Chapter Five
Meg: (yelling at Ratigan) You moron! Why did you egg and scratch my car?
Ratigan: If you don't already know the answer, then you are a lot more simple-minded that I thought.
Meg: This is a new story. Maybe you're not even in it!
Ratigan: So far about 90 percent of the story has taken place within The Rat Trap. If I don't appear within the next chapter, then I'm a rat.
Luke: But you are a ra- t-OW!
Everyone: (tackling Luke) SHUT UP!
Ratigan: (furious) WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?
"Is Mr. Basil of Baker Street in?" Rose asked anxiously as she stood on the doorstep of Lower 221B Baker Street.
"Yes, he is. Come in, my dear, come in!" the kindly landlady said.
Rose stepped into the flat. It appeared homey yet rather confusing at the same time. There was a table filled with strange apparatus, papers attached with knives to the walls, disorder and yet order everywhere.
"Mr. Basil, there is a young lady to see you," the landlady said.
A young, tan-colored mouse in his early thirties got up from a red armchair. He appeared to be studying Rose.
"Yes?"
"You're Mr. Basil?" Rose asked uncertainly, watching the landlady leave the room.
"Yes, I am. Can I help you with something, Miss…?"
She took a deep breath. "Two months ago, a man by the name of McGeady and his daughter came to you looking for help in finding their… well, his daughter and her sister, Rose," she said, her voice shaking. "Do you remember?"
Basil nodded. "Yes, I remember," he said, a questioning look in his eyes.
"You found her body in an alley, in an old can…" She tried to get her voice steady, but it was harder than she expected.
"Yes, I know all this. And?" He seemed impatient now.
"You… you… Mr. Basil, you found the wrong body," she said, starting to cry. "Rose McGeady stands before you, Mr. Basil! And now my family is gone, gone away to America, to start a new life, and they think I'm dead, and they told no one where they are going! And all because you found the wrong girl! And now that girl's family has no idea where she is, and it's your fault!"
Basil stared in shock at Rose. Then, more to himself than to her, "Is this true?"
"And now… I have nowhere to go. You have my suffering on your conscience, mine and theirs! Mine! And now… and now…" She spat at him. "I have been forsaken."
She burst into tears and fled the flat, leaving Basil shocked and speechless behind her.
Rose felt dead to the world. Dead. She had nothing now, nothing but an unstable mother a six–hour train trip away, a family who had vanished in the chaos of another country.
She went about her work mechanically, lost in the drudgery of the miserable life she now led. Nights melded into one another; they were all the same, and would always be the same. Her life would always be the same, always be this way, and perhaps even worse.
Scarlet and the other whores knew that Rose's depression might lead her to their way of life, in an attempt to get money or make a change. She did not want the girl to be subjected to that.
Millie once more brought up the gentleman who needed a cleaning woman, the same one she had mentioned when Rose had first appeared at The Rat Trap. Rose had been close to accepting a few times when Scarlet had cut in, discouraging her against it. Scarlet strongly fought Millie over the issue, and Rose could not fathom why. What was so bad about this gentleman?
She was getting desperate. She was so poorly clothed, so underfed and so sad and weary that she was seriously contemplating giving up on everything. Surely death was better than this hell she was enduring.
The waters by the pub were deep, so dark and cold, beckoning for her, beckoning for her to…
She would wake up from her nightmarish and desperate fantasies to discover the black cape wrapped around her, as if to say: There is someone who cares about you.
But who was it?
Rose must have fallen into a deep sleep, for when she awoke, she saw that the dingy pub was lit up by the noontime sun, its brilliant rays bursting through the cracks in the walls and the small windows. Had that awoken her?
A sharp kick to her side answered her question.
"What the hell are you doing?" Giovanni roared at the girl, ripping the cape wrapped around her. It took her a few moments to realize that it was another black cape from the nocturnal visitor.
"What?"
"Where did you get this?"
"I don't know."
"So you've stolen it!"
"What? Never! I'm not a thief like you, Gio!"
He gave her another kick to the stomach. Grabbing her by the arm, he pulled her to her feet. "You've crossed the line this time, girl. It's out in the streets with you!"
The news barely affected Rose, but the accusation of theft did. "But I didn't steal it!"
"Then explain to me why the Boss's own cloak is on your filthy body?"
Rose's eyes grew wide. "The Boss?"
Giovanni shoved her forward, towards the bar. "We're going to pay the Boss a little visit, and if there's anything left of you when he's through with you, then out on the streets you go!"
"No! Let me go, I didn't do anything!"
He pointed a pistol at her. She turned pale.
"You're going, now!"
Millie smiled in satisfaction as the two passed her kitchen. It was about time the girl got acquainted with the Boss.
Meg: (to Ratigan) Hey, you didn't appear.
Ratigan: (sarcastically) I wonder who the black cape belongs to.
RAEB: Yeah, that was sort of obvious.
Meg: Grrrrrr.