to a blood-dripping four. Which was a shame, because the little cat burglar had impressed him… and she’d explained about the whole dog thing. The ponderous cogs of Bill’s thought process ground to a halt. Decision made, he got to his feet. “Come on, you two, we’re going to go visit an old friend of mine.” This was a new experience for Casper, Onetooth and especially Lucas. Micky had taken them to one of the busier parts of The Borough where all the tiny shops seemed to huddle together to feel safer. The middle of the road had been taken over by carts of all shapes and sizes selling wares of every kind, few of which were honestly gained. One of these had been a deliciously smelling cart with a built in brazier. A small, thin man sweated over the glowing coals, turning skewered meats and various veggies in a complex pattern before lifting a skewer and sliding its contents off onto a fragrantly oiled platter. Then he would deftly re-skewer alternate bits of meat and veg onto a thin stick for sale. So it was that the four boys explored various ways of transferring food from stick to mouth while Micky showed them how an expert did it. Lucas was twirling the stick, looking at the bit of meat on the end. “What is it?” Lucas was still new enough to being an orphan that he sometimes asked stupid questions like that. Casper fielded the question. “It’s meat.” “Yeah, but what kind?” “The kind you eat before Onetooth pinches it offa you.” Lucas had, however, been an orphan long enough to know that food left dangling was considered fair game by the kid sitting next to you. He popped the lump into his mouth without ado. Patrin didn’t get to go out much. He bounced around like a new puppy, kept an eye by both Bill and Finny. Bill, because it was his job. And Finny because that was who she was. While they were watching Patrin climb ancient lamp posts or jump over boxes of garbage, Bill was interrogating Finny. “So what were you doing with the twins? You know they’re bad ‘uns eh?” “Uhuh. Ned said I shouldn’t go near them.” “So why was you?” Finny thought about that for a moment. “Cos they kinda sorta rescued me I suppose.” “Huh?” It was embarrassing to have to admit it, but she did anyway. She was pretty sure Bill was friendly, but he was also working for the Golds. Then again, having the big bruiser with her made her feel safe. She’d been a resident of The Borough for three years before being scooped up by the Union and dumped in the New Flag orphanage. The Borough was not a safe place for anyone alone, especially kids with their nice fresh organs. Finny wanted to keep all of hers, thank you very much. “I got kidnapped in Flag and locked up inna room inna warehouse… you know, one of the rag and bone places.” Bill had his suspicions about that, but the numbers didn’t include being ‘rescued’, certainly not by the twins. Silvanus and Shelta were people you got rescued from. He steered the two nine-year-olds around the busy area of shops and onto one of the branching streets. As they got closer, Finny recognised the broken chalkboard that leant against the wall next to an open doorway. ‘Fingal Agin - Tailor’ A shudder went through her remembering the last time she had been brought here. When they walked through from the dingy narrow vestibule into the front room of the house that also doubled as the shop, the horrible old tailor first introduced to Finny by Joe was standing over a pan full of sausages. Fingal Agin looked suspiciously at Bill when he came in, and then, to his surprise, Finny enter the room. “Well, if it isn’t the little cracksman. What a fortuitous surprise; we thought we’d lost you… come to uncle for another suit I’m hoping. Times ‘as been hard, my dear; times as been very…” Which is when Fingal caught sight of the other child emerging from the gloom of the hallway. The smile, greasy as it was, slid from Fingal’s face like melting wax in a waxworks fire and his tone changed. “No! No! No! No, he can’t be being here!” Pointing his spatula at Patrin’s nervous face, Fingal turned to Bill. “Why did you bring HIM here, Bill?! He can’t be here!” Still muttering ‘can’t be here’ repeatedly, Fingal, dressing gown flapping, ran to the thickly curtained window and peeked along both sides of the road. When he turned back to his visitors his anger was directed squarely at Bill. “What you fetch him here for?! HE can NOT BE HERE, Bill, he just can’t!” Fingal flopped down on the old sofa, legs akimbo and waving his spatula dejectedly in the air, a look of sheer panic on his face. “Can’t be here, not here.” While Bill was explaining to Fingal about having no choice and that nobody knew he was here anyway, Finny had crossed to the stove and turned off the heat under the sausages… which she was now staring at. Another pile of uncooked pink sausages waited in a bowl next to the stove. So many sausages. ‘… one of us seems to have an endless supply of them…’ Finny’s eyes widened. The Finny Stories In chronological order: 000 Finny Intro 001 The Locket 002 Rats 003 A Christmas Finny 004 The Secret Adventurer’s Club 005 The Secret Adventurer’s Club: Second Adventure 006 Finny’s Birthday 007 Union Candy 008 Then There Were Three 009 Then There Were Four Again – Sort Of (WIP)