Read The Death Ship of Dartmouth: (Knights Templar 21) for Free Online

‘You know how much this is costing me?’
    Aye. And every time he entered the tavern alone, it went quiet. People didn’t like strangers down here, and when you saw that almost all the men in the taverns were sailors, who’d be willing to cut your throat as soon as look at you, you realised that this was a very dangerous place. Never trust a matelot, that was the paver’s rule.
    The watchman was sympathetic. ‘Nothing you can do about it. The Coroner’s been sent for. If you’re lucky, he’ll be only a couple of days.’
    ‘Even if he is, he’ll need a day to arrange his inquest,’ Alred grumbled. ‘I’ve seen them in Exeter. Bloody fools take a good time over their inquests, and all the while poor workers suffer.’
    ‘We don’t take so long here,’ the watchman said with a chuckle. ‘This isn’t some borough in the middle of a city where they can bugger about for days. We’ve got work to be getting on with down here. You wait and see.’
    Alred nodded bitterly. A man of middle height, with grizzled hair and beard, his eyes were more used to laughter, but today there was nothing to laugh about. He glanced down at the corpse, shaking his head. This fellow must have been a lover, a son, a father, perhaps … and now all he had become was sport for others to gawp at.
    There were plenty who kept coming to take a look. Two youngsters, a boy and girl of ten or so, were standing up at the edge of the hole even now, their mother or nurse with them, all three peering down, wide-eyed, at the dead man. Well, it was best that everyone who could might see him, so that someone could identify him when the Coroner arrived.
    Turning, he made his way to the Porpoise further down Higher Street. It was a small alehouse of the sort he would normally avoid in Exeter, but here … where else would a body go? Blasted place was hopeless. In Exeter, there were attractions all the time: you could watch the baiting, see a duel, or go and watch the jugglers and fools at the market square. Ah, how he missed Exeter.
    The alehouse did have one advantage, though: it was cheap. He walked in, stooping under the low lintel, and looked about him for the others.
    ‘That bloke said the Coroner should be here in two days, and he may be quick to come to a conclusion,’ he said when he had joined them.
    Bill and Law were his helpers. Bill was a taller man, his eyes a pale blue, his features wrinkled from laughter and sunburned in a round face. Law was darker, with steady brown eyes set in a narrow face, and he was much shorter. Only sixteen, he had been apprenticed to Alred for two years now, and was bright and quick, if not strong enough yet to do much of the heavier work.
    ‘Two days? What do we do now, then?’ Law asked.
    ‘Wait until we hear, I suppose. We can’t go and do anything until we’re allowed. Oh, God’s ballocks! What amess! Why did we ever come here to this miserable midden?’
    Law shrugged. His real name was Lawrence, but Bill and Alred had agreed early on that the shortarse didn’t justify so long a name. Now he leaned forward eagerly. ‘See that girl over there? She’s been making eyes at me for the last while. Reckon she fancies me!’
    ‘Law, she’d be more likely to fancy a hog,’ Alred sighed. ‘Your face looks like you’ve been rolled in a bed of nettles.’
    ‘It’s not that bad!’ Law protested, a hand going to his volcanic chin.
    ‘Don’t be too hard on the lad,’ Bill said. ‘It might just be that she’s got lousy eyesight.’ He burst out laughing.
    ‘There are many eye me up, I’ll have you know,’ Law said sulkily.
    ‘They’re desperate in a town like this,’ Alred chuckled, then sighed. ‘What are we going to do for money if we get held up? Christ’s pain! what made me take this job in the first place?’
    Bill smiled, showing his uneven teeth. ‘Because you said we’d clean up in a little place like this. You said we’d charge them through the nose for everything they needed done