Rogues Gallery Read Online Free PDF Page B

been called in to identify a criminal. His testimony was sufficient to convict the man, as it always was in their city, and the man had been condemned to a life of cruelty.
    At least Becket figured that’s what happened. Spending less than ten minutes inside the asylum had been plenty. Now that he was back inside, it was like he’d never left.
    He was forced to hold his breath as he walked by the iron bonded doors. The smell was tremendous. He began to question his decision to come here. There had not been a magistrate in Sea Haven for decades. If you were accused of a crime, there wasn’t much to do about it. People paid off the person accusing them, or murdered them. But it didn’t take much evidence to put an individual into the asylum or string them up at the gallows.
    It might’ve seemed strange to an outsider for a city to run without an official judiciary system in place, but few who lived there thought much of it unless they were in Becket’s current situation. Most of the time he believed it kept people in line and since he had money it worked. ‘Well, I’m fine being paranoid,’ he thought. Better that than in jail or dead.
    The attendant brought him to Warden Harris’ small, cramped office, little more than a closet with a desk. It smelled too. He covered his nose and did his best to smile when Harris saw him enter. The warden got up quick and rushed over to shake his hand.
    “I’m very glad you came, Master Becket. We have a problem here. I don’t, uh, know quite what to make of it. It’s very strange.”
    “Yes, I’m certain of that. Listen, I’m very busy, and I don’t mean to be rude, but why am I here?”
    Harris nodded as if he expected that exact question. “Yes, of course. Why you are here. It’s better if I show you. This way.”
    The red headed man passed Becket, and soon they were in dark and dingy hallway with rusty walls. Becket heaved a mental sigh and kept his arms close to his side, lest his robes touch them. At last they reached the far end where a gigantic attendant stood watch over an iron barred door.
    The man was the largest human being Becket had ever seen. From far away he hadn’t noticed just how huge the man was, but once they neared, it was obvious this was a freak of nature. Seven feet tall if an inch, and wide enough to make standing there uncomfortable. The giant stood straighter with Warden Harris there, and his head almost touched the ceiling.
    “Rocko, open the door please,” Harris said, sounding agitated and nervous. They started walking in when Harris stopped and turned back. Becket tensed, waiting for a trap to be sprung.
    “Rocko, come with us.”
    Becket almost caved to the pressure in his screaming mind to run away, but Rocko’s bulk already blocked the doorway. There was nothing for it. He was trapped inside a metal room with a giant and a man who worked with the insane.
    ‘What a life I’ve built for myself,’ he thought. ‘My father would never approve. Good thing he’s dead.’
    A ragged, filthy creature slumped against the far wall. It wore the same scrubby rags every other inmate did, faded, threadbare gray with no shoes and a simple rope as a belt. Becket studied the still form for a moment and then shook his head. He stared at Warden Harris and couldn’t help the annoyance from showing in his voice.
    “Warden Harris. I trust you’ll get to the point of this visit. What does this person have to do with me?”
    Harris looked back and forth between Becket and the miserable retch chained to the wall with both leg and arm shackled. They were thick enough to hold a bull. There was no way to tell if it was male or female, but he suspected the former. It hung its head and sat against the back wall like an abandoned marionette doll.
    “This person came to us under mysterious circumstances,” Warden Harris said, and his voice sounded sad. “I don’t even know who brought him in. He was just here one day, swinging in a cage.”
    Becket eyed the