‘Hmm,’ said her father. ‘And if any found it, they would take it to be Maister Sim’s. You could be right, I suppose.’
‘There is no way to prove it,’ she said, ‘but it would work.’
Gil grimaced.
‘I’m no judge of the matter,’ he said. ‘I’m too close to it. But it seems to me very odd. If it was left there by the man who pushed the handcart through the night, we could assume it was his takings from the last shipment down the river. In which case why not take it home with him?’
‘Perhaps he left it for his accomplice,’ said Alys. ‘No, that doesn’t work.’
‘It could have been there for two nights and a day,’ Gil said. ‘Why did the accomplice not come for it?’
‘Exactly,’ said Alys. ‘And yet. ’ Her voice trailed off as she thought about it. ‘Gil, suppose it was the other man’s share of the takings? If the man who pushed the handcart, whether it was Barnabas or the other, took the whole payment home with him to count and divide it, then perhaps he brought that purse back the next day-’
‘Yesterday, in effect,’ said Maistre Pierre.
‘Yesterday,’ she agreed. ‘And hid it when he got the chance.’
‘It makes the gap in the time shorter,’ said her father.
‘It does,’ said Gil, ‘though it doesn’t explain the way it was hidden, unless someone deliberately wished to incriminate Habbie.’
‘Sim is well regarded among the songmen,’ observed Maistre Pierre.
‘Quite. We need to consider that further. But returning to the night Annie disappeared,’ pursued Gil, ‘some time after midnight, some time after the handcart was stowed, someone came by and throttled Peg with a sack-tie, apparently unaware that she was dead already.’
‘There are gaps,’ said Maistre Pierre after a pause.
‘There are huge gaps. And none of it makes sense. Was it the verger, or his accomplice, who killed Peg? Why was she killed? When?’
‘You think it was not Annie’s rescuer who killed her?’
‘I hope not,’ said Alys. ‘To have her freedom at the cost of another woman’s life!’
‘Euan thinks the man will be back in Glasgow wi the tide tomorrow,’ said Lowrie, returning. ‘It wasny easy to get a clear answer from him, but that was about the sum of it.’
‘It never is,’ said Gil. ‘I’ll try to get down there the morn’s morn, then.’ He drew out his own tablets, and paused as they fell open at his list of Annie Gibb’s properties. ‘Ah, there is something I must ask you about before you leave, Pierre. Now, what are these gaps? What do we still need to find out?’
‘Near everything,’ said his father-in-law gloomily. Ignoring this, Gil drew three columns and headed them.
‘For Peg, we still need to find out who she wanted to pick a fight with, and who killed her if it was not the same person, and where.’
‘And when,’ said Alys.
‘You make it sound so simple,’ said Lowrie.
‘Perhaps an hour or so before she was put where we saw her,’ said Maistre Pierre, ignoring this. ‘No, indeed, it must be longer, for she had just begun to stiffen before she was in place, I think, from the position of her head when we found her.’
‘So she might have been killed while the battle was still going on,’ said Alys.
‘Who had the opportunity?’ Gil smoothed and re-incised a line on the wax leaf. ‘All the prentices, I suppose. The man with the handcart. Peg’s own man, though I think Otterburn is right, it was not him.’
‘The Muirs,’ supplied Lowrie. ‘Anyone from the hostel that was out. The men from the Trindle.’
‘Anyone, in effect,’ said Maistre Pierre.
‘We’ve found remarkably little about her, poor girl,’ agreed Gil. ‘Oh, and I’d like to find who throttled her after she was dead.’
‘Could that be why Berthold is so frightened?’ said Alys suddenly. They looked at one another. ‘I wondered if it was something he had seen, but if he has encountered Peg in the shadows and-’
‘Oh!’ said Gil. ‘He’s such a wee rabbit of a boy, but Peg was hardly a sonsy wench either. It’s possible, I suppose.’
‘Just the same,’ said Lowrie slowly, ‘he keeps saying he saw nothing. Not did nothing, but saw nothing.’
Maistre Pierre nodded.
‘I agree. It hardly seems likely. I suppose we must keep it in mind, nevertheless.’
‘I need to start questioning folk again,’ said Gil in annoyance. ‘I’ve asked more questions about Annie’s disappearance than about Peg’s death, which isny right.’ He made some more notes under Peg’s name, and went on to the next column. ‘Now, what do we need to learn about Annie?’
‘Where is she?’ said Lowrie.
‘Who has stolen her away,’ said Maistre Pierre.
‘And we’ve heard nothing so far that might tell us either of those.’
‘If I can find the cadger’s lodging I may learn something,’ said Alys. Gil looked round at her. ‘I told you, I do wonder if he has carried messages for Annie.’
‘But if he’s out in Lanarkshire the now,’ he objected, ‘that’s little help.’
‘He has a wife, so Kate tells me.’
‘So we still need to learn near everything about Annie too.’ Gil made another note. ‘And for Barnabas — you know, we’ve uncovered a lot about what the man was up to, but we’re still no nearer finding who killed him either. We’re no doing that well, are we?’
‘No, but what do we know about the verger?’ said Maistre Pierre. ‘That he may or may not have pushed the handcart down to the shore and back again.’
‘And that the sight of a sack-tie prompted him to go to find someone, who then killed him,’ said Alys.
‘Peg went out to find someone and pick a fight wi them too,’ observed Lowrie. ‘I suppose it wasny the same person.’
‘Peg was also throttled with a sack-tie,’ said Alys.
‘No saying if it was all the same person,’ said Gil, ‘though I suspect not. It would be too simple. I think in Peg’s case at least we’re dealing wi two different people, one who killed her, one who throttled her. Whether either o these dealt wi Barnabas is something we need to find out.’ He closed his tablets with a snap, then flicked them open them again as he recalled something. ‘Pierre, you’ve been down into Ayrshire, I think. Would you ken aught about any of these properties?’
His father-in-law took the list and held it up at arm’s length in the fading light from the window.
‘You write too small these days,’ he complained. ‘What are these? Redwrae, Fail, no, I know nothing of these, though they are close by Tarbolton I think. Carngillan neither. Ah! Now Hallrig I have visited. That is the place where the quarry is, that I have mentioned. The tenant was very civil, though his ale was thin, and the quarry is a good one, but I thought the carriage too dear to bring the stone into Glasgow.’
‘Quarry,’ repeated Gil.
‘Yes, yes, and a good one as I said, that blond freestone you get all over Ayrshire. It belongs to the Gibb family. Is it this Annie’s property indeed, then?’
‘Hallrig is hers, so likely the quarry is too, unless the feu superior retained the mineral rights. How did you come to be there?’
‘Seeking stone, as ever. Why are you interested?’
‘Sawney mentioned a cousin of Annie’s father who felt the property should be his. I wondered if that might be a lead.’
Maistre Pierre pulled a long face.
‘I have no knowledge of such a thing. I dealt chiefly with a man of law in Kilmarnock, one Maister James Bowling, and then with the tenant.’
‘The man Bowling never mentioned a dispute?’
‘No, never. He would hardly wish to do so,’ Maistre Pierre pointed out, ‘if he hoped to sell me the stone.’
Gil retrieved his tablets and considered the list for a space.
‘We need to learn more about this,’ he decided. ‘I’m reluctant to go into Ayrshire myself the now, Hugh Montgomery is active and a single Cunningham would be a rare temptation for him, but once you’ve spoken to the man on the Stablegreen, Lowrie, you could go out to Kilmarnock, take Euan wi you, talk to this James Bowling. It’s no more than twenty mile, you should do it in the day and back again. I’ll let you have a letter of introduction and we’ll talk over what you should ask him.’ Lowrie nodded. ‘And I’ll chase Stockfish Tam.’ He looked at Alys. ‘I think you have plans of your own, sweetheart.’