The Assassin's Riddle

by Paul Doherty

  ‘Do so,’ Cranston shouted, ‘and I’ll have you arrested, sir! My bailiff’s in the street outside.’

  Napham returned.

  ‘Anyone could have come in here!’ Alcest cried.

  ‘Anyone?’ Cranston asked. ‘You were here when Ollerton died and any one of you could have visited that tavern and killed Peslep.’

  ‘But what about Chapler?’ Alcest declared defiantly. ‘Sir John, we can prove that we were carousing in a chamber at the Dancing Pig when our companion died.’

  ‘Did you like him?’ Cranston asked abruptly.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Chapler. Did you like him? You called him your companion.’

  ‘He wasn’t one of us,’ Alcest retorted. ‘Ask Master Tibault here. Chapler kept to himself. When the office closed on Saturday morning before the Angelus, he would leave for his beloved sister in Epping.’

  ‘Was Peslep a rich man?’ Cranston asked.

  ‘He came of good family.’

  Cranston closed his eyes; he felt so tired. He would have loved to question these young men but there was nothing more he could say. No real evidence to work on. The coroner walked to the door.

  ‘Have the body sheeted,’ he ordered. He thought of the Holy Lamb and then recalled Alcest’s words about the Dancing Pig. He turned, hand on the latch. ‘Master Alcest, the night Chapler died. You left the Chancery of the Green Wax and went straight to the Dancing Pig?’

  ‘Yes, we did.’

  ‘And you were in a chamber all by yourselves?’

  ‘Well, with the rest.’

  ‘And some young ladies? Where were they from?’

  Alcest rubbed his mouth.

  ‘Come on!’ Sir John barked. ‘You hired a group of whores, didn’t you? Young courtesans. Who was the mistress of this troupe?’

  ‘Nell Broadsheet.’

  Cranston grinned. ‘By, sir, you pay well. Broadsheet’s girls are the comeliest and most expensive in London. They keep a house, do they not, near Greyfriars, just past Newgate?’

  The young man nodded.

  ‘Good, then I think I’ll pay her a visit.’

  Cranston walked out into the street where Flaxwith leaned against a wall, his ugly dog beside him.

  ‘Keep that bloody thing away from me!’ Cranston growled. ‘Now, Henry, I’m going to give you a treat. We are going to visit Mistress Broadsheet’s establishment. You know it well?’

  The bailiff’s face coloured and he shuffled his feet; even Samson seemed to hang his head a little lower.

  ‘Henry, Henry!’ Cranston chucked the bailiff under his chin with his finger. ‘Don’t say you’ve been dipping your quill in Dame Broadsheet’s inkhorn?’

  ‘A man gets lonely, Sir John,’ Flaxwith murmured.

  ‘You have a wife,’ Cranston replied. ‘The beloved Ursula.’

  Sheer terror now replaced the confusion in Flaxwith’s face. Cranston recalled Mistress Ursula, a woman built like a donjon, eyes of steel and a tongue like a lash.

  ‘Oh, Sir John, it’s our secret, isn’t it? The Lady Ursula . . .’ Flaxwith leaned down and patted Samson, who was cowering even more on hearing Mistress Flaxwith’s name.

  ‘Yes?’ Cranston asked sweetly.

  ‘The Lady Ursula,’ Flaxwith swallowed hard, ‘does not like the pleasures of the flesh.’

  Cranston recalled his own merry trysts with his lady wife; he patted the man sympathetically on the shoulder.

  ‘Well, let’s visit Dame Broadsheet. Let’s see what she has to say about our young clerks.’

  ‘I was supposed to do that,’ Flaxwith grumbled as they walked along.

  ‘Well, Henry,’ Cranston nudged him playfully, ‘I am going to make sure you leave with me. Oh, by the way, I still want you to find out about Master Drayton’s two clerks, Stablegate and Flinstead. Just where did they spend the night their master was murdered? You’ll enjoy visiting taverns,’ the coroner continued, ‘and so will Samson.’

  The mastiff turned its head, lips curled in a soft growl. Cranston smiled tactfully and they continued up Holborn past Cock Lane, still sealed off by royal archers, through the old city wall into Newgate. All the butchers’ stalls had been cleared away but the smell of blood and offal made Samson excited. He pranced around, straining at this morsel or that. Cranston caught a cutpurse who was following two old ladies down to St Mary Le Bow where the bells were clanging for Compline, the beacon light already lit in the belfry. Cranston grabbed the weasel-faced knave by the collar, gave him a whack on the ear and sent him about his business.

  ‘Do you know, Henry.’ Cranston stopped before the dark, forbidding mass of Newgate prison where people thronged, waiting to pay a visit to their friends inside. ‘If my treatise on the governance of this city was accepted by the Regent, I’d have torches lit along every highway.’

  He pointed to the scaffold where the corpses of four felons, hanged earlier in the day, were now being given a coat of tar and pitch. They would then be placed in iron gibbets before being taken out and hanged as a warning at the crossroads leading into London. The two executioners were whistling, happy in their work. Now and again flicking spots of tar at the orange-haired whores who clustered there, the hangmen were impervious to the misery of the dead men’s friends and relatives who patiently waited to see where their beloved ones would be gibbeted.

  ‘You were going to say, Sir John?’ Flaxwith asked.

  ‘I’d have all that removed,’ Cranston growled. ‘Come on!’

  Dame Broadsheet’s establishment stood in a small, quiet alleyway: a three-storeyed mansion in its own grounds, the bottom floor was an alehouse with a bush strung up over the door. The upper storeys were what Dame Broadsheet called her ‘chapel of repose’, where clients could meet the sweetest professional doxies in London. Flaxwith tied Samson up outside and told him to be a good boy. The dog, his jaws full of offal he had picked up, whimpered back.

  The taproom was quiet and very pleasant, the ceiling high, the rushes on the floor clean and supple. The tables were ringed with proper stools, not overturned kegs. Vats and beer barrels stood neatly at one end; hams and bags of onions hung from the rafters and baskets of flowers were placed on window ledges. By the sweet tang from the buttery, Cranston knew Dame Broadsheet’s French cook was busy. He smacked his lips, patted his stomach but kept within the shadows of the doorway, revelling in the sights and sounds. Flaxwith, behind him, kept his hand on his dagger. Dame Broadsheet’s establishment was well known as a retreat for the highwaymen and footpads of the city: Sir John would not be a welcome guest.

  Cranston wondered whether to make a grand entrance or rush across and up the stairs at the far end. He decided on the latter. He stared around the taproom. He recognised many of the faces: scrimpers, foists, counterfeit men, cunning women, professional beggars, hardened bully-boys as well as some young men out for an evening, intent on carousing until cockcrow. All around them were the ladies of the town, not the common whores or strumpets, but, as Dame Broadsheet proclaimed, ‘ladies of refinement who knew how to please a gentleman’. The coroner had decided to make a dash for the stairs when a voice abruptly sang out.

  ‘Oh hell’s jakes, it’s Cranston!’

  The young boys playing the rebec, flute and tambour abruptly stopped their soft music. The chatter died. Cranston swaggered into the centre of the room. He pulled off his beaver hat and gave the most mocking bow.

  ‘Lovely lads and lasses. Good evening. Jack Cranston presents his compliments.’

  ‘Oh piss off!’ A voice shouted.

  Cranston didn’t even bother to look round. ‘It’s Ned, isn’t it? Ned the Limner? I’d keep a tidy tongue in your head, otherwise tomorrow, Ned my lad, I’ll be issuing warrants for your arrest. Charges of contumacy against a King’s officer. Now, now, now!’ Cranston spread his legs and tucked his thumbs into his broad sword belt. ‘Don’t be cruel to old Jack. I’ve got Henry Flaxwith here and a dozen more of his burly boys outside. Not to mention Samson the dog. You know Sa
mson, don’t you? He likes nothing more than to gnaw on a nice juicy ankle.’

  ‘There’s no need for talk like that, Sir John.’

  A lady came down the stairs, her blonde hair coifed under a silver-edged linen veil. Her gown was of dark burgundy, a gold chain round her slender waist. She moved slowly, languorously, head held high like a young noble-woman rather than mistress of a house of ill repute. The skin of her face was smooth, almost golden, the eyes big and smiling. It was the mouth that gave her away: sharp, thin lips, slightly sneering.

  Cranston bowed again. ‘Mistress Broadsheet, how pleasant it is to see you.’

  ‘I’d love to return the compliment, Sir John.’

  Cranston noticed her voice suddenly rose. She seemed reluctant to come any further down the stairs but stood holding on to the rail.

  Sir John stiffened. ‘So, I’m welcome here?’ he asked curiously.

  ‘Of course you are, Sir John Cranston. You are coroner of the city. My house is your house . . .’

  That was enough for Cranston. He reached the foot of the stairs in two bounds, brushed by her and reached the top. He heard the sounds of muffled footsteps above him. Despite his weight and tiredness, Sir John went up the next flight as nimble as a monkey, so quick he almost crashed into the man standing there; he held a small arbalest, the winch pulled back, the barbed bolt pointed directly at Sir John’s chest. Cranston paused and stared at the smiling face of the young man. He reminded the coroner of Athelstan: gentle eyes and olive skin under a mop of dark, glossy hair.

  ‘Well I never, the Vicar of Hell!’ Cranston studied the young man from head to toe, dressed as usual in black leather. Behind him, a young woman, a sheet wrapped round her, peered anxiously at the coroner. ‘Go back to your room, sweet one!’ Cranston called, feeling for his dagger.

  ‘Now, now, Sir John.’ The young man edged a bit closer. ‘You are not to do anything stupid.’

  ‘I want you,’ Cranston growled.

  ‘Wanting and having are two different things, Sir John.’

  The Vicar of Hell lifted his arbalest. Sir John flinched but, instead of loosing the quarrel, the Vicar of Hell abruptly pushed Cranston, sending him tumbling back down the stairs.

  CHAPTER 6

  Sir John Cranston, coroner of the city, was in a terrible rage. He had been sent crashing down the stairs but his pride was hurt more than his bones. The Vicar of Hell, of course, nimble as a squirrel, had scampered off down the gallery and through a window. Sir John knew any pursuit would be futile.

  He now stood raging in the taproom; all the customers had fled, frightened by the coroner’s roaring, a fearsome sight with his red face, bristling whiskers and naked dagger. Flaxwith had come rushing in, followed by Samson snarling and biting any available ankle.

  Sir John glared at Dame Broadsheet who, despite all her hauteur and poise, now trembled on a stool beneath the coroner’s fearsome gaze.

  ‘Do you understand what I’m saying?’ Cranston roared, hands on hips.

  Dame Broadsheet blinked.

  ‘I’ll tell you what I’m saying,’ Cranston continued. ‘You, madam, will stand in the stews for two days. Your ladies alongside you. This house will be closed down, sealed and all its goods and appurtenances transported to a cellar in the Guildhall!’

  Dame Broadsheet stared into the icy blue eyes of Cranston. She knew there would be no bribery for this man of integrity either in cash or kind. However, she knew his weakness: her lower lip quivered and two large tears ran down her cheeks. Cranston swallowed hard, the sign for Dame Broadsheet to put her face in her hands and sob uncontrollably. Like a chorus in a play her young ladies, in different stages of undress, also began to weep, followed by the bully-boys and cross-biters, the cooks, the scullions and the tapsters. Some of the women even fell to their knees, hands clenched beseechingly. Cranston gazed around. Even Samson put his head back and howled mournfully.

  ‘Oh woe is us, Sir John!’ Dame Broadsheet let her hands fall away from her face. ‘Woe is the day I was born! Oh, Sir John, we are sorry!’

  Cranston stared at the beautiful, tear-filled eyes and his rage began to ebb. The wailing grew even louder and Samson, head back and throat stretched, joined in with relish. Flaxwith looked pitiful. Cranston sat down on a stool.

  ‘Shut up!’ he bellowed. ‘For all that is holy, shut up!’

  The wailing stopped. Dame Broadsheet looked tearfully at Sir John from under fluttering eyelids.

  ‘You are a minx,’ Cranston said.

  ‘Sir John, you looked so brave,’ she cooed. ‘Dashing upstairs ready for a battle, lance couched.’ She caught the warning look in Cranston’s eyes. ‘A true knight.’ She added hastily, ‘The Lady Maude must be a very fortunate woman.’ She lifted her hand and clicked her fingers. ‘Some refreshment for Sir John: a small meat pie, my Lord Coroner?’

  Cranston’s anger disappeared. He moved across to the window seat, Dame Broadsheet with him. She leaned across the table. Somehow the buttons at the top of her dress had come unloosed so, if he had wanted to, Cranston could catch a glimpse of her soft, luxuriant breasts. He coughed, waved his fingers, and Dame Broadsheet, as prudish as a nun, quickly did up the offending buttons. She watched as Cranston bit into the pie and sipped at the wine.

  ‘I didn’t know he was there,’ she began as Sir John pushed the platter away.

  ‘Yes you did,’ Cranston retorted. ‘You know who the Vicar of Hell is, Dame Broadsheet: a defrocked priest, a rapscallion, responsible for more cunning and devilment than a village full of rogues. He steals, he foists, he receives and smuggles!’

  ‘But he has a heart of gold.’ Dame Broadsheet blinked her eyes. ‘He has a heart of gold, Sir John. He could have hit you with that crossbow bolt.’

  ‘Well, the Vicar of Hell will have to wait, won’t he?’ Cranston picked up his wine cup and sat back against the wall. ‘But it’s good to hear he’s back in the city. If he’s in London he can be trapped. Last time I heard of him he was organising pilgrimages to St Eadric’s well which, supposedly, lies in the heart of Ashdown Forest: There’s no St Eadric and certainly no well.’

  Dame Broadsheet lowered her face to hide her smile.

  ‘But I’m not here about the Vicar of Hell,’ Cranston continued. ‘And my threats still stand. Your cooperation, madam, or I’ll be back in the morning with the bailiffs.’

  ‘Cooperation over what?’ she asked archly.

  ‘Three nights ago,’ Cranston replied, ‘you and some of your ladies were not in residence here but at the Dancing Pig, entertaining clerks from the Chancery of the Green Wax.’

  ‘Yes, we were there from sunset till dawn,’ she replied. ‘There’s no crime in that. We were guests at a private party.’

  ‘You are harlots,’ Cranston replied. ‘You say you were there from dawn till dusk?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Well, go on!’ Cranston barked.

  ‘We arrived before sunset,’ Dame Broadsheet replied. ‘There was myself and four other girls. Roesia, Melgotta, Hilda and Clarice.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘The clerks had hired a private chamber, a large spacious room. A table was laid out and we supped and dined. Afterwards,’ she hurried on, ‘two young boys came up with rebec and tambour. They played tunes and we all danced. This was early on in the evening, it was not yet dark.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘We each went off with our partners. I was with a young man called,’ she closed her eyes, ‘Ollerton.’

  ‘Ollerton’s dead,’ Cranston declared.

  Dame Broadsheet’s eyes flew open in alarm. ‘Dead?’

  ‘Yes, poisoned by person or persons unknown. And,’ Cranston added flatly, ‘another one, Peslep, was stabbed whilst sitting on the jakes this morning.’

  ‘Oh Lord save us, Sir John!’

  Dame Broadsheet’s fingers flew to her lips. Nevertheless, Cranston caught a sly look in her eyes. He grasped her hands and squeezed them tightly.

  ‘You know, don
’t you?’ he remarked. ‘Don’t act innocent.’

  ‘Sir John!’

  ‘Yes, you bloody well do!’ Cranston squeezed tighter. ‘Now why should Dame Broadsheet know about the deaths of two clerks, one of whom was killed only a short while ago?’

  ‘The Vicar of Hell told me.’

  ‘The Vicar of Hell? And what would he have to do with important clerks in the Chancery of the Green Wax?’

  Dame Broadsheet withdrew her hands, her eyes rounded in what she hoped was an innocent look. ‘I’ll tell you the truth, Sir John. I know nothing of it. He came here; we shared a cup of wine before he retired with young Clarice. He asked me if I knew about the deaths at the Chancery, I replied I didn’t.’ She shrugged. ‘We left it at that.’

  Cranston sipped from his wine cup. ‘And the night of the festivities?’ he asked.

  As I said, Sir John, we feasted and drank and then each of us went to a small garret or chamber with our partner. From what I can gather the clerks were as lusty as cocks in a barnyard. A merry coupling, Sir John!’

  ‘And in the morning?’

  ‘I woke up, it must have been before dawn. Ollerton was fast asleep in the sheets beside me. I dressed, collected the rest of the girls and we came back here to rest. After,’ she added quickly, ‘our night’s labours.’

  ‘Bring the girls here,’ Cranston ordered.

  Dame Broadsheet did. All of them were now dressed in long gowns, their hair tidied up under pure white wimples. If it hadn’t been for their laughing eyes and saucy looks, they could have been taken for a group of dutiful novices in a nunnery. They stood trouped round the table, hands clasped before them, eyes lowered.

  ‘Lovely girls,’ Sir John breathed. ‘Who was the leader?’ he asked Dame Broadsheet.

  ‘The leader, Sir John?’

  ‘Amongst the clerks? Who organised the night’s festivities?’

  ‘Why, Alcest.’

  ‘And who was with him?’

  ‘I was,’ a young, blonde-haired girl whispered.

  Cranston leaned over. ‘Raise your head, girl. You are . . .?’

  ‘Clarice, Sir John. Clarice Clutterbuckle.’