“Damn it!” Smith shouted. “I wanted him alive, Bancroft! I wanted to find out who he was and why he tried to kill me!”
Bancroft looked around with rain streaming from his face. “He was getting away, Smith!” He swarmed down the side of the house and bent over the body. “He’s dead now.”
A dozen people swarmed around the body before Smith climbed to the street.
“Here’s your reason, Mr Smith.” Bancroft held up a blue sash loosely wound around the man’s chest. “He’s a Tory. He must have been disappointed that a Whig won the seat.”
Smith lifted the sash. “Maybe so,” he said. “Maybe so. All the same, I’d like to have spoken to the man.” He stepped away, noticing Judd standing beside Anthony Jackson at the fringe of the crowd. Judd frowned and shook his head as though trying to convey a messag
