The Assassin's riddle

Pike smiled across at the tinker and Athelstan sensed there were new shifting alliances on the parish council.

‘After the blessing,’ he continued, ‘we will have church ales and some games, followed by the parish feast in the evening.’

‘What about the ceremony?’ Pernell the Fleming pulled her hair away from her face.

Athelstan quietly groaned: he’d hoped they had forgotten that.

‘You know, Father,’ Pernell continued, ‘a cross is always taken round the cemetery. Who’ll be Christ this year?’

After that came the descent into hell, as bitter words were exchanged about who would do what. Athelstan stared across at Alison. She, like Benedicta, was desperately trying not to laugh. At last peace reigned but only after Athelstan had got up, clapped his hands and glared around. Ranulf the rat-catcher would carry the cross, he decided; Watkin and Pike would be Roman soldiers; other roles were shared out. In the end, only one person didn’t have a part, Pike the ditcher’s wife. She boiled with fury as she paid the price for her spiteful tongue and malicious comments. Time and again Athelstan tried to reallocate or introduce a new role but the woman refused to be mollified. More dangerously, the virago was glaring malevolently at Cecily the courtesan who, of course, smiled sweetly back.

‘Father.’ Alison Chapler got to her feet. ‘Father, I have a suggestion. My family originally came from Norfolk. We always celebrated Holy Rood Day. I notice you have one thing missing, the Kitsch Witch.’

‘Who?’ Athelstan asked.

‘According to legend,’ Alison continued, clearly enjoying herself, ‘the witch was a woman who lived in the Valley of Death near Jerusalem: she was despised by all.’

Athelstan just prayed that no one would make a comment.

‘Anyway,’ Alison continued, ‘when Christ was crucified she stood afar off and, because of her faith, she was transformed and became a saint.’

Everyone clapped and peace was restored.

In a small chamber on the ground floor of the Chancery of the Green Wax, Sir John Cranston surveyed the ruined corpse of William Ollerton, former clerk.

‘The poison must have been deadly.’ Cranston tapped the dead man’s boot with the toe of his own. ‘Pernicious and venomous, eh?’

The coroner drummed his fingers on his stomach. He had been sitting in his garden, watching the poppets play with Gog and Magog and reflecting on his learned treatise, ‘On the Governance of London’, when Bailiff Flaxwith had arrived with the news. Cranston had cursed but left: the report of Ollerton’s death would soon reach the Savoy Palace and the Regent would begin asking questions. Now Cranston had a few of his own. Beside him Master Tibault Lesures seemed to be on the point of fainting, his face pallid and sweat-soaked, eyes blinking. The Master of the Rolls licked his lips, making small, nervous gestures with his fingers. The three clerks Elflain, Napham and Alcest were more composed.

‘Let us begin again,’ Cranston said. ‘You have a cup…?’

‘Yes, Sir John,’ Lesures agreed. ‘Each of us has a cup with the first letter of our surname on it. Late in the afternoon, just before we finish, it is customary for us to have a goblet of malmsey. It washes away the dust and sweetens the mouth.’

‘And these cups were on a tray?’

Cranston left the corpse and walked over to a small table where all the cups, some still half full, stood on a pewter dish. He picked up Ollerton’s and sniffed at it. He caught the sweet smell of honey and a more acrid odour. Sir John recalled Athelstan’s words about arsenic and deadly nightshade.

‘They are both deadly in their effect,’ the friar had declared, ‘yet easy to disguise.’

Cranston picked up all the cups and sniffed carefully. He tried to stop the juices in his own mouth gathering by remembering the corpse now lying stretched out on the floor.

‘And who washed these cups every morning?’

‘We took it in turns, Sir John.’

‘And this morning?’

Napham lifted a hand. ‘But, Sir John, they were all clean.’

‘Fine, fine.’ Sir John leaned against the wall; he wished Athelstan was here.

‘And who entered the Chancery of the Green Wax today? Give me a list.’

‘Well, well.’ Lesures came forward, ticking the names off on his fingers. ‘Myself and the clerks, Sir Lionel Havant, yourself, Sir John, Brother Athelstan and Mistress Chapler.’

‘And anyone else?’

‘Oh, the occasional servant. They would come in with messages or bring fresh parchment and quills.’

‘But it’s interesting, isn’t it,’ the coroner continued, ‘that the poison was put in at the same time as this cryptic message arrives, about the second being the centre of woe and the principal mover of horror.’ Cranston glanced at the clerks. ‘I thought you liked puzzles and riddles. Do any of you know what it means?’

They shook their heads.

‘Let me continue,’ Cranston said. ‘Whoever put the poison in knew what time you drank the mead. He also arranged for the message to be delivered at the same time: that reduces the number somewhat, doesn’t it?’ He leaned forward.

‘What are you saying?’ Alcest snapped.

‘What I am saying, young man, is this. When Ollerton died, I was in my garden, Athelstan and Mistress Chapler were in Southwark. Havant was probably at the Savoy Palace — that takes care of the principal visitors here. In my view, Ollerton’s assassin works in the Chancery of the Green Wax and could very well be in this room.’

A chorus of hoarse denials greeted his words. Cranston clapped his hands for silence.

‘I am a man of law. I show where the evidence lies. Now I could ask for you to be searched: not everyone carries a small bag of poison around with them.’

‘Pshaw!’ Napham made a contemptuous gesture with his hand and walked to the door as if to leave.

‘Do so,’ Cranston shouted, ‘and I’ll have you arrested, sir! My bailiff’s in the street outside.’

Napham returned.

‘Anyone could have come in here!’ Alcest cried.

‘Anyone?’ Cranston asked. ‘You were here when Ollerton died and any one of you could have visited that tavern and killed Peslep.’

‘But what about Chapler?’ Alcest declared defiantly. ‘Sir John, we can prove that we were carousing in a chamber at the Dancing Pig when our companion died.’

‘Did you like him?’ Cranston asked abruptly.

‘Who?’

‘Chapler. Did you like him? You called him your companion.’

‘He wasn’t one of us,’ Alcest retorted. ‘Ask Master Tibault here. Chapler kept to himself. When the office closed on Saturday morning before the Angelus, he would leave for his beloved sister in Epping.’

‘Was Peslep a rich man?’ Cranston asked.

‘He came of good family.’

Cranston closed his eyes; he felt so tired. He would have loved to question these young men but there was nothing more he could say. No real evidence to work on. The coroner walked to the door.

‘Have the body sheeted,’ he ordered. He thought of the Holy Lamb and then recalled Alcest’s words about the Dancing Pig. He turned, hand on the latch. ‘Master Alcest, the night Chapler died. You left the Chancery of the Green Wax and went straight to the Dancing Pig?’

‘Yes, we did.’

‘And you were in a chamber all by yourselves?’

‘Well, with the rest.’

‘And some young ladies? Where were they from?’

Alcest rubbed his mouth.

‘Come on!’ Sir John barked. ‘You hired a group of whores, didn’t you? Young courtesans. Who was the mistress of this troupe?’

‘Nell Broadsheet.’

Cranston gri

The young man nodded.

‘Good, then I think I’ll pay her a visit.’

Cranston walked out into the street where Flaxwith leaned against a wall, his ugly dog beside him.

‘Keep that bloody thing away from me!’ Cranston growled. ‘Now, Henry, I’m going to give you a treat. We are going to visit Mistress Broadsheet’s establishment. You know it well?’