The Gallows Murders

evidence to lay against the people we've just left in Kemble's chamber.' 'So?' Benjamin persisted. Where's the weakness?'
    Well, we could stumble on something.' I smiled. 'Or we could catch Sakker!'
    "Let's press the matter further, Roger,' Benjamin declared. What happens if this secret accomplice thinks likewise, that Sakker is more of a danger than an asset, and that he must be killed. But Sakker is a very dangerous man. What would you do?'
    'I'd probably invite him to meet me, not in the city but somewhere near the Tower, perhaps a little further up-river on the wild wastes along the bank of the Thames.'
    'And he'll do it tonight,' Benjamin cursed under his breath. ‘I regret revealing that secret entrance.' He grabbed his cloak. We'd best go!'
    We left the Wakefield Tower. Benjamin first decided to visit Ragusa. We found her sprawled out on a bed of rough sacking. At first I thought she was dead: Benjamin crouched down, wrinkled his nose at the smell of ale, and slapped her gently on the face. The old woman simply smacked her lips, moaning quietly in her sleep. I felt her hands, they were ice-cold, the fingers stiff and gnarled.
    'It's what I thought,' Benjamin muttered, 'Ragusa couldn't feel the pulse of any man.' He got to his feet, shaking his head. ‘I still think it's Spurge,' he remarked absentmindedly. 'He must have known about that secret postern-gate and, somehow, smuggled a corpse through to dupe this old woman.'
    We left Ragusa in her drunken stupor and went down to the quayside to hire a wherry to take us further up-river. Ah well, I admit I've been on many a goose chase, and this was no different. The two boatmen were most reluctant, loudly complaining about where we wished to go. The north bank of the Thames west of the Tower is lonely and deserted, the reeds growing long and lush. The only sound to be heard in that place are the cries of the many birds who came to nest and feed there. Benjamin paid them another coin, told them to stop complaining and row us along the riverbank. The wherry-men agreed and bent over their oars. In a short while I became aware of the stillness: how quickly the noise and stench of the city had faded. At last Benjamin told the boatmen to take us to a shabby, rough-hewn jetty. We clambered ashore, walked up, and stared out across the wild gorse. In the fading light I could see the occasional farmhouse and small copse of trees.
    We're mistaken, Master,' I whispered. There's no one here.'
    Benjamin tapped the scabbard of his dagger. The assassin in the Tower is going to strike,' he declared. ‘I know he is. He won't go into the city, he can't be seen. If it's Spurge, or one of the hangmen, he must silence Sakker. I thought he would do it here.'
    Would Sakker be so stupid?' I asked him. 'He's a quick-witted rogue. He'd realise the danger of being invited to come to a place like this.' I gestured at the barren wasteland. 'Even a poor labourer wouldn't come here to sleep!'
    'Oh, Lord save us, Roger, I've made a mistake!' Benjamin cried suddenly, pulling me by the sleeve, and hurrying back along the jetty, almost throwing me into the wherry. ‘I forgot about the workmen in the Tower. We might find Sakker amongst them.'
    We arrived back just as the sun was beginning to set. The labourers and stonemasons were putting away their tools in battered canvas bags, shouting and joking with each other. Benjamin strode across, demanding to see the master mason whom he'd spoken to previously. He was indistinguishable from the rest, covered in a fine white dust. At first he was reluctant to stay, wiping dry lips on the back of his hand.
    'Master,' he moaned, 'I've done my day's work. I like my ale as much as any man.'
    'A moment,' Benjamin replied soothingly. He led the mason away from the rest. "Who hired those labourers?' Benjamin asked. Well, I did, that's one of the duties of a master mason.' 'And you know them all?'
    ‘No, I hired them at St Paul's. I know most of them, good workers.' 'Are any of them missing?' Benjamin asked.
    The fellow was about to shake his head and move away, then he held up a dusty hand. 'Ah, Ealdred is!' 'Ealdred?' Benjamin asked.
    'I don't know where he came from,' the fellow replied. We moved into the Tower, after the sweating sickness. We put up the scaffolding and began to work: one day this tall, hulking fellow appeared, dressed in rags, hair and beard covered in dust. We asked him where he came from. He said he worked as a labourer in the Tower all