The Many Sins of Cris De Feaux (Lords of Disgrace 3)

Awkward in their best clothes and solemn with responsibility, the jury shuffled to their feet from their double row of benches. The audience, jam-packed into the main part of the Ram’s Head Inn’s little assembly room, stood, too, nudging and whispering and staring at the front row, where all those to be called as witnesses were seated.

Sir James took his seat behind the table set on the rather shaky dais that the local joiner and coffin-maker had knocked up hastily, fussed with his cushion, his pen and his papers, donned a pair of spectacles and cleared his throat.

‘Silence in court!’ The parish constable was enjoying himself. ‘Be seated!’ He turned to Sir James, who nodded. ‘Call the first witness! Thomas Gedge!’

‘I be ’ere, Fred Dare, you old fule. Sitting right in front of you. No call for yelling.’ An elderly man in a smock and sea boots got to his feet.

‘You stand there.’ Red about the ears, the constable pointed to the witness stand, another of the carpenter’s constructions. ‘And here’s the Bible.’ He handed it over, read the oath, still at full volume, and sat down.

‘…so help me God,’ the old man concluded.

‘You are Thomas Gedge, fisherman?’

‘Aye, sir.’

‘And you frequent Cat’s Nose Bay?’

‘Don’t know about frequent it. I keeps me fishing boat there and me shed with me nets and all.’

Sir James glowered. ‘And were you there on the night of Wednesday last and for what purpose?’

‘Aye, I was there, having a bit of a smoke in me shed. The wife’s mother had come to visit and a man can’t get any peace in his own home with two women clacking. It was a good, warm night, so down I go to the cove. I was there from when the church clock struck eight to past one.’

‘Aye, and with a brandy bottle, too, I’ll be bound!’ someone called from the back.

‘Silence in court! And you could see the beach?’

‘The door to the shed was open, but I can’t see the beach on account of the shed’s with the others, up aways. I could see the track down to the beach.’

‘And did you see anyone go down it that night?’

‘Aye, I did that.’ A whisper of interest ran round the room. ‘It was that new Riding Officer, Ritchie. Recognised his hat and the cocky way he has…had…of walking. And the moonlight caught his face as he went past. I thought to myself, you’ll find no one down there to bother, you interfering devil, you.’

‘Did you see anyone else?’

‘I did. About ten minutes after, it was. Figure in a cloak, all muffled up and walking quietly, like they didn’t want to be seen.’

‘And is that person in this court?’

‘How would I know, your worship? He was all muffled up, like I said.’

‘Was it a man?’

‘Could be. Might have been a tallish woman, I suppose.’ He shrugged. ‘I had a bit of a doze. Then I woke up and was just thinking the motherin-law would have gone to bed and it’d be safe to go home when I heard a shot. I thought about it a bit, then I closed the door of the shed and waited until I heard footsteps going up the track. Then I waits some more and then I went to have a look and there was Ritchie on the beach in the moonlight with a bullet in his back and blood all over the stones.’

‘Why did you wait before going out to look, man?’ Sir James asked irritably.

‘Because I didn’t want a bullet in me head, of course. Then I went and got Fred Dare out of bed, much good he was.’

‘That will be all. You may go back to your seat. Frederick Dare, take the stand.’

Gabriel Stone leant forward as the constable took the oath and murmured across Tamsyn to Cris, ‘And that is it? One cloaked figure of indeterminate sex?’

‘There will be more,’ Cris said.

The constable recounted being woken, getting dressed, fetching some of the local men in support and finding the body on the beach.

‘And were there any traces of the murderer to be seen?’