Of course, when Jack saw it and realized that it was a hand protruding from the soil of the floor, the shock was enough to make him give a cry of horror. It was immediately clear what caused the odour. It was Jack’s tenant. Soon the scent of death had that of vomit added to the horrible chamber.
First my steward, then Master Blount appeared in the doorway at the top of the stairs, my steward hurrying down the treads to me, pushing Jack away in defence of my poor, failed chastity. Jack responded by again heaving, and depositing a portion of his breakfast on my man’s boots. He gave a sound expressive of disgust, and would have soundly beaten Jack, had I not gripped his fist and remonstrated with him.
Meanwhile Master Blount was kneeling at the side of the body. ‘You!’ he said to my steward. ‘Fetch two men with spades, then the coroner and the constable. This fellow needs to be exhumed and inquest held before he must be taken to church and have the last rites read over him, poor soul.’
To assist in the command, I pushed at the fellow, but not unkindly. His devotion to me deserved better treatment, no matter what he thought of Jack, and I was, it is true, impressed that he had thrown himself to me as soon as he’d heard the sound of Jack’s horror.
I took Jack upstairs and placed him in a seat in the kitchen to recover from his puking, then told my men what we had discovered down in the cellar.
It was Bagnall who was first to speak. ‘Here? Vanderstilt is here? How could Blackjack have brought him here?’
I held my temper under a tight rein. This man considered himself intelligent and quick-witted, and yet here he was with all the evidence placed before him, and still he could not move his mind from the road on which it had embarked. I despair of men.
‘Could Jack have been responsible for a man here? No. He could not. What, do you think he entered, carrying the dead man over his shoulder? Would that be easy? No. Do you think he opened the doors here with his own keys, and managed to do so with such surreptitious care that his entry went unnoticed? I doubt that too. Would he be able to carry the body here, walking the streets, without anyone seeing him? Unlikely. And how would he know that his tenant was leaving the house that day, where he was going, and what time the man would return, so that Jack could tell what would be the best time for him to come and launch his attack?’
‘He might have met the Dutchman by chance.’
‘Late in the evening? Jack happened on the fellow up near the Tower and decided to execute him? Or came here and chose to murder his tenant? Why should he do so? What benefit would he attain from such an act?’
Bagnall had the grace not to continue to promote his confused and frankly risible assumption of Jack’s guilt after I said that.
‘Who did kill him, then?’
‘Who could have installed him in the cellar of this house? Who would have known where his money lay? Who would have had the opportunity? Who would have been trusted by him?’
I could see that my groom was considerably brighter than the man Bagnall. He had an expression of great understanding, and I began to think that, were Jack to disappear one day, this fellow might be a suitable replacement. He had the sort of elegant good looks that I enjoy, and his intellect was plainly of a similar level to my own.
‘Do you truly not comprehend yet?’ I said.
Bagnall was still frowning.
‘His own servant! The man who has demonstrated his guilt by fleeing even now! Who else?’ I said, with great restraint.
‘Him?’ Bagnall looked shocked. ‘Petty treason? But the man was his servant!’
‘You have never known a servant to prove faithless before?’
That was when the fresh knock came at the door, and soon the house was filled with constables and members of the other houses in the street, all come to gawp and enjoy the sights of other men’s misfortune.
I left them to it and went back to the kitchen.
Jack was seated at the table. His face still bore the look of horror that had dawned at the sight of his tenant in his shallow grave, and remained a green hue. I tried to entice him to think of something else, but soon, I confess, I gave up, and my mind turned to reflections of the build and appearance of the groom. What was his name? I would have to find out. Not that it was a safe venture to risk my reputation with a servant of my own household – but it was an appealing daydream.
‘He was here all along,’ Jack said. ‘Peter killed him!’
There was a clattering of shovels and a muffled expletive from the cellar, mingled with shouting and blows from my parlour as the constable and his men took Bagnall and his confederates and carried them off to gaol. I was glad when the door slammed behind them all.
‘Yes, he was plainly not sure what to do with the body,’ I said. ‘I would think that he would find it difficult to retrieve his master’s corpse and carry it through the streets to conceal it somewhere else.’
Jack nodded. ‘It’s not so easy to move a dead body,’ he said. He added, ‘Or so I’ve heard.’
‘I don’t suppose it is,’ I said. He was gradually regaining a little colour in his face. That disappeared as the three men from the cellar appeared in the doorway, bearing a sheet on which Jack’s tenant was lying. As they left the cellar door, they had to turn to go to the hall, and as they did, the body slumped and fell from the sheet. The stench of decay was appalling, and I could see that the hand had been nibbled by rats.
Jack took one look, and was promptly sick once more.