CHAPTER ONE

Monday 31st March 1941

The phone in DCI Saxe-Coburg's office rang and was picked up by Coburg's detective sergeant, Ted Lampson.

'DCI Coburg's office,' said Lampson.

'Is that you, Ted?' asked a male voice. 'It's Joe Harker at Whitechapel.'

'Joe,' said Lampson cheerfully. 'Long time no speak. How are you? If you're after my guv'nor, he's in with the superintendent at the moment.'

'Actually, it's you I was after,' said Harker. 'We've got a murder here at Whitechapel and there's a couple of strange things about it. Really strange. And knowing that Scotland Yard will be getting involved, I wanted to make sure we had the best people. That's why I'm calling.'

'Flatterer.' Lampson chuckled. 'Who is it? Who's been murdered?'

'It's a woman. By all accounts she was a prostitute.'

'And what's so strange about it?'

'I'd like it if you could come and see for yourself. You and your guv'nor, that is.'

'Sounds mysterious,' said Lampson.

'Mysterious is the right word for this one,' said Harker. 'We've left everything in place at the scene so you can see it just as it was found.'

'And where is the scene?'

'The old Whitechapel Road Tube station. Also known as St Mary's.'

When Coburg returned, Lampson told him about the phone call.

'He didn't say what was particularly mysterious about the situation?' asked Coburg.

'No, he said it was best if we saw for ourselves.'

Lampson was elected to drive as he knew the way around Whitechapel better than Coburg.

'How reliable is Sergeant Harker?' asked Coburg as they made their way east from Central London.

'Very,' said Lampson. 'If he says there's something strange, there is.'

'He didn't give you any idea as to what it was?'

'No. All he said was they've left everything as they found it for us to look at, before they have the body taken away.'

'A murdered prostitute,' said Coburg thoughtfully. 'In Whitechapel.'

Lampson chuckled. 'Don't start trying to guess. From the way Joe was talking, it's best if we keep an open mind on what we're about to see. So, no jokes about Jack the Ripper. Prostitutes are getting killed all over the place. Not just in Whitechapel. Maida Vale. Ealing. Hampstead. Soho.'

'Yes, alright,' said Coburg. 'How long have you known Sergeant Harker?'

'Years,' said Lampson. 'We both used to play football for the Whitechapel police squad. We were both defenders; Joe was right back and I was left. That was when we were both constables. In the end I found it a bit much having to travel to Whitechapel all the time, so I had to abandon it. But Joe kept it up. He's a good bloke.'

They pulled up outside the former Whitechapel Road Tube station and saw that part of the front wall was missing. Attempts had been made to fix wooden boards across the gap, but it looked a precarious piece of carpentry.

'It got hit during the early days of the Blitz,' said Lampson. 'Badly damaged. We won't talk about that in front of Joe. His sister, Joan, was killed in the blast.'

Lampson then went on to fill Coburg in on the recent history of the abandoned station.

'The station was closed in 1938. Before then it was always a bit of an oddity. A lot of people used to confuse it with Whitechapel station. When it was opened it was known as St Mary's Whitechapel Road. The thing is the station was very close to Whitechapel and Aldgate East Tube stations. In fact, Aldgate East was only a couple of hundred yards from St Mary's Whitechapel Road, so it was decided to shut Whitechapel Road and let Aldgate East be the main station for the area.

'When the war began, the borough of Stepney leased the abandoned station from London Transport for use as an air raid shelter. Because the railway tracks were still in use, they bricked up the edges of the platforms to make the area safe for people sheltering in it. Joe's sister, Joan, was going in when the front of the old building was hit by a bomb, destroying part of it.'

'Hence the boards that have been put up,' said Coburg.

'No, the boards were put up after it was hit a second time, a couple of months later, wrecking the repair work that had been done the first time. Remember, this area, the whole of the East End, has suffered more from the bombing than most other areas of London.'

Coburg reached for the handle of the passenger door. 'This is where we get out, I presume?'

Lampson nodded. 'The entrance to the old station is a brown door a bit further on. Joe told me to look out for it. He said he'll be down on one of the former platforms, where the air raid shelter is, waiting for us.'

They got out of the car and locked it. Then Coburg followed Lampson along Whitechapel Road. After a short while they came to a nondescript-looking door sandwiched between two boarded-up shops.

'This is it,' said Lampson.

They walked into what looked to be a rear service entrance to the station. The former ticket office had obviously been destroyed along with the front of the old station during the recent bombing. They walked down a circular staircase, which seemed to go on for ever, before they came to what had once been a station platform. A brick wall had been erected at its edge, and as they arrived a train went past, and they saw the wall shake.

'How safe is that wall?' asked Coburg.

'I'm told it's safe enough,' replied Lampson. 'It may not stop a bomb, but we're deep below ground and the only thing likely to mess it up is if a train hits it, which is unlikely.'

A tall man in the uniform of a police sergeant approached them from along the platform.

'Joe Harker,' Lampson muttered to Coburg, who stepped forward with his hand outstretched. 'Sergeant Joe Harker, I presume.'

'Indeed, sir,' said Harker. 'I'm glad you could come, Chief Inspector.'

'You told Ted it was strange.'

'It is,' said Harker. 'If you'll follow me.'

They walked along the platform, passing a few groups of people, mostly elderly or women with small children, who appeared to have set up camps.

'People who are afraid to go up top,' explained Harker. 'This area's been so badly bombed, and it's not always at night. The Germans come along the Thames Estuary and this area's one of the first built-up places they come to. Also, people want to know they've got a place here when they come down, and they like a spot further away from the edge of the platform.'

They reached a halfway point, where curtaining had been set up. The smell gave away what was behind the curtains.

'Earth buckets,' confirmed Harker. 'They're due to be cleared and changed later.'

He turned a corner and they followed him along a short corridor, which came out on the other platform.

'Eastbound,' explained Harker.

As they walked along this platform they passed more small groups of people who had set up camps, with mattresses and chairs.

At the far end of the platform they came to a hole in the brick wall. Harker produced a torch and switched it on, illuminating the darkness beyond the hole. They walked into what appeared to be an access tunnel.

'There's a warren of these tunnels from here,' Harker told them. 'They're left over from when they were building the station way back.'

They walked along the narrow tunnel and Coburg saw that at various places there were alcoves leading off from the main tunnel, and some of the alcoves had further tunnels leading off into darkness. Coburg caught the smell of stale urine and excrement.

'Toilets,' he remarked.

'Unofficial ones,' said Harker. 'Not everyone has the time to stand and queue by the earth buckets on the westbound platform.'

He stopped by a space where an alcove had widened out into a sizeable aperture and shone his torch into it. A uniformed constable was guarding the area and he saluted as the visitors arrived. He had set up an oil lamp to illuminate the large alcove, enabling Harker to switch his torch off.

'PC Dixon,' Harker introduced the constable.

Coburg and Lampson nodded to the constable, then turned their attention to the...