Part 3 (1/2)

'We're following solantine?'

Sherlock shook his head 'No So Harkness, I think his name is Josh Harkness'

Matty's face seemed to freeze His eyes widened in concern 'Josh Harkness? Small bloke with hair that looks like he washes it in lamp oil?'

'That's him'

Matty shook his head 'Best not to get involved with hie hands on the canal talk about him in whispers He takes a cut from most of the thieves that work this town Five per cent of their earnings, he takes, payable every week If they don't pay him, he takes five per cent of their bodies a just cuts it off Fingers, toes, ears, noseswhatever it takes until he has five per cent of their body weight That's his rule, and he never varies it' He shuddered 'We had a talk, him and me, a little time after I arrived in Farnham He took me by the shoulder in the marketplace and said quietly, ”I notice that you're not averse to nabbing bits of food here and there, young 'un That's all right a never let it be said that Josh Harkness begrudges a boy his fill But take a note fro et a cut Ask anyone And if I don't get a cut a”' he ers a '”well, one way or another, I get my cut, if you see what I mean” He's not a nice man, Sherlock Even on a scale of people who are not nice, he ranks right near the top'

Sherlock nodded thoughtfully as the two of theot the i onover their heads'

'Yeah, he dabbles in blackmail as well He collects all the little secrets that people have, and he gets the to theirit all secret' Matty shook his head 'It's a few pence here, a couple of shi+llings there and a handful of pounds every week, but it allfor it'

'And he's cashi+ng in on people's unhappiness,' Sherlock said griry 'He's a parasite on the hu about it Why don't they?'

'The people he's blacko to the police, because if they do their secrets will be revealed Besides, he's probably black they're going to do is expose him'

'Then I suppose I'll have to do it myself,' Sherlock said The words surprised hiht

Matty was about to say so else, but up ahead Josh Harkness turned a corner out of thethe stolen letter in his hand Sherlock gestured to Matty to keep quiet Together they exited the fringes of the crowd and e of the brick wall and looked around it carefully, half expecting to come face to face with the black an e back until Harkness was almost at the far end If he and Matty started after hi, then if he turned, he would see theht away They would be the only two people on the street

Harkness got to the end of the street and turned left As soon as he vanished froht, Sherlock pulled Matty into the street and started running

It only took a few seconds for Sherlock and Matty to get to the end of the street They did the sa back while Sherlock peered around the corner Harkness was perhaps twenty feet away, still striding along, ignoring everything around hied, very confident in hian to prick at Sherlock's nostrils: a sharp s darker, like sewage Sherlock felt his eyes watering as the vapour a whatever it was a began to irritate the into another street or an alley, Harkness caht and left suspiciously, the stolen letter still held in his hand Sherlock pulled back so that he couldn't be seen, trying to suppress a sneeze that kept trying to explode out of his nose By the tih to poke his head back out, the man had vanished

'What's in there?' he asked Matty

Matty poked his head around the corner as well, underneath Sherlock's He sniffed 'Tannery,' he said fir in from the farms and the abattoirs, and they cure them to turn them into leather'

'”Cure” them?' Sherlock asked He'd heard the term before, but he wasn't sure what it entailed

'Yeah' Matty glanced up scornfully 'You ought to get out ” is what they do to turn skin into leather It er and stops it fro'

'And how do they do that?'

'They scrape as much flesh as they can off the skins with sharp knives, and then they wash theain, feeling the bite of ammonia at the back of his nose and throat 'Yes, I can srimaced 'You can smell them all over Farnham The chemicals they use to cure the hides are made from some pretty horrible raw materials'

Sherlock frowned 'What do you mean?'

'Well, put it this way a some bloke told ht for a moment Urea It sounded innocuous It sounded likeoh Yes It sounded like 'urine' He looked down at Matty, frowning 'Are you tellingurine?'

Matty nodded 'That and other stuff, but you probably don't want to even think about that Just take my advice a hold your nose whenever you pass by that place' He shook his head 'I heard a story about one of the blokes orked in there He was trying tostick, but he overbalanced and fell in'

Sherlock felt his eyes widen 'Fell into the?'

'Exactly'

'What happened?'

'He drowned'

'Drowned in?'

'Yeah' He shuddered 'When I die I want to die quietly, in et in there,' Sherlock said decisively

'What?'

'I said, we've got to get in there'

'Are you mad?'

'Josh Harkness went in there'

'Yes I know That was my point Not only does that place smell worse than the wooden outhouse you rescued me from in that American railway station last year a which, by the way, sot inside it the erous man within a hundred miles There are tihed 'Look, I wish it wasn't necessary, but he's got so my aunt and uncle They're nice people They've never done anybody any harm, and they've looked after me and fed ' He gazed down the street, feeling a grim expression settle across his face 'I've decided that I don't like black through that door would be a waste of time Harkness probably locked it behind hiht be right into a room full of people There's a brokenround the corner We could probably get in that way'

'How come you know there's a brokenround the corner?'

Matty looked at Sherlock with exasperation 'I knohere all the broken s in Farnham are a just in case I need them You wouldn't believe the stuff that people leave out on kitchen tables Although in this case I decided never to use theas soon as I found out as in there and ned it'