Read No Law in the Land: (Knights Templar 27) for Free Online

too well fed to be someone lowly. Bill had to turn away from the man’s ravaged features. Clearly this was
     a man who had made himself enemies in life, unless someone was convinced that he was carrying more goods about him than he
     was admitting. But that was daft. No one would kill a man in this manner when all his goods wereto be taken anyway. Unless they thought he was keeping something back. Treasure, or information?
    Close by was another man. This looked like a fellow who was more used to the bow than the pen. A mace or club had crushed
     the whole side of his face, making a foul mess of blood, bone and brains. At least his death would have been swift. Not like
     the monk.
    The brutality of those two deaths was shocking to a man like Bill, but so was the number of the other victims. No gang of
     outlaws would kill so wantonly. Not in Bill’s experience, anyway. He sat back on his haunches near the fire and stared around
     him. Just there, to the east, through the trees, he could see a long area of open pasture, and some cows munching contentedly
     with sheep walking round and round. There was the song of a blackbird not far away, and he could hear a cock crowing – no,
     it was a hen calling: ‘An egg, an egg.’ All seemed so normal, so sane, if he didn’t look at the ground around him. This was
     his land. His country; his responsibility. And someone had desecrated it.
    The idea of a band of murderers was alarming. Outlaws infested many parts of the country, and there was no reason why Devon
     should be exempt from their predations, and yet he didn’t get the impression that this was some random attack on a band of
     travellers. There was something too precise about it. The men who had committed this obscene act were surely not just robbers,
     they had not suddenly sprung in upon the camp and massacred the people in a rough melee.
    He had seen that kind of attack before. Usually there were a very clear series of indications. As the first men appeared,
     people would bolt, some flying hither and thither through the trees, seeking some kind of safety, and then the bodies would
     be more spread about. Here, it would seem that the camp had been attacked from all sides simultaneously. That spoke of discipline
     and organisation. The men who did this had a purpose. And he would make it his job to discover that purpose, if he could.
    If he could. The thought made him give a wry little grin to himself. Whether he could or not would depend on so much. And
     even if he did go to the effort, it would depend very much on the attitude of the coroner. So often the bastards were useless.
     They just lived for the money they could extort from others. Like this latest sheriff, from all he’d heard.
    Still, he was nothing if not thorough, so he wandered out beyond the fringe of trees, looking all about. It was as he reached
     the southernmost section of the clearing that he found something that made him give a quick frown. Here there were some heavily
     damaged bushes and brambles, as though something – or some
one
– had hurried through. But some of them had been dragged back the other way, too, so it appeared that there had been movement
     in both directions. He crouched, glancing all about him, wondering what story he was witnessing here, but he could make little
     sense of it. Then, as he cursed the rain, he saw some speckles on the grass. Nearby there was a larger splash. When fresh,
     this must have formed a pool. He touched it, and although it was difficult to be certain, he felt sure that it was blood.
     Perhaps it was a man who had left the camp to defecate, and who had hurried back when the attack started, only to be struck
     down as he returned?
    But looking back at the clearing, he was forced to wonder why the man’s body was not here. Perhaps he wasn’t wounded badly
     enough to collapse, but had continued on to the main camp, where he’d died with the others. Strange, though, he thought, as
     he peered down