The Alehouse Murders (12 page)

Ernulf led the way to Whore’s Alley, the main street of the district. The buildings, like those in most of Lincoln, were of three stories, but these were more cheaply built and the top floors sloped inwards towards each other across the street, so close in some places that they seemed in imminent danger of collapse. Most of the casement shutters were closed, even though the day was well advanced, and the walls of the buildings were shabby, cracked in places and buttressed by timber that was warped and split. Except for a couple of bedraggled cats, there was no sign of life, just a sour smell from the rubbish overflowing the open drain that ran down the middle of the street.

“Who holds the fee for these properties?” Bascot asked Ernulf. “I have not seen any of Butwerk listed among the Haye lands.”

“There were a couple in the days of Sir Richard,” Ernulf answered, “but when her father died, Lady Nicolaa got rid of them.” The serjeant smiled. “He was a rare lecher, Sir Richard, although he didn’t have need to come to such whores as live here. But Lady Nicolaa didn’t want to have rents earned by prostitutes in her coffers, so she sold off all the properties here when she came into her inheritance.”

He looked up the street to where it ended in a wall that had been built to contain the area. “Most of the houses belong to whatever stewe-keeper lives in ’em. Bought with money loaned by the Jews, of course. Usual arrangement, you know, the Jews loan the money for the purchase, then whoever has borrowed it pays it back, plus interest. Most of ’em manage to keep going and make a profit. The Jews are happy to have the property as surety for their silver and are satisfied if they only get the interest each year. But if trade slacks off and a stewe-holder can’t pay the interest then he has to sell and pay the Jew his money. Not too many have to do that, though. Whoring can be profitable if the girls are toothsome.”

As he finished speaking, they turned into Whore’s Alley and Ernulf stopped his mount at the first door. He and Bascot slid down from their saddles and gave the reins of the horses to Gianni to hold. The serjeant banged on the wood in front of him, saying as he did so, “Probably all still asleep. I expect trade will be brisk tonight and they’ll need to have taken some rest. There’ll be customers aplenty once the daylight is gone.”

His knocking finally brought a response. The door in front of them was pulled open, but just a cautious crack. Behind it was a shabbily attired individual with a face that closely resembled a ferret. His dark dirty hair fell down cheeks shadowed with week-old stubble, and his few remaining teeth were black with rot. Eyes sliding nervously from Ernulf to the Templar and back again, he asked, with a feeble attempt at heartiness, “What are you doing here, serjeant? Come to sample one of my beauties, have you?”

“Not likely, Verlain. I don’t need a dose of the pox at my age.”

“My wenches are all clean,” the stewe-keeper protested. “You know they are. The bailiff inspects them every week, just as he’s supposed to. I keeps the king’s ordinances, I do. And the town’s as well. No victuals or ale on the premises, no woman kept against her will, and I don’t charge any of the girls’ more than four pence for her room. If that’s why you’re here, then . . .”

Ernulf stopped the man, whose voice had dropped into a whine. “If you’re such a saint, Verlain, how is it the city bailiff tells me he has to fine you regularly for breaking the very ordinances you’ve just told me you keep?”

“Only once or twice, serjeant, only once or twice, when bad times was on me and I had need to pay my money to the Jew. I wouldn’t have broken the injunctions otherwise, I swear.” The stewe-keeper’s voice now had a grovelling tinge. “If you’ve come to check up on me, you must know that with the fair on . . .”

Again Ernulf stopped him. “That you’ve got more wenches in your house than you’re supposed to have and that I might just find a pot or two of ale about the place. Well, if you have and if I do, then I might just let the bailiff know about it. Unless, of course, you answer my questions, and any Sir Bascot has to ask you.”

Bowing, and unctuously assuring them of his willingness to comply with any wishes they might have, the stewe-keeper let his visitors into the premises, and they walked across an entryway lit only by the light of a guttering rush lamp and into a large room. Pushed against the walls were a number of stools and, in the farthest corner, stood a plain wooden table with a scarred and stained surface. On it were some empty tumblers and an unstoppered jack of ale.

Ernulf raised an eyebrow as he looked at the forbidden liquor and Verlain hastily assured him it was only for his own and the harlots’ consumption. The serjeant nodded, then said, “Your women, all asleep, are they?”

“Upstairs, resting,” the stewe-keeper confirmed.

“Well, wake ’em up and tell ’em to get down here. We want to ask if they know of any doxy from round here that’s disappeared in the last couple of days, and to look at some clothes and see if they recognise them.”

“Is this about that whore found murdered in the alehouse, serjeant?” Verlain asked. “It weren’t no girl of mine, that I promise you. I don’t have to wake ’em up for you to ask ’em. I can vouch for their answer.”

“Can you?” Ernulf said sarcastically. “Well, unless I hear their answers myself—and without you prompting their replies—I might think as how you know more about that murder than you’re telling. And if I think that, then I might consider that maybe I should drag you by the heels and hand you over to one of Sheriff Camville’s men and let him ask the questions.”

No more threat was needed. The stewe-keeper almost ran from the room in his haste to acquiesce with Ernulf’s request. Within moments half a dozen sleepy-eyed harlots were standing in the room before them. They were in varying stages of undress, ranging in age from young to old. Some had a jaded prettiness, but most looked haggard and, without exception, wore an expression of irritation at being disturbed from their rest. Once the bawds heard the reason for which they had been summoned, however, they all willingly examined the clothing and listened carefully to Ernulf’s description of the girl who had worn it. But even so, none could remember any girl of their acquaintance that was missing nor, they claimed, had they ever before seen the clothes held out for their inspection. Bascot did not interrupt Ernulf as the serjeant spoke to them, merely watched the women’s reactions closely. As far as he could tell, none of them seemed to be lying and when Ernulf looked at him to see if he wished to ask anything further, Bascot shook his head.

As they left the stewe, the keeper’s voice rasped grat-ingly in their ears as he wished them good fortune with their quest and, with obvious relief, shut the door behind them.

T
HROUGH A CHINK IN THE SHUTTER OF AN UPPER STOREY casement, a stewe-keeper in a house at the far end of Whore’s Alley watched Ernulf and Bascot as they knocked at each door on the street in turn. The watcher was a man of middle years, with thin straggly hair that had once been yellow and was now stained by dirt and time to the colour of greasy pewter. He had a face much like a loaf of unbaked bread, soft and lumpy, but his eyes were sharp and almost as black as currants. His name was Bernard, but because when he was younger he had been called Le Brun on account of the darkness of his eyes, Bernard had been corrupted into Brunner and it was as such that he was known.

He waited nervously as the serjeant and the Templar made their slow progress down the street. He knew that they would soon arrive at his own door and he waited with indecision, uncertain as to whether to take refuge in flight over the wall or to stay and do as he had promised Wat the day before the alekeeper had been found dead. Brunner had never thought matters would come to such a pass. Wat had merely told him there was a goodly pile of silver to be had if he gave the alekeeper one of his harlot’s old gowns and was to tell anyone, if asked, that the girl who would be wearing it was known to him as a prostitute.

Never had he thought that murder would be involved. Nor had Wat apparently, since he had not foreseen his own death. The alekeeper had hinted that the money would be forthcoming from someone of high birth and Brunner had assumed that the whole charade was designed to compromise some girl who was, perhaps, dunning a young lord to marry her. It wouldn’t be the first time hot blood had led to rash promises which were later regretted. During his time as a stewe-holder he had seen more than one young buck get heartsick over a fresh little doxy. A few beddings were usually all that was needed to make the ardour disappear.

When Brunner had heard of Wat’s death, and that there had also been a dead female dressed as a harlot along with him, he had felt the sharp taste of dread rise on the back of his tongue. To dispel it he had reminded himself that only Wat had known of Brunner’s involvement and, if any enquiries were made, he could simply deny knowledge of the dead woman or her dress. The gown had only been an old shabby one, after all, belonging to a harlot that had died the year before. That thought had comforted him until yesterday night when, after all his wenches were tucked up in their rooms with customers, he had found a scrap of parchment lying on the bed in his room. Brunner couldn’t read, but it wasn’t necessary to be literate to understand the drawings that had been limned on the paper. In black ink two prostrate figures had been sketched, one with a broken head and the other with a knife stuck in his heart. It was easy to identify the man with the crushed skull for he had a huge belly just like Wat and a barrel of ale had been pictured standing beside him. The other, blood pouring from the wound in its chest, had black eyes inked in, just like his own. He knew it for a warning that he must keep to the story Wat had told him to tell and, if he didn’t, he would be as dead as the alekeeper now was. The sour taste of fear had quickly returned.

Brunner had slept not at all, but had lain tossing on his pallet until dawn. He had been up and drinking a cup of wine to steady his nerves as, one by one, the customers his women had been entertaining had left. Then he had heard of a priest being stabbed and his fear intensified. Anyone who would try to kill a priest would think nothing of murdering a lowly stewe-keeper. And now the very thing he had been dreading was about to take place. He was about to be questioned by someone in authority. Thinking furiously he began to pace, then he left his room and ran up the stairs to the landing above. Along the narrow passageway dirty leather curtains hung, shielding the entry to a number of small closets, each one only big enough for a pallet and stool, where the doxies carried on their trade. He went to the curtain at the farthest end and pulled it aside. On a straw mattress lay a young girl. She was buxom and fresh faced, with long blond hair loose and spread on her pillow. She was not asleep, however, even though her eyes were closed, for her hands were pressed hard against her mouth to stifle the sobs that were shaking her.

Brunner went inside and grabbed her by the arm. “Up, you. Now. I want you downstairs.”

She pulled away from him, but there was no way to escape. He stood at the door and watched her as she crouched against the wall. “I want to leave,” she snivelled. “ ’Tis against the ordinances for you to keep me here against my will. You said you wanted me for a servant, not to be a harlot. If you don’t let me go, I’ll find the bailiff and tell him.”

Brunner leaned over her and gave her a sharp kick in the belly. She doubled up and began to moan. “You knew what it was all about when you came here, my girl. Don’t pretend the innocent with me. Not so keen now you find that you have to lay with whoever wants to pay for you instead of being able to pick and choose your customers, are you? Well, you say one word to the bloody bailiff and I’ll fix you up so no man, not even an old and ugly one, will ever want you to pleasure him again. Now get up and go downstairs, before I take a paddle to your bare arse.”

He flung the leather curtain aside and strode out into the passage. The girl rose and crept after him, her hands to her stomach where he had kicked her. She followed Brunner downstairs and into his room, and he shut the door behind her. Then, with more threats of physical injury, he primed her in what she was to say when Ernulf and the Templar arrived.

A
S THEY APPROACHED BRUNNER’S DOOR, ERNULF HAWKED and spat. “If I find any ordinances broken in here, I’ll take the fine out of the stewe-holder’s hide. Nothing would give me greater pleasure.”

Bascot looked at the serjeant and smiled. “I take it you have no liking for the man,” he said.

“None at all. Most of the stewe-holders we’ve just seen are not too bad. They treat their wenches passably well and don’t take too many liberties with the regulations. But this one . . . I’ve been tempted more than once to take my fist to his pasty face.”

“Has he given you a personal offence?” Bascot asked while Gianni, still holding the horses, looked in surprise at Ernulf’s grim face.

“No, but we fished a young girl out of the river once. One of the rat-catchers down on the docks saw her as she jumped in, but she drowned before anyone could get to her. About two year ago now, it were. She was just a little bit of a maid, not much more than a child. Drowned herself she had, but before she jumped into the river someone had taken a birch rod to her back and legs. She was cut from neck to ankle. Been one of Brunner’s wenches we were told, but he swore he hadn’t seen her for a week or more before we found her and, although we tried, we couldn’t prove different. But I know he did it. Beat her so badly she committed the sin of killing herself rather than face him again. Poor soul was probably too afraid to go to the bailiff, so she took the only way out left to her.”

“What did you say his name is?” Bascot asked. “Brunner?”

“That’s right, but he should be named Devil’s Backside, for that’s what he is.”

When Ernulf knocked on the door and the stewe-holder opened it, the serjeant did not enter into any good-natured banter the way he had at the other stewes. He pushed Brunner roughly aside and told him to call his women down, and to be quick about it. When the harlots were all roused and standing downstairs, Ernulf asked them the same questions he had asked at all the other houses along the street. Did they recognise the clothes? Did they know of any harlot that had pale brown hair, was about midway in her term with an unborn child and had not been seen lately?