Michael Jecks - The Death Ship of Dartmouth

‘You know why we’re here,’ Simon said harshly. He waved his hand about the room, slopping the wine in his mazer. ‘Pyckard was a wealthy man, wasn’t he? He wouldn’t want to lose too much money. He couldn’t bear to lose a whole ship and the cargo too, could he?’

‘If you say so.’

‘So when he decided to punish the two who had killed his wife, he chose to do it in a way that wouldn’t damage his business.’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think he cared that much. He planned to give most of it away anyhow.’

‘Ah, of course — the salvage for Master Hawley. He’d have been shocked to learn that the good shipman did not want any part of a false salvage. Hawley must have been sickened and angry to be fooled.’

‘He was angry,’ Moses conceded. ‘He came here early today to demand to know what had happened.’

‘You told him?’

‘I have nothing to conceal.’

‘Tell us all, then.’

‘My master wanted to punish the two who had tortured and killed his wife. She was ever a kind, generous woman. All spoke of her beauty and calmness. Yet they raped her and planned to throw her overboard at dead of night. When the ship struck rocks, they thought that they had the perfect story to tell. Only two others survived that night — Adam and my brother. All the others perished.’

‘So his punishment was to take them to the middle of the sea and kill them there?’

‘Afterwards. First they prepared the ship for the sailing, and only when all was ready were they brought back here for a last talk with my master. And then he told them he knew all about their rape and murder.’

‘How did they react?’ Baldwin asked.

‘They denied it like the cowards they were. Adam and some others worked on them, and they knew what would happen to them when they reached a certain place in the sea. There Beauley was to meet the ship and take off the other crew, and put them ashore farther up the coast.’

‘So the two were hanged? Stabbed? What?’

Moses looked at Simon coolly. ‘They were taken in the ship to a place far from land and thrown into the water with a rope about their necks. They were lifted from the water and then dropped in. I think they lasted several duckings.’

Simon shuddered. Unable to breathe in the water, they must have wished for a friendly hand to pull them up, but the only help they received was from a rope at their neck. A hideous death.

‘You think me little better than a murderer?’ Moses said. ‘I would have seen them die a slower death than that if I could. My brother told me of their crime. They must have realised what he had done, so they killed him too.’

‘Your brother?’ Coroner Richard said sharply.

‘Yes, Daniel was my brother.’

‘And the man in the road? What of him?’ Simon demanded. He walked to the sideboard. Receiving a stern look from Sir Richard, he poured two mazers and took one to the Coroner.

Moses glanced away. ‘My master and I were looking for Sir Pierre, Master Pyckard’s brother-in-law, when we saw the stranger in the road. He was accosted by that repellent fellow Cynegils, and we overheard him discuss spying on a stranger.’

‘Did you hear him mention Sir Pierre by name?’ Baldwin asked.

‘No — he only asked about “the foreigner”, but that doesn’t signify. What of it? There was only one foreigner in town that night. My master was unwell already, and he said he wouldn’t see his wife’s brother killed by some foul servant of a thieving reptile like Despenser. So he took a rock and knocked the man down. He fell without a sound, and my master hit him again thrice. It was close to the hole in the road, so I removed the trestles at one side and we rolled him in to make it look as though he had come by an unhappy accident.’

‘Do you know who he was?’ Simon asked.

‘I didn’t introduce myself before my Master killed him,’ Moses said with a touch of scorn.

Coroner Richard drained his mazer. ‘He was Guy de Bouville. Sir Andrew knew him. He worked for Despenser.’

‘And Despenser wanted Sir Pierre dead because he was French and a friend of the Queen,’ Moses said. ‘That was what Sir Pierre told us.’

Baldwin frowned. ‘Although Sir Andrew denied knowing of a man here already when he arrived in town. Just as he denied piracy with Pyckard’s ship.’

‘Hah! At least that denial was true,’ the Coroner chuckled. ‘He told me that this de Bouville chappie was man-at-arms to a fellow called … what was it? Flok?’

Baldwin blinked. ‘Flok?’

‘You’ve heard of him?’

‘Flok was the man whom Hamund Chugge murdered. It was the reason for Hamund being sent here as abjurer,’ Baldwin said.

‘Good God!’ Simon said. Then: ‘You said Odo and Vincent killed your brother, but you also say that they were held before sailing. How do you know they killed him?’

‘Who else would have done it?’ Moses snapped. ‘They realised who must have told my master about his wife’s murder, and punished him for it.’

‘If that was the case, they would have fled, surely,’ Baldwin said.

‘Eh?’

‘If you were guilty of a woman’s murder, and heard that her husband, the man whom you worked for, knew of your actions, would you wait to sail on his ship, with his men aboard? Or would you flee instantly?’

‘I don’t know how evil men like them must think. I don’t pretend to understand them. They were condemned from their own mouths, anyway. They said that Madam Kena was just like the French whore, or somesuch.’

Baldwin grunted with disgust. ‘They sailed regularly for their master?’

‘Of course.’

‘How many French whores do you think they will have used in their lives?’

Moses shook his head in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, they were not guilty of the murder,’ Baldwin said more confidently. ‘Your master heard of the story your brother told, but that was entirely wrong. Just as the murder of the man in the road was wrong.’

‘He was asking about a foreigner,’ Moses began.

‘He was asking about a short fellow by the name of Hamund Chugge, who killed his master. De Bouville was here to avenge him. An abjurer will be told in public by which roads he must go to a port. I think this de Bouville was looking for Hamund to kill him. Instead your master killed him .’

‘Oh, dear heaven.’

‘And in the same way, I do not think your brother died because of Odo and Vincent. Another man killed Danny.’

‘Why do you think that?’

‘The only man who could tell the truth about Mistress Pyckard’s death was your brother. Perhaps if he had noticed one more detail, he would have been aware of another man who could have killed her.’

‘Who else was in the crew of the Saint Rumon , fifteen years ago? And were any of them on the Saint John as well as Odo and Vincent?’ Simon urged. His head was hurting again, and he touched the lump where the hammer had struck.

Moses thought about it.

‘Most of them were strangers. Master Pyckard wanted as few men as possible from about Dartmouth, because it would be hard to have them reappear when their families had thought them dead, so he hired strangers from another town.’

‘But there were two men on the Saint John from here?’ Baldwin insisted.

‘Two, yes. Ed and Adam. But Ed was too young to have been working on the Saint Rumon .’

‘But Adam was on her, wasn’t he?’ Baldwin demanded.

‘Well, yes.’

‘And Adam was keen to help torture Odo and Vincent, wasn’t he?’ the Coroner rumbled. He had returned to the sideboard, and now he waved a full mazer. ‘I don’t know about these two, but I think you killed the wrong men.’