Page 20 of No Man's Land

“So…” That was interesting. “The fall didn’t kill him outright, then?”

“If he fell.”

“Do you doubt it?”

The man shrugged and said, “If he fell, and could walk twenty yards, why didn’t he just climb out? Not like there ain’t a ladder.”

“Well, it would have been pitch black, I suppose…” He thought again of his father’s story of the man who’d stumbled over the edge of the dock. “Perhaps he got disoriented?”

“And then happened to drop down dead?”

Josef chewed the end of his pencil. “What’s your theory then?”

“Where did you say you was from?”

“TheDaily Clarion.”

“Only I told the other bloke all this.”

“What other bloke? From another newspaper?”

“Army. The poor sod’s commanding officer is investigating what happened to him.” He snorted a laugh. “I said, ‘It’s a bit late to bring him up on charges for being drunk and disorderly.’”

Josef laughed politely. “True. What did you tell him?”

“That there’s more going on beneath the streets of London than most people want to know about.” A knowing look lit his eye, a challenge in his bright gaze. A question.

“I’d like to know.”

“Aye, but would you believe it?”

“How about you tell me, and we’ll see?”

After a long, measured gaze, the man said, “You ever heard of Queen Rat?”

A trolleybus trundled past on the other side of the road; a car horn bellowed. Josef said, “QueenRat?”

The man’s expression cooled. “If you ain’t interested…”

“I am!” He hadn’t meant his scepticism to show. “I’ve just never heard of it. Her.” But his heart sank. Queen Rat, indeed. “So, who is she?”

“Well.” The man still looked doubtful, but at the same time, he clearly wanted to spin his tale, and that overcame any reluctance. “The stories go back a couple of hundred years. Back then Toshers used to work the sewers looking for coins and jewellery and the like. But they delved deep, and it’s said they woke Queen Rat, and she’s haunted the sewers ever since, preying on men. Seducing them.”

Josef felt his eyebrows creep up, despite his best intentions. “She’s a…giant rat?” He couldn’t imaginethatbeing very seductive.

“She takes the form of a beautiful woman, but her eyes…they’re like a rat’s eyes, gleaming in the dark.”

Josef suddenly found himself listening very sharply.

“It’s said, if the man pleases her, she grants him great good fortune. And curses him if he doesn’t. But also—” he put a hand to his neck, “—she bites him here, leaves her mark. Now, the man we found? His neck was all chewed up. His arm, too.”

“The police think rats might have—”

“No rat did that, I’ll tell you that for nothing. 'Least, no natural rat.”

“I see.” Josef closed his notebook. “Thank you.”

“It ain’t just that either. There’s been queer goings-on down here for weeks. All the men know it, not just me. Stinks—and not the usual sort—and sounds. And…” He looked genuinely uneasy. “Eyes in the dark.”

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