Kicking his horse up the slope, Simon said, “It’s as if nothing has happened here, it’s so quiet.”
The knight nodded in agreement. “Indeed. You could hardly imagine what carnage was here only a few hours ago. The grass is flatter, but that is all. The moors seem good at hiding their secrets.”
“Yes. Whether it’s a single man like Bruther, or a group like the ones here, all soon disappear.”
They were at the farthest fringe of buildings now, and Hugh looked back pensively. “I wonder where Bruther did die.”
“What do you mean?” asked Baldwin, staring at Simon’s servant.
“Well, we don’t know where he died, do we? He might’ve been killed where he was found, only it seems a bit odd for him to be up at Wistman’s Wood, so far out of his way. All we know is, he died somewhere between Thomas Smyth’s hall and his own place.”
“Well done, Hugh. So all we have to do is hunt over all the moors between those two places and we’ll find where he was killed. That should be easy enough.” Simon’s tone was witheringly sarcastic.
But Baldwin was thoughtful as he stared at the servant. “It shouldn’t be too hard, really. After all, we know that Bruther was careful and wary. If he was walking over the moors and heard someone behind him, he’d turn to see who it was. And if somebody was lying in wait, Bruther must surely spot him. These moors are so flat, even a beetle is visible a mile away.”
They were almost at the top of the hill above the plain now, and Baldwin turned to survey the landscape. “If a man was going to ambush someone, he would want to do it far out in the moors, surely? Even if he had men with him, he would prefer a quiet place with no chance of a witness overhearing, wouldn’t he? Now where could a man do that on the moors?”
“At a tor, I suppose. Or a group of other rocks.”
“That is right! There are rocks behind which a man could hide, but would John have been able to get to them to ambush Bruther, unseen by his victim?”
Simon considered a moment. “It would depend on which route he took from the tinner’s house. The killer must have been in place when Bruther passed, then gone on to Wistman’s Wood with the body, had time to hang it, and then escaped. I wonder how long that would have taken him?”
“A good while,” Baldwin judged. “And that is what I do not understand. Everyone seems to be able to explain where they were, apart from Sir Robert and his brother. Of course, John might not have had time if he rode immediately to Chagford to rob this farmer.”
“Which means it was Sir Robert.”
“Yes.” But Baldwin’s expression was doubtful.
Simon sighed. “We still don’t know where or exactly when Bruther was killed. It must have been some time before dark.” He stopped. When he spoke again he was deep in thought. “I never thought of that before. He was dead some time before the two Beauscyr men passed by, so he would surely have been killed in daylight.”
“Let us assume he was killed in daylight, then,” Baldwin said. “His body must have been carried over to the woods, because if he was going straight home, his route went nowhere near Wistman’s Wood. The wood is over a mile distant from any point on the path, so he must have been taken there on horseback. He would have been too bulky to carry.”
“Yes,” Simon nodded, thinking hard.
“If John had too little time, could it have been his brother?” Baldwin mused.
“Didn’t Alicia say she met Sir Robert when it was getting dark? He would have had time to kill Bruther between leaving Alicia and seeing her again later.”
“True, but I find it hard to believe it was him.”
Hearing this, Edgar whirled in his saddle to stare at his master. “Could it not have been Adam Coyt, then? He had a packhorse there.”
For once Baldwin was sharp with his servant. “Don’t be ridiculous! Coyt admitted being there, otherwise we would not have known. Why should he confess to being there if he was the killer and had no need to admit to being even remotely close? And another thing: Coyt dislikes miners generally, it is true, but he had no real dislike of Bruther except insofar as Bruther damaged the moors, to his mind, and for that he expected… um… Crockern to protect the land. Anyway, Coyt was not in the Manor last night. He could not have killed the other two.”
Simon shrugged. “The murders could be unrelated. It’s not something we should ignore, anyway.”
“It is too unlikely, Simon. Think about it: a man is killed; two men find the body and may have seen something; shortly afterward, these two are also murdered. It would be too much of a coincidence for them to have died for different reasons. No, they must have been linked in some way.”
“So you think it was definitely one of the Beauscyrs, then?”
“Yes.”
Hugh screwed up his face and glanced at Simon.
“What about Sir Ralph? We don’t know when Bruther was killed, like you say, so Sir Ralph could have done it.”
“No, Hugh. He was with Sir William and John on the way to the tinner’s house. They all said they were together then, and I believe them.”
“Then it must have been the other one,” announced Hugh. “I never trusted that Sir Robert. He always looked too arrogant.”
“Robert? I suppose it’s possible,” said Simon, with a faint smile at his servant’s relish. “I feel he’s not a killer, though. I’d have thought his brother was more likely.”
“John could have hared after the man who had insulted him,” Baldwin agreed. “It’s quite possible that he could have overtaken Bruther, waited for him to pass, then jumped out and strangled him.”
“If it was John,” Simon said, “I still wonder if he had enough time to murder and hang Bruther?”
“He had as long as it took to get over to the road to Chagford,” said Baldwin shortly. “Anyway, what were you telling Hugh to do before we left? You were speaking to him for some time.”
Simon gave a short laugh. “Telling him to find out whether there were many robberies here that didn’t go reported. That attack on Wat Meavy interests me. I wanted to see if Coyt was telling the truth, and that there were more than I realized.”
“And?”
“You tell him, Hugh.”
“They said that there hadn’t been many until a few weeks ago. Since then they’ve been getting worse.”
Baldwin shot the bailiff a quick look. “You think John has been robbing since he came home?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time a squire turned to pillage. He’s been trained in it up north, I’d guess, and he’s carrying on as he always has.” The knight shrugged. “Possibly, but I do not quite see how that can help us.”
“Look at it this way: how long would it have taken John to get to Chagford to attack Meavy?” Simon asked. “When was this Wat Meavy attacked? Did he see who attacked him? Was it really John who did it? We don’t know yet, do we? Fine, so we think that John could have been involved in a series of raids, stealing from the people here – but that doesn’t make him a murderer, though if he was found guilty of it, he would still be punished for breaking the King’s peace. No, but he might have had time to leave the inn, go and kill Bruther, hang the body, and then ride east until he came upon someone to rob. By chance he meets Wat Meavy and robs him – it could have been anyone, so long as whoever he found was scared of the name of Beauscyr and would not accuse him of theft. All he wanted, if I’m right, was to have someone he could call upon to say he was not anywhere near Bruther in case somebody at the inn told us he was not there all night. That was why I also asked Hugh to find out where this Wat Meavy lived. And he did.”
“Is it far?”
Simon gazed to the north and east, then shrugged and smiled.
Sighing, Baldwin stretched, then nodded. “Ah, I see. Well, then. Let us go there now and find out what did happen.”
23
