The Butchers Funeral: A Medieval Murder (9 page)

Perry decided a confrontation was the best strategy.  He had come so far, but it had all crashed to the ground around him.  His anger was clouding his thinking, but he was too involved to realise this.  If he had stepped back from the situation, Perry would have started to rebuild his strategy, but with the butcher only a few hundred yards away, the temptation to challenge the man, to his face, was too great.

It was midmorning and the market had been open for several hours.  Perry made his way past the temporary stalls sandwiched into the wide marketplace by the shops along the edges.  The shop he was after was near one corner, meaning that he could approach it from nearly in front.  He started poking around the various stalls, stalking his prey, making sure he was unseen.  He had met Col Butcher on a number of occasions and had no doubt that the man would recognise him at a glance, even with his heavy overcoat and cap.  He kept his head down, apparently looking at the wares in front of him, but eyes on the butcher.  The butcher was oblivious to all, except his customers, on whom he lavished his attentions.  This was fortunate as Perry was struggling to find suitable places to view his prey from.

As he watched, he saw that the butcher was popular, regardless of his dubious business practices.  The pies were in great demand, and they did actually smell really good.  Butcher also kept up a fast trade in meats, most of which seemed, at a distance, to be perfectly good.  Occasionally Butcher would usher a poorer looking customer into the darkness of the shop, rather than serving them on the outside stall.  Perry was certain that these people were being offered inferior meats that would fit their budgets.  Once, the butcher had taken a well-off looking customer inside, probably to rip him off thought Perry.  There was also a middle-aged well-dressed woman who appeared to be undertaking a large shopping trip, probably a servant for a significant household.  She had also gone into the shop, but Perry could not tell if she was buying the poorer meat, and pocketing the difference from the money her employer had given her, or if she just went inside the shop to pick up a large existing order.  Judging by the time she took, Perry thought it was probably the former.

After a while, Perry decided to intercept one of the customers who used the inside of the shop.  He wanted to see what was being purchased.  He had seen one of the constable's men coming along the street towards his, one that had been present when he had been informed about Tomson's death.  The man, Pete his name was, would be perfect for the job of persuading someone to allow Perry to inspect their purchases.  After all, most people would know the constable's men by sight.

'Pete, get here.'  Perry called the constable as he drew even with him.

'Ah, John Perry ain't it?'

'That's right.  I want to check on what that butcher is selling.  I'm going to need your help to convince someone to let me check what they've bought from him.  They don't know me, but they know you so there shouldn't be any arguments.'

'Anyone in mind?' The constable's man asked.

'Probably the next person who goes into the butcher's shop and looks poor.  There's been quite a few of them and we shouldn't have to wait long.'

'He keeps the really rough stuff in his shop you know.'  Pete offered helpfully.

'Thought he might.  If I can catch him selling something like that, I may be able to get him fined, and if I can get him fined, then who knows what else could turn up then.'  Perry was getting optimistic as he was so close to catching the butcher, albeit on the far lesser issue of selling unfit food rather than breaking open his gang, but one thing at a time.

The two men did not have to wait long until they discretely intercepted an old woman.

'Mind if we check that love.'  Pete said to the woman, who quickly recognised him, and with a nervous glance at Perry, handed over the package she had purchased from the butcher.

'You mind it careful, that's my dinner for tonight.  Cloth's mine as well.' She said.

Pete passed Perry the cloth wrapped package.  He carefully unfolded it and found he did not need to sniff the meat as it had a pervasive odour.  It was a piece of old pork, slimy and with maggots crawling across it.  Pete stepped back in disgust.

'You can't eat this.'  Perry exclaimed.

'Brush off the worms and boil it lots and it'll last me, and mine, for days.'  Her tone was matter of fact.

'You shouldn't be able to buy meat in this condition.'  The carniter said.

'Was all I could afford.  Old man drinks most of our money.  Besides, what are we supposed to eat in the city?  It's not like when I was a girl and lived in the countryside.  We could forage wild plants, catch game or even eat our seed if we got desperate.  Besides, our Lord of the Manor didn't let us stave, even if he would have us executed for hunting the wrong game.  Then we get free, come to the city, and look what we're reduced to.'  There was clear bitterness to her tone.

'The law is the law.  There's a reason you shouldn't be able to buy meat like this.' Perry said, before turning to Pete, 'Get her name in case we need to call her as a witness.'

'There my love, that'll be a nice joint for your meal tonight.' The butcher handed over some meat to a short woman, collecting her coin in payment.  'So what will be then madam?' he said to his next customer, a much older woman who looked a bit down at heel.

Perry could not hear the rest of the conversation as the noise of the marketplace reasserted itself.  How was he going to get the thieving swine?  He played through a range of thoughts, such as charging into the shop, grabbing the butcher and beating him to a pulp.  Maybe kicking over the stall, or catching Col cheating a customer such as the one he was now serving?  In each of his fantasies, the butcher barely resisted and immediately confessed, with proof of the crimes easily found and scattered around the premises.  Perry knew this was unlikely to be the case in reality, but it was still a pleasant daydream.

The carniter had just about settled on his approach, kicking over the stall before manhandling the butcher, when a commotion behind him demanded his attention.  A young lad, brown haired, ran into the market from a side alley, pursued by a shopkeeper and some young men.

'Stop thief!' one of the pursuers yelled.

The thief leapt over a barrow of vegetables, loosing his footing as he landed and bouncing into the woman at the butcher's shop.  The impact knocked the woman over, straight into the stall, but it was enough for the young man to regain his balance and make his escape.  The strange thing was that Perry watched Col Butcher quickly disappear into the shadow of his shop front.  The movement was almost instinctive, but Perry knew it for what it was, the butcher was avoiding taking part in the hue and cry, probably for fear of having to leave his stall unattended.  Of course, Perry did not need to take part as he was on official business and had now gained some very useful leverage over his target.  As he watched the woman get up, he saw the butcher come forward to help her, no he was not being helpful, he had just switched the meat he was about to sell the woman with a closed parcel instead.  So that was his game, take advantage of the disruption to cheat someone.  He was not surprised to see the woman targeted in this way, after all, Perry had read and heard many accounts of this.  What was a greater shock being the failure to chase the thief.  If the thief was not caught, the butcher could be placed on trial in his place.  The idea of catching the butcher in the act of cheating a customer was pushed into the back of his mind as he thought of the opportunities that had now arising to pursue the butcher.

Perry decided to retire to a tavern to ponder this delicious turn of events.  He would await the outcome of the hue and cry and then make his move, knowing that the opportunities open to him were now far greater than he had previously anticipated.

Almost a week passed as Perry considered his options.  He was not his usual decisive self.  The temptation to confront Butcher was almost overwhelming, aided by what he had seen in the market place, he would have the opportunity to bring the man down.  Unfortunately, the thief had been caught, so this would reduce the leverage he had gained when he observed Butcher failing to take part in the chase.  However, it would still be severe enough to damage the trader's reputation in the community and such harm could encourage Col to share all he knew about his gang so that they could all be rounded up.

Perry had also been pursuing various leads around the city.  He tried to get the other butcher, Williams, to take part in the scheme he was building.  Williams was not prepared to take part.  He seemed to run his business very carefully, and had probably reported the approach to Butcher, in all likelihood, he was part of Col's system.  However, Williams had given him some new information about the next expected delivery.  Information had been sent ahead that a cartload of barrels of salted pork had been purchased from a castle on the coast.  The load was too big for just Col Butcher to shift through his own shop, so he had started to arrange to spread the goods across his usual network.  Williams was clearly hedging his bets, perhaps he felt he could step into Col's shoes when the gang leader was brought down, but likewise, his information would cause no harm, and be deniable, if Perry could not act on it.

Perry had waited all day for this delivery.  It had not materialised and he was wondering if Williams had got cold-feet and let Butcher know about the possibility of a trap.  Maybe Williams had even been informing on instruction from Butcher, there had been no deal, and it was all a big trick to misdirect the carniter.  The more Perry thought about this, the more convinced he was that he was being distracted.  Perry swore that once he had got Butcher, he would go for Williams, he was not prepared to be made out to be a fool.

The other leads he had pursued had led to nothing of significance.  He looked into his sixth ale of the evening.  Perry had been in the tavern all of the evening, but was drinking slowly, even though the ale was weak.  He had been sat with his thoughts as most of the community knew who he was by now and even though he worked for their good, he was an outsider, an officer of the court, and therefore suspect.  He had passed few words with the people around him.  Col Butcher had been in the tavern earlier and Perry had tried to listen in on Butcher's conversation, but he could not do so without being too obvious.  Besides, Butcher had left early, not sharing his time with many people there.

Disappointed by the way things were going, Perry retired to bed.  He had a bed upstairs in the tavern, overlooking the street.  How was this all going to turn out, how was he going to catch that criminal?  His thoughts were stuck on the likelihood that his only significant charge would relate to the hue and cry.  Eventually he fell asleep.

Perry was awoken by a crash in the street.  He instantly knew he would not go back to sleep, out of curiosity he got up and looked out of the window to see Col Butcher picking himself up from among a pile of crates.  Perry did not even think through what he was doing, he threw on his clothes and boots, quietly going down the starts so as not to disturb anyone sleeping, finally slipping out though the quiet tavern.

Once out onto the dark street, he looked at the crates the butcher had extricated himself from.  Col was not there, but Perry saw a figure at the end of the street staggering around the corner.  It was the butcher, Perry knew he could catch up with his prey within a minute, but instead held back, preferring to follow and pick his time.  Besides, he thought, there was something wrong with the Butcher, he was muttering to himself and badly balanced.  It was as if he had drunk far too much.  Perry thought that Col had probably gone on to the home of a friend after he had left the tavern, maybe having more to drink there.  He had certainly not been in this condition when he left the tavern.  It was a few minutes before Perry realised that Col was heading way from his home.

Eventually Col Butcher left the street and went down an alley.  Perry knew that this was his moment, the best chance to get some private time to convince the man to confess.  He leapt forward, no longer bothered with maintaining a stealthy approach, not that he had really needed to anyway as he followed the drunken man. 

As the carniter turned into the alley, he was confronted by Butcher talking to thin air, 'I said I didn't.  I didn't.' The man did not look confused.  If he had actually been speaking to someone, Perry would have considered it pleading, but there was no-one there.  The drink had clearly loosened Butcher up, Perry thought to himself, probably pickled his brain for that matter.  Perry did not wait around, grabbing his quarry by the front of his clothes and pushing him again the wall.

'Got you, you bastard.'  Perry was already beginning to enjoy himself.

'What?'  Butcher was surprised but only managed to show it quietly.

'Now we're going to have a nice chat and you're going to fill me in on some things I want to know.'

'I did it, I did it.'  The voice was full of resignation.

'What do you mean, you did it?'  Perry was surprised to hear this from the butcher.  It threw him off track, although not enough to release his hold.

'I cheated them.  Cheated them all.  Call them off me please.'  There was a pleading note to the request.

'I knew it!  You confess?  You admit it?'  Perry was triumphant.  At last he had his man, 'What about your organised gang, moving unfit goods?'

'All of it, I did all of it.  Call them off.  Please.'  Again the pleading note.