Free No Law in the Land: (Knights Templar 27) by Michael Jecks Page B

reduce the fines a little by ignoring some of those
     wounds that would not have killed, he was duty bound to include all those that appeared to be more serious. The other fine,
     the murdrum, must be imposed where the victims were not known, and since none of these was known to any about here, the full
     amount must be demanded of the people of the hundred.
    ‘We are no nearer learning who could have done this,’ the coroner said.
    The bailiff could not argue with that. ‘We’ll probably never know. Some outlaws are like that. They arrive in an area, commit
     a few crimes, and then move on to find better pickings elsewhere. It’s likely we’ll never see them.’
    It was all too true. The sort of men who came and committed this type of crime were not locals. It had not been carried out
     by inexperienced fighters; these victims had been killed by professionals. In any case, in Bill’s experience, once a coroner
     had pronounced on a death, that was an end to the matter. No coroner would put himself out too much – and without the support
     even of a coroner, there was little if anything that Bill could himself do. So he would probably never learn more about these
     deaths. They would be remembered by those who lived here for some years and then forgotten. Perhaps someone might pass by
     asking about some folks who had disappeared, but in the absence of anything to say who these victims were, no one would ever
     know, in all likelihood, whether their missing father or husband was lying in a grave at Jacobstowe with the rest of this
     party or not.
    The coroner was scowling at the bodies as they were collected and slung on to the carts. ‘What of the people in the area?
     I find it hard to imagine that no one saw or heard anyone.’
    ‘They’d have been sleeping and—’
    ‘
Pig shit!
You mean to tell me that a force large enough to kill these men could have ridden away from here without anyone noticing?
     Do you think I look that much of a fool?’
    ‘No, Coroner, but you have to understand that we’re so far apart here, many of us, that a force could have ridden between
     houses and gone without anyone hearing, if they were careful.’
    The coroner turned away. ‘They’d have had to go up that road north or south. There’s no track east or west – not nearby. How
     far north could they have gone?’
    ‘They didn’t get to Jacobstowe, I know that much.’
    ‘Then they turned off before that, unless they went south. But south would mean getting closer to Oakhampton,’ the coroner
     mused.
    ‘Why are you so troubled by them? They’re someone else’s problem now,’ Bill said.
    Sir Peregrine looked at him. ‘No, man. They are
our
problem. They committed murder here, and I’ll catch them if I can. I don’t give a farthing for the souls of men who slaughter
     women and children. If I could do anything that would capture them, I’d do it.’
    ‘We don’t even know who many of them were,’ Bill muttered. ‘Just some monks and their guards – I suppose we can learn their
     names. But the others?’
    There was a clattering, thundering noise from behind them, and Bill turned to see a cart approaching. In the back were five
     bodies. The two on the top were the children whom they had discovered under the blanket. He thought of his own little Ant
     as he looked at the two small figures rolling and jerking in the back of the cart. The coroner had seemed the same as all
     the others, but just now there had been a distinct tone of determination in his voice. It almost made Bill think that he was
     serious.
    ‘We’ll learn them,’ Sir Peregrine said firmly. ‘I will not have innocents laid to rest in graves without headstones. Damn
     the souls of those who did this! I want them hanging!’
    ‘Then I’ll do what I can,’ Bill said. He sighed resignedly. ‘Coroner, there is perhaps a little more I can tell you. But ’tis
     only guesswork on my part.’
    Coroner Peregrine listened carefully as Bill