I am sorry for such a long wait, but I am back and will hopefully finish this story before I disappear again!

Chapter 26

Charlie sat in the darkest corner of the pub, cradling a pint of ale. He had taken to frequenting the pub since Jack had been arrested, unable to stand life in the den without him, Charlie had sought comfort in the local pub. To fund his new habit, he had begun to keep back a small coin or two from his pickings before he handed them over to Fagin. From his chosen position in the pub he could survey the rest of the room as well as making sure he was camouflaged within the dreary dim lighting.

To pass the time away he began to observe who entered the pub and to spice it up a bit he was trying to guess who they were and what they did. Most people who walked in were unfamiliar and so Charlie was amusing himself easily by his game but the amount of people arriving was rapidly decreasing and his game was becoming less and less amusing. Taking a sip of his ale, he turned his attention to the room.

From his advantage point he could see a group of men playing cards in the far corner, the group were costermongers, Charlie had decided due to their civil manner they were conducting towards one another and the fact that he thought he recognised one or two from the market earlier in the week. Further to the left was were the bar was situated, several people were purchasing drinks and the barman was getting tied up with the orders. It was the pub's busiest hour although it seemed to be short staffed, no doubt it was because many of the women who attended the bar were engaged in 'other business'.

There was a sudden gust of wind as the door to the pub was opened, Charlie snapped his head round to see who it was and continue his game. Charlie's eyes widened as he realised he didn't need to guess, who knew exactly who stood in the doorway. Someone who he hadn't seen for a long time, someone who he was increasingly inclined to despise.

"Max…"Charlie whispered to himself. Retreating further into the darkness that the seat was enveloped in, making sure that Max wouldn't be able to spot him. He hadn't seen Max since Jack's arrest and was glad that he had never returned to the den. Charlie wasn't keen on the work, he felt much more comfortable in the familiar field of pickpocketing then he was at housebreaking besides that he was certain Max had played a role in his best friend's arrest. If his suspicions were correct, Charlie definitely didn't want to associate with him.

From his hidden position, Charlie watched Max as he strolled in to the middle of the room and shouted his order to the barman. The barman nodded and got straight to pouring the desired drink. Meanwhile Max glanced around the pub and chose a direction to find a seat. Charlie felt his heart skip a beat as he realised Max was heading straight for him. Surely he couldn't have seen him? He was well hidden, wasn't he?

You can imagine his relief when Max took a seat on the table before him.

"'Evening Max." The voice came from a shadow directly in front of Charlie but opposite Max.

"Tommy." Max nodded his greeting as he sat down to talk to him.

Tommy. Yes, he thought he recognised that voice. It was the new boy from the den, who claimed to have been orphaned suddenly and left with nothing, not a single penny to his name. Come to think about it, Charlie thought, it did seem a bit odd that he seemed to have simply just found the den and he couldn't seem to recall who had brought him to the den in the first place. At the time things had been a little hectic with certain events and Charlie's mind had been otherwise occupied but now that it had a chance to think Charlie could now see how decidedly strange it all was.

Yet there was a bigger question pending: why was he here and what did he have to do with Max?

"Tommy, I have another job for you…"

"Yes?" Tommy interrupted eagerly.

'Another job?' Charlie thought 'so what was the first job?' It was all sounding very suspicious. Putting the questions aside Charlie continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Since you did so well at ridding me of my previous apprentice, how would you like to fill in the job?"

Charlie's face contorted into a frown. The answer to his original question was just posing more questions. He still half considered himself to be apprenticed to Max, after all nothing had been said about terminating the agreement. The man just hadn't turned up to give his apprentice any contracts. It was nothing to do with Charlie. Clearly Max's way of ridding himself of apprentices was to suddenly break all contact with them. Yet he had praised Tommy for getting rid of the last apprentice and that didn't add up considering he hardly ever spoke to Tommy. Charlie couldn't say that Tommy had interfered in any way whatsoever with his acquaintanceship with Max. So he couldn't possibly mean Charlie.

"You, er, heard of anythin' more about that? About the Dodger?" Tommy leaned closer to Max as he spoke, preventing too many people hearing the subject matter.

Of course, Dodger! It was all fitting in now. So it had been Max all along. Something had been niggling on that contemplation in Charlie's mind for a while now and finally there was proof. So many times had he ran the events through in his mind and tried to figure it out and just hadn't been able to quite fix all the pieces together. Max must have committed the murder, maybe on a whim, maybe planned, and then concocted a plan to take revenge on Dodger for having refused to do as he demanded, using Tommy as the peacher.

Charlie wanted to get up, run out of the pub and get back to the den. He didn't know whether he would tell anyone just yet, not that there was really anyone to tell, at least not at the den and especially not now he knew one of their number had been an accomplice to the events committed on Charlie's best friend. Yet he didn't want Max to see him. He could easily become the next job for Tommy and after a successful first job Charlie didn't want to find out how consistent Tommy was at his 'work'.

So despite wanting to leave Charlie ended up staying a lot longer then he would have usually, Tommy had left, but Max had remained sitting in his seat sipping his drink what seemed an excoriating long time. When he finally returned to the den, Charlie found everyone asleep, including Fagin. Settling down in his own bed, he decided to keep the events he had learnt that night a secret for the moment, until he worked out what he could possibly do about it.