The Sticklepath Strangler (2001)

by Jecks, Michael

  All was bright and clear. Northwards he heard people in the fields, the rattling of tools, animals complaining as they were harnessed, chickens clucking and calling. He inhaled deeply, noticing the clean scent of cow’s muck, the grassy odours of horse dung, the fresh tang of cut grass. It was a glorious morning, and his head was already beginning to feel a little better.

  And yet something was missing. His mind was working slowly today, but he was sure that in and among the smells and noises of the little vill as it began to prepare for the new day, one specific sound was lacking. It took him some time to work out what it was. In fact, he had meandered around the huge patch of mud in the road outside the cemetery, and was up at the spring, drinking, before light dawned.

  He stood up, shaking the water from his hands, and gazed about him with astonishment. To the north he could see labourers in the strip fields, bent over as they tugged tiny weeds from the rows of wheat and oats, or hoeing between rows of peas and beans in the gardens; he saw a girl methodically scattering grain for chickens in a yard; he saw a woman sitting at her door with a knife, cutting leaves for a pottage; he saw peasants heading for the door of the chapel to attend the first Mass. People everywhere, yet not one spoke.

  It was incredible. The place could have been under anathema, despairing because their souls would be lost under the papal ban. Their demeanour would certainly have suited such a terrible fate, he thought as he watched them going about their business. No one chatted or laughed. All walked as though bent under an intolerable weight, and that was particularly the case when they caught sight of him. The women averted their faces, or raised their hands to hide themselves from him.

  He remembered Houndestail’s words: ‘It’s Athelhard’s curse again!’ and he gave a convulsive shudder.

  Chapter Eight

  Personally Joan thought that the inquest was a good idea. It meant that people had other things on their minds rather than looking into her affairs, and while all the vill were being told how much they would be fined for discovering the body, she and Emma could disappear.

  Emma was panting already, and they weren’t halfway up the hill yet. This track, which led straight to the moors, rose up from the vill and then turned right. It was steep, if not quite so stiff as the climb of the sticklepath itself, but it was quieter, and with the trees all about it was better hidden too. In fact, as Joan toiled upwards, she knew that by the time Emma and she broke out through the trees onto the moor itself, the whole vill would be up at the road and watching the inquest.

  It was a shame, she reflected, staring back the way they had come. She would have quite liked to see the body dug up, but her mother Nicole had made it quite clear that if Joan showed her face down there, she would skin her alive. In preference Joan had persuaded Emma to walk up and see their old friend Serlo Warrener.

  He was a curious fellow, Serlo. Short and bent, with a shock of brown hair that was never combed or untangled, he had deepset eyes which twinkled above his thick moustache and beard. Invariably dressed in a much-patched and worn fustian tunic of faded green, he would appear in sheepskins when the weather deteriorated, with boots made of the same plentiful material. Consequently he had a distinctive, musty odour, as Nicole once put it in her delicate way. Joan had laughed aloud when her father had growled, ‘If you mean he stinks like a pig, say so, woman!’ Her amusement had earned Joan a clip around the ear.

  Many people didn’t like Serlo at all, nor trust him. He was friendly with Mad Meg, and that was enough to put them off. Privately Joan thought that her mother was scared of him, but he wasn’t scary to Emma and her, of course. They could see he enjoyed their company, with his funny smile and his fluttering hands, his high-pitched laugh and rumbling voice, but he was always reticent in front of adults.

  They were at the top of the steeper part now, almost through the trees. As they came into the light, they turned left at the heather-covered hillside, and then right, towards Belstone.

  This part was always quiet. There were no miners here on the northern face of the moor. The nearest miners were over at Ivy Tor, near where Vin’s parents had lived. Here the only other creatures were the sheep and cattle which were pastured according to the ancient rights of the tenants of the forest, and the deer which belonged to the King himself.

  There was also the warren. It lay on the path to Belstone, just past the soggy area where the streams so often overflowed their banks and swept down over the top of the grassed plains. The two girls sprang from boulder to boulder, giggling as they went, playing their usual game, but then Joan slipped on a moss-covered rock and fell with a squeak, straight into the black peat-rich soil.

  ‘You’ll get a right thrashing for that,’ Emma said unsympathetically.

  Joan shrugged. ‘It’ll wash out. I’ll rinse the mud off in the river before we go back.’

  ‘Ugh! It’ll be freezing in the water today,’ Emma said with a grimace. She turned and jumped to the next rock, her bare feet gripping the stone with the unconscious skill of long practice.

  ‘I’ll live,’ Joan said. She wasn’t looking forward to stripping and washing her garment, still less to putting it on again afterwards, but there was nothing else for it.

  The hut stood a few yards below the warren on the side of the hill. It was a short distance from where Joan had fallen, and the two girls made their way to it without further mishap, walking around the stone-built warren on their way. The warren was quite large. Some three yards wide and ten or so yards long, it was built of good moorstone like any of the walls, but every few yards, gaps in the stonework made doorways for the rabbits to enter. To keep it warm in winter and cool in summer it was covered with turves.

  Serlo had once told Joan that warrens had to be built all over the country to protect rabbits, because they weren’t clever beasts and couldn’t hide or run away from faster creatures. Martens and stoats, weasels and foxes could all hunt the slow and rather dim creatures in the open, while smaller predators would ferret down into the warrens as well. But at least when there was a decent warren like Serlo’s, they could be protected. Serlo maintained a wall around the warren, with small stone traps installed in the angles. Here, if a weasel or marten should try to gain access, they would trip a lever which would release slate shutters in front and behind. Serlo checked his traps daily, with a large stone hammer to despatch the captured thieves.

  The wall itself was a trophy display. Hanging from it, in various stages of decomposition, were many smaller carnivores, as well as magpies, jays, crows and rooks. There was even one skeletal buzzard. All were animals which had tried, or might have tried, to eat one of Serlo’s rabbits. In the vill there were rumours that Serlo had killed men who had tried to break into his beloved warren. Even children, so people whispered. Joan thought the rumours silly.

  His home was a circular hut with a thick thatch roof. The two girls walked straight inside, expecting to find him, but to their surprise, there was no sign of him. They sat and waited for some while, but then, as Joan felt the mud drying on her clothes, they carried on down into the valley to the river at the bottom. Quickly stripping, Joan shivered as she plunged her tunic into the water, rubbing it against the rocks at the edge until she was satisfied that it was clean enough. Then, thankfully, the sun came out, and she draped it over a bush, squatting naked on a rock while Emma lay back chewing a long stem of grass with her head on her hands.

  ‘Where do you think Serlo could have gone?’ Emma asked after a while.

  ‘How should I know?’

  ‘Do you think he went along to watch the inquest?’

  ‘P’raps.’

  ‘He’s never asked to the juries in the vill, is he?’ Emma frowned. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Well, he isn’t from the vill, is he? He’s from . . . the forest, I suppose.’

  ‘He’s so close, though. It seems odd.’

  ‘People just feel uncomfortable with him around,’ Joan said. She felt her tunic. Still wet.

  ‘He’s always nic
e to us.’

  ‘So? That doesn’t make other people like him,’ Joan responded, thinking about the priest again. She shouldn’t dislike him, she knew, because he was the man who could save souls or destroy them. He had the power. At least, that was what she thought he had said.

  Emma was frowning now. ‘Why shouldn’t they like him, though? He’s always kind. I’ll never forget how he helped my mummy when I was little.’

  ‘It’s his back: all twisted like that. I think it makes people scared.’

  ‘He can’t help that,’ Emma said.

  ‘No. But it scares people,’ Joan repeated.

  ‘Does it?’

  The girls sprang up like startled deer and spun around. Behind them, standing a short distance away, was Drogo the Forester. ‘What are you doing here, girls?’

  Joan flushed as he eyed her all over. She snatched her tunic from the bush and put it on. ‘We were just talking about Serlo,’ she said defensively.

  ‘Where is the lazy whoreson? I was looking for him myself.’

  ‘We don’t know. Maybe he’s gone to the inquest,’ Emma said, noticing that Joan was red-faced with resentment.

  ‘They’re holding it today?’ Drogo rumbled. His manner was pensive, as though he was considering other things while he spoke. ‘That girl – poor thing.’

  ‘We found her,’ Emma said proudly. ‘We went up to the hole in the wall and we found her.’

  ‘My, wasn’t that clever of you,’ Drogo sneered. ‘And then you pissed yourself and ran all the way home. You’re no better than your mother, are you?’

  Emma flushed hotly. She had never been able to counter an adult’s scorn.

  Seeing her wilt, Joan angrily stood up to Drogo. ‘At least we found her. It’s more than you and all your men were able to do, isn’t it?’

  He turned and stared at her. ‘We did all we could, girl.’

  ‘And it wasn’t enough,’ Joan stated contemptuously. ‘If we weren’t so young, we’d be down there talking to the Coroner. Why aren’t you there?’

  ‘I have other things to do.’ Drogo’s face was unreadable.

  ‘You should be there with the others, shouldn’t you? I thought all the men from the vill had to go.’

  ‘I’m not from the vill. I live in South Zeal.’

  ‘Oh!’ She was silent for a moment, and then added more quietly, ‘They’ll be able to bury her after this. At last.’

  He shot her a look. ‘Really? Let’s hope they can give her poor soul rest, then.’ Turning abruptly, he stalked back up the hill towards Serlo’s home, leaving the girls gazing after him with surprise.

  Emma sniffed. ‘What do you think he meant by that?’

  ‘I don’t care,’ Joan said. ‘Let’s get back down to the vill.’ She shivered. ‘I don’t like this. Something feels wrong. I hope Serlo’s all right.’

  As an inquest, Baldwin could not feel that the gathering on the sticklepath was particularly helpful.

  While Coroner Roger ate there was a slow movement of people towards the inn, and Baldwin was aware of an increasing number of villeins and serfs gathering in the hall about them. Ill-kempt and undernourished, they were an unprepossessing lot, and their sullen, anxious looks made Baldwin study them more carefully. There was more to this whole matter than a girl’s death, he felt.

  In truth, he had not given the inquest much thought. As he had said to Jeanne on the day the messenger arrived, he had no doubt that the murderer would be found. The fact that there was a rumour of cannibalism did not affect him. There had been plenty of suspected cannibals during the famine, and some were genuine, although most were simply unfortunates disliked by their neighbours. More often than not, it was their accusers who were thrown into Exeter Gaol or fined for lying.

  Eating other humans was repellent to all but the insane. There was no doubt about that, of course, and yet . . . and yet sometimes a person could be in such appalling straits that there was no apparent alternative. Baldwin had heard examples of cannibalism during sieges, when all other foods were exhausted; more recently there had been reported cases during the famine. As people lost everything, as their crops wilted, their animals expired from lack of feed, as children swelled from malnutrition, it was not surprising that they should turn to the only food available: other men and women.

  Baldwin had heard of such cases, yes – but not recently.

  When the Coroner stood and gazed about him imperiously, the whole room appeared to shuffle and move, all avoiding direct eye-contact. Baldwin saw young boys nervously casting their attention to the floor, while older men stared at the wall behind him. It was not unusual for villagers to feel bitter at the arrival of officials, he reminded himself, and turned back to his pot of watered wine, smiling to his wife.

  Jeanne acknowledged his gesture, but she couldn’t help gazing at the people collected before them, and at one in particular.

  He was the only man who appeared not to be intimidated by the presence of the Coroner. Heavily built, he was fleshy of face, his jowls already blue with fresh beard, although he looked as though he had shaved that morning, from the two small cuts she could see which still bled beneath his right ear. His eyes were small, almost hidden in the folds of skin beneath his broad forehead, and his hair was a sparse horseshoe between ears and a bald pate, although unlike so many men she had seen, the dome of his skull wasn’t shiny; it was dull, with strands of individual hair sprouting. For some reason Jeanne took an immediate dislike to him.

  ‘Coroner, I am Alexander de Belston,’ he said in a low, deep voice. It was the sort of voice that inspired confidence, and his slow, respectful manner created an instant hush in the room. ‘I am Reeve of the vill under the authority of the Baron of Oakhampton, my Lord Hugh de Courtenay.’

  ‘I am Coroner Roger de Gidleigh,’ Roger replied with equal formality and gravity. Jeanne saw that he had lowered his head and was giving the Reeve a measuring look quite unlike his normal good-humoured grin. Then she realised that the Coroner had, like her, been unfavourably impressed by the Reeve. ‘Would you lead the way for the jury and witnesses?’

  ‘Of course, my Lord. Please follow me.’

  Baldwin rose and held out his hand for Jeanne. She took it and walked at his side immediately behind the Coroner and the Reeve, and was unaccountably glad to hear the solid footsteps of Simon and Edgar behind her, and to feel Aylmer at her side.

  Outside it was already warm, the sunshine all but blinding as they made their way up the roadway. The air was clean and fresh, with the tang of woodsmoke and cooking, but there was that strange silence again. Even the local dogs had stopped barking, she noticed, and the few miserable-looking mutts which were visible weren’t foraging, but slunk quietly out of the way of the throng.

  It was a dismal group which congregated about the wall with the tumbled rocks all around, and although he didn’t expect them to be singing and dancing in these sad circumstances, Coroner Roger was surprised at the lack of noise here. It was as though all the folk waiting were drained, exhausted. He had seen people like this during the worst stages of the famine, but not since.

  It must be due to the age of the victim, he thought. The destruction of children always seemed more poignant than the death of an adult.

  ‘The body is in there,’ the Reeve said helpfully. ‘Two girls saw the wall had collapsed, and noticed some material inside. They prodded at it and it tore, and the skull fell out. Naturally they ran screaming.’

  The Coroner crouched and touched the cloth which had attracted the girls. ‘This is no good,’ he muttered. ‘Baldwin, what do you think?’

  ‘If you try to pull her out you will damage her corpse and probably bring the wall down as well.’

  ‘Quite right! We shall have to dig, as I suspected.’

  The Coroner clambered over the wall and helped the Reeve to follow. Baldwin left Jeanne with Edgar and went to join him. He knew Simon would prefer not to see the corpse: the Bailiff had never fully appreciated the importance of the lit
tle signals which a body could give to an investigator.

  A few flies were buzzing about the place as the Reeve motioned to a man with a long shovel. Flies, Baldwin knew, were the inevitable partners to death. On a warm day, flies could congregate in moments, laying their foul eggs on open wounds and quickly infesting a corpse with maggots. Baldwin loathed and detested flies. He had seen too many in Acre during the siege. As people fell dead in the streets, struck by the massive stone missiles from the Saracen artillery, swarms would suddenly appear, smothering their faces and feasting on the blood.

  But flies liked fresh meat, he reminded himself, and this corpse was old. Looking about him, he saw that, in fact, the flies were busy seeking food elsewhere.

  The man with the shovel was working hard with the regular action of someone used to manual labour. His broad wooden blade had been tipped with a sharp steel edge, and it cut through the smaller roots which lay under the surface of the turf as he stood on the footrest carved into the right side, thrusting the blade deep into the soil, then levering it up and away, shovelling it into a neat heap behind him.

  ‘Once the body was discovered, we decided not to dig it up,’ the Reeve said pompously. ‘It would have served no purpose and we didn’t want to disturb the remains until you arrived.’

  Baldwin had already taken a dislike to this man. He didn’t know why, for most Reeves were pleasant enough, and he had not yet had time to learn anything about this fellow which could give him cause for dislike, but there it was. As Alexander de Belston peered down into the growing hole, he started picking his nose, and the act grated on Baldwin. It was an insult to the body. There was a languid tone to his voice as well, as though Alexander was trying to show the Coroner that matters such as this were rather beneath him. He did appear self-important, certainly. It was there in the way he sighed as he glanced up at the sun, estimating the time, and in the frown that passed over his face when a child in the silent crowd down in the lane spoke up and complained of thirst.