Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Toby's mud-covered legs pumped as hard as they could down the middle of Fleet Street. The rain had stopped all that was left was the brown muck and the dark clouds overhead. The former of the two wasn't helping as Toby almost fell because of the suction that was being applied to his shoes. He almost had to stop to prevent one of his boots from coming off. He was looking for any type of police officer to talk to. There was no way he was letting that horrible man kill anyone else—especially Mrs. Lovett.

At last, he saw a man walking down the side of the street in a blue uniform. "Sir!" shouted Toby. "Sir, please, wait up!" The man finally slowed down and turned around. Toby began running faster towards him and caught up to him.

"Sir, there was this…only wanted…and Mr. Todd…and now I'm…and now he's…and I can't let her…" What he meant to say was "Sir, there was this man, and he only wanted a shave, and there was Mr. Todd, and then a lot of blood, and now I'm here, and now he's dead, and I can't let her die!"

The police officer crouched down so that he was eye to eye with the boy. "Whoa, whoa. Slow down, son. Now, talk to me slowly, and explain again what happened." Toby gave a quizzical look and glanced down. He inspected the officer rather like a piece of fruit before remembering how easily Mr. Todd killed the man in the shop who hadn't done anything to him. What would he do to a person who was threatening to take him to jail?

Toby took in a sharp breath before thinking on his feet. "I…I'm lost. I can't find my way home."

The police man gave a low chuckle before standing up. "Well, kid, let's take you back to where you belong. Where do you live?"

"158 Fleet Street," replied Toby simply. The police man nodded and headed towards the place Toby mentioned. Of course, Toby probably knew his way around London better than anyone in town, but the officer didn't know that. The two just walked in silence until they reached a street named Fleet. Towards the middle of the street was a building labeled Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Emporium. "Thank you, sir," said Toby, trying to indicate that the man could leave. Bringing a constable into the pie shoppe would give her a heart attack.

However, the hint Toby was trying to drop wasn't working. The officer nodded and smiled and walked him into the pie shoppe. Once there, he greeted a very frightened Mrs. Lovett with a smile.

"Hello, miss. I found your boy here on the street. He said something about a Mr. Todd of sorts. He seemed downright scared." Mrs. Lovett's eyes almost came out of their sockets when he mentioned Mr. Todd. "He told me he was lost, so I brought him back. Take care of him, and make sure he doesn't take off again, okay?" Nellie gave a frightened smile and nodded slightly. Just then, the officer sniffed the air. Are those pies I smell?"

"Yes, sir. They're ready, too." Her smile turned from one of panic to one of eerie satisfaction. She turned and slid a pan of pies out and pulled out a pie. She gave it to him and smiled. "Here you go sir, hot out of the oven."

The man took the pie and stated that he didn't have the money on him to pay Mrs. Lovett. "Oh, it's no matter. You brought Toby back, and that's all that counts. Thank you, sir, and enjoy your pie." He then turned and left, leaving Mrs. Lovett to let out a breath of relief. She turned to Toby and whispered in a rush, "Now don't you ever scare me like that again!"

At first Toby thought she was talking about his short disappearance, but realized quickly that she was referring to the constable. "I'm sorry, I really am."

"Well, than what was all of that about? I almost died of horror when that man mentioned poor Mr. T!" She rumpled his hair and stood back up to start cleaning the tables. "I feel sorry for the man, having no family at all to care for him."

"I don't think Mr. Todd needs our sympathy." Nellie turned around and looked at the boy with a wary look on her face. "Mum, I ran to the constable because I went up to Mr. Todd's barber shop today. He…he killed a man, mum."

Mrs. Lovett hung her head in distress. There wasn't any use trying to hide what Sweeney Todd's Tonsorial Barber shop really was. "Yes, love, I know." However much Toby knew about the business of the tenant upstairs, he wasn't about to find out how Mrs. Lovett helped. "How much do you know?"

Toby tried to find a way to uncover as much back-story as he could. "Enough," he decided on replying. Mrs. Lovett didn't fall for it. She needed to know how much the boy really knew, and that meant visiting Mr. T. "Kill two birds with one stone," she thought as she came up with a plan. She would offer him a pie to keep him downstairs so she could go to the barber shop with the pitiful excuse of laundry. If he refused a pie, which he never did, then she would know that he had found out just how all of those customers disappeared.

"Why did Mr. Todd do that, mum? He said that you helped him. Does that mean he's done it before? Why, mum? Why did he have to kill that man? He didn't do nothing to him!"

"Hush, now, Toby. It's going to be alright. Just have a seat and take a pie while I go get Mr. T's laundry. I'll explain everything when I get back." She handed him a pie and gave him a smile before heading up the stairs. The boy gleefully took the pastry, proving to Mrs. Lovett that he really didn't know the entire story. The smile was gone as soon as she turned around.

Finally, Nellie found herself at Mr. Todd's door. "Mr. T?" she asked as she opened the door. "It's me." He was looking rather listless as he stood at the window, his hands behind his back. She would need to be careful. He was never easy to talk to, but she had no idea what Sweeney's reaction now that this new dilemma had occurred. And of course, she had no wish of being slammed against a wall with a razor at her throat…again. Mrs. Lovett chose her words carefully before speaking.

"Mr. T, Toby came into the shop today with constable." He made no movements. "He said Toby was scared, talking about you. Then Toby told me that he saw you finishing off a customer today." She gathered her skirts in her hands and took a step towards him. He was a stone again, and an ache filled her stomach. "Mr. Todd, what happened?"

At long last, he turned around, revealing a clean face and clothing. There was no trace of blood anywhere, not even in his hair. He glanced down before saying, "He was in the trunk." Every expression on Mrs. Lovett's face questioned how. "He sneaked in here while I was out."

"How much did he see?"

"Just one."

"Is that all?"

"Yes. Just one before I threw him out."

Mrs. Lovett almost replied with a "Mr. T, you didn't!" but what was Sweeney supposed to do, sit him down and give him a good talking to? Of course he was thrown out! They couldn't risk him seeing anything else. They couldn't risk being caught.

"But did you say anything to him? You know he could've told that man that came in with him."

"But he didn't. I'm sure that when he tried, he thought back and remembered." Sweeney was right, of course. That was what had stopped Toby—remembering just how well Mr. Todd could wield the razor. But now that Toby knew too much, what were they going to do about it? They definitely couldn't tell him much else. The less the boy knew the better. And they couldn't just ignore him, could they? Furthermore, Mrs. Lovett just couldn't put him back on the streets. She had grown too fond of him.

"So what do we tell him?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Nothing at all? Mr. Todd, you know he's going to ask questions!" She walked closer to him and stared him straight in the face. She couldn't stand by and let him—as in Toby—get away with this. They were in shallow waters now; getting out could be easy. It was just a matter of finding a way.

"Answer them. Keep him close."

"Alright, then. I just hope that this works." She turned to leave but stopped short in front of the door. There was a long gash in the wood where Sweeney had let out his anger upon the wooden entrance.

"We're going to have to fix that, aren't we?"

--

Later that night, Mrs. Lovett sat down at one of the pie shop tables. She was dead tired from all of the customers coming and going, both her own patrons and Sweeney's. Toby had been a dutiful little helper, running gin and pies to all of the different people sitting and waiting for what was now known as the best pies in London. Best of all, he hadn't mentioned Mr. Todd or anything relating to the incident that had happened previously that day. However, it was finally the end of the day, and Toby was sitting next to her. He began looking rather uncomfortable, as if he wanted to say something but didn't know how. At last, just like Nellie knew would happen, Toby opened his mouth and spoke.

"Mum, what happened today in the barber shop?" Mrs. Lovett gave a sigh and closed her eyes before reasoning out exactly how she was going to explain this to the child. She finally found a way that would completely answer Toby's question, and still keep the whole thing quiet.

"Mr. Todd killed someone today."

"Mum, I know that. I'm not stupid; I know when someone is dead." Oh. Well, maybe this wouldn't be as easy as she thought.

"Toby, I don't think you're ready to know that just yet." She turned and looked at him with a sad smile. "Maybe later." She rumpled his hair and looked away. She noticed the bottle in his hand and nodded towards it. "Pass that over, won't you?"

Toby gave a sly smile. "Of course, mum." This was going to be a whole lot easier than he thought it would be.

Author's Note: I want to let you know that I am going home from vacation, so I may not be able to update quite as often as I have in the past week or so. I will try my hardest, and I will have EvenYou, Mrs. Lovett, Even I done very soon, I promise. Thanks for reading.