Fair and Tender Ladies Read Online Free PDF Page A

on the ground.
    â€˜Hold the light so I can see his face,’ he ordered, squatting beside it.
    â€˜Do you know him, boss?’ Rob asked.
    â€˜I do. His name’s Jem Carter. He came to see me this morning. He’s the one who thought his sister had run off to Leeds.’

FOUR
    T he Constable rose stiffly, his knees aching, still staring at the body. He turned at the sound of footsteps, and nodded to the coroner as he approached. Brogden halted, wrinkling his face at the stink of the place before he even approached the corpse. For once he hadn’t taken time over his appearance; there was a hole in his hose, and he had left his wig at home and pulled a hat down firmly on his head.
    â€˜Bring that damned torch closer,’ he barked, bending a little to glance at the corpse before straightening again. ‘Dead,’ he announced, then walked away hurriedly without a backward glance.
    â€˜Take him to the jail,’ Nottingham told the men. Once Carter was in the cold cell he’d be able to look at him properly. He glanced around the court. No candles glimmered behind any of the windows but this was a place where they kept clear of the law. ‘Wait. Hold that flame up again,’ he said suddenly.
    The Constable rolled the body a little, studying the ground beneath.
    â€˜There’s hardly any blood. Someone brought him here.’ He glanced up at Rob. ‘Start knocking on doors. Someone must have seen something.’
    â€˜Yes, boss.’
    â€˜I’ll send Mr Sedgwick down when he comes in.’
    He walked slowly back up Briggate. All around him the city was waking, the sky lighter, thin spirals of smoke beginning to rise from chimneys. Why would anyone kill Jem Carter? The man was only looking for his sister. What had he found instead?
    By the time the deputy arrived Nottingham had already examined the body laid out on the bench in the cell they used as a mortuary. Carter’s face was bruised into ugliness; someone had beaten him fiercely; his teeth were knocked out, cheekbones broken, jaw at an angle, marks all over his body. Whoever did this had been brutal, the Constable thought. There were grazes across the man’s knuckles where he’d tried to defend himself. But it was the single deep slash across the throat that had killed him.
    â€˜Boss?’
    â€˜In here, John.’
    The deputy joined him, glancing down at the corpse. ‘Poor bastard took a battering. Who was he?’
    â€˜Jem Carter. The one with the missing sister.’
    â€˜He only arrived yesterday, didn’t he? Where did they find him?’
    â€˜Megson’s Court. But he was killed somewhere else; there was next to no blood around the body. I told him to lodge with Mrs Lumley. Go down there and see if she knows anything.’
    â€˜Yes, boss. Anything in his pockets?’
    â€˜Empty. Turned out. Not too surprising given where he was. Rob’s talking to the people there.’
    Sedgwick shook his head. ‘He’ll not have much luck. You know what they’re like – see nowt, hear nowt and say bugger all.’
    â€˜True enough,’ he agreed with a short sigh. All he could hope was that murder might loosen a tongue or two. ‘Go and join him when you’re done.’ He paused. ‘Whoever did it must have been strong; Carter’s big.’ He turned the man’s hand over, feeling the thick calluses on the palm and fingers. ‘He was a farmer, he’d be strong enough, too.’
    â€˜Doesn’t mean he can fight,’ Sedgwick pointed out.
    â€˜Or maybe he found his sister and someone didn’t want him to take her,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘See what you can discover.’
    The deputy knew the rooming house on Call Lane. Ma Lumley took pride in her home, kept the windows washed, and the step scrubbed clean each morning. She changed the linen regularly and never allowed more than three to a bed.
    She answered at the first