‘Was there a weapon of any kind on the ground?’
‘Not that I saw.’
‘And none of the bystanders was holding a sword, knife or poignard?’
‘I… don’t know… but I can’t imagine…’
‘We’ll have no imagining, if you don’t mind.’
‘Sorry. It’s just that if one of those men had struck my friend down, the others must have seen.’
‘Unless they were all complicit.’
‘You mean they might all have been waiting for him in ambush?’
‘At this stage I must rule nothing out. Were there others abroad at that hour? Did you see anyone running or walking from the scene?’
‘The Cheap is very quiet at night’s end and it was dark. Yet, I am sure I would have noticed anyone hurrying away. There was a fellow there — a tanner — who claims that Master Packington was accosted by a foreigner in a hooded cloak who made off down Bucklersbury, but I saw nothing.’
‘A foreigner, eh? A convenient tale. Strike down your victim and lay the blame on some stranger. Well, we shall see what your tanner has to say for himself. Daniel’ — he turned to his secretary — ‘bring the fellow in. Master Treviot, you may stay, if you wish.’
When obliged to appear before authority the voluble leatherworker seemed to have lost his tongue. He stood in the middle of the room nervously twisting his cap in his hands. He gave his name as Dick Fennel.
Though nervous and rendered even more so by Kernish’s brusque manner, the tanner stuck to his story. He explained that he had taken his place by the conduit, as he did most mornings, in the hope of acquiring casual work. He had seen Robert approach, at which point a hooded figure, who apparently managed to be both ‘a foreigner’ and ‘Satan’, had pointed at him, called out something, then discharged ‘a bolt from hell’, whereupon Master Packington had fallen back dead.
The coroner was distinctly unimpressed.
‘At this rate,’ he groaned, ‘we shall be here all day and no further forward.’ He glowered at the cringing tanner. ‘Put your mark to this statement. Then get out and send in the next witness. Pray God he is not as witless as you.’
Fennel scrawled on the paper where the secretary indicated and gratefully shuffled from the room.
What we learned from the next two witnesses took us no nearer to identifying the assassin or, indeed, to understanding the exact nature of the assassination. There seemed to be agreement that a cloaked and hooded figure had pointed at Robert, at the same time calling something out. One of the apprentices, a wide-awake looking young man with untidy fair hair, who gave his name as Benjamin Walling, provided the clearest and most succinct evidence, though it scarcely made sense. It was his firm opinion that the murderer had demanded — though with a thick and possibly foreign accent — ‘Who’s there?’ and that Robert had replied, ‘Thomas.’
I was still trying to make sense of that when the door burst open and Dr Drudgeon strode in. Harry Drudgeon, whom I had known all my life, was our family physician and I had had no hesitation in sending for him to examine Robert’s body. He entered now, rubbing his hands on a red-stained apron. Always a fastidious man, he had been careful to cover his grey satin doublet but there was a streak of blood across one cheek and on his neatly trimmed beard. I had no need to introduce him to the coroner; most of the City’s leading professionals were known to each other and I imagined that Harry was well accustomed to giving evidence at inquests.
‘Welcome, Doctor,’ Kernish said, waving the newcomer to a chair. ‘Doubly welcome if you can provide us with any more substantial evidence about this sad affair. So far we have only heard from witnesses who talk of a hooded man, shouting unintelligibly and somehow stabbing his victim at several paces without leaving any trace of his weapon behind.’
‘No mystery there, Master Kernish.’ He opened his hand and allowed a small metal pellet to roll on to the table. ‘There’s your weapon.’
Chapter 11
We all stared at the tiny object. I expressed our bewilderment. ‘That looks like… shot, arquebus shot.’
Harry nodded, ‘It is arquebus shot.’
‘But that is not possible.’ I pictured the weapons I had sometimes seen the militia practising with on Finsbury Field or stored in their racks in Leaden Hall. Four or five feet in length, they were quite unwieldy.
Kernish agreed. ‘The assassin could not have discharged a firearm without being noticed. Even if no one saw the flame applied to the smouldering match, the flash and the explosion as the powder ignited must have been clearly visible from yards away.’ The lawyer seemed personally affronted by facts that refused to fit together.
Drudgeon shrugged. ‘My job is to decide the cause of Master Packington’s death, not to explain the circumstances surrounding it. I was a surgeon with the King’s army in ’thirteen and I know a gunshot wound when I see one. I removed that ball from Master Packington’s heart and I will stake my career on the fact that he was shot with a firearm.’
We were all struck dumb. I wager the others were thinking the same as me: This sort of thing did not happen in London… or England. In Italy, possibly, or the wilder parts of Germany, but London?
‘Perhaps Fennel was right,’ I muttered. ‘All that talk about a hooded foreigner.’
Ben Walling spoke up. ‘We did all hear a noise.’
‘So we did,’ I recalled. ‘That must have been what Fennel called a bolt from hell.’
‘Describe this noise,’ Kernish demanded.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘it was a sort of explosion. It echoed along the street.’
‘So it could have been a gunshot?’
‘I suppose so,’ I replied lamely.
‘That would mean there’s an assassin loose on the streets of London,’ the apprentice muttered.
Kernish re-established command of the meeting. ‘We must not jump to conclusions. We have ascertained that the victim was shot and the witnesses I have so far seen agree that a stranger pointed at him. Was it a gun that he pointed?’
Both the apprentice and I shook our heads firmly. ‘No,’ I said, ‘it takes two hands to fire an arquebus. Someone would have noticed. The murderer could never have discharged his weapon and got clean away without being challenged.’
‘He’d have been a fool to try,’ young Walling added. ‘My friend Bart and I would have been after him straightway. We’d have made him wish he’d never set foot in Cheapside.’
‘So what became of this stranger?’ Kernish asked.
Walling thought carefully. ‘When Master Packington fell we all moved forward to see what was amiss… whether he needed any help.’ He frowned. ‘The killer must have made his getaway while we were distracted.’
‘Fennel swears he saw the man run off down Bucklersbury,’ I said, ‘but what store we can set by his testimony…’
Drudgeon removed his apron and smoothed down the sleeves of his doublet. ‘Well, Master Kernish, that is a problem I must leave with you. I have patients to see and I’ve not yet broken my fast. With your leave, I’ll sign my statement and be on my way. My condolences, Thomas. I know how close you were to Robert.’
While the physician was bent over the table, I drew Walling to one side. ‘I’d be obliged if you and your friend could stay for a while. Go to the kitchen and tell my cook to draw you off some ale and find you some bread and cheese. There are a couple of things I’d like to go over with you in private.’
Kernish devoted another half-hour to questioning the witnesses. Then he made a cursory examination of Robert’s body. Drudgeon had closed up his incision in the chest and replaced the clothing so that the only visible evidence of the crime was the caked blood on the shirt and doublet. The corpse could tell us nothing that Drudgeon had not already deduced. Strange and appalling as his findings were, there was no escaping the fact that someone had slain my friend with a gun at close range and then made his escape in the darkness and mist.
The lawyer departed to view the scene of the murder and ordered us all to accompany him. I went down to the kitchen where I found the two apprentices doing justice to a hearty breakfast. I informed them of the coroner’s instructions and we left together to make the short return journey to the Great Conduit. As we walked I probed further what the young men had seen or, more specifically, heard.