Dissolution

'Perhaps we should go down. One of us could fetch help.'

'No, it's hard to keep an eye on both staircases at once, in a place this size he could slip away if he gets down.'

We took a parallel course once more, back the way we had come. My eyes were sore from peering intently ahead. As I passed the rood screen with its statues, something nagged at my mind. I was well past before it came to me: there had been the usual three statues: St John the Baptist, Our Lord and the Virgin. But there was a fourth as well.

Even as I paused and turned something whistled through the air and struck the wall beside me. A dagger clattered onto the walkway at my feet as I turned, realizing that what I had taken for the middle statue was in fact a living man in Benedictine habit. Even now a dim figure was clambering over the railing onto the walkway. I turned and ran towards him, but my foot caught in the mesh of the walkway and I fell forward onto the railing. For a second my head and shoulders hung out over the nave and I stared terrified over the drop, then I managed to haul myself upright. The figure had gone. I heard footsteps clattering down the stairs.

'Mark!' I called. 'This side! He's escaping!'

Mark was some distance ahead and by the time he had run back to the top of the stairs on the far side the monk had descended. I heard footsteps pattering away; he ran beside the wall on my side, making it impossible to see him. I ran down the stairs and arrived at the bottom just as Mark appeared opposite. In the distance the church door slammed shut.

'He was standing on the rood screen, with the statues!' I shouted. 'Did you see who it was? He was gone in a flash.'

'No, sir, he was down on the stairs by the time I reached you.' He stared up at the screen. 'He must have climbed out on the screen as we were going up the stairs. God's wounds, he must have courage to stand up there with no rail or support.'

'Hoping reformers would instinctively avert their eyes from statuary. He's got away.' I looked at the dagger I had picked up from the walkway. A sharp, unornamented weapon of steel. No clue there. I banged my fist on the wall, sending a wave of pain shooting up my arm.

'But, sir, what about Gabriel? Did you not think him the killer after all? What did you find in the hidden passage?'

I hesitated. 'I was mistaken, completely mistaken. He had no secrets. And now someone else has died because of me. Despite my prayers,' I added, looking angrily up at the roof for a moment. 'But I swear he shall be the last.'

CHAPTER 26

I had ordered the four surviving senior obedentiaries to the church. Abbot Fabian, Prior Mortimus, Brother Edwig and Brother Guy stood with Mark and me in the nave as servants hauled lumps of stone from Gabriel's body. Strangely, I found I could bear the terrible sight, a shocked, numbed feeling had descended on me. I watched the obedentiaries' reactions: Brother Guy and Prior Mortimus stood impassive, Brother Edwig wrinkled his face with distaste, Abbot Fabian turned away and vomited into the aisle.

I ordered them to accompany me to Gabriel's little office, where stacks of books for copying sat on the floor, and the broken statue of the Virgin still leaned mournfully against the wall. I asked them where the monks had been an hour before, when the stone fell.

'All over the precinct,' Prior Mortimus replied. 'It's recreation hour. Not many would be out in this weather, most would be in their cells.'

'Jerome? Is he safe?'

'Locked in his cell since yesterday.'

'And you four. Where were you?'

Brother Guy said he had been studying alone in his dispensary; Prior Mortimus had been in his office, again alone. Brother Edwig told me his two assistants would verify he had been in the counting house, while Abbot Fabian had been giving his steward instructions. I sat looking at them; even those with alibis could not be trusted, those who served them could be persuaded or threatened to lie. The same would be true of any alibis the monks gave each other. I could question every single servant and monk in the place, but how long would that take and where would it get me? I suddenly felt helpless.

'So Gabriel saved you?' Prior Mortimus broke the silence.

'Yes, he did.'

'Why?' he asked. 'With respect, sir, why should he give his life for you?'

'Perhaps it is not so surprising. I think he had been led to believe his own life was of little worth.' I stared hard at the prior.

'Then I hope his act is helping him now at his judgement. He had many sins to weigh in the balance.'

'Perhaps not such great matters in God's eyes.'

There was a hesitant knock at the door, and the frightened face of a monk appeared.

'Pray pardon, there is a letter for the commissioner from Justice Copynger. The messenger says it is urgent.'

'Very well. Gentlemen, stay here for now. Mark, come with me.'

* * *

As we marched down the church we saw Gabriel's body had been removed; two of the servants were washing the flags; steam rose from the hot water as they swabbed away the blood. When we opened the door a sea of faces looked at us, monks and servants, all murmuring anxiously. Grey clouds of breath issued from fifty mouths. I saw Brother Athelstan, his eyes alight with curiosity, and Brother Septimus staring round in bewildered anxiety, wringing his hands. At the sight of us, Brother Jude called on the crowd to clear a way. We strode through them, led by the monk who had fetched us. At the gatehouse Bugge stood holding a letter, his sharp little eyes full of curiosity.

'The messenger said it was most urgent, Commissioner, I hope you'll forgive the interruption. Is it true Brother Gabriel's been killed in an accident in the church?'

'No, Master Bugge, it was no accident. He died saving my life from a murderer.' I took the letter and walked away, halting in the centre of the courtyard. I felt safer away from high walls just then.

'That'll be all over the precinct in an hour,' Mark said.

'Good. The time for secrecy is over.' I broke the seal and read the single sheet. I bit my lip anxiously.

'Copynger has begun his enquiries. He's ordered Sir Edward and another local landowner named in that book to attend him. Messages have come back saying they're cut off on their estates because of the snow, but if a messenger can get in they can get out, so he's sent for them again. This smacks of delaying tactics. These people have things to hide.'

'You could confront Brother Edwig now.'

'I don't want that slippery eel saying it was all just exercises and projections. I want to confront him with hard evidence. But I won't have it by tomorrow, or the day after – not at this rate.' I folded the letter. 'Mark, who could have known we were going to the church this morning? I told you by the pond. Remember I said we must go to the church.'

'Prior Mortimus was there, but he was walking away.'

'Perhaps he has sharp ears, like yours. The point is, no one else knew we were going. Assuming, that is, that someone did go up there to lie in wait for me.'

He thought. 'But how would anyone know you would come to rest just under those blocks of stone?'

'You're right. Oh God, I cannot think straight.' I kneaded my brow with my fingers. 'All right. What if our killer was up on that walkway for a different reason? What if he just took the opportunity to rid the world of me when I paused where I did?'

'But why would anyone go up there? There aren't even any works going on.'

'Who would know most about the works now Gabriel is dead?'

'Prior Mortimus is in charge of the daily running of the house.'

'I think I will talk to him.' I paused, folding the letter away. 'But first, Mark, there is something I must tell you.'