Chapter 20 – Scandal

*.*.*.

Later that day, much to Jack's surprise, George returned to the station. He had been angry when he'd interrupted his interview before but now, stood in his office, he seemed a strange mixture of sad and apprehensive.

"What's the problem, George?" he prompted when Sanderson seemed stuck for words.

Jack noticed he didn't take a seat and instead he remained standing, looking terribly uncomfortable. "Jack, I hate to tell you this, but I have received a very disturbing report about you."

"About what?" Jack asked, mystified. "George, I know you don't like it but I have to speak to both teams about Harper's death. He played for both and his leaving West Melbourne for Abbotsford caused a lot of tension–"

"It's not about this case," George interrupted. "It's a personal matter."

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, concerned.

"I'm sorry, Jack, but it has been reported to me that you have been spotted paying for the services of a lady from a gentleman's club."

Jack felt his heart start to race and he found himself unable to look George in the eye even though the report was technically false. "What rubbish."

"You're telling me it's untrue?"

"Of course." Jack did then lift his head to look George in the eye. "I swear to you, I have never paid a woman for… that."

"You are not a regular of the Imperial Club?"

The Imperial Club? Any hope Jack had of this having nothing to do with his relationship with Phryne quickly faded. "No. I have been in there a couple of times, all on police business and I can give you the records to prove it. They will all match the club's records."

"And you have not been intimate with any of the women there?"

Jack swallowed nervously. "George, who has told you all this?"

"That's confidential," he snapped. "Answer the question, Jack."

Jack's mind whirled as he tried to think of a way to answer it without lying or making himself sound guilty. "I have only been in that club on police business, I told you. I never touched any of the women while I was there."

"And you can think of no reason why someone would think any differently?"

Again, Jack hesitated before speaking. "George, you know I would never have been with another woman while still married to Rosie. I was faithful to her for the entirety of our marriage, I hope you believe that. But she is no longer my wife and she is engaged to another man so… yes, I have been spending time with another woman and yes, we have kept it very quiet so it might seem suspicious to someone who has caught a glimpse of us together but I promise you, George, I am not paying her for her affections in anyway. Our relationship is entirely mutual."

"Jack, tell me this new woman of yours doesn't work at the Imperial Club."

Jack said nothing. How could he, without lying or incriminating himself?

"Jack?" George prompted in the silence Jack left.

"I think," Jack replied slowly as he considered his position, "I may need to seek some advice before I say any more."

Jack watched George's face fall and he realised that up until this moment he had thought Jack innocent of all these allegations. "Jack… I don't believe it."

Jack shook his head. "I told you, George, I have never paid for any sexual favours. I have done nothing wrong."

"Is that all you have to say in your defence?"

Jack nodded, fearing that saying more would only incriminate himself.

George let out a deep, resigned sigh. "I had really hoped it wouldn't come to this, Jack. I felt certain when I was told this, when I realised I'd need to speak to you about it, that you would be able to give me a valid reason for why this information was false. I never truly believed it would come to this."

"Come to what?" Jack asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

"I need to investigate this allegation against you Jack. While I do so, I'm sorry to say that I'm going to have to suspend you from your job."

Jack nodded automatically as an emotional numbness spread through him. "What about the Harper case?"

"It will be reassigned. I need you to collect any personal items from this office and leave. I will be in touch with the next steps."

Personal items. Jack realised he had few in the office. Once he had kept a photo of Rosie in here but that had gone a long time ago. The closest he had to personal items were the biscuits he kept stashed in a desk drawer and the bottle of whiskey he kept on the filing cabinet to get him through the most harrowing cases. He felt he might need that drink tonight.

He picked up his favourite pen from the desk, the drink and biscuits then walked over the coat stand where he picked up his coat and hat before he was walked out of his own office by his former father-in-law.

Collins was working on the reception desk. He looked up as the men came out. For a second Jack considered it. He did know he was close to Phryne; he'd probably worked out how close. Jack knew Hugh didn't like her. Would he have done it? He thought it unlikely.

"Sir?" Collins questioned as Jack continued to the door without speaking. Of course, usually he would give an order or at least let Collins know where he was going.

Jack paused by the door, realising that Sanderson was ignoring the man's confusion and he found himself completely unable to just walk out without speaking to his trusty constable if George wouldn't. "I'm sorry, Collins. It looks like you're going to be working under someone else for a little while."

He watched Hugh's eyes flicker to the Deputy Commissioner. "But, sir…"

"Leave it Collins," Jack barked. The man was loyal to a fault, he couldn't let him risk going down with him. "You just concentrate on your job. This is my problem, I'll fix it."

Sanderson nodded. "Jack's right, Constable. This is none of your concern."

Jack didn't think Hugh looked convinced by either of them, he just hoped he wasn't going to do anything foolish. Unable to bear it any more, Jack looked away and walked through the door, not knowing when he'd walk back through it again. If ever.

*.*.*.

Phryne had managed to sneak out of work a little earlier than usual. Since losing Burke, Madam Lyon had put a bit more effort into checking the male staff. The new ones had all had more than a little snooping done on them before they were allowed to work alone and they were all more than capable of handling things without her, which gave Phryne a little more free time that she fully intended to spend with Jack.

There were lights on when she got to his place, so once she got in she looked downstairs first rather than heading straight up to his bed as she frequently did.

She found him sitting alone in the parlour, as far as she could tell simply staring at the walls. He looked a mess. The two empty bottles around him were a very bad sign. His eyes were red and they glared at her when he noticed her presence. They had drunk together often, once or twice Jack had been drunk enough to let his serious side almost completely slip away but he'd never drunk anything close to excess and she'd certainly never seen him like this. Phryne huffed in annoyance. She wasn't going to sleep with him in this state but she was clearly going to have to look after him which completely ruined her plans for the evening.

Resigned to a night of playing nursemaid, she started tidying up the bottles, hoping neither of the empty ones had been full at the start of the evening. Luckily the one that still contained liquid looked almost full so hopefully he wasn't as inebriated as the state of his parlour suggested.

"What are you doing, Miss Fisher?" Jack asked harshly, his speech slurred.

"Clearing up," Phryne replied, ignoring his tone. "How much have you drunk?"

"I finished the bottle from my office," he replied, "but it wasn't enough."

"I never took you for a drunkard."

"I'm not. I've had a very bad day."

"Want me to make it better?" she asked with a flirtatious wink. Just because she wasn't going to take advantage of him didn't mean they couldn't have some fun. Teasing Jack was sometimes more fun than the main event anyway.

"No. I want you to go."

He sounded serious. Phryne paused in her straightening up the room and turned to look at him in surprise. "Really?"

He still had something left in his glass, which he quickly finished off.

"Yes. When you first assaulted me–"

"Very clearly asked if you wanted to continue," she corrected him.

"... You made it sound like it would last a few weeks at most. It's been months now and you're still bothering me."

"I thought you were happy. I thought we were happy?" Phryne was confused. If he had reacted like this initially she would have understood but to wait until this long into the affair just seemed ridiculous.

"Of course I was happy, a beautiful woman wanted to share my bed, but it's not what I want, Phryne. We're almost like a married couple, you practically live here, but we're not and you don't. How many men do I share you with?"

"None," she replied quietly. "I was quite happy with just you."

He scoffed and to Phryne's horror he poured himself another glass.

"Haven't you had enough?" she scolded him.

"More than enough," Jack answered back with certainty. "I've been waiting and waiting for you to end it and you haven't, so I'm going to. It's over, Miss Fisher, I want you gone and I want to never see you again!"

"But –"

"Now, Miss Fisher!" He tried to stand up but it was taking quite some effort so Phryne had no reason to worry about what he was planning to do once he got to his feet. She still didn't think he'd actually hurt her, not like her father used to when he got drunk like this, but she could picture him trying to physically push her out of his house.

Phryne knew that deep down some part of her was hurting at his words and sudden dismissal of her but her primed survival instinct had always needed logic ahead of emotion. She was practically living here, as Jack had so clearly pointed out, so she had lots of personal belongings dotted around the house which he obviously wasn't going to let her collect right now. That was not a problem; she could sneak back during the day when he was at work.

She was still holding the empty bottles she had collected in her hands. She held her head high and marched over to his bin and threw them with much more force than necessary and they hit the metal with a large clatter that made him wince in pain at the sound. Good.

"Fine. Try not to drink yourself to death while you spend the night alone, will you?" she sniped at him.

She dusted her hands overenthusiastically and walked out with her head still held high and without looking back at him. She marched straight out of his house and automatically to the point she usually caught a taxi back the Imperial Club without letting any thoughts enter her head, she was just acting on anger and instinct. She was worried that she'd started to like him enough that if she allowed herself to think about it she'd cry, or worse, go running back to him to beg him to take her back. She wouldn't allow herself to do either. No man was worth belittling herself for.

To her surprise, Phryne's regular cabbies were still at her drop off point after bringing her here. As she made her way to them, the door to the car was opened for her and Phryne climbed straight in without saying or indicating anything. She sat down on the worn leather and finally felt sad. She felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

"Bit of an early finish for you tonight, Miss," floated a voice from the front of the cab.

Phryne sniffed back a sob. "Apparently so. You can just drop me back at the usual place."

She waited to hear the engine start up. When she realised it hadn't, she looked up to see two faces looking at her concerned.

"You all right, Miss?" asked one of them, the taller darker haired one.

"Yeah, if some fella's been mistreating you…"

"No, no, it's all good," Phryne lied. She suspected she wouldn't need to say much and they'd jump out of the taxi and go and beat up Jack for upsetting her. A part of her didn't hate the idea but now that it was over she just wanted him out of her life and she couldn't let Jack arrest the pair simply for caring about her when he didn't. "Just as you said, an early finish for me tonight."

Still the engine didn't start. "You looked ready to take on Pat O'Farrell this morning, and I think you would have won, so don't try to fool us. Something bad musta happened."

Phryne lifted her head up high, glad of the compliment after the way Jack had spoken to her. "I just made the mistake of trusting someone, that's all. I won't be repeating it."

"Gotta have someone in your corner," she was contradicted.

"Myself is enough. Besides, you two looked like you were coming to blows when I turned up at the club."

"Only 'cause Cec is a traitor," came a very instant reply.

"I'm a West Melbourne fan," the man called Cec explained, "but we still know we can rely on each other, off the pitch at least."

"Could you just take me home, please," Phryne insisted. As much as she was beginning to realise that these two men were in her corner for whatever reason, she just needed to be alone.

There was a pause and still no engine started.

"We're not keeping her, Cec, she's not a bloody stray cat."

"But…"

"Or Alice."

Whatever that argument was the other cabbie, Bert she remembered he was called, seemed to win and finally Phryne was driven to her usual drop-off point and far away from Jack.

*.*.*.

Phryne had snuck back in when she'd been dropped off. The club was still open so she could have just walked straight in through the front door but she hadn't wanted to be seen. She'd gone directly up to bed, allowed herself a small cry into her pillow because for some reason she had grown quite fond of her strait-laced Inspector, then eventually she had fallen asleep.

Her eyes were sore when she woke. She refreshed them by washing her face in cold water and then she was awake enough to feel hungry and some strange and deeper emptiness.

Phryne crept down to the club kitchen, where she found Madam Lyon already eating breakfast and reading the paper. Madam Lyon glanced at her but let her be as Phryne got her own breakfast together in silence.

"Is this your doing?"

Phryne looked up from her plate as Madam Lyon handed her the paper once she had sat down with her.

"What do you mean?"

"That's your policeman, isn't it?"

Phryne felt her cheeks start to redden. "I don't have a policeman."

"Hm."

Phryne finally looked at the paper she'd been given. Madam Lyon was right. There was a picture of Jack under a lurid headline accusing him of being caught in some sex scandal. "'Detective Inspector Jack Robinson was fired from City South Police yesterday after it emerged that he had been caught using the services of a prostitute from one of the city's brothels'… this is ludicrous!" Phryne exclaimed, unwilling to read any more. "You met him, Madam Lyon. I don't think there's a straighter copper in the whole of Australia."

Madam Lyon shrugged, not seeming convinced of his innocence or concerned of his guilt. "You know we get all sorts in here, a Detective Inspector is nothing."

Phryne shook her head as she forced herself to read the rest of the article, not that there was much more to say. Of course it was her doing. Jack's reaction to her last night made perfect sense now; why he'd been drunk and kicked her out of the house. She was lucky that was all he had done. If he'd been a man more like her father he would have beaten her black and blue before kicking her out onto the streets.

Madam Lyon was still watching her. Phryne tried to keep her face composed as she folded up the paper and handed it back. "I suppose you're right. Just because he didn't do anything with any of our girls doesn't mean he's not a regular visitor elsewhere."

Madam Lyon looked away for a moment. "I'm not the fool you take me for, you know Peony."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that just because I let you get away with things the other women don't, doesn't mean I don't notice them. I know you've got a man somewhere. You don't often sleep in your own bed. Your mind is rarely on the job these days. I'm surprised, to be honest. I kept waiting for this with you. A few years after I took you in, when you'd grown a bit, I thought it would. You're a very attractive woman, clearly intelligent and despite how you were when you turned up you obviously had someone in your past that tried to train you to be a lady. Oh, you were ripe to be swept off your feet by some rich man who felt he'd be able to wed you and pass you off in society. I watched many men try. When you kept turning them down I started to change my mind, started to train you up to help me, but to be honest you never seemed to want that either. You're good at minding the business and the money; you just had no interest in it. All you were ever interested in was proving yourself against the men, which worked out well because you became the best protection I could hope for."

"So? How does that mean I'm taking you for a fool?"

"You hate the police. When this Inspector Robinson first turned up you kicked him out. Then all of a sudden you kept pushing for us to report things and when you called the police after we were drugged, it was him who turned up. So I figured he must be your mystery man, or maybe that young cop who follows him around. He is more your usual type but if you'd been with your usual type it wouldn't have lasted all this time. A youngster like that you would have used up and spat out in a week. Then I read the papers this morning. You sure this isn't about you?"

"No," Phryne answered shortly. She disliked that Madam Lyon had worked it all out. She thought she'd been so smart. Clearly she hadn't because Madam Lyon had known and, judging from the paper and Jack's behaviour last night, someone else had also known and lagged. She doubted it was Madam Lyon. She was many things but she wouldn't have given away a useful secret like that.

So Phryne now had a problem, a big one. She had to work out who it was, who had known and who from that list would be willing to go to the police and the papers about it. She also had to work out why. Presumably to attack either her or Jack, but which of them and why were they being targeted?

The women sat in silence as they finished their breakfasts.

"I'm going back to my room," Phryne announced, standing.

Madam Lyon paused before replying. "Will you be working tonight?"

She was supposed to, Phryne knew. Phryne didn't know if Madam Lyon knew she'd returned early last night, she might have worked out that she and Jack were over but she hadn't been speaking like that. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Personal reasons," Madam Lyon replied with an enigmatic smile.

Phryne scowled and walked away.

She did, as she'd told Madam Lyon she was going to, go back to her room, her mind full of Jack.

Last night he'd hurt her by ending things. Madam Lyon was right. Jack wasn't like the others. She cared about him more than her previous lovers. Her plan until she'd read that article had been to throw herself back into her work, pick up a new lover and erase all memories of Jack Robinson. Somehow realising that his dismissal of her was less about not wanting to be with her and more about him losing his job over her… he might not want to take her back but she felt a strange responsibility to fix things.

How could she fix things, though? It might not have been anywhere near as bad as the papers had made out but he had slept with her and she did work at a gentleman's club, she couldn't undo that.

An idea started to form in her mind, one that she really didn't want to follow through with, but it began to seem like the best, no, the only way to make things better for Jack. He had slept with her and right now she was Peony from the Imperial Club, but as he had kept repeatedly pointing out, she didn't have to be.

TBC...