Hugh Corbett 17 - The Mysterium Read online

  ‘I took the heads,’ he mumbled. ‘I placed them in a sack, which I left in the sanctuary. What should we . . .?’ He glanced up fearfully.

  ‘The heads?’ Ranulf hissed. ‘You recognised them?’

  ‘Of course! My stepmother, my father’s second wife, Clarice, and her steward, the controller of her household, Richard Fink.’

  ‘Why should they die?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Parson John wailed. ‘I must go there, I must see.’

  Corbett pressed the agitated priest on the back of his hand.

  ‘You agreed to meet Master Fleschner about the third hour after midday in the sacristy of St Botulph’s?’ Parson John nodded.

  ‘We had certain business,’ mumbled the parish clerk.

  ‘You, Parson John, went into the sacristy. Your attacker followed you from outside.You were knocked to the floor, bruised, bound and gagged.’ The priest nodded. ‘Your assailant then went into the church with his bag and, for his own devilish reasons, placed the severed heads in the font. He returned to you, drew his dagger and was probably about to carve the letter “M” on your forehead?’

  ‘Yes,’ Parson John gasped, ‘but thank God Miles opened the corpse door. My attacker went out of the sacristy as if to flee through the church, but came back and left by the outside door of the sacristy, which leads into the poor man’s lot and on to the priest’s house.’

  ‘What did he look like?’ Ranulf asked.

  ‘He was cowled and visored. He whispered rather than talked; his clothes smelt rancid.’

  ‘What did he say?’ Ranulf demanded.

  Parson John glanced wearily up.

  ‘That he was Boniface Ippegrave come again to seek vengeance against Evesham and all his kin. Sir Hugh, why are we staying here? My stepmother, Richard Fink?’

  ‘Their home?’

  ‘Off Clothiers Lane in Cripplegate, near the old wall. We’d best . . .’

  Corbett agreed and got to his feet.

  ‘May I come?’ Lapwing pushed his way by Ranulf.

  ‘Yes, you may,’ retorted Corbett. ‘Indeed, sir, I wish to have close words with you sometime.’ He had already made his decision. Tomorrow he would summon a special commission of oyer and terminer, so that all involved in this dire business could answer on oath, but until then . . .

  Corbett took his leave of Minehost and, with Ranulf and the rest following, left the Angel’s Salutation. He brushed aside the quack offering to cure worms in the ears with a poultice of fennel, plantain and mutton fat. Other tradesmen were just as insistent. The light was fading. The market bell would soon sound, the bailiffs would blow their horns and trading would cease, but until then, the stallholders and their apprentices were desperate to entice would-be customers. The air was bitterly cold, the mud and ordure beneath their feet hardening under a coating of ice. Troublemakers, all roped together, were being taken to the cage in Cheapside. A madman, manacled by his friends, was baying at the overcast sky as he was led across to a local church to be chained to the rood screen in the hope that his overnight stay before the Lord would cure his lunacy. A relic-seller offered to reveal the hand of a saint on which a finger would curl and point at the guilty. However, if the faithful were not interested in that, perhaps a scrap of unicorn blessed by St Ninias, a sure protection against poison? Only a little beggar boy seemed interested.

  The crowds were thinning, and they scrambled quickly out of Corbett’s way. The citizens of the night along the runnels and alleyways were already being alerted. King’s men were on the prowl and no one dared impede the stride of these grim-faced clerks, hands grasping the hilts of their swords. People recognised Parson John and Fleschner and called out greetings, but only the parish clerk replied, lifting a tremulous hand in acknowledgement.

  Corbett walked on, wary of the slippery trackways and narrow alleys leading off either side, where night-walkers and dark-prowlers gathered waiting for dusk. Shouts of abuse echoed. Doors slammed, shutters rattled. The foul smells of the cesspit faded abruptly as they passed a perfumer’s shop, where jars of Manus Christi, rosewater and ambergris stood unstoppered on the lowered shop fronts. Behind these the apprentices were busy with the perfume pans, and their delicious fragrances teased Corbett’s nostrils, recalling images of Lady Maeve. He stood aside as a little boy dressed in a black gown scurried by, ringing a skilla to warn people about the approach of a priest, head and shoulders covered by a red-gold cape, carrying the viaticum. Corbett knelt as he hurried on by to some sickbed, then rose and walked on.

  The entrance to Clothiers Lane was blocked when he reached it by a litter carried by four priests chanting the Libera me psalms; inside, a leper, dressed in his shroud, hands sheathed in leather gloves, rattled a clapper warning all to step aside. Once they were gone, Corbett waved Parson John on and they went up the well-cobbled street. On either side rose the stately mansions of the very wealthy, each in its own grounds and bounded by high curtain walls, above which peeked red-slated roofs and pink-plastered, black-timbered fronts. Parson John hurried to a magnificent gate leading to one of these mansions, where a watchman stood gossiping with two young women. Once he realised who Corbett was, the watchman hurriedly explained how the women were kitchen scullions who, with other servants, had arrived after the Angelus bell to find all the doors and shutters closed and no light burning.

  ‘We were under strict instruction to knock and wait,’ one of the scullions declared. ‘We knocked and waited but no one came down.’

  Corbett nodded, pushed open the gate and went along the white-stone path, which skirted hedges, shrubs and garden plots, to broad stone steps leading up to a splendid porch and a gleaming black door. He pulled the bell rope, then lifted the iron clasp carved in the shape of a helmet. This he brought down time and again, listening to the sound echoing through the house. Behind him Parson John mumbled and whimpered. Corbett glanced up. All the shutters remained closed. He went round to a postern door and tried the latch. It pulled open, and he entered the paved kitchen and scullery area. A tidy place, all swept and clean, yet arid and empty, bereft of light and warmth. The only sign that it had been recently used was a huge cutting board with bread and cheese on the fleshing table. Lapwing was eager to explore further, but Ranulf, who felt the brooding menace of this house, drew sword and dagger and told them all to stay, as he followed Corbett across the well-scrubbed flagstones. He sensed dullness, a harsh emptiness that frayed the mind and agitated the soul.

  They entered the long hall. Polished oaken furniture and precious items gleamed in the poor light, and their footsteps were dulled by the thick turkey rugs strewn on the floor. Corbett glimpsed triptychs, small figurines, statues in niches, the gold and silver thread of tapestries; a place of comfort that concealed its own silent, macabre secrets. They went out into the vestibule, up the staircase and along the narrow gallery. A door hung half open. Corbett pushed this back and went into the master bedchamber. One window was unshuttered, and the meagre light revealed a gruesome scene: two naked corpses, headless, the woman’s sprawled across the bed, the man’s lying just within the doorway. Their life-blood, now thick and drying, had drenched both bed and furniture, as well as soaking the thick woollen rugs on the floor. Corbett covered his nose at the rotten stench and stared around this once exquisite chamber.

  ‘Tristan and Isolde!’ he murmured. ‘Evesham was gone, locked up in Syon. Mistress Clarice and Master Fink decided to play the two-backed beast. Servants were dismissed and told when to return. Clarice and Fink thought they were alone and safe. Instead their nemesis arrived; he came in the same way we did.’ He walked across, removed the hard linen covering the casement window, leaned out and took a deep breath of cold air. Then he turned back and studied the two blood-smeared cadavers. The cuts on both necks were ragged, the top of Fink’s chest a mottled bluish red.

  ‘The assassin entered swiftly,’ Corbett surmised. ‘The two lovers were disturbed.’ He gestured at Fink’s corpse, its sagging belly, the thickening flesh around
shoulders and chest. ‘Fink was no warrior, but he tried to defend himself and his lover.’ He crouched down and pointed to the bruising on the upper chest. ‘Fink tried to resist. The assassin, probably armed with a short two-headed axe, knocked him away. I wager Fink’s head is also badly bruised.’ He rose and smeared the blood with the toe of his boot, then tapped at the deep cuts on the wooden floor. ‘Fink was stunned. The assassin turned on Clarice; shocked and terrified, she tried to move, but again, a blow to her head. Afterwards the assassin severed each at the neck, put the heads in a sack and left. At least I think that’s what happened.’ He stood, eyes closed, imagining the sequence of events, then opened his eyes and returned to the window.

  ‘The day’s dying,’ he remarked. ‘There is nothing more I can do, not now. Ranulf, summon the coroner’s bailiffs; have the cadavers removed to the death house at St Margaret’s-on-the-Heath.’ He whispered a requiem and crossed himself. ‘Afterwards, go to St Botulph’s and collect the heads. They’ll be bruised and I am sure will have the letter “M” carved on the foreheads. Take them to the—’ He suddenly noticed the piece of yellowing parchment lying on top of a small coffer. He picked it up. It was well used, the script clear in a bluish-green ink.

  ‘Mysterium Rei – the Mystery of the Thing?’ asked Ranulf.

  ‘Aye . . .’ Corbett pushed the scrap into his belt pouch and pressed a hand against a crucifix nailed to the wall. ‘And with the Lord’s good help I will solve the mystery and send this murderer to the scaffold. Ranulf, once you’ve finished with the dead, quicken the living. Go to the writ chamber in the Chancery of the Green Wax and issue a summons to everyone: Lapwing,’ Corbett chewed his lip, ‘Brother Cuthbert, Mistress Adelicia.’ He waved a hand. ‘Even those recluses must obey the King’s writ and attend to God’s business. Oh yes,’ he smiled thinly, ‘Staunton and Blandeford, that precious pair. Parson John, Miles Fleschner. Afterwards, seek out any bailiff involved in the arrest of Boniface Ippegrave. Tell Chanson to help you. Talk to Sandewic; he may have names.’

  ‘And the time and place?’

  ‘After the sext bell tomorrow in the oyer and terminer chamber at Westminster. I want them all there, on oath, to see what calm I can impose on this bloody chaos.’

  6

  Murdrum: murder

  Corbett, muffled in his cloak, sat at the great chancery table in the Office of the Secret Seal, deep in the labyrinth of galleries, passageways and chambers on the second floor of the rambling, ancient palace of Westminster. The lowered candelabra of beeswax lights illuminated the ox-blood Cordovan leather table top and the manuscripts Corbett had neatly laid out. He slouched in the quilted high-backed chair and stared around. Braziers crackled against the cold seeping like a mist through the shuttered windows. Lantern horns brightened the corners as well as the aumbries, coffers and chests stacked around the chamber. The flickering light caught the glint of a silver crucifix and shimmered in the vivid colours of the glorious tapestry, a gift from the King’s allies in Flanders, which proclaimed the story of the Archangel Raphael from the Book of Tobit. A shadowy shape flittered across the pool of light and disappeared through the slightly ajar door.

  ‘Good hunting Footpad,’ Corbett called; the great tomcat, the scourge of vermin, prowled like Death itself along the narrow wintry galleries, ready to pounce on any wandering mouse or rat. Elsewhere, Footpad’s lieutenant Assassin was also on the hunt. Corbett half listened. The old timbers and woodwork of the palace creaked and groaned. Sentry calls carried on the late-night air, whilst the persistent chilling breeze rattled the shutters. A place of ghosts, Corbett reflected. He got to his feet, stretched and moved to a small mullioned glass window, its panes decorated with heraldic motifs, where he peered down at the juddering light from cressets flaring in their holdings as well as the makeshift fires of the sentries. Westminster was now quiet. Some claimed how, after dark, the palace became too silent and all the ghosts of yesteryear returned. Clerks who’d spent their lives in their narrow chambers and ignored the call to worship God. Priests who had flocked to the palace to collect fat benefices and comfortable sinecures but failed to offer masses for the stipends received. Those killed in the constant brawls and affrays in Westminster’s many taverns, ale houses and brothels, which did such lively business for the court. These were joined by the spectres of those who’d died in sanctuary, the refuge for outlaws and wolfsheads in the great meadow that separated the Abbey of Westminster from the palace, their shades mingling with those who’d been hanged outside the great gate of the abbey. Corbett smiled. Despite the legends, he preferred Westminster after dark, at peace from the constant clatter and chatter of the day.

  He returned to his chair. It was very warm in here, and he was glad to be out of the cold, away from that dreadful chamber in Evesham’s house. He and Ranulf had informed Parson John about what had happened. The priest said he could not bear to view the corpses. Indeed, he began to shiver and cry so woefully that Fleschner had to take him back to St Botulph’s. Lapwing had kept his distance. Once Corbett had announced the dire news, the mysterious clerk declared that he wished to leave. Corbett had grasped the man by the cloak and warned that he would soon receive a writ of summons and must accept it. Lapwing had simply shrugged and slipped away. Corbett then re-entered that macabre house and carefully searched it, yet apart from the gruesome slaughter in the bedchamber, nothing else had been disturbed. No sign of forced caskets, chests or coffers, no violence anywhere. The killer had slipped like the Angel of Death through that mansion, where the two lovers had considered they were safe, with no servants, no one to report on their illicit tryst.

  ‘And no manuscripts,’ he mused loudly. ‘Evesham’s chancery chamber was as empty as a poor man’s pantry.’

  He picked up his goblet of mulled wine and sipped carefully. He must sleep and prepare for tomorrow, yet he was vexed, for he could make little sense nor impose any real order on the bloody swirl of events. He pulled across the various manuscripts culled from the pouches and coffers of the Secret Seal. He had read Evesham’s report on his hunt and capture of Ippegrave. The King’s summation of events had been accurate; only one extra detail stood out. Evesham had explained how he was so surprised at Boniface being the Mysterium that he had bound neither him nor the merchant Chauntoys when they were brought across the bridge from Southwark. As he had rightly argued, Ippegrave was a clerk in minor orders accused but not condemned. For the rest, the account provided no new information nor offered any further evidence. Evesham described how Boniface had escaped, taken sanctuary in St Botulph’s and was not allowed out. How his sister had approached with a ring that Evesham claimed he handed over to her brother. He detailed how closely guarded the church had been, every door and window, and could not explain his quarry’s escape. A list of depositions from bailiffs and others who had guarded St Botulph’s all confirmed this mystery.

  Corbett pulled across another pouch. He’d broken the seal and examined its contents, found in Boniface’s lodgings as well as his iron-bound coffer here in the chancery. The items had been listed by a clerk, Rastall. Corbett smiled. He remembered old Rastall, grim and abrasive but as clear and honest as the day. He had led the search of Boniface’s personal belongings; he would have scrupulously ensured that nothing had been deliberately placed there to incriminate the fugitive clerk, and had declared as much in a small memorandum sewn to the contents. The list of gold and silver found, now long spent by the exchequer, was considerable. Corbett whistled under his breath. It was certainly more than any chancery clerk could earn in a year. He examined with interest the message found on Boniface the day he was arrested. Written anonymously in faded ink, the writ gave the time and place, with the added advice that Boniface’s presence at the Liber Albus would be of great profit to both himself and the King.

  ‘That could have been written by anyone,’ he murmured aloud.

  The rest of the items included a rough sketch map of London, or at least the area around St Paul’s, Cheapside, Aldgate, C
ripplegate and Farringdon. Crosses had been etched in red. According to the memorandum drawn up by Rastall, the map, definitely the work of Boniface himself, marked some of the murders carried out by the Mysterium. A second sheaf consisted of faded scraps bearing the same macabre message the assassin had pinned to the corpses of his victims: Mysterium Rei – the Mystery of the Thing. Corbett held one of these up; undoubtedly they had been sent to the chancery by the coroners and sheriffs who’d attended the victim’s corpses. Boniface had apparently collected them, but why? More important was a piece of parchment with the words ‘St Paul’ scrawled above a square roughly divided into columns, twelve across and twelve down. According to Rastall, the document had been found in Boniface’s coffer and was certainly in his hand. Corbett tapped the table, muttering to himself. Evesham had revealed the Mysterium’s murderous method only after he had arrested both Ippegrave and the merchant Chauntoys. Only did then did he deduce, supported by Chauntoys’ full confession, how the Mysterium chose his victims and demanded payment.

  ‘But that was after the event!’ Corbett exclaimed to himself. ‘So how did Boniface know about St Paul’s?’

  He couldn’t have done, he reasoned, unless he truly was the Mysterium. Yet he had protested his innocence to his sister and to others. He’d written that puzzle about being guiltless, standing in the centre and pointing to the four corners; what did that mean? An enigmatic riddle to protect himself? Was Boniface a liar and an assassin who’d managed to escape and had now returned to exact vengeance?