The Gallows Murders

continued, 'this suited Master Sakker. He not only wanted to blackmail the King and become rich, but also to carry out revenge against those who had executed his family. You became his accomplice in this. Sakker was cunning. He knew he could not push Fortune's wheel too quickly. If the hangmen started dying, people might remember him, and inquiries might be made, so once again he faked his death, a victim of the sweating sickness.' Benjamin tapped my arm. 'Master Shallot here has had the same contagion and, with a few chosen herbs, it is easy to simulate.'
    'But,' Snakeroot interrupted, 'Ragusa here, she looked after him.. ‘
    'No, no,' old Ragusa replied. ‘You.' She pointed at Benjamin. "With your narrow face and clever eyes, you have it right. All I did was mop his body' ‘But people visited him,' Spurge interrupted.
    'A brief glance,' Benjamin replied. 'Everyone's terrified of the sweating sickness, so they kept their distance.'
    True, true,' Ragusa crooned. 'It's always the way' She smiled shrewdly across at Benjamin and held up her hands. ‘You knew I felt for a death pulse, but with these old, arthritic fingers I can feel very little. He lay sprawled there, eyes half open, so I wrapped him in a sheet and left him.'
    'And that's where Mallow intervened,' Benjamin declared. 'Mistress Ragusa likes her drink. Sometimes she falls into a stupor, at others she goes wandering round the Tower. Mallow had another corpse ready which he'd brought through that hidden postern-gate. Sakker springs up full of life, this other corpse is wrapped and tied. The guards collect it and it is taken down to the Lion Gate. Sakker was now free. He washed the dye out of his hair and dressed in new clothes, and left the Tower by that secret postern-door. Now he was free to carry out revenge and other villainies. When the sickness was raging at its height, Undershaft was slain, stabbed, garrotted or his head staved in. At the dead of night, his corpse was pushed into the cage at Smithfield, and a blazing fire kindled beneath him.' Benjamin shrugged. ‘Who'd care in a city when hundreds are dying every day?'
    'But at the same time,' Vetch intervened, 'Sakker was running round the city leaving messages in St Paul's, Westminster or in Cheapside.'
    'Precisely,' Benjamin agreed. The time was ripe: the city was ravaged by the sickness. His Grace the King was fearful that, if these letters were published abroad, people might see the sickness as God's vengeance on his family's seizure of the throne. At last the sweating sickness ended. The Tower was reopened, and Sakker could come and go as he wished. Sometimes he entered as he left, by that secret doorway overlooking the moat. Mallow would know about that: in his youth he had served here and would know every nook and cranny. At other times, Sakker – the master of disguise – came in as one of the labourers working for the masons on the wall. They never objected. They thought he had been sent by Spurge. And why should he or they object to more help?
    'Sakker now has the run of the Tower,' Benjamin went on. 'He can come and go as he pleases, whilst Mallow keeps an eye on what is going on. Sakker followed my companion after he visited you, Mistress Ragusa, and pushed him into the wolf-pit. He'd already trapped Horehound and killed him, put him into a sack and cast him into the Thames. Hellbane, drunk as a sot, was an easy victim, whilst Wormwood, before he was put on the rack, was probably clubbed senseless.' Benjamin spread his hands. 'And that's the evil beauty of this design. Sakker is a labourer, his fair hair covered in dust, dressed in tattered clothes; no one would suspect he was once clerk of the stores. Once he's out of the Tower, Sakker can carry on his villainies in the city, posting proclamations, collecting gold, or baiting us. It was a subtle scheme: Sakker had his vengeance against the hangmen, committed gross impudence against the Crown, and was about to become very rich.' Benjamin pointed across the table. ‘You, Master Mallow, as one of the former keepers of the young Princes, knew how our present King is most fearful of any rumours about their whereabouts.'
    The chief hangman stirred. Where is the proof for all this, Master Daunbey? Some of it is true but-'
    'Oh, the proof will come,' Benjamin whispered. 'Suffice it to say that eventually you knew we had discovered Sakker's involvement. You became fearful about your old acquaintance, Greene, now calling himself Dr