across river to St Paul’s Wharf. This time Athelstan totally ignored the boatman, but whispered his conclusions to an increasingly irascible Sir John. Only when they had disembarked, and Cranston had gone storming up the water- soaked steps, did Athelstan talk to the boatman.
‘Moleskin.’
‘Yes, Father?’
‘Row back to the Southwark side, tie your boat up and go to St Erconwald’s. Benedicta will tell you all about Perline and the demon you have been pestering me about.’
‘Are you sure, Father?’ Moleskin’s face broke into a grin.
‘You have just ignored me all the way across.’ He pointed to Cranston striding up and down the quayside like Hector. ‘Why do cats make Lord Horsecruncher so angry?’
‘In time I’ll tell you about that as well,’ Athelstan replied and, leaving a mystified Moleskin, he hurried up the steps.
The coroner had now worked himself into a fine rage. He’d already hired a boy to take a message to his bailiffs, and would have gone storming into Cheapside but for Athelstan grasping his sleeve.
‘Sir John, Sir John, the afternoon is growing on. The market will soon be finished and your bailiffs will be in place when that message is delivered.’ Athelstan stopped speaking, his hand going to his mouth.
‘What’s the matter, monk?’
‘Friar, Sir John, friar! I’m just wondering who could possibly have found out about Harnett’s meeting with Perline Brasenose?’ He steered Sir John towards a tavern. ‘I mean, Harnett saw the Barbary ape on Sunday. On Monday he met Perline but, after that, our young soldier went into hiding. Now,’ Athelstan scratched his chin, ‘Perline can’t write, so who told Harnett to go to the Pyx chamber?’
They entered the dingy tavern. Its walls were greasy and the ceiling beams blackened, but Athelstan knew the proprietor was one of the best cooks along the riverside, and might provide delicacies to distract Sir John’s temper. They found an empty table well away from the sailors and fishermen who flocked there.
‘You are forgetting one thing,’ Cranston announced, leaning back and smacking his lips at the savoury fragrance coming from the buttery.
Athelstan raised his eyebrows.
‘On Monday evening, Sir Francis left the brothel where the others were cavorting. They knew he’d gone.’
‘Of course,’ Athelstan murmured. ‘And we know he went to Southwark, then on to the steel yard. Ergo. .’ Athelstan paused as the barrel-shaped landlord served Sir John his favourite fish pie and a cup of white Alsace.
‘Anything for you, Father?’
‘Oh, some ale, Bartholomew. Please.’
‘Ergo,’ Athelstan repeated, ‘either Harnett was followed from that tavern — ’ he ticked the points off on his fingers — ‘and his pursuer discovered what he was looking for; or, Harnett told one of his companions before he left, who later used that information to commit murder.’
‘Coverdale could also have done that,’ Cranston argued between mouthfuls of pie. ‘Either he or some other of the regent’s minions.’ He sipped from his goblet. ‘I am beginning to agree with you, Brother, the regent cannot be totally blameless in this matter. I am sure these worthy knights would flee back to Shrewsbury if it wasn’t for him. But, there again,’ Cranston slammed his cup down, ‘Sir Edmund Malmesbury and the rest can hardly be described as John of Gaunt’s most fervent supporters.’
Cranston ate on in silence. Athelstan could tell the coroner was becoming morose; even the pie and the wine didn’t seem to cheer him. They left the tavern and went up an alleyway, along Thames Street, past run-down warehouses to a bare expanse of land where the Fleet river poured its filth into the Thames. Here all the great dung carts in London congregated to deposit the filth and muck cleaned from the streets into the Thames. Cranston, stamping his feet, glowered around, then caught sight of his bailiffs, two burly individuals who came striding towards him.
‘You are here at last,’ he growled.
‘Sir John,’ one of them replied, ‘we came as fast as we could. The markets are closed.’ He pointed to one of the dung carts. ‘They are all empty, ready to go back to clean up during the night.’
‘And our precious pair have flown,’ Cranston grunted. ‘Go back up Knightrider Street,’ he ordered. ‘When you catch sight of them, come back and tell me!’
The two bailiffs hurried off. For a while Athelstan and Cranston stood around, but the stench from the carts and the slime-coated Fleet grew so offensive that they, too, walked up Knightrider Street. The bell from St Paul’s began to toll for evening Mass. Athelstan glimpsed the spires of Blackfriars and was wondering what Father Prior was doing when one of the bailiffs came running back.
‘Sir John, Hengist and Horsa are here.’
‘Good!’
With Athelstan hurrying behind him, Cranston strode up Knightrider Street, where Hengist and Horsa had been stopped by the bailiff. Both the dung-collectors protested loudly.
‘This is against all the law and its usages, Sir John!’ one of them squeaked. ‘Any delay means longer working, so when the mayor and aldermen complain-’
‘Shut up!’ Cranston bellowed, grasping Hengist by the front of his dirty jerkin. ‘You, my buckos, have been stealing cats!’ Cranston snapped his fingers, and Athelstan handed over one of the small muzzles. The coroner shoved this in front of the man’s face. Hengist spluttered and glanced fearfully at his companion. ‘You mean-minded bastards!’ Cranston roared.
Both men started to protest. Athelstan walked round, studying the cart carefully, noticing how its high sides were simply boards nailed across huge upright posts. At the back he saw how one of these boards served as a small door or drawer, kept in place by newly attached bolts in their clasps. He summoned the bailiffs.
‘Whilst Sir John argues,’ he whispered, ‘open that!’
The bailiff pressed his dagger between the boards, working the bolt free. Athelstan, pinching his nose at the fetid smell, crouched down and stared in. Five or six cats lay there, eyes glowing in the darkness. The poor creatures were bound hand and foot, and muzzles, similar to the one he had found, were tightly clasped round their jaws. One of the bailiffs gently took the cats out, cutting their thongs and muzzles free. The cats, backs arched, tails up, spitting furiously, danced round the carts and then fled away like arrows up Knightrider Street. The bailiff would have gone after them.
‘Don’t worry,’ Athelstan called the man back. ‘They’ll all find their way home. I can personally vouch for that. It’s Sir John I’m worried about.’
Cranston, who had witnessed all this, now had the two dung-collectors up against the wall, banging their heads slowly against it. At Athelstan’s instruction, the two bailiffs gently squeezed their way between the irate coroner and his victims. Sir John, breathing heavily, stepped back glowering at the trembling cat thieves. He waved a finger at them.
‘You heartless bastards!’ he shouted. ‘And don’t lie that they were all strays. You pull that cart round the streets, and whenever you could you enticed some cat with a bit of meat or fish, covered with some sleeping potion. You then tied their feet together, muzzled them, and put them into that crevice beneath the cart. When you came down to the riverside to throw your refuse into the Fleet, you’d go along to the grain barges and offer the cats for sale. Isn’t that right?’
Hengist nodded fearfully.
‘A lucrative, profitable experience,’ Athelstan spoke up. ‘The barge-masters bring up grain and, where there’s grain, rats and mice thrive. The barge-masters buy the cats, put two or three in each hold and the vermin are cleared.’ He shook his head. ‘Of course you couldn’t care whether the poor cats were used to a ship or barge.’ He took a step closer. ‘And did you really care about the feelings of those who owned those animals? Did you ever think of the terror of those poor cats locked in the stinking black hold of some barge? Did it ever occur to you that some of them might even try and escape, being drowned in the river or ill-used by their new owners?’
Athelstan, catching some of Cranston’s anger, thrust his hand under Hengist’s chin and pushed his face up.
‘What you did was wicked!’ he whispered.
‘No one cares.’ Horsa sneered back; he wished he hadn’t spoken as Athelstan seized his mouth between his fingers and squeezed it tightly.
