‘True, I suppose,’ May admitted. ‘There’s nothing more embarrassing than finding that your pint-to-toilet cycle has become synchronized with that of a total stranger’s.’
‘Why, public houses have even influenced our language. Drinkers used to share the same mug, in which the level of ale was marked with a wooden peg, hence the expression “to take someone down a peg”. The masons who built our churches were housed at inns, hence the Masonic connections of certain pubs, and of course, the Knights Templars had their own inns at Clerkenwell. When the polluted waters of London proved unpotable, everyone drank at ale houses. Pub names provide markers for all the historical events of England. The Red Lion, White Hart, Crown and Anchor, Royal Oak, Coach and Horses – each has its own convoluted meaning. We even find our way around by the location of public houses like the Green Man and the Sun in the Sands.’
‘Think about it, John,’ said Bryant. ‘A couple of weeks ago, you and I had a drink at the Anchor, where others had sat drinking half a millennium before us, seeing the same view.’
‘Do you realize that in the late-Victorian era there was a pub for every hundred people in the country?’ asked Masters. ‘We talk about the inner-city schools where pupils speak dozens of languages, but what about the melting pots that exist on almost every street corner?’
‘And the history they hold, true or false as the case may be,’ mused Bryant, drifting off the point, as he was wont to do. ‘The Sherlock Holmes in Northumberland Avenue, presented as if Holmes was a real detective, and the Old Bank of England, a bar on Fleet Street touted by guides as the site of Sweeney Todd’s shop, if you please. What complete and utter nonsense.’
‘Whereas the pub in which I am to be found most evenings, in Smithfields, was once called the Path of Hope, because it stood on the route of condemned prisoners, like the Old King Lud at Ludgate Circus,’ said Masters. ‘Although it was always associated with St Bartholomew’s Fair, the pub sign depicts a pair of stranded sailors. In Victorian times one often finds the idea of hope connected with the sea – hope of finding land or another ship. A popular maritime motto was “We anchor in hope”, but by depicting sailors the sign-maker has misunderstood the meaning of the pub’s name. You see? By decoding the tangled symbols of the past, we get close to the truths that history books miss.’
‘What we’re trying to say is that perhaps these places,’ Bryant gestured around the bar, ‘are as germane to the solution of a case like this as the identity of the victims. What if these unfortunate women met their deaths not just because of who they were, but where they were?’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ said May hotly. ‘It would mean they were selected from the population at random, and we have too many correlating factors to believe that.’
‘Then imagine a man who, for reasons we cannot yet fathom, strikes only in public houses, and does so because of what they represent. By killing these women he is unstringing the very fabric of England.’
‘It’s true,’ exclaimed Masters. ‘If you wished to undermine everything we stand for as a people, you could do no better than damage the institution of the pub. You’d be striking at the heart of the nation.’
17
* * *
ASLEEP IN THE TREES
Sergeant Renfield was looming behind her, trying to read over her shoulder.
‘Anything I can help you with, Jack?’ asked Longbright pointedly.
‘All a bit mundane, isn’t it?’ said Renfield with a disdaining sniff. ‘People die in or outside pubs all the time, it just never gets reported. A little beneath you, this sort of thing. I thought the PCU was about tracking down lunatics in highwayman outfits and solving murders committed in ridiculous places.’
‘When deaths occur outside pubs, the victims are never usually middle-aged career women who’ve been drinking alone,’ Longbright replied. ‘They’re teenaged and in groups, drunk or stoned, and have been in fights with their peers over girls and loyalty and codes of respect. You’ve been there, Jack, you know that.’
‘I ask because I’m trying to understand how this place works. You’ve got that girl April, who has no qualifications, trawling through cold cases looking for links to these dead women, and that’s not logical. Procedure requires—’
‘This unit doesn’t operate according to the laws of logic,’ said Longbright. ‘Colin and Meera are searching for witnesses and conducting interviews as procedure requires, leaving us free to detect larger trends.’