Looking for the Grifter

[Mum]

((September 28, in the Dials))

It was late in the day already when Mum slipped into Seven Dials. She didn't like coming here...people here weren't rich enough to bother stealing from and if they were they were theives themselves. Which didn't neccessarily mean they would catch her hand in their pockets, but it was a bit of a risk. More than Tuppance would ever let her take, anyway. Mum looked back to make sure Tup was behind her-she had to have him along to do this-and sniffed the air a little. They were looking for someone Tuppance knew...Mum remembered him a little. She remembered his shock of red hair and the way he seemed to always be making fun of them just a little. He'd given them a job working for another man...but when she'd looked for that other one all she'd found was burnt up ruins. And now she had the things she'd found there. But although she'd wanted to keep them for a long time, Tup argued that the plans and belongings she held in a bag over her back didn't really do them any good. Finally, she had agreed with him.

She picked her way across the Dials and looked for any sign of that man. He was here....she knew it, somehow. Now the trick was finding him...

[Redjack Ryan]

There was one thing that Redjack Ryan prided himself on, and that was his attention to detail. His attention to detail and his judgment of character. His judgment of character and his attention to detail...the two things on which he prided himself were his attention to detail and his judgment of character...and his ruthless efficiency. The three things on which he prided himself were his attention to detail, his judgment of character, and his ruthless efficiency...and his almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. The four things...no, amongst the things...are such elements as his attention to detail, his judgment of character...I'll come in again.

Among the things on which Redjack prided himself was his attention to detail. So it was that he noticed the children apparently before they noticed him, and he recognized them from that star-crossed museum job about a year ago, from some meeting or another. Was it in a theatre? For some reason that detail eluded him. What did not elude him, however, was the fact that they appeared to be looking for something. Or someone. Something pulled him into step behind them, keeping pace, just about ten steps behind.

Maybe it was fate.

[Mum]

Mum wasn't aware of the man following them. Sure she should havew been. She had been on the streets of the East Endc as long as she could remember and Tup trusted her to be his lookout and his scout and to always know who was about. So she should have. But Redjack was so much older and more practiced than her and for a while she peeked into corners and stuck her head around doors without even knowing that he followed.

Until she sniffed the air again. And she stopped, and squinted and turned. And she looked right at the place where her quarry had been. Her sharp little chin jerked in a way Tup knew and the older boy turned on his heel and spoke in a rough voice.

'Oi, scurra. Show yer ugly face.'

[Redjack Ryan]

Loping out of the shadows, the Irishman was all rehearsed calm, with a lupine grin that on any other man would have been merely irritating. On Ryan it was completely ridiculous. He ran a hand through his wiry ginger hair in a pathetic attempt to smooth it, and regarded the urchins with practised charm.

"Not much of a way t'talk t'yer elders, but I'll forgive ye, since I'm assumin' ye din' know it was me."

He strode out to meet the pair, and stood in that way that he had that made it seem as though he were leaning against something even when he was completely upright. "Seems I'm meetin' lots o' children in th'Dials lately, must be some kind of trend. They open up a new candy shop? A chocolaiterie, p'rhaps?" The French on his tongue sounded as absurd as his wide smile looked.

"An' jus' what c'n I help ye with, t'send ye on yer way ever-the quicker?"

[Mum]

Mum's eyes widened as she saw the very man they had come to find! It wasn't supposed to be that easy was it? With a strange little movement of her head the tiny boy crouched in the dirt and looked up at the adult that questioned them. Tup gave a wide grin that was full of arrogance and jerked his thumb toward Mum.

"Mum, 'e's got some stuff t'sell. We was lookin' fer you. Thought mebbe we two could make out some kinder deal?" and then Tup's look got canny and sharp and he smiled. "Seein' as we Gent's 'ave always done fer you, an' all."

Mum sucked in a breath through her teeth. Ryan didn't smell the same as he used to.

[Redjack Ryan]

That quiet little boy had always a little bit disturbing to him. He seemed like he knew entirely more than he had any business knowing, and the only person who Redjack wanted knowing his secrets was Redjack himself. Still, it wouldn't do to turn down business of any kind, and the Irishman hadn't made it to his position in life by underestimating children. And so, the smile on Redjack's face didn't fade. he only crossed his arms in front of his chest and adopted a bit more of an at-ease stance. His eyes darted back and forth in a barely-perceptible scan of the area, and he bent forward ever so slightly, to narrow the distance over which he whispered to Tuppence.

"Well, I might be able to help ye, at that, but let's not lay out yer trinkets in the middle of the wide-open here. Follow up," he made a gesture and set off to lead the children a ways down one of the various alleys that ran intricate mazes through the surrounding buildings. It wasn't exactly private, but it was far better than the middle of the dials for business dealings.

[Mum]

Mum listened for a moment with her head cocked just a little and then without a word turned and scampered ahead of Ryan into the depths of the alleyway. She sniffed the air...she knew this place! At least she thought she did. Alleys tended to muddle together in her head sometimes...as if there were only a few alleys in London (or at least the East End) and one was like enough to another...

Once away from the street Mum hopped onto a stack of crates to wait and watch Tup and Ryan both saunter in. They both had that swagger that said they were someone important and it made her little mouth quirk into a tiny smile.

Tup looked around once he'd come into the alley and stood beside Mum. "Well. 'ere we are, then! Lay out yer goodies, Mum-me-lad."

Mum gave a little nod and wrinkled her nose. There was still something odd about Ryan...but what Tup said do she would do and so she started moving her grimy hands quick and subtle and pulling things out of her pockets and laying them on the crate next to her.

[Redjack Ryan]

The collection spread before him, everything grinded into place in Redjack's head and it was as though someone had switched on an anbaric light. He frowned deeply, which was a frightening expression on the Irishman if only because it was so incongruous. "Where did you get these things?"

His eyes flitted over each object, and while there were quite a few he did not recognize, the disproportionate amount of things that had once belonged to him was a little unnerving. All things that had been missing for quite some time, of course, but that wasn't at all to the point. What was to the point was that, while he asked the question, Redjack knew precisely from where all of these items had come.

[Tuppance]

Had some other boy glanced upon Ryan's expression, he'd have probably turned tail and ran. But no, not Tuppance. Sure he might have been a little uncertain of what the man would do, but he would stand his ground--he was not some little child after all! But, rather, Ryan's question also elicited a slight frown on his own face.

"Came from honest, hard work," he replied, mildly offended. 'Course, what he meant by "work" was clearly not the honest man's definition. And honestly, it had been pretty difficult. Poking around places that had been blasted to smithereens wasn't all that easy--wading through the debris, staying out of the way of the investigators--all in the cover of night, mind you. Not that he mentioned any of this to Ryan aloud. "It's hard t' come along gems like these nowadays."

[Redjack Ryan]

Redjack scowled. "Wasn't implyin' ye were less than honest, lad. I want'a know because that watch there was a gift from me Gran, God rest'er," he crossed himself quickly as he spoke, "an' I'd like t'know."

He sighed. "But I s'pose it's not important, not really. Name yer price, an' don't set it f'r extortion unless ye want a whole new sort o' trouble. I don' intend t' Jew you, an' ye better not do it t'me."

[Mum]

Mum scratched her ear. Some of the things belonged to him? That was strange. She knew who's house it had been or at least thought she knew the smell of him! For a moment she stared at Tup as the older boy named a price. It was a little too high but not too much. Just the price that Kitty on the river had given them. And Kitty knew well how much things were worth. She wouldn't lie.

So Mum watched and waited until her attention was taken with birds flying above them. Her hand reached down and took up a little box made of some strange stone from the pile and played with it idly. Her filthy little fingers traced over the little fish engraved on the lid... For some reason it was her favorite of all the things she'd scraped from the charred ruins of Valentine's house.

[Redjack Ryan]

The exodus of birds overhead caught his eye, and the sound of beating wings and rushing feathers filled Redjack's ears. Momentarily distracted, he glanced back even as the silent child had picked up and begun toying idly with the beautiful engraved box.

After a few long moments, the Irishman heaved a heavy sigh, and pulled a wad of pound-notes from his pocket. He counted off the correct number and threw them down in front of the children. "There's yer money, now give those precious trinkets here."

The Irishman frowned down at the children, and raked the goods toward his wiry frame.

[Mum]

Mum watched with detached interest as Redjack scooped up all the things that she'd found as if he was collecting his winnings in a card game. It reminded her of something...watching someone else win a card game. Oh well! What did that matter really? All the pretty things that she had shown to Kitty by the river bank...with the exception of the strange little carved box. Even as she held it now something about her caught her attention. And yet it slipped out of her focus even as she tried to fix her eye on it...all the same she slipped it into her pocket quickly without another thought. True the man had paid...but he hadn't been paying attention and that was his own fault wasn't it? She looked up at the sky again and thought about the sea while she waited for him to leave.

[Redjack Ryan]

The Irishman had noticed the child's transgression...how could he not have, when mere moments before he'd been distracted briefly by tiny fingers on the ornate surface? His insides warred, it wasn't as though he needed the item, and it wasn't one of the handful of things that had once been his, still the thing had caught his eye and reminded him vaguely of something Quite Important.

Even more uncomfortable was the vague realization that these children were in fact trying to play some sort of con upon him. Ryan was possessed of no supernatural ability, however, he had a good nose for when a deal went sour. He stopped moving altogether in that moment and glared at the little silent one icily before his eyes went back to Tuppence.

"Yer price is high, lad, an' ye've got no right t'be holdin' out on me. If yer friend wishes t'keep that wee box, we're goin' t'have t're-negotiate."

If someone had asked, he couldn't have said why, but he wanted that one item far more than he wanted his money. That, however, showed not in his face or demeanor. He only crossed his arms, and frowned.

[Mum]

For a moment Tup's lip twisted. Who was this guy to accuse Mum of filching something when the deal had been made? His fists even curled up tight and his jaw stiffened in expectation of a fight. But one look at Mum made him back down. He knew her pretty well and that look was that one she often had when something had just been slipped into her pocket. So instead he just jerked a thumb.

"Gift'itup. Though issa 'ardly foine thing, and Mum is so pow'r fond of the thing you could just let 'im keep it." He grinned as if it were nothing. "Don't know wot a man like yer's gonna do wiv a jewelry box."