Cold Cruel Winter rn-2

by Chris Nickson

  ‘I’m offering you my men to help you. Simple as that. And I’ll pass on anything my whores hear.’ He exhaled loudly. ‘I respected Sam Graves, and I’ll not say that about many, in this city or elsewhere.’

  The Constable weighed the options. He could use more help, it was true, no matter where it came from. That was especially true if his men had to follow and protect two people. No one on the Corporation would condone him bringing in Worthy and his men, but the Mayor was pressing for a quick arrest. Finally he smiled.

  ‘I’m not going to say no, Amos. I’ll sleep on it tonight. I’ll come and see you tomorrow, unless you want to visit me at the jail.’

  Worthy grinned.

  ‘You already know the answer to that, laddie. And keeping things as quiet as possible is best — for both of us.’

  He doffed his hat, half in friendship, half in insolence, turned and began walking back into the city, his silver-topped stick pushing into the mud. Nottingham watched him go. He was unsure what to make of Worthy’s offer. It was generous, but that was the problem: Worthy wasn’t a man known for his generosity.

  Slowly, deep in thought, the Constable walked up Marsh Lane to his house. It was a small place, provided by the city as part of his job, but even though it needed repairs it was so much better than the rooms and garrets where he and Mary had lived before. It felt warm. Even now, in these days of loss and heartbreak, it felt like home.

  The fire was burning bright, coal crackling in the hearth. Emily was seated, staring lost into the blaze with a book closed on her lap, scarcely noticing as he entered and said hello. As she did so often these days, she’d withdrawn into her own safe little world where life couldn’t touch her.

  Nottingham took off the damp greatcoat, hung it from a sturdy nail in the wall, and walked through to the kitchen. Mary was kneading the dough for tomorrow’s bread, hands pushed deep into the mass. She glanced up and smiled at him, the gesture more comforting to him than any fire.

  ‘I hadn’t expected you yet, Richard. I’ve made a pie, but it won’t be ready for a little while.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he answered, reaching out and stroking her cheek with his fingertips to brush off a small smudge of flour. She didn’t pull away, didn’t flinch at his touch, and he felt his heart lighten. Could the scars have begun to harden, could they begin to move out of the morass?

  Her hands continued to work the bread, her eyes focused on her labours. Slowly his hand dropped from her skin.

  ‘You should go and sit with Emily,’ Mary suggested.

  ‘Is she still quiet?’

  Mary sighed and nodded, turning her gaze to her husband. ‘She barely says a word these days. She does everything I tell her without question or demur. You know what she was like. .’

  Relations had soured between father and daughter in the autumn. Emily had been full of ideas, wanting to become a writer, wayward, secretly seeing a man who’d turned out to be a killer, and she’d been so faithful to him that Nottingham had been forced to hurt her to find his name and stop more death.

  After that, the house had become a place of brooding, simmering silences. Until Rose’s death; then life itself had become fringed with black. Emily’s quietness had turned inward; the girl had barely wanted to leave the house.

  ‘She liked to think for herself,’ he answered.

  ‘She thought she knew everything,’ Mary corrected him. ‘Now she’s so meek, it’s as if she’s a different person. She needs to get some heart back in herself.’

  ‘Maybe she’s not the only one,’ he said.

  She looked questioningly into his face.

  ‘All of us,’ he explained.

  After long moments, she nodded sharply, gathered her breath and began to speak. ‘Most of the time I feel like my heart’s going to break. I see something and it makes me think of Rose. It’s everything. You, Emily, this house. And I don’t know what I can do about it. I don’t even have the words to tell you about the things I’ve been feeling.’

  ‘You think I don’t feel all that too?’ His voice was soft, a little stung by what she’d said.

  ‘I don’t know.’ She wiped her hands on her apron, pausing, pulling together her words. ‘I mean it, Richard, I really don’t know. You go on to work each day. You come home. You exist, and all we do is talk about all the little things as if nothing had changed, as if Rose hadn’t died.’

  ‘I. .’ he began, but couldn’t go further. She was right.

  ‘As long as I’ve known you, you’ve rarely discussed your work.’ The emotions started to rush out of her, as if she’d kept them in a bottle and now she was uncorking it. Mary placed her hands firmly on the table, trying to anchor herself in place. ‘I know you’ve done it to protect us. I’ve always loved that about you. But now, when you don’t talk about work, and we daren’t talk about family, what do we have left to discuss safely?’

  He reached out, covering her hand with his own, rubbing it slowly, feeling her rough skin under his. ‘I stopped at Rose’s grave on my way home,’ he told her. ‘I go there when I can. Sometimes I pray for her, sometimes I just speak to her in my head.’

  ‘Does it help?’ Mary asked.

  ‘I think so,’ he answered after a moment. ‘Sometimes I feel closer to her.’

  ‘I’ve been there, too,’ she said. ‘I’ve stood for hours. I’ve tried to pray. But all I’ve seen is some earth and no God around it. Rose isn’t there. Not to me.’

  ‘Where is she, then?’

  Mary tapped her head, leaving a smudge of flour on her cap.

  ‘I talk to her, too,’ she said. ‘I tell her things, the little things I’m thinking or doing. And she talks to me. She answers me.’

  Nottingham listened.

  ‘She should still be here. A child shouldn’t die before her parents.’

  ‘It happens all the time,’ he said softly.

  ‘I know that, Richard.’ Her voice flared with bitterness and injustice. ‘That doesn’t make it any better.’

  ‘No,’ he agreed.

  ‘I cry a lot. I’ll be doing something, anything, and I’ll start crying. Sometimes it feels like I’ll never stop. Sometimes I don’t want to.’

  ‘We both miss her, you know that.’

  ‘I’ve watched you,’ she continued, her gaze fixed on him. ‘After Rose died, you seemed lost, but it was as if you wanted to be that way. You wanted it to hurt. You didn’t want anyone too close to you, you wouldn’t have let me near if I’d tried.’ She paused. ‘Now you have this murder the city’s talking about, and suddenly you’re you again. You’re Richard Nottingham, the Constable. You have a purpose.’ Her eyes were large and moist. ‘You have all that. And I’m Mary Nottingham, I’m still here. I’m still surrounded by the same things, the same memories, every single day.’

  Slowly, with tenderness born from years together, from happiness and grief, he gathered her to him. She cried softly as he held her close. Silently, he thanked God. She felt so familiar in his arms, so much a part of him, a part he’d missed in these last weeks.

  She pulled back suddenly, not hiding the tears, and wiping them away with the back of her hands.

  ‘Let me finish here.’

  He smiled then unfolded her from his arms. They’d begun again. Together.

  He’d barely taken three bites of the pie before there was a hurried pounding on the door. Glancing apologetically at Mary and Emily, he rose from the table to answer it. Josh was there, his legs muddy, breath coming fast and steaming on the air so he was hardly able to push the words out.

  ‘Mr Sedgwick asked if you’d come, boss. Right now.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Nottingham asked.

  ‘It’s that man from Graves’s warehouse.’

  ‘Rushworth?’ The Constable felt the pit of his stomach fall.

  ‘Yes. He’s vanished.’

  Ten

  ‘Damn it.’ Nottingham paused to think. He thought he’d covered everything, that he was in control again. ‘Go ba
ck,’ he ordered quickly. ‘Tell John I’m on my way. Get men out. Look where he lives. Look in the taverns in case he went there. Look everywhere. And I want whoever was supposed to follow him at the jail in an hour.’

  Forrester took off again, running as fast as his legs would move. Nottingham knew the reality. They’d search. If they were very, very lucky, they’d find Rushworth. But even as he hoped, he knew the truth would almost certainly be different. Wyatt had snatched him. The next time they’d see the man would be as a corpse with the flesh stripped from his back.

  He turned back to look pleadingly at Mary. Emily gazed at him curiously.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I have to go.’

  Mary nodded in understanding. She’d heard the words so often before in their life together. He put on his old, plain buff coat, gathered up his greatcoat and swept out of the door, buttoning the garment as he walked quickly over the bridge and up Kirkgate, ploughing through the dense mud of the road.

  At the jail Sedgwick was sitting behind the desk, frowning anxiously.

  ‘How did it happen, John?’ Nottingham asked angrily before the deputy could say anything. ‘There were supposed to be men on him.’

  ‘I had Morris following him. He’s not the best, but he’s usually reliable. He said Rushworth went down a ginnel. By the time Morris got there, Rushworth had vanished. He says he looked all over then came back here. Josh was on and he came and got me.’

  ‘Has someone tried his home in case Morris just lost him?’

  ‘I went over myself. Lives alone, his neighbours said. His wife died during the winter. Don’t worry, boss, I didn’t tell them anything.’

  The Constable rubbed his chin, feeling the stiff rasp of stubble.

  ‘Have you talked to Morris?’

  ‘Aye, just for a minute, then I sent him out again.’

  ‘And what do you think. Is he telling the truth?’

  He watched the deputy carefully framing his answer.

  ‘I believe him. He’s not a liar. He’s always been a solid man, boss, he does the work as best he can. It’s just. .’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s not too sharp. He’s fine for little jobs, but this might have been too much for him.’

  Nottingham stared hard at Sedgwick. ‘So why did you pick him? You know how important this is.’

  The deputy look back evenly. ‘You said you wanted men on it right away. He was there, the better ones weren’t.’

  Nottingham grimaced in frustration.

  ‘I’m sorry, John, you were just doing what I’d ordered. I told Josh I wanted Morris back here. I’ll find out what happened. How many men do you have out looking?’

  ‘Every single one of them, except those keeping an eye on the judge, and he’s tucked up at home.’

  Nottingham let out a long, slow sigh. ‘We’ll need men on the judge. We can’t afford any problems there. And scour the bloody city for Rushworth. We need to find him sharpish.’

  ‘Yes, boss.’

  Nottingham was trying to sort through some papers, fretting and hoping for news, when the man walked into the jail. He knew Morris’s face, although they’d not spoken often. Morris was a stooped, scrawny man with a heavy, dark beard that grew to his chest. His hair was lank and matted, face and hands dirty; he looked like a beggar in his layers of ancient clothes.

  ‘Tha’ wanted to see me, sir,’ he said.

  ‘You were following Rushworth.’

  Morris considered the statement. ‘Aye, that’s what Mr Sedgwick told me to do.’

  ‘I want to know everything that happened. Everything. Take your time. It doesn’t matter how small.’ Nottingham perched on the edge of the desk

  ‘I went down to that warehouse. Tha’ know the one?’

  The Constable nodded.

  ‘I waited till they all come out for the day.’

  ‘Did you see anyone else waiting around?’

  Morris shook his head.

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘How did you know Rushworth?’

  ‘Mr Sedgwick had told me what he looked like.’

  ‘Where did he go after they all came out?’

  He could see the man trying to slowly marshal his memories.

  ‘He went along the Calls. There were some people about, so I didn’t let myself get too far behind him.’

  ‘How far away were you?’

  Morris tried to estimate the distance in his head. ‘Mebbe forty yards. Little bit more, perhaps. Fifty yards at most.’

  ‘Did he look around? Did he talk to anyone?’

  ‘Nay, he had his head down and he was striding out. Like people do when they’re going home from work. Glad to be free.’

  ‘And when he was in the Calls?’

  ‘He ducked into this ginnel. I know it, it’s just a short one, leads through to Kirkgate not far from t’ Parish church.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I walked faster so I wouldn’t lose him, sir.’

  ‘But you did lose him.’

  Morris hung his head.

  ‘I know.’ He paused. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘And by the time you’d reached the ginnel he’d gone?’

  ‘Aye. It was like he’d just vanished.’ He opened his eyes wide. ‘I ran to the end and looked up and down the street, but he wasn’t there. He’d just disappeared.’

  ‘Could he have gone into any of the courts off the ginnel?’

  ‘He could.’ Morris admitted slowly. ‘But I didn’t hear a door or owt. I’ve got good ears,’ he said with pride.

  ‘What did you do after that?’

  ‘I were starting to get worried. I looked around a bit, but I couldn’t find him, so I came back here quick as I could.’

  ‘You did the right thing, then,’ Nottingham told him with a small smile. ‘You go and get some rest. Report to Mr Sedgwick or Josh in the morning.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Morris looked up hopefully. ‘I still have a job? Only I need the money. .’

  ‘You still have a job,’ the Constable confirmed.

  Once Morris had gone, a grateful grin lighting up his dirty face, Nottingham put on his greatcoat and left the jail. He needed to see the scene for himself, to try to understand how Rushworth could simply have gone.

  He was certain Wyatt had him now, and barring a miracle, no one would see him alive again. Anger burned in his gut, fury at the killer. But there was also a tinge of admiration. The man was daring — and clever.

  On Lower Briggate there was plenty of noise from the inns and beer shops as people drank the evening away. Whores plied their trade in isolation or gossiped in small groups as they waited for business, walking on tall wooden pattens to keep their cheap dresses from the mud. With the thaw had come the return of the city smells, the rich stew of shit, piss and rubbish all hidden by the cold.

  He turned into the Calls, trying to keep his mind open to all the possibilities. By now the street was almost empty, and his footsteps resounded off the cobbles. Nottingham knew the ginnel Morris meant: a small lane close to the Parish Church that ran alongside the large property owned by Berkenhold, the merchant.

  There was enough moonlight to see the high brick wall that kept people out of the orchard behind the big house. The other side was the frontage of old houses, the gaps between them leading to a warren of courts, the homes of the poor and desperate who could afford no better. How many people would be living back there, he wondered? Hundreds, most likely.

  Snatch a man and take him into one of those and it would be almost impossible to find him. The entries were barely wider than a man’s shoulders, dark, foreboding, and menacing in the night.

  He walked through the ginnel and back. It was barely thirty yards long, a lost little place. There were three courts. He didn’t even try to walk into them. He’d get the men down here and have them scour the places. It was always possible that the murderer had his rooms here. Someone might have seen something. He’d have Sedgwick talk to the tenants here; with hi
s easy manner they seemed to open up to him.

  He’d been angry at Morris, but he understood the man wasn’t to blame. He’d done exactly what was expected, and he’d never stood a chance against this murderer. In truth, he’d done the right thing to return to the jail and raise the alarm.

  The ginnel came out on Kirkgate and Nottingham ambled slowly back to the jail. Could he have put all the pieces together earlier and identified Wyatt? No, he didn’t have the information. And as soon as he’d found out, he’d taken steps to protect Rushworth and the judge. But Wyatt had the whip hand. He knew who he wanted, he’d had the time to spy on them and make his plans.

  Finally Sedgwick returned, and Nottingham explained that he wanted all the courts off the ginnel searched, and everyone questioned.

  ‘I don’t know if Wyatt’s there, John, so be careful. He’s dangerous. If you even get a sniff of him I want to know about it.’

  ‘I’ll lay odds he won’t be anywhere close to the place,’ Sedgwick said.

  Nottingham shrugged. ‘You’re probably right. But he wouldn’t know we were following Rushworth. That must give us something.’

  ‘But not the poor bugger he’s got.’

  ‘No,’ the Constable acknowledged bleakly. In frustration he slapped the desk. ‘Wyatt’s spent seven years in the Indies. He must still be brown from the sun. That means he should be easy to spot in Leeds. He can’t stay inside all the time. Why hasn’t anyone seen him?’

  ‘He’s a smart bastard. You said so yourself, boss. He’s worked this all out.’

  ‘I know.’ There was a sense of resignation in his tone.

  Clouds had blown in from the West and a thin drizzle had started by the time Nottingham walked down Kirkgate. It would take away the last of the slush and leave many of the roads no better than quagmires. Carters would be stuck, tempers would fray. More problems for the morning.

  He let himself into the dark house, removed his boots and climbed the stairs quietly. Stripping to his shirt, he washed at the ewer then pulled the blanket over himself, Mary’s warmth radiating close by. In her sleep she turned to him, curling by his side. Smiling, he put his arm around her and pulled her closer.