Angelica's Grotto

32 Underworlds

Klein walked Melissa back to King’s College, then headed for the tube. As he passed the Arthur Andersen entrance on his way down Surrey Street he encountered a sixtyish man leaning against a white TNT Courier van and swinging his left leg back and forth. ‘Trying to restore the circulation?’ said Klein.

‘Hip’s giving me bother. It’s worse in cold weather.’

‘That building on the other side, up towards the Strand, the one that says PICCADILLY RLY — I’ve been trying to figure out what the RLY stands for. Would you happen to know?’

‘I believe it’s an old defunct railway station that was probably built between the two wars,’ said the courier, ‘around 1920, something like that.’

‘Railway! I’ve never seen it abbreviated that way before. Was it a Main Line station?’

‘No, it’d be one of the Underground stations; they’ve probably diverted the line since then — I don’t think it’s in use now.’

‘Tunnels underneath where we’re standing, and empty tracks going nowhere!’

‘Could be, unless they’ve torn up the tracks. Who knows what’s down there by now, eh?’