J. Tomlin - The Intelligencer

"They'll argue for another half hour yet," Wulle said and rounded on Cormac. "Now what were you about this morning? I heard you were out at the duke's camp. That's a dangerous place to be wandering."

Cormac huffed. "They're Highlanders. I offered them a song and listened whilst they talked. They're no danger to me."

Law glanced around to be sure no one was listening to their conversation, but the loud arguing over whether the next possible assizer had cheated his customers held everyone's attention, so he said quietly, "I want to ken what they talked about. What the devil is Albany doing in Perth? Did they say if he's biding?"

"None of them said what he was about. I doubt they kent, but they said their sergeants have given orders to be prepared to ride for Castle Doune on at a moment's notice."

"And good riddance," Wulle muttered. "They'e nae but Highlander ruffians and troublemakers, the duke's men or nae."

Cormac cast his eyes at the ceiling, but Law knew he was too accustomed to casual insults to Highlanders to bother with arguing.

"Strange his stopping here when-" Law began, but Wulle interrupted him.

"Wheesht, they're finally starting."

Sir William banged the base of the burgh mace on the table and began to explain that they were there for the assize to determine who the dead man was, how he died, and who was responsible, but that if they could not determine any one of those matters, they were to say so with no equivocation. As he spoke, some sidelong glances between Una and two of the men made Law frown.

Sir William began by calling Law to come stand before him. He glowered and said, "You find too many bodies for my liking. No honest man should find so many."

"More than I like, lord sheriff, but I am sometimes hired to find someone who's gone missing, and who is more likely to be done to death?"

"And you were hired to find Neill Blacader?" he asked, sounding incredulous. "Exactly when did this happen?"

"Yester morn." Law nodded toward Wulle. "I was at Cullen's tavern, and Andy, standing yon with Widow Blacader, came and bade me go speak with her. She said her man had been gone missing more than a day before, and they'd sought him to no avail. So I telt her I'd try to find him for her."

"There was nae reason for someone to go poking about past that fence if he did nae already ken there was a body yon," a woman's voice shouted from the crowd, and Law suppressed a groan.

Sir William scanned the crowd, frowning. "Who said that?"

"Me," Una said. "I am alewife and tavern owner on New Row Road outside the walls."

"I ken where New Row Road is," Sir William snapped. "But what do you ken about finding the body?"

She pointed accusingly at Law. "He came in asking if I had seen Neill Blacader, pretending he did nae ken where he was. Then he left my tavern and walked right up to it past the fence, well away from the road. How could he have kent it was there if he had naught to do with it?" Her voice rose higher and more excited as she spoke.

Law shook his head. "I'd never seen nor met the man, no way nor reason I'd harm him. I wandered behind the tavern where she does her brewing trying to make out which way Blacader might have gone, because several people telt me they saw him going onto that road. When I saw there had been horses back there from the trampled grass, I went to look. When you got close, you could nae miss…" He glanced apologetically at the widow. "Och, I've smelt too much death in my days in battle to mistake it, so I went searching."

Sir William turned his gaze to the widow. "You are Widow Blacader then?" he asked.

"Aye." She was dry-eyed, but her face looked gaunter than the day before, whether from grief or not Law couldn't decide.

"Do you confirm his story?" Sir William thrust his chin toward him, to Law's irritation. He'd never earned the man's ire but always seemed to have it.

"Aye, 'tis true enow."

"Had you met him before? Was he acquainted with your man? Do business with him?"

She shook her head. "Not that I ever kent. He was never at the cartage, or I would have seen him."

"Well, I watched him when he left the tavern," one of the men with Una said. He was a big, flat-featured man even taller than Law. Law did not recall having seen him in the tavern or anywhere else. "He went around back as though he had business there, and there was nae reason for it." At the sheriff's silence, he continued. "He looked around like, and then he kept going straight back toward the fence, not hesitating at all, and then came right back to say he had found a body. It was back hidden in some trees is why no one had seen it. He had to have kent it was there. And that must mean he did the killing!"

Sir William, scowling, persevered with the account of Meldrum being summoned, and the identification of the body finally obtained corroboration by the straightforward method of asking, "And you, Mistress Una, agree with that? And you, Sergeant, ken the man and can identify him?"

"Aye," Una said and opened her mouth to continue, but Sir William had already turned to Meldrum.

"Aye, 'tis him right enow," the sergeant concurred.

"Aye, but that is nae to the matter of who did the killing," one of the assizers, a lanky man whom Law thought they'd said was a chandler, put in. "I think that what yon said makes a good deal of sense."

With a sinking feeling, Law stepped forward and said, "And I tell you, I did nae ken the man nor have any reason to harm him."

"You dinnae have to ken someone to steal from them," said the flat-faced man. Several of the assizers looked at each other and nodded.

Law looked the man in the face. "I'm nae thief, but if I were, I'd nae go off and leave the siller on the ground."

"Have the assizers any more questions they wish to put? Does anyone have any more evidence they wish to bring forward?"

"I still say-" Flat-Face shouted.

Sir William cut him off with a glare and a bang of the burgh mace on the table. "We've heard what you have to say, so unless it is something more, it will take us no further in the matter."

"Aye," said the chandler, "I want to ask the sergeant if the grass was trampled by horses as this Sir Law said." He cast a suspicious look toward Law.

"It was," Meldrum confirmed. "It was trampled enow that the riders must have been there a time. There were droppings as well. Probably three horses."

"Could you tell if all three had riders? Mayhap one person-" He gave Law another glance. "-leading two horses."

Meldrum drew his face up into a wrinkled frown. "Hard to say, but none of the hoof prints looked lighter than the other. Still after a day or so it would nae swear one way or the other."

A man in a plain burgher's gown asked, "I am still nae clear-was he robbed?"

At that, Meldrum sounded more confident. "His purse was yon. No way to tell if he dropped it or the killer. But there were coins strewn that a killer could have taken."

"Unless he fled because he was afraid someone had heard," put in Flat-Face.

The room was suddenly full of noise as everyone in it spoke up with an opinion whether a thief would have fled without taking money readily at hand. Over the hubbub, Sir William shouted for silence and pounded with the mace on the table. When he restored quiet, there were no more questions, so the assizers were led grandly out of the rope enclosure and through the door behind the dais to make a decision on what they had heard.

Cormac sighed. "They'll feed that lot, and we'll wait with empty bellies."

"What did you do to that man to give him such a scunner of you?" Wulle asked in an undertone.

Law stared at the man over the heads of the excitedly talking knots of onlookers. Flat-Face was watching the door where the assizers had disappeared, his face thoughtful. Suddenly, as though he had felt Law staring at him, he jerked around and laughed. Law ground his teeth. "He was nae in the tavern when I was yon. He was lying, but damn me if I ken why."