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Limehouse Pier? Describe the scene for those of us who have not been there.”
Orme had been prepared for this, but he was uncomfortable nonetheless. It was obvious in his face, and the way he leaned forward a little, both hands gripping the rail. Rathbone knew it was the request for a description of something he was not used to putting into words for others, that made him behave so. To the jury it would look like distress at what he had seen. Coniston was already preparing them for the horror. Rathbone was impressed. He could easily have taken less trouble and assumed the mood would follow naturally.
“Mr. Monk and I were coming back from looking into a robbery farther up the river,” Orme began.
“Just two of you?” Coniston asked. “Were you rowing?”
“Both of us,” Orme answered. “One behind the other, sir, an oar each.”
“I see. Thank you. What time of day was it? What was the light?” Coniston asked.
“Early sunrise, sir. Lot of color in the sky, and across the water, too.” Orme was clearly unhappy.
“Were you close in to shore, or out in the current?” Coniston continued.
“Close in to shore, sir. Out in the stream an’ you’d be in the way of shipping, ferries an’ the like.”
“In the shadow of the docks and warehouses? Paint the picture for us, Sergeant Orme, if you please.”
Orme shifted his weight to the other foot. “About twenty yards out, sir. Buildings sort of … looming up, but we were not in their shadow. Water was smoother closer to shore. Out of the wind.”
“I see. You describe it well,” Coniston said graciously. “So you and Commander Monk were rowing back to Wapping after being called out before dawn. It was cool. The breeze made the river choppy except close to shore, almost in the shadow of the docks and the warehouses, rising sun spilling red light on the smooth, dark water around you?”
Orme’s face tightened as if the attention to beauty in the circumstances were distasteful to him. “Something like that, sir.”
“Did anything occur that caused you to stop?”
There was absolute silence in the courtroom, apart from the slight rustle of a skirt as someone shifted position.
“Yes, sir. We heard a woman crying out, on Limehouse Pier. She was screaming, and waving her arms. We couldn’t see why until we got right up to the pier and climbed the steps to the top. There was the body of a woman lying crumpled up on her side. Her … the body’d been ripped open and there was blood soaking her clothes …” He could not finish, not only because of his own emotion, but also because of the rising sound of gasps and groans from the body of the courtroom. In the gallery a woman was already crying, and there was a murmur of voices trying to offer comfort and telling others to be quiet.
“Order! Please, ladies and gentlemen,” Pendock said from the bench. “Let us continue. Allow Sergeant Orme to be heard.”
“Thank you, my lord,” Coniston said soberly, then turned again to Orme. “I assume you and Commander Monk examined this poor woman’s remains?”
“Yes, sir. There was nothing we could do for her. She was past all human help,” Orme said hoarsely. “We asked the witness’s name and address, and all she could tell us, which wasn’t anything. She had just come there looking for her husband. Then I stayed with the body, and Mr. Monk went for the local police.”
“The local police?” Coniston said with raised eyebrows. “But since she was found on the pier, was she not within your jurisdiction?”
“Yes, sir. But the first thing we wanted to know was who she was,” Orme pointed out reasonably.
Coniston smiled and relaxed his tense position a fraction. “Of course. We will come to that. She was not known to you?”
“No, sir.”
“And could you describe the body for us, Sergeant?” This time he made no apology.
Rathbone would like to have objected, but there were no grounds. The crime was appalling. Coniston was entitled to horrify the jury until they were sick and weeping. Had Rathbone been prosecuting he would have done the same.
Orme swallowed hard. Even from where he was sitting, Rathbone could see the muscles of his neck and jaws tighten. The effort it cost him to maintain his control would be just as visible to the jurors.
“Yes, sir,” Orme said quietly. He gripped the rail in front of him and breathed in and out several times before beginning. “She wasn’t a young woman, maybe forty, but not gone to fat. Her skin was very white, what we could see of it. Her clothes had been torn, or cut, and her … her bosom laid bare. Someone had slit her open right from …” He moved a rather jerky hand to the middle of his own chest and then slowly down below the rail to where his groin would be. He swallowed again. “And her entrails were pulled out, sir, an’ left lying all over her. It … it wasn’t easy to see if everything was there, sir, an’ I wouldn’t know anyway.”
Coniston looked pale himself. “Was that the full extent of her injuries, Sergeant?”
“No, sir. There was blood matted in her hair, as if she’d been hit pretty hard.”
Coniston stood with his head bowed. “Thank you, Sergeant. Would you please remain on the stand in case my learned friend for the defense has any questions for you?” He looked across at Rathbone with a courteous smile. There was nothing for Rathbone to question, and they both knew it.
