Michael JECKS - The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker

‘So you don’t think that Peter was killed because of his clerking for Karvinel?’ Simon asked.

‘No. I think that Jolinde was supposed to have died. And then Adam was supposed to die because he knew the killer.’

‘What of the Karvinels?’ Simon asked.

‘Who would benefit from Karvinel’s death?’ Baldwin asked.

‘Vincent le Berwe!’ the Coroner replied.

‘Exactly. Just as Vincent would lose his key enemy by the death of Ralph.’

‘There are some others,’ Coroner Roger observed.

Baldwin gave a fleeting smile. ‘Very well. But Karvinel and le Berwe were the two leading contenders in the city, I think you will agree?’

‘Oh, certainly, but there will always be contenders in any city. That doesn’t mean that one or other will murder his opponent.’

‘No, of course not,’ Baldwin agreed.

He had clasped his hands behind his back and Simon could see that he was deeply moved or concerned, although Simon was not sure why. The Bailiff was about to clear his throat and break in upon Baldwin’s thoughts when another interruption caused all three to halt.

Jen of Whyteslegh was petrified. She was convinced that she would soon be dead of terror. These three men were among the most powerful and important she had ever seen, let alone spoken to. Such folk hadn’t come near her village when she was at home with her parents. There was a worm of fear squirming in her belly as she hastened her steps towards the rearmost man and tugged at his tunic.

Instantly Simon whirled to face her. The sudden action made her stop and put a hand to her mouth as she saw him reach for his sword, but when he saw it was a young woman, Simon stayed his hand and smiled reassuringly.

‘You were comforting the child outside the house, weren’t you?’ he said. His head still ached appallingly, but he felt guilty at scaring the girl and he was determined to put her at her ease.

‘Yes, sir,’ she squeaked.

‘Did you want to speak to me?’

‘Sir, I have been told to ask, would you speak for an approver if he can deliver you a murderer?’

Baldwin and the Coroner had stopped a short distance further up the road and they watched Simon as he tried to make sense of her words. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I have a friend, sir. He has been involved in crimes, but he wants to ask for a pardon. Would you speak for him if he will give you evidence to convict another felon?’

Simon glanced back the way they had come. This early in the morning Exeter’s High Street was a bustling mess of humanity, with buskers and hawkers calling out their wares, girls threading their way through the crowd, boys darting hither and thither to offer their services to hold a horse’s reins for a period. Somewhere in the seething mass, Simon felt sure that he could feel a man’s close inspection. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘If your friend can help us to stop these murders, I’ll speak for him. Let me speak to the Coroner.’

He beckoned and Baldwin and Coroner Roger rejoined him. Roger was unconvinced. ‘Why should I allow him to surrender?’ he demanded of Jen.

‘He has been blamed for crimes he didn’t commit – he wants to stop running and hiding all his life. Please, sir, please . Let him give himself up.’

The big man puffed out his cheeks. ‘Very well, but if the fellow he accuses demands trial by combat, I can’t do anything to protect him.’

‘I wouldn’t expect you to, Coroner,’ said Sir Thomas from behind him. ‘But Vincent le Berwe paid me to destroy Nicholas Karvinel. That makes him a felon. I think he murdered Karvinel and his wife, Juliana, too.’

‘I am afraid I think that there you are wrong,’ Baldwin interrupted, ‘but I wish to arrest the murderer. Coroner, may we continue?’

‘By all means.’

‘Are you going to Vincent le Berwe’s house?’ Sir Thomas asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Good. In that case I can tell you of all his crimes on the way there. Come – I do not want him to escape. He killed Karvinel and he has stolen my revenge from me. I wanted Karvinel to die for my friend, but now he is already murdered!’

Vincent le Berwe was in his hall when the furious hammering came on his door. He looked up bemused as one of his servants shouted through the panel to demand who was visiting so early. Hearing the bellowed reply, Vincent shot to his feet and called for his bottler, while ordering that the door should be opened forthwith.

‘Coroner, and Sir Baldwin. Bailiff Puttock! It is a pleasure,’ he said, and then there was a freezing knot in his throat as he recognised the last man.

‘Good day, Vincent,’ Sir Thomas said, walking inside and gazing about him with interest. ‘Receivers do well for themselves, don’t they?’

‘Are you alone here?’ Baldwin asked.

‘My wife is at the Cathedral, Sir Baldwin. Why?’

‘Because we are here to learn why Karvinel and his wife were murdered,’ Coroner Roger grated. ‘And we don’t want to upset your wife unduly.’

Baldwin smiled. ‘Vincent, please be seated. This will take us some little while.’

‘Seated? Why? And who is that man? What’s he doing here?’

In answer, Sir Thomas pointed at him. ‘Coroner, before God, I swear that I know this man. He is Vincent le Berwe, Receiver of the city of Exeter. I met him many years ago when we were both young, he a student, me a youth practising at the warrior’s arts. Recently I fell in with felons, and this man Vincent le Berwe persuaded me to help him. He wanted me to ruin his enemy Nicholas Karvinel. To that end he paid me to break into Karvinel’s house and steal all I could. Later he paid me to repeat the break-in and fire the place.’

‘Thomas! What are you doing? Are you mad?’ Vincent demanded, astonished.

‘Sir Thomas, did you harm Karvinel and his wife last night?’ Coroner Roger intoned solemnly.

It was Baldwin who answered. ‘Oh no. Sir Thomas had nothing to do with that, did you?’

The outlaw wiped a hand over his brow. ‘No, although I should have. I wanted the bastard to pay for the way he had my man killed. No, I would never use poison. It’s a coward’s weapon.’

‘Who?’ demanded Coroner Roger. ‘Which man did he have killed?’

‘Hamond, the man you had arrested and hanged. He was with me all that day until he went to the tavern for a drink. Neither of us robbed Karvinel.’

Coroner Roger sneered. ‘Then who did?’

‘No one,’ Baldwin answered.

‘ What? ’ All the men turned to him, the Coroner dumbstruck for the first time since Baldwin had met him.

He smiled. ‘That is right. I think when we look through Karvinel’s house, we shall find his own money there intact, and we’ll probably find the money supposed to be stolen from the Cathedral as well.’

‘Why would a man stage a robbery?’

‘I think I just gave you the answer: the Cathedral’s money. It was a significant sum, far too great a temptation to a man whose own fortunes were so weak. He pretended to have been robbed, then hurried back to the city. There he sought his clerk and told him, I guess, that he had been robbed. Peter was horrified. He agreed to back up Karvinel, even to the extent of identifying a certain felon whom, so they alleged, had been partly responsible for the theft of the money. That was enough to secure the death of Hamond.’

‘What has all this to do with me?’ Vincent demanded.

‘Your responsibility lies with the death of Ralph the Glover,’ Baldwin informed him. ‘But not directly because you yourself didn’t kill him. Just as you didn’t kill Peter or the Karvinels.’

‘Who did?’ Coroner Roger asked impatiently.

‘Consider Ralph first. It could hardly have been any of the Cathedral staff who killed him. They were all in the Cathedral at the time. After Ralph left the dawn Mass, they would all have been attending Chapter. What is more, the knife was a slender one, with a blade of only half an inch in width at the base. That is a very small blade. And the attacker struck many times, in a berserk manner, which is significant.’