By Murder's Bright Light Read online

  ‘What do you mean?’ Athelstan asked.

  ‘I confess all,’ Robard declared. ‘You name it, Father, I’ve done it. I have shagged women, boys and, on one occasion, even a sheep. I have stolen men’s property, even their wives. I curse every hour I am awake. I have never been to church.’ The man’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. ‘You know, Father, I have done bugger-all in this life. I have not done one good thing!’ He blinked and looked at the friar. ‘I have never shown any love but, there again, I’ve been shown bugger-all myself! I don’t know my father. My mother dumped me on a church’s steps when I was two summers old.’ Robard licked his lips. ‘Now I am going to die, Father. I have been in hell on earth, why should I spend the rest of eternity there?’ His tears were coming freely now. ‘I wish I could go back,’ he whispered. ‘I wish I could. There was a girl once, Father. Her name was Anna. She was soft and warm. I think she loved me.’ He wiped the tears away from his face. ‘I am sorry, Father.’ The fellow licked dry lips. ‘I’ll never look at the sea again, or study the sky. Never feel a woman’s soft skin or drink red wine. I’ve drunk good wine, Father. Christ, I need some now!’

  Athelstan looked over his shoulder at Simon. ‘Simon, get this man a drink, a good deep bowl of claret.’ Athelstan fished in his purse and tossed a coin, which the executioner expertly caught. Athelstan pointed at the executioner. ‘And one for yourself.’

  Simon popped into the nearest ale house and returned with a two-handled hanaper brimming with strong Bordeaux. He handed it to Athelstan, who gave it to Robard, placing it carefully, for the man’s hands were bound at the wrists.

  Robard pushed it gently back. ‘No, Father, you take a sip. Wish me well.’

  Athelstan obeyed. ‘I wish you well, Robard.’

  Robard held the wine.

  ‘Do you deserve to die?’ Athelstan asked.

  ‘Oh, yes, I killed the whore. She was laughing at my arm. Will I go to hell, Father?’

  ‘Do you want to go there?’ Athelstan replied.

  ‘Oh no, Father.’

  Athelstan murmured the words of absolution and made the sign of the cross slowly. ‘You are absolved, Robard. The only people who are in hell are those who wish to be there.’ Athelstan got to his feet. ‘You may have lived a bad life but you will die a good death. Christ on the cross showed he was partial to penitent criminals. Now, drink the wine. Drink it fast. May God help you.’

  Athelstan climbed off the cart and, as he passed Simon, the executioner, he gripped him by the arm.

  ‘For the love of Christ!’ Athelstan whispered. ‘Let him finish his wine, then make it quick!’

  Simon nodded and Athelstan walked over to remount Philomel.

  ‘Father!’

  Athelstan looked back towards the scaffold. He kicked his horse forward and reined in next to the cart. Robard drained the hanaper.

  ‘I said no one showed me any love. Bugger-all was the phrase I used.’ The felon smiled. ‘I was wrong. By what name are you called, Father?’

  ‘Athelstan.’

  ‘God be with you, Brother Athelstan.’

  Athelstan turned Philomel away and urged him on. Behind him he heard the crack of Simon’s whip and the creaking of the wheels as the horses pulled the cart from underneath Robard. He thought he heard the crack of Robard’s neck as Simon pulled hard on the condemned man’s legs.

  ‘Oh, sweet Jesus,’ he whispered to himself, ‘have mercy on him and all of us!’ He stared across the busy approaches to the bridge. ‘But especially him! Especially him!’

  CHAPTER 6

  Athelstan knocked on the door of Cranston’s house. He was immediately greeted by a raucous noise – the poppets screaming and Cranston’s two great wolfhounds, Grog and Magog, barking furiously. The door opened and Cranston’s petite, pretty wife Maude came out, patches of flour on her cheeks and the sleeves of her dress. In each arm she held her beloved poppets Francis and Stephen, their little heads now covered in downy hair, their round, fat faces red and cheery. Behind her Boscombe the steward prevented the two great dogs from lunging at Athelstan and licking him to death.

  ‘Brother Athelstan,’ Lady Maude exclaimed, her face smiling in pleasure.

  The two poppets strained towards him, clapping their fat hands and gurgling with glee.

  ‘Come in, Brother.’ Lady Maude stepped back.

  Athelstan shook his head. ‘Sir John’s not at home?’

  ‘He could be in the Holy Lamb of God,’ Lady Maude replied sharply.

  ‘Dadda.’ One of the poppets strained forward, a fat, dirty finger pointing at Athelstan. ‘Dadda.’

  Athelstan seized the finger and squeezed it gently. The beaming baby burped.

  ‘Just like his father!’ Lady Maude declared.

  ‘Dadda.’

  Athelstan grasped the chubby little finger and stroked the other baby’s head. ‘Bless you both, bless you all.’ He grinned. ‘But I’m not your Dadda.’

  ‘Dadda,’ the baby repeated.

  Athelstan, a little embarrassed, pointed at Lady Maude. ‘And who’s that?’

  The baby stared at his mother and then back at Athelstan.

  ‘Not Dadda.’

  Athelstan laughed. He said he would search out Sir John and, leaving the confusion of Cranston’s household behind him, pushed his way through the throng. He stabled Philomel in the Holy Lamb of God’s stables and entered the taproom. Lady Maude was right. Cranston was sitting in his favourite chair, a tankard of ale in front of him, and staring mournfully into the garden.

  ‘Good morrow, Sir John.’

  The coroner, full of self-pity, looked at his secretarius, who slipped on to the bench opposite him.

  ‘You are in poor spirits, Sir John?’

  ‘Bloody murder!’

  ‘You mean the business at Queen’s hithe?’

  ‘No, there have been burglaries in the streets around Cheapside. Always the same pattern. A deserted house is robbed but the felon leaves no sign of any forced entry or exit. Last night there was another one, in Catte Street. I have just been down to the Guildhall. A group of angry aldermen gave me and under-sheriff Shawditch the rough edge of their tongues!’ Cranston drained his tankard. ‘Anyway, what do you want, Brother?’

  ‘Emma Roffel came to see me. She was shocked about what had happened to the corpse of her husband and by the rumours that he had been murdered. She’s at the funeral now.’

  ‘We’ll deal with my troubles first,’ Cranston muttered.

  He grabbed his cloak and trudged out of the tavern across Cheapside, so sullen, he ignored the usual banter and good-natured abuse hurled at him.

  ‘Sir John, is this so serious?’ Athelstan asked, hurrying beside him.

  ‘Never forget, Brother. The city council pays my salary. I am friendly to all of them but ally to none. Sometimes I think they’d like to remove me.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ Athelstan protested.

  ‘We’ll see, we’ll see,’ the coroner said dolefully. ‘And how’s your bloody parish?’

  ‘My bloody parish is fine, preparing for the play.’ Athelstan seized Cranston’s sleeve. ‘Sir John, pause a minute.’

  Under his thick beaver hat, the coroner’s fat, usually cheery face now looked so mournful that Athelstan had to bite his lip to hide his smile.

  ‘Sir John, will you be in our play?’

  He caught the flicker of amusement in the coroner’s eyes.

  ‘As what?’

  ‘Satan.’

  Cranston stared at him, threw his head back and roared with laughter. He clapped the friar so vigorously on the shoulder that Athelstan winced.

  ‘Of course I bloody will! I’ll even buy my own costume. Now come on!’

  He led Athelstan up a lane and stopped before the main door of a grand four-storeyed house.

  ‘Who lives here?’ Athelstan asked.

  ‘A big fat merchant,’ Sir John replied. ‘He made a fortune in the wine trade and is now absent from the city visiting friends and relation
s.’

  Cranston hammered on the door. A pale-faced servant opened it. Sir John roared who he was and marched straight in. Shawditch was already in the large, white-washed kitchen questioning the servants, who sat, anxious-faced, around the great fleshing table. Cranston introduced Athelstan, who shook the under-sheriff’s hand.

  ‘Well, what happened?’ the coroner snapped.

  ‘The same as ever, Sir John, with one difference. Last night some footpad entered the house. God knows how – the doors were barred and the windows shuttered. He stole precious objects from the upper floors. Unfortunately a linen-maid, Katherine Abchurch, had fallen asleep in one of the chambers. She woke after dark, opened the door and surprised the intruder, who promptly stabbed her to death.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘Disappeared leaving no trace of how he left or how he entered.’

  Cranston nodded towards the servants. ‘And you have questioned all of these?’

  They can all account for their movements. In fact, the steward here noticed Katherine was missing and went looking for her.’

  Athelstan beckoned the under-sheriff closer. ‘Is there anyone here who had anything to do with the previous burglaries?’ he asked.

  Shawditch shook his head. ‘No one.’

  ‘And you are sure that all the entrances and exits were sealed?’

  ‘As sure as I can be.’

  ‘Ah well, let’s see for ourselves,’ Cranston said. ‘Come on, Shawditch.’

  The under-sheriff led them along a corridor and up a broad staircase where the oak gleamed like burnished gold. The walls were panelled and the plaster above them painted a soft pink. Heraldic shields hung there and, on one wall, the head of a ferocious-looking boar had been mounted on a wooden plaque. On the second floor just outside a chamber, Katherine Abchurch lay where she had fallen, a woollen blanket tossed over her. Athelstan looked around the corridor. He saw chamber doors, the staircase at the far end and a table with dusty rings on it.

  ‘Something was stolen from here?’

  ‘Yes,’ Shawditch replied, then jumped at a loud knocking on the door downstairs.

  ‘That will be beadle Trumpington,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell him to wait below.’

  He hurried down the stairs. Cranston and Athelstan pulled back the blanket and stared at Katherine’s mortal remains.

  ‘God save us!’ Athelstan whispered. ‘She’s only a child.’

  He saw the bloody puncture marks on the girl’s dress and his heart lurched with compassion at the terror still frozen on her face. ‘God rest her!’ he said softly. ‘And God punish the wicked bastard who did it!’

  He replaced the blanket tenderly, covering the girl’s face. ‘My mind’s a jumble of problems but I will do all I can to bring this assassin to justice!’

  Shawditch rejoined them.

  ‘Let’s inspect the house,’ Athelstan urged. ‘Every floor, every room.’

  ‘I have asked for all the chambers to be opened,’ Shawditch said.

  ‘Then let’s begin.’

  There was a look of cold determination on Athelstan’s usually gentle face as he moved from room to room. It reminded Cranston of a good hunting dog he had owned as a boy. Athelstan’s irritation at not being able to find any clue, however, grew as they reached the top floor.

  ‘Nothing,’ he whispered through clenched teeth. ‘Nothing at all.’

  They went into the garret, which was dark and chilling – only the beams and the tiles above separated them from the cold. Athelstan kicked among the rushes on the floor.

  ‘No window. No opening.’ He crouched down and felt the rushes. They were cold and damp to his touch. He walked into the corner of the room and felt the rushes there. He came back shaking his head. ‘Let’s go downstairs.’

  They returned to the kitchen, where Trumpington the beadle was holding court before the great roaring fire.

  ‘Sir John, Master Shawditch, have you found anything?’ The beadle’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Athelstan. ‘Who’s this?’

  ‘Brother Athelstan, my secretarius,’ Cranston replied.

  Athelstan stared at the beadle. ‘It’s a mystery,’ he said absent-mindedly. ‘But you, good sir, could do me a favour.’

  ‘Anything you ask, Father.’

  ‘But, first, one question.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘You patrol the streets. You noticed nothing wrong?’

  ‘Father, if I had I’d have reported it.’

  Athelstan smiled.

  ‘And the favour, Father?’

  ‘I want you to get a tiler, a good man.’

  ‘I’ve done that already,’ Trumpington said.

  ‘To check this house?’

  ‘No, but he checked all the others and found nothing amiss.’

  ‘Well, ask him to check again. See if any tiles have been removed. If he finds any aperture we have missed, report your findings to the coroner.’

  ‘Is that what you want, Sir John?’ Trumpington asked pointedly, throwing a look of disdain at the friar.

  Sir John caught the tinge of contempt. ‘Yes it is. And do it quickly!’

  They made their farewells and left the house.

  ‘Well, Brother, did you find anything?’ Cranston asked. Athelstan saw the expectation in his and Shawditch’s faces.

  ‘Nothing, Sir John.’

  Cranston cursed.

  There is one thing, though,’ Athelstan said. ‘Master Shawditch, a small favour?’

  The under-sheriff looked at Cranston, who shrugged.

  ‘It’s nothing to do with this business,’ Athelstan went on, ‘but could you ask the boatmen along the Thames if they took anyone out to the ship God’s Bright Light two nights ago?’

  ‘I’ll do what I can, Father,’ Shawditch replied and hurried off.

  ‘What’s that all about?’ Cranston grumbled.

  ‘Well, let me tell you.’

  Athelstan pulled Cranston into a small alehouse. Sir John needed no second invitation to refreshment – he immediately began shouting for a cup of claret and a piece of freshly roasted capon. Athelstan sipped at his ale as he watched the food restore Sir John’s good humour.

  ‘First,’ Athelstan whispered, leaning across the table, ‘Aveline Ospring murdered her father. She told me under the seal of confession but has asked for our help.’

  Cranston stared, his mouth wide open, as Athelstan described what he had learnt earlier in the day. The coroner threw the capon leg down.

  ‘She’ll hang,’ Sir John muttered. ‘Either she’ll hang or he’ll hang or they’ll both hang. She can’t prove what she said. What else, Brother?’

  ‘Somebody boarded that ship,’ Athelstan declared, ‘and somehow killed those three men. But how and why I don’t know. However, you heard what Crawley said? No one from the neighbouring ship, the Holy Trinity, saw or heard anything amiss and that includes Bernicia’s shouting.’ Athelstan angrily shook his head. ‘Someone is lying, Sir John, and we must discover who. How do we know every sailor left the ship? There could have been someone hiding on board.’

  ‘Oh, I see,’ Cranston said sarcastically. ‘And he killed those three sailors with no fuss or trace, continued passing the signals and then disappeared into thin air, just like the felon robbing the merchants’ houses?’

  Athelstan smiled. ‘No one disappears into thin air, Sir John, and that goes for the house we have just visited. I have a suspicion. No, no.’ He held a finger up as expectation flared in Sir John’s eyes. ‘Not now. Let’s deal with Roffel’s widow. But, before that, do you know a tavern called the Crossed Keys near Queen’s hithe?’

  ‘Yes, the landlord’s a relative of Admiral Crawley. An old seafarer. Why, what’s the matter, Brother?’

  Athelstan leaned his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands. ‘Roffel used to buy usquebaugh, a Scottish drink, there. He kept it in a flask that he always carried with him. By the way, Sir John, have you noticed how Crawley’s name keeps recurring? He disl
iked Roffel. We have only his word that no one approached the God’s Bright Light. He must have heard Bracklebury shouting to Bernicia. And now his cousin owns a tavern where Roffel bought the usquebaugh that, I suspect, contained the arsenic that killed him.’

  Cranston drained his cup and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

  ‘Let’s visit the tavern.’ He tapped the side of his fleshy nose. Then we’ll go to see someone else – a man who knows about what happens along the river because he earns his living from it.’

  Cranston left some coins on the table and they strode out of the alehouse. It was beginning to rain. The streets were empty so they kept to the shadow of the houses to avoid the filthy puddles as well as to shelter from the rain.

  ‘We should have brought the horses,’ Athelstan grumbled.

  ‘Shut up and say your prayers!’ Cranston quipped back.

  They found the Crossed Keys tavern nestling behind the warehouses. It was a sailors’ haunt, filled with a babble of voices. Customers from every nationality thronged the taproom: Portuguese clad in gaudy clothes, their faces bearded and swarthy, silver earrings dangling from their ear lobes; Gascons, proud and argumentative; and Hanseatics, solemn-faced, sweating under their fur caps and cloaks. A salty, fishy odour mingled with strange cooking smells. Cranston licked his lips as a servitor pushed by him with a bowl of diced steak under a thick onion sauce. Athelstan wisely moved the coroner on through the noisy throng towards the landlord, squat and round as a barrel, who stood in front of a great fishing net pinned to the wall. The fellow kept surveying the taproom, shouting out orders to his sweat-soaked servitors. Athelstan could see he had spent his life at sea from his rolling gait and eyes creased after years of straining against the sun and biting wind. A merry-looking man, with his rubicund cheeks and balding head, he was mouthing a string of colourful oaths which made even Cranston smile.

  ‘You are the owner?’ Cranston asked, coming up in front of him.

  ‘No, I am a peeping mermaid!’ the fellow replied out of the corner of his mouth as he turned to shout orders into the kitchen.

  ‘Jack Cranston’s the name and this is my secretarius, Brother Athelstan.’