Farriers' Lane - Anne Perry [126]
He had read Joshua Fielding’s statement, and Tamar Macaulay’s, and was halfway through the theater doorman’s when Sergeant Paterson came in. He looked anxious but there was no anger yet in him, no sense of having been offended.
“You want to see me, sir?”
“Yes, please.” Pitt indicated the chair opposite him and Paterson sat on it reluctantly, his face still full of questioning.
“Tell me again everything you remember of the Farriers’ Lane case,” Pitt asked him. “Begin with the first you heard of it.”
Paterson sighed very slightly and began.
“I was on duty early. A constable sent a message that the blacksmith’s boy in the Farriers’ Lane smithy had found a dreadful corpse in his yard, so I was sent straight ’round to see what was what.” His eyes were on Pitt’s face. “Sometimes we get reports like that, and it turns out to be a drunk, or someone died natural. I went straightaway, and found P.C. Madsen standing at the entrance to Farriers’ Lane, white as a sheet and looking fit to be buried hisself.”
His voice was a tight monotone, as if he had said this several times before and still hated it just as much. “It was barely daylight even then, and he took me back through the alley to the stable yard by the smithy, and as soon as I got into the yard and turned ’round, there it was.” He faltered and then continued. “Nailed up to the stable door like, beggin’ yer pardon, sir, like Christ as you see in crucifixes, with great nails through ’is ’ands an’ feet—and through ’is wrists. I suppose that was to ’old the weight of ’im.” Paterson’s own face was white and there was a beading of sweat on his lip. “I’ll never forget that as long as I live. It was the most awful thing I ever saw. I still don’t know ’ow anybody could do that to another ’uman being.”
“According to the medical examiner, he was already dead when they did that,” Pitt said gently.
Two light pink spots burned on Paterson’s cheeks. “Are you saying that makes it any better?” he said thickly. “It’s still blasphemy!”
Pitt thought about all the arguments that it was not blasphemy to a Jew, and knew they would mean nothing to this angry young man, still outraged five years after by the violence of act and of mind that he had seen. So much hatred had wounded him unforgettably.
“I know,” he agreed. “But at least there was less pain. He may actually have died quite quickly—which is some comfort to those who loved him.”
“Maybe.” Paterson’s face was tight, his body stiff. “I don’t see as it makes no difference to what kind of a monster’d do something like that. If you’re trying to say that excuses anything, I think you’re wrong.” He shuddered as memory brought back all the anger and fear. “If we could’ve ’anged ’im twice, I would ’ave.”
Pitt did not comment. “How do you think Godman, or whoever it was, managed to nail him up like that?” he asked instead. “A dead body is extremely awkward to carry, let alone prop up and hold while you nail it by the hands—or wrists.”
“I’ve no idea.” Paterson screwed up his face, looking at Pitt with a mixture of puzzlement and disgust. “I often thought about that and wondered myself. I even asked ’im, when we ’ad ’im. But ’e just said it weren’t ’im.” His lips curled with contempt. “Maybe madmen do ’ave the strength o’ ten, like they say. Fact is, ’e did it. Unless you’re sayin’ there was someone else ’elped ’im? Is that what you’re looking for—an accomplice?”
“I don’t know,” Pitt replied. “Tell me, what happened then? Kingsley Blaine was quite a big man, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, near six foot, I should think. Taller’n me. I couldn’t ’ave lifted ’im, dead weight, and ’eld ’im up.”
“I see. What did you do next?”
Paterson was still tense, his face white and strained.
“I sent the P.C. to get Mr. Lambert. I knew it were too big for me to deal with on my own. Waiting for ’im to come back was the longest ’alf hour o’ my life.”
Pitt did not doubt it. His imagination pictured the young man standing in the slowly broadening daylight on the gleaming cobbles, his breath pale in the chill air, the cold forge unlit by the terrified boy,