The Mutilated Merchant (The Edrin Loft Mysteries Book 1)

by Jon Evans

  "Well, as I said, Sir. He was implicated in a vicious murder, and he also assaulted an officer of the watch who was merely seeking to ask some questions," Loft replied.

  "Then why release him, if you think he did it?" Cadogan seethed.

  "Ah well, we don't anymore," Loft said.

  "You don't?" Cadogan looked a little lost.

  "No, Sir. Once we had him in the cells, he gave us his version of the story, and we were able to confirm it with witnesses at City Hall. A man tripped, fell into the Councillor Mohran and grabbed his chain as he fell to the floor. It broke, and when the fuss was all over, the man was gone and the link nowhere to be found. We think that man was the murderer or an accomplice and they left the link at the murder scene to make it look like the Councillor was involved," Loft said.

  "How would that possibly convince us? So you found a piece of jewellery, you wouldn't just assume the person it belonged to must have been the murderer," Cadogan scoffed.

  "The Councillor had had a disagreement with Perl over the purchase of some extremely rare and valuable spice which he'd refused to pay for. One of his servants was seen arguing with Perl about it, so there was already a link and a dispute between them," Loft said, "Lawyers were involved, and Mohran even visited Perl to argue with him."

  "But why would they want to make it look like Mohran was involved? Was he just a scapegoat?" the commander asked.

  "We think not. We've looked into Councillor Mohran, and we spoke to him before we released him. It seems he's been campaigning for the Customs and Excise to have their own watch house in the city, exclusively to hunt down smugglers who are evading duties on weapons, armour and other military materiel. It's all about tax, and the Regent is reportedly supportive of the idea and looking into it. I think the gang responsible for the murder of Perl were hoping that we might prosecute Mohran and that his plans would fall apart. It looks like they were involved in the smuggling and sale of weapons, either selling them to Perl or buying them from him. It wouldn't matter. If Mohran was successful and a whole watch house of men was devoted to catching them and interfering with their trade would be a serious problem," Loft said.

  "Damned right it's a serious issue and not just for the underworld of Kalider. This is the first I've heard of it. Mohran has a bloody cheek going to the Regent before speaking to me. We can't have the Excise having their watchmen in the city, can we, Loft?" he said, visibly fuming.

  "From what Mohran explained to me, Sir, he wanted a watch house seconded to the Customs and Excise so they'd be reporting to you still just dealing with other duties," Loft said.

  "It sounds like you approve of the idea, Loft?" Cadogan said.

  "I can't say that I like Councillor Mohran, but it doesn't sound like a plan with any obvious flaws for the city or the watch, Sir. He wanted further funding for the watch to cover any shortfall from the duties those men performed by expanding other watch houses. The increased tax revenue would come from the increased duty on weapons and armour. If smuggling weapons became harder, smuggling other goods would too and I think other tax revenue would increase. The city would be safer with fewer weapons coming in illegally, and the watch could end up with more men and funding. It might be worth considering, Sir," Loft said with a shrug.

  "What about Mohran though? What do you think about him?" Cadogan.

  "I think he's everything you'd expect from a career politician and I wouldn't trust him with my silverware. I think he might be genuine about this, but it's more likely just a way to increase his political profile. Admittedly I'm not sure he's the type of man I want playing a bigger role in city politics, but I haven't worked out a downside to this policy he's suggesting," Loft said.

  "There will be one, Loft. You haven't much experience of politics I'm sure, but I have, and I can guarantee that there's a catch somewhere. For instance, we don't know what he's told the Customs and Excise they'll get. Maybe that's why he didn't speak to me, he's telling them they'll get to keep my watchmen, and the watch will be absorbed into the Customs and Excise entirely. I'll have to look into this. If you hear any more, I want a report immediately, so send one to my aide in the hands of your fastest runner, understood?" Cadogan ordered.

  "Yes, Sir. I'll keep my ear to the ground and let you know if we hear anything more about this," Loft confirmed.

  "Oh, and another thing, get that bloody watchman you left in the University off of their campus and no more visits to the Professor in uniform. If you must speak to him, go in civilian clothing, so you don't scare the faculty. I'll explain to the Vice Chancellor that it was a simple misunderstanding, but you need to write a letter of apology," he held up his hand to forestall Loft's question, "By which I mean my aide, Golate, will write one and you'll sign it. I doubt you have the appropriate mindset for grovelling to weaselly academic bureaucrats, but he's excellent at that sort of thing."

  "Yes, Sir," Loft agreed.

  "Right, now get your men back to that shop and search it top to bottom," Cadogan said.

  "Sir? We've searched it more than once already and I was going to try and find the suspect, now we have a possible description," Loft said.

  "I wasn't asking, Captain. Search that shop again, that's an order. If there's smuggling going on and Councillor Mohran is going to make a big thing of it, I want to get the jump on him. One of my Captains finds a lead on a big smuggling organisation, and we can then show that we don't need Customs and Excise involved in catching them. When I report to the Regent I'll explain that I think we should devote some manpower to finding more smuggling operations but that I'm not sure we have enough funding to cover the existing duties if we do," the commander said triumphantly.

  "I'm not sure I understand, Sir."

  The commander sighed. "It's quite simple, Loft. When I tell the Regent that I don't think we can afford this plan of Mohran's, he will understand that Mohran didn't consult with me. He likes the results of the idea that Mohran has proposed, but… have you ever met him?"

  "The Regent? No, Sir," Loft said.

  "Well, between you and me and these four walls, he's a canny bastard. He'll know straight away what Mohran is doing, and we'll keep our independence and get the extra funding too. There's no reason we can't work with Customs and Excise, rather than for them. The city gets the same benefits; they don't have to do a lot of extra administration. The Regent can collect more tax and credit, and the Watch gets more men," Cadogan said, leaning back with a satisfied look on his face.

  "The Councillor gets a slap on the back for the idea and to boot; it's harder for him to come after Sergeant Gurnt if he still tries. I'm not sure how many birds that is but it's more than two, so I'm sure the Thieftakers will benefit if you can find me some smugglers, Captain," Cadogan explained.

  "So, I repeat. Get back to that shop and search it again. Make sure you've found everything and if that doesn't turn up any more information, do their house. Then find that suspect. Get me a report as soon as you have anything or if you have any more ideas of how to catch the people smuggling these weapons," the commander ordered.

  "Understood, Sir," Loft saluted.

  "Dismissed," Cadogan said, "Oh and, Loft, send me a list of the things you found in the basement too. I want to know what's being smuggled into Kalider so we can review any other reports we've had from the other watch houses. You never know, one of them might have found something useful without knowing it."

  Loft nodded and closed the door behind him with a thunderous boom. There must be a knack to the bloody thing, he thought, grinning apologetically at the Lieutenant Golate, who frowned at the noise.

  "Umm. Commander Cadogan said you'd write a letter of apology to the Vice Chancellor for me to sign?" Loft said.

  "It's done. That one there, sign it, and we'll get it over to him," came the curt reply from the aide.

  Loft gritted his teeth and signed the letter, passing it back to Lieutenant Golate, before he left. He might outrank him, but Golate was Cadogan's aide, and it wasn't worth making that
point clear to him. "Thank you, Lieutenant. What an excellent letter, I appreciate your assistance."

  The Lieutenant nodded, "You're welcome, Captain." He smiled, and Loft smiled back. At least he hadn't managed to offend Commander Cadogan's right-hand man, even if he'd just been handed an overwhelming task. It never hurt to stay on the good side of someone like Golate.

  Chapter Seventeen

  On his return to Old Gate, Loft gathered everyone together and gave them their orders. They were going back to the shop, and they were going to search every inch of it, take every item that they found and bring it back to the watch house. There was a collective groan from the assembled men and women of his command.

  "Yes, I'm not entirely happy but I just had a good long chat with Commander Cadogan, and he was quite clear that this is what we're to do. We need to find anything we can about the smuggling that Perl was involved in. Who he was selling to and where he was getting his goods. We have our orders, so it's that, or we can look for new work. As an incentive, if we find anything, I think the Commander will be very pleased indeed, and seeing as City Hall isn't too happy with us right now," he glanced at Gurnt, "His support would be very welcome indeed. Understood?"

  He received a desultory mumbling of, "Yes, Sir," and left it at that.

  They gathered together and marched off to the shop, quick time, while Constable Pelunt went to get the cart and Constable Miller went to retrieve Knave from the university, and bring him directly to the shop. He was particularly pleased when Loft ordered him to change into civilian clothing for that task.

  Once they reached the shop, he discussed with Gurnt how to get the job done with the minimum fuss. Neither of them had any hope of finding anything, but they assigned rooms to their juniors and made sure everyone was searching where they hadn't searched before.

  They gave orders to search for hidden compartments, paperwork, any suspicious objects and to call out if they found anything. They emptied out every drawer, wardrobe, chest and container they could find and made sure every piece of furniture was moved to check for anything hidden behind.

  "Loft?" Gurnt said.

  He turned and was about to point out that she should call him Captain Loft when he saw her pointing at a hatch in the ceiling. He sniffed. That hadn't happened in a while, but there wasn't even a hint on her face that it was deliberate.

  They definitely hadn't searched up there. He considered for a moment, they looked at each other, then at the constables searching the next room and an unspoken agreement passed between them.

  Gurnt called out, "Constable Swint. Out here, please. You're skinny, see if you can get up in the loft and find anything. Be bloody careful with your lantern though. I don't want the roof catching fire."

  Swint nodded happily and went to look for something to climb up on. They pulled a chest of drawers out of the bedroom and with a little assistance the young officer was able to get up on it and climb up through the hatch in the ceiling. They passed up a couple of lanterns, and she hung them on hooks placed above the hatch.

  "Just shout when you need to get down. Don't try on your own, the last thing I need to do is fill out a report about a watchman breaking their neck climbing out of an attic," Gurnt called up to her.

  Gurnt and Loft looked about upstairs, but no-one was finished with their rooms yet, and they hadn't downstairs either. At least everyone understood the order to be as thorough as possible. They were diligently checking floorboards and tapping walls, pulling out drawers and inspecting furniture for hidden compartments.

  Loft didn't expect they'd find anything so elaborate in any of this furniture, but then he hadn't expected a body in the back garden or a cellar full of weapons either. No reason a modestly priced piece of furniture couldn't contain a secret compartment, they were common enough on expensive writing desks and the like.

  They'd decided they should go over each room together after the constables were done, the better to answer any questions that Commander Cadogan might have. If they had to go through this exercise, they might as well just get on with it rather than do a half-hearted job.

  Loft wasn't too worried they'd miss anything. If they hadn't learned during childhood how to hide their valuables, they'd have learned in the time at the watch training barracks where all the best places to secrete things from the other recruits or the training sergeants were.

  "Captain? Sergeant?" came a cry from down the stairs.

  "Coming, Constable," Loft answered. He and Gurnt made their way up to the bedroom. Constable Libult was waiting for them, holding the door open. He ushered them in and closed it behind them, pointing at the space where the chest of drawers had been.

  There was a lot of dust and some forgotten pieces of food, the stub of a candle, a few scraps of paper and a dull lump of brass or gold, covered in dust amongst it all.

  Loft crouched down and picked it up carefully, taking it to the front window so they could get more light on it. It was stained with dried blood that was caked in dust. The sheen of the metal was obscured by the dirt and rusty brown of the blood.

  There was a broken and twisted fitting on the back which showed this was a clasp for a cloak. It wasn't a surprise that the design was a snake, laid over an emblem of a coin.

  "What do you think, Sergeant?" Loft asked, passing it to Gurnt.

  "It's light, so it's not gold. It looks like gilt to me. We should clean it up and see if any of this is lettering, but I'd say this ties in very nicely with the description of the man wearing a cloak with a snake brooch," she said.

  "You sound a little sceptical," he replied.

  "I can't believe we didn't find this is all, Sir," Gurnt said.

  "Well, we didn't move the furniture, and it's filthy, so if it rolled back there, it's no surprise. Anyway, we were looking at the sword, weren't we?" Loft said.

  She shrugged. "I suppose so. It could have saved a lot of time if we'd found this on the first couple of looks though, it's a good job Commander Cadogan ordered this search," she replied, "A bit lucky, even."

  "Yes, it should make it much easier when we bring the guilty party to the magistrates, having the clasp," Loft replied, "If it's the bank worker we've been told about."

  "No, I mean, it was a bit lucky that the Commander told us to search and we found some evidence of exactly the person we were looking for, where we'd looked already. Emphasis on the lucky," she said.

  "Stop right there, Sergeant. I know what you're implying, but we've no reason to suspect that. It would be just as big a coincidence if, His Grace, Commander Cadogan, had been involved in this crime as it is for us to have missed the thing when we searched before. He'd have had to have someone put the snake clasp here since I spoke to him just so we could find it right after he ordered us back," Loft said.

  He sighed, "I think we're just being too critical of ourselves, we can't expect to spot every little thing that might tell us about a crime the first time. We're breaking new ground here. I couldn't find any record of the watch going at a murder like this when I was at the Academy. It's all about catching people everyone knows are guilty and that's not enough for this day and age, but that means we're learning as we go, Sergeant," he said firmly.

  "Yeah, well, maybe you're right, Sir and I'm angry with myself for not seeing it when we were here earlier, and jumping to conclusions about who was guilty," she admitted.

  "I hope so, Sergeant. That's better than the alternative and more probable to my mind. Anyway, there's no use crying over spilt milk. We'll get better at finding what we need to with time and practice," he replied confidently. "The next time will go more smoothly, I'm sure."

  "Next time?" Gurnt asked.

  "I already know what the next crime we have to investigate is, Sergeant. It's going to require a lot of looking for clues, probably some following people. Maybe even chasing them when they flee," he said.

  "Are you trying to lift my spirits with the prospect of getting back to chasing criminals, Sir?" she asked.

  "I get
the impression you rather like the pursuit, Sergeant," he said with a grin.

  "It's a lot less messy than all this. I like something nice, and straight forward I can set about. Find out where the target lives, who his friends are, where he goes and then run him down. It's like hunting the smartest prey you can think of, well, alright, mostly they aren't that bright, but sometimes it's a challenge," Gurnt said.

  "I guarantee there'll be more of that after we've found this murderer, Gurnt. I'll need you at your best for it," Loft said.

  "Yeah, well, let's find this bastard first shall we? I'm going to check if they're finished downstairs," she said.

  Loft nodded to her and went to look around the bedroom. He stamped on a few likely looking floorboards, opened the windows and looked out at the nooks and crannies of the eaves to see if anything was hidden there. Finding nothing, he pocketed the clasp and went to inspect the rest of the rooms upstairs.