Inspector and made his own position clear. There was much more to learn from him but this was not the time.
'Thank you, Mr Newman,' said Colbeck.
'Thank you for taking me away from work for a while.'
'I may need to speak with you again.'
'As you wish, Inspector. Do you want my address?'
'No, I think that I'd rather call on you here at the works.'
Newman grinned. 'Are you that fond of locomotives, Inspector?'
'Yes,' said Colbeck, smiling. 'As a matter of fact, I am.'
Unable to hire a trap, they settled for a cart that had been used that morning to bring a load of fish to Ashford and that still bore strong aromatic traces of its cargo. When it set off towards Lenham and hit every pothole in the road, Victor Leeming could see that he was in for another painful ride. His companion was George Butterkiss, one of the constables in the town, a scrawny individual in his thirties with the face of a startled ferret. Thankful to be driven, Leeming soon began to regret his decision to ask Butterkiss to take him. The fellow was overeager to help, even in a uniform that was much too big for his spare frame, and he was desperately in awe of the Metropolitan Police. He spoke in an irritating nasal whine.
'What are our orders, Sergeant?' he asked, whipping the horse into a trot. 'This is wonderful for me, sir. I've never worked for Scotland Yard before.'
'Or ever again,' said Leeming under his breath.
'What are we supposed to do?'
'My instructions,' said Leeming, keen to stress that they had not been directed at Butterkiss, 'are to visit the scene of the crime, examine it carefully then speak to the landlord of the Red Lion.'
'I know the exact spot where Joe Dykes was done in.'
'Good.'
'Sergeant Lugg showed it to me. He and his men came over from Maidstone to arrest Nathan Hawkshaw. There was no point, really. They should have left it to us.'
'Did you know Hawkshaw?'
'My wife bought all her meat from him.'
'What sort of man was he?'
'Decent enough,' said Butterkiss, 'though he wasn't a man to get on the wrong side of, I know that to my cost. Of course, I wasn't a policeman in those days. I was a tailor.'
'Really?' said Leeming, wishing that the man had stayed in his former occupation. 'What made you turn to law enforcement?'
'My shop was burgled and nobody did anything about it.'
'So you thought that you could solve the crime?'
'Oh, no, Sergeant. There was no chance of that. I just realised how horrible you feel when your property has been stolen. It was like being invaded. I wanted to save other people from going through that.'
'A laudable instinct.'
'Then there was the other thing, of course.'
'What other thing?'
'The excitement,' said Butterkiss, nudging him. 'The thrill of the chase. There's none of that when you're measuring someone for a new frock coat. Well, I don't need to tell you, do I? You're another man who loves to hear the sound of a hue and cry.' He gave an ingratiating smirk. 'Would someone like me be able to work at Scotland Yard?'
'Let's talk about the case,' insisted Leeming, wincing as the wheel explored another pothole with jarring resonance. 'Do you think that Hawkshaw was guilty?'
'That's why they hanged him.'
'He wouldn't have been the first innocent man on the gallows.'
'There was no doubt about his guilt in my mind,' attested the driver. 'He and Joe Dykes were sworn enemies. It was only a matter of time before one of them did the other in. Joe broke into the butcher's shop once, you know.'
'Then why didn't you arrest him?'
'We couldn't prove it. Joe used to taunt Nathan about it. Boasted that he could walk in and out of any house in Ashford and nobody could touch him.'
'I'd touch him,' said Leeming, 'good and hard.'
'We gave him warning after warning. He ignored us.'
'What was this business about Hawkshaw's daughter?'
'It was his stepdaughter, Emily. Pretty girl.'
'Is it true that Dykes assaulted her?'
'Yes,' said Butterkiss. 'Someone disturbed them just in time.'
'Was the girl hurt?'
'Emily was very upset – who wouldn't be if they were pounced on by someone like Joe Dykes? It was a big mistake for her to go down that lane. It was one of his places, you see.'
'Places?'
'He used to take women there at night,' said the other, confidingly. 'You can guess the kind of women I mean. Even in a place like Ashford, we have our share of those. Joe would take his pleasure up against a wall and then, as like as not, refuse to pay for it.'
'And that's where this girl was attacked?'
'She thought she'd be safe in daylight.'
'It must have been a terrifying experience.'
'That's what fired Nathan up. He was very protective towards Emily. He went charging around the town in search of Joe but he'd had the sense to make himself scarce. If Nathan had caught him there and then,' said Butterkiss, flicking the reins to get a faster pace out of the horse, 'he'd have torn him apart. I've never seen him so angry.'
'Was he carrying a weapon of any kind?'
'A meat cleaver.'
Travelling with George Butterkiss had its definite compensations. Annoying as his manner might be, he was a fount of information about Ashford and its inhabitants and, since the murder case had been the only major crime in the area during his time as a policeman, he had immersed himself in its details. Victor Leeming overcame his dislike of the man and let him talk at will. Long before they reached Lenham, he had acquired a much clearer understanding of what had brought him and Colbeck to Kent.
'Is this it, Mr Butterkiss?' he asked.
'Yes, Sergeant. The very spot.'
'Where exactly was the body lying when discovered?'
'Here,' said the policeman, dropping obligingly to the ground and adopting what he believed to be the appropriate position. 'This is where the torso was, anyway,' he added. 'Some of the limbs were scattered about. They never found the other bit.'
'What other bit?'
Butterkiss got to his feet. 'Joe Dykes was castrated.'
It was the first time that Leeming had heard that particular detail and it shook him. They were in a clearing in the woods near Lenham, a quiet, private, shaded place that would have beckoned lovers rather than a killer and his victim. Birds were singing, insects were buzzing, trees and bushes were in full leaf. To commit a murder in such a tranquil place was like an act of desecration.
'Who found the body?'
'A lad from a nearby farm, taking a short-cut home from the fair.'
'I'll need to speak to him.'
'He was the one who spotted Nathan close to here.'
'Let's talk to the landlord of that pub first,' said Leeming. 'That was where Dykes was drinking before he came
