Chapter 6

Rolly looked at the contents of the big bank box and pulled out what he would need: pack, bedroll, belt with the sword he had taken off of Martus, dagger, eating knife, fire kit, various ropes, cords, and thongs, Debora's bronze shackle and chain, her iron slave collar, his slungshot, leather mitt with bolo shoulder strap, beggar's clothes, good boots, and a purse with a two conchs and twenty shells.

His first stop was the nearest blacksmith where he asked to have the shackle made into rectangular weights for the ends of his bronze chain. This would make what Japanese martial artists called a Kusari-fundo, but what everyone else called 'a chain with weights on the ends.' He commissioned two push knives to be made out of the iron slave collar. They would go into his boots, and he also asked if it the blacksmith could make a hollow iron ball with blunted spikes.

The man said that he could, but it would take some time and cost a lot. Rolly decided that would be a project for another day, and he decided to find another rock for his pocket.

Next he found a bowyer and haggled for a good bow and a quiver full of arrows, mostly with armor piercing bodkin points, but a few with barb-shouldered hunting points. When Rolly explained what he thought the most likely use would be for the bow, the bowyer talked him into a lighter and shorter hunting style bow than what Rolly had at home from the internet. After all, he was not going to be spraying an enemy army with arrows at three hundred yards, nor was he going to be targeting deer at a hundred yards. The ability to poke holes in chain mail at fifty yards would be acceptable.

After practicing with the new weapon on a target behind the bowyer's shop Rolly was confident that he could hit a man at a reasonable distance.

The third day in town he bartered for supplies, collected his new boot knives from the blacksmith and headed to the cobbler to have some knife sheathes sewn into his boots. Finally he made his way to the livery stable and purchased a horse and saddle. It would be a two day ride to the village and he wanted to get there a few days before Crimson Jack was expected to arrive.

If his theory was right the killer would stay in the local inn for the days preceding the planned attack and then appear to leave a day or two before. He would probably make camp in the woods near the residence and have a good escape route. At least that was what Rolly and Susan came up with.

Rolly, on the other hand, would get there early and scout out the best places for the killer to set up his camp and observation sites. Rolly would have to be careful because he would most likely be seen as a suspect stranger by the locals more so than the killer.

When he neared the village in the late afternoon of his second day of traveling, Rolly went off road to reconnoiter the area. He hobbled his horse in a secluded area and spent the rest of the daylight hours working his way around the small village. Fields were on one side and forest was close to town on the other. The target house had its back to the forest. A half mile back in the woods Rolly found an abandoned logging trail that, according to the map he had studied with Susan, led to another main road. This meant that the killer could come in the back way, do the deed and then, if he were brazen enough circle around to show up in town the morning after the murders to see the town's reaction. Rolly would have to look in both directions.

He spent the night in the woods behind the house sleeping under his oilskin, and at false dawn when the birds woke him he moved closer. He observed the house all day and saw the two children with the damsel, a haughty looking mother, and a ruddy faced master of the house.

There were several possible entrance points: back door, front door, cellar door, and second floor sitting room window were the most likely.

How would the killer do it?

Rolly pondered, If I were out of shape I would go in one of the doors, if I were a cat burglar wanting to do it the most difficult way I would bring a ladder or use a grapnel to the chimney and break in through the gable vent ... He's going to have to do something about the dog to avoid an alarm...

Nothing happened the next two nights, but Rolly was able to determine the general pattern of activity and whose rooms were where in the house. He figured that the killer should start his surveillance either that night, or the next so he kept an eye out.

Those nights passed and he began to have doubts about this being the right house.

The target night came and went, still with no sign of approach. Rolly was beginning to despair. He had spent many miserable nights doing surveillance and reconnaissance in the Army, but that was with a team that gave each other moral support. This was getting lonely and the temperature was starting to drop.

It was about eleven o'clock and the lamp in the master's bedroom had been out for an hour. Lights had been out for two hours in the rest of the house.

A sound like a nut falling out of a tree onto the ground drew Rolly's attention. The dog barked a few times and then seemed to lose interest in the sound.

Then a figure walked up to the front door and pulled the servant's bell.

The bastard is going to walk in the front door. Shit, what do I do now, I'm out of position and things are going to happen fast. I'll have to storm the house against a man who is probably an accomplished swordsman.

Rolly quickly strung his bow and started towards the house just as the manservant of the house opened the door. The servant never had a chance. As soon as he let down his guard after recognizing the man he found a gloved hand on his mouth and a dagger in his heart.

The killer entered the house, pulled the servant's body inside, shut the door and locked it. Rolly had to act fast. The killer would first have to make his way to the master's bedroom on the second floor. Rolly decided to break into the manservant's first floor bedroom window in the back of the house. Hopefully the sound would be damped.

He left his bow and sword outside so that he could crawl in the window more quietly.

Once inside the pitch black house Rolly had to guess at the layout.

He felt his way out of the bedroom to where he thought the servant's back stairway might be. Finding that, he carefully made his way up the steps, trying not to make a sound on the creaky steps.

At the top of the stairs he peered around the corner and saw the killer waiting and listening in front of a door at the other end of the hall. The killer had brought the servant's candle with him and set it on the floor next to the wall.

After about ten minutes, the man tested the doorknob and slowly opened the door.

Rolly saw this as his best chance. He slipped his hand into his thick, shoe-leather mitt and had his pitching rock in his other hand.

With two quick steps, as if he were throwing home from the outfield, Rolly heaved the rock at the killer's back.

Hearing a sound, the man turned. The rock struck him a hard glancing blow to the left shoulder and bounced into the master's bedroom.

Before the killer could completely regain his balance Rolly was on him, grasping the man's dagger blade with his mitt. Rolly's momentum knocked them both into the bedroom.

As soon as he could bring his throwing hand down to his belt Rolly had pulled his own dagger, and now he was thrusting it into the other man wherever he could and as fast as he could.

Soon it was over and the killer lay still.

The master of the house, however, was wide away now and was coming after Rolly with a large candle holder.

Rolly saw the danger and kicked the man's knees out from under him and put him in a sleeper hold.

After the man passed out, Rolly ran out to the hallway to put out the fire he was certain the candle had started, but miraculously, the candle was still upright. He picked it up and reentered the room.

The wife came in from her room to see what the commotion was all about. When she saw her husband down, another man lying in a pool of blood, and a third man standing over them both she started screaming her head off.

"God damned cluster fuck," Rolly muttered.

Rolly backhanded the wife and put a dagger to her throat.

"Shut up will you. Melanie of Cassandra come help me! Melanie of Cassandra, come here! Quickly!"

A pretty raven-haired woman with alabaster skin came into the room and looked around, confused.

"I am Hero Roland. Please gather the servants and children; calm them down and don't let anyone out to alarm the town. Trust me!"

Luckily, the cook and maid had come down from the third floor after Melanie, and they not yet seen either of the bodies. Melanie was able to calm them and tell them everything would be alright.

"What is this woman's name?" he said, nodding to the mistress of the house he had at the point of his dagger.

"Her name is Maude."

"Mistress Maude, I am not going to hurt you or your family, your husband is just unconscious. I was sent by friends of Melanie to warn her about this man, but I was nearly too late. He is the maniac killer, Crimson Jack. He killed your manservant and entered the house before I could help. I was able to get in by another way and get to him as he was entering your husband's bedchamber with a dagger. Your husband tried to club me so I defended myself, but I did not kill him. I'm going to let you go so that you can rouse your husband now. He'll have a headache and possibly be in a fighting mood when he awakens. I can not have that and will defend myself if I have to. Do you understand? Yes? All right, I'm going to let you go now. Help me prop your husband's head up on some pillows."

"Melanie, do you know this man?" Maude asked.

"I have been expecting someone, I believe what he says is true."

By this point the master of the house was coming around.

"What is his name?" Rolly asked.

"Frederick Wool Merchant."

"Master Frederick, do not be troubled. I have been sent to protect you. I am sorry that I had to disable you, please let me explain."

Rolly then made up a story of truths and half truths about hunting Crimson Jack for a bounty and identifying this house as the most likely target, and about being asked to deliver a private message from Melanie's family. He then explained what he was doing and what he saw and did. The dead man still had a dagger in his hand. Rolly's rock confirmed the story. After all, what type of killer would enter a house with a rock?

"Who is this man? Your manservant, rest his soul, seemed to recognize him."

"He is one of Lord Timson's tax collectors."

"As I suspected. That could put me in danger with the Lord."

"I do not think so, he has only been tax collector for five years, and Lord Timson will certainly be happy that Crimson Jack is dead. Let us send for the village guard."

"Anna, run over and wake old Mathew, quickly," he said to the maidservant.

Roland told his story to the village guard, Mathew, who didn't like this particular tax collector in the first place. Mathew searched the body and found a vial of poison and several chunks of roast meat, which confirmed the cause of the dog's death. He also found short lengths of rope and cloth gags, along with a small razor-sharp knife.

There was a reward of four conchs for proof of the maniac's capture or death, and the village guard certainly regarded what he had found as proof.

The next day Mathew dictated a letter to Melanie, who could write better than he. It stated the facts of the previous night and asked that Roland be awarded the bounty for killing " ... Gunther of Wentford, Lord's Tax Collector also known as the maniac, Crimson Jack. Wanted for the previously reported unnatural acts upon, and the heinous murder of, twenty-four innocent men, women, and children. In addition, on the sixth night of the fifth moon, year 582, Gunther of Wentford murdered Thompkin, manservant of Frederick Wool Merchant, and attempted the murder of Frederick Wool Merchant, his wife, children, and servants before he was killed by Roland of Kansas."

Frederick signed as witness, and Mathew Village Guard stamped it with his signet ring. The letter was addressed to Collin, Shire Reeve of Wentford.