“I didn’t see no-one else there,” the boy replied. He glanced at the girl who shook her head.
“What’s your name?” Luke countered. He suspected that if he wanted to get any answers, he needed to focus on the girl who appeared to be the more easy-going of the two.
“Why?”
“I can’t keep calling you ‘girl’ while you are here, now can I?” He flicked a glance at Marcus. “My name is John. That’s Edward.”
Neither child spoke.
“So, what do we call you?”
“Boy and girl will do,” the boy mumbled around another mouthful of bread he had snatched out of the top of the basket.
Luke closed the basket lid meaningfully, breaking the boy’s avaricious gaze away from the remaining contents in the hope that he would focus on the discussion rather than his stomach.
“Fine, then the magistrate will have to prise your names out of you otherwise you will have to be tried as ‘boy’ and ‘girl’, but you will still be sentenced. You will still receive lashings and still have to remain in jail until you remember your real names. Then you will have to serve extra time for obstructing the magistrate in his duties.”
Luke pretended to lose interest and sat back in his seat to stare at his boots. Once the children had finished their food they studied Luke as though they expected him to tell them what to do next. When Luke didn’t appear to even be aware of them, they turned their attention to Marcus.
The silent interplay between the boy and girl was telling, and indicated that they were either really good friends, or relations. Either way, they knew each other well enough to share a look and understand what they needed to do, or say. Luke allowed them a few moments to decide whether they were going to comply or not. Thankfully, they seemed to realise the seriousness of their situation because the girl shrugged and turned her attention back to Luke.
“We saw a man standing in the trees but he was just waiting and watching. We don’t know why. He looked as though he was waiting for someone. We thought it was another pick-pocket working our patch.”
“He wasn’t with you?”
The boy shook his head. “No, but that’s our patch. If anyone should get that woman it’s us,” he declared somewhat proudly.
“So you saw me, the woman, and the hider in the woods?”
Both the boy and girl nodded.
“Did you see anyone else?”
They both shook their heads.
“Did you see the body in the river?” Luke kept the question as casual as possible but he knew he still scared the children and mentally apologised for it.
“There was a body in the river?” the boy gasped. He shared a horrified look with his colleague.
Luke nodded.
“Did the woman kill that man?” The girl demanded clearly enthralled by the notion.
“No!” Luke mentally winced when he realised he had all but shouted and shook his head. “No, she didn’t,” he replied more quietly.
“Did you notice anyone else near the river?” Marcus asked. He threw a cautious look at his colleague for his uncharacteristic outburst but didn’t raise the matter in front of the children.
The boy and girl looked at each other again before the boy shrugged. “I didn’t see anything other than the three of you. You chased us away before we got anything.”
“What about the other man?” Barnaby asked. “You saw him in the trees. Did he have any distinguishing features?”
“Eh?” The girl frowned at Luke as though he was talking a foreign language.
“Was he tall or short? Did he have brown hair or light? Was he fat or thin?” Luke expanded.
The boy studied Luke. “He was shorter than you but taller than ‘im.” He nodded toward Marcus. “Thin, like him but dressed in black. I didn’t see nothin’ else.”
“Did he have light hair?”