‘You still think that the Queen was not the target?’
‘If that was what our assassin intended, he would have been able to finish his task. There were only two women opposing him: Alicia and the Queen herself. How could they have protected themselves against one ruthless man with a dagger?’
‘Perhaps he wasn’t that strong?’
Baldwin looked at him. ‘The fellow had got to the palace where he was not permitted. That demonstrates at the least a level of determination that many would like to be able to copy. No, I believe he would have entered here and …’
He was suddenly still. Simon looked at him warily. ‘You have had another thought, haven’t you?’
‘Well, it’s just that if he didn’t come from hereabouts, he must have used a horse, which will be tethered somewhere close. However, a man on horseback at night is a rare sight, and always suspicious. More likely this fellow was bright enough to walk here. But he couldn’t come here on foot from too far away, could he? No, he would want an inn or tavern as his base. Perhaps he rented a room?’
Simon latched on to what he was saying. ‘Think, Baldwin! If a man came here and succeeded in killing, say, the Queen, the first thing to happen would be that the King’s men would smother the neighbourhood. If he had taken a room in a house nearby, the owner would know if he rose in the middle of the night and trotted off. No household is so quiet that a man could go abroad without someone being aware, and as soon as the men-at-arms arrived, mine host would become thoroughly talkative. If this fellow was staying nearby, he was either sleeping rough … no, it is too cold — unless he made his own camp, but about here that would be too obvious. So, not a camp … I would guess he stayed in a small inn or tavern. A place large enough for him to be anonymous, not a small house where his coming and going would be too obvious.’
‘Yes — you are absolutely right. He would have to be staying in a place where his movements would be easily concealed — possibly somewhere that was already so busy, that he could justifiably demand space in a barn or hayloft,’ Baldwin said thoughtfully.
‘Because then he could slip away in the darkness and no one would see him,’ Simon agreed.
Baldwin set off across the yard.
‘Hey — where are you going?’ Simon called out.
‘We need some men to search all the little inns and taverns hereabouts. If I understand my orders, I have been instructed to find out all I may about this man. I shall do so, then. I will command the King’s Sergeant to send riders to seek this place.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ellis had been at the palace from an early hour, and at midday he was in the main hall again, leaning against one of the pillars and staring at the throne. There had to be some reason why Jack had been killed and left here to be found. What that reason might be, he had no idea. All he was certain of was that if Jack had been there when the Queen passed by, he would have killed her. Of course, if another woman was in his way, like Mabilla, he might have been forced to hurt her, perhaps even kill her, in order to achieve his end. But none of those women would have been able to stop him.
Which meant that the man who attacked Mabilla was not Jack; thus her murderer was still abroad.
He was about to go and study Jack’s body again, just to see if anything else occurred to him, when he heard shouts and the rattle of horses’ hooves in the New Palace Yard. No man who was handy with a weapon could ignore the sound of cavalry. He hurried out to watch, and saw thirty or forty men on horseback streaming from the gate. Another twenty or so marched out with pikes on their shoulders.
‘Where are they going?’ he asked a cleric nearby.
‘They’ve been ordered to look for the place where the assassin may have been staying.’
‘Who ordered them to do so?’
‘Those two.’
Ellis took in the sight of Baldwin and Simon over at the far side of the yard. He was not surprised. However, when he saw the pair of them make their way to the Exchequer, he was intrigued. They must surely be going back to the hall as well, just as he had. There was a connecting door from the Exchequer to the dais behind the throne.
On a whim, he decided to listen to them, and he hurried off into the Green Yard before entering the Great Hall at the screens. Peering within, he could see the two men crouched behind the throne, and he slipped inside silently, walking up along the line of pillars, out of their sight, until he was only a matter of yards from them and could hear their conversation.
The Bailiff was saying, ‘Look at it. There is not enough.’
‘Let us take a look behind the tapestry. No — nothing there either. But the fact remains that the man was stabbed, had his tarse cut off and shoved into his mouth. Any of those wounds will have caused a deal of bleeding, but there is nothing in here.’
‘It’s hardly surprising, of course,’ Simon Puttock said sensibly. ‘This hall is constantly being used as a corridor between one or another chamber. No one in his right mind would come here and do something like that to a man’s body in full view of anyone who might walk in.’
‘Well, the lack of blood bears out your thoughts, Simon. So, the next question has to be: where on earth is all the blood? Where was he killed?’
‘If the killer was a man from here, from the palace itself, he could know any number of little nooks and crannies.’
‘And yet …’
‘Yes?’
‘If the man knew his victim was an assassin, we can suppose that the assassin was killed on his way to the killing or on the way back. If it was on the way back, we know that he did not intend to hurt the Queen, but was merely attempting to worry her, or had another motive and was always planning to kill the girl who died. The Queen in that case becomes merely an innocent witness.’
‘So where was he killed?’
‘Well, Simon, there are two entrances to this hall. We came in through one, the Exchequer. The only other one is the main entrance at that end there. The man was not too heavy, but I’d guess that even he would have been an uncomfortable weight to drag or carry too far. I would bet that he was near here when he died.’
‘In the hall here?’
‘That would be one possibility, but I have looked about the place a little, and have seen no sign of blood. No, I think we should look outside in the screens passage, the service chambers and the lower rooms near the King’s rooms.’
Ellis listened as they marched along the hall, gradually sidling about the pillar as they grew level and passed by him. Then he walked down the outer aisle, careful to move quietly and keep from the view of the entrance. Soon he heard them again.
‘Nothing here. If there were, we’d have seen it when we were in here the other day.’
‘Very well, Simon. Come, we must check in the buttery and pantry.’
There was a pause, and then a call full of dejection. ‘Nothing here, either, Baldwin.’
‘Nor here, Simon. This is madness. Logic says that the man must have been killed nearby. To carry a dead weight in the middle of the night with no candle or other aid would be extremely difficult.’
‘Baldwin …’
‘What, Simon?’
‘What of that door there?’
‘It leads to the King’s chapel, I believe.’
‘Is it locked?’
There was a pause for a few moments. ‘It is open, Simon. Come on.’
Ellis sneaked to the opening and listened carefully. He knew the door in question. It led into the ground-floor level of the King’s chapel. It was always locked usually, to ensure the King’s privacy, and his steward would only unlock it for Masses during which the King’s household would join him in prayers. It oughtn’t to be open.
As he peeped around the doorway, he heard them again.
‘Look here, Baldwin.’