‘Ay.’ I saw something else among the blossom and, taking my dagger, brushed the delicate petals aside. Then I jerked upright in disgust. Three fingers from a man’s hand lay there, sliced off like the foot, little black hairs standing out against the waxy skin. And on one of them a large emerald ring.
‘What is it?’ Barak called. He stepped across to my side. I had been steeling myself to pick up the finger, but Barak did it without Hinching. ‘That is Marchamount’s ring,’ I said, in a low voice so the student could not hear. He had not ventured onto the patch of bloody ground.
‘Shit,’ Barak breathed.
‘He must have come to meet somebody by arrangement and they went for him with an axe.’ I took a deep breath.
‘Toky and Wright.’
‘Ay. He must have struggled, tried to escape. They probably swung at his foot to bring him down. Then he tried to defend himself with his hands. Poor Marchamount.’
‘Why did they take the body away and leave these remains?’
‘If it was dark, they may not have noticed the fingers or the ring.’
‘I thought this place was patrolled to keep the lawyers and their gold safe.’
‘Only the inner court, not the gardens or the orchard. There are ways in here over the wall from Lincoln’s Inn Fields.’
His back to the student, Barak pulled the ring from the severed finger and slipped it in his pocket, letting the finger fall to the ground again. We walked over to the boy.
‘There’s no saying who this is, lad.’ I said. ‘Best report to the authorities. Go on now.’
He was happy to run from the place. Barak and I followed more slowly. I was glad I had sent a note to Lady Honor last night, warning her not to go out without servants.
‘So Marchamount was involved with Toky and Wright,’ Barak said.
‘So it appears. Perhaps he was worried I was going to have him before Cromwell and told his master. Who decided to stop his mouth.’ I stopped on the path. ‘God’s death, he should have known the risk he ran, enough mouths have been stopped already. The two Gristwoods, the founder, Bathsheba and her brother. And now him.’
‘Perhaps he was the master,’ Barak said.
‘What?’
‘Perhaps he had been running the whole thing with Toky and Wright, told them things were getting hot and they decided to kill him and make off with the Greek Fire.’
‘You could be right,’ I said. ‘In that case, they’re the ones we need to find.’
‘Toky knows how things work. An education from the monks and years soldiering. He could arrange to sell Greek Fire to the highest bidder. Perhaps a foreigner.’
‘But where are they? Where have they taken Marchamount’s body? Where are the apparatus and the formula? Come, let us see if Skelly has done that list.’
By the time we reached the courtyard young Gregory was back at the centre of a crowd, declaiming about what we had found.
‘They’re bound to connect this to Marchamount soon,’ Barak said.
‘They won’t be able to prove it’s him, not without the ring.’ I saw Bealknap on the fringe of the crowd, his eyes wide, and wondered if he had guessed who it was that had been killed.
Back in chambers Skelly was waiting for us, a paper in his hand.
‘It’s all done, sir.’
‘Thank you.’ I laid it on the table and Barak and I looked over his untidy scrawl. Four pieces of litigation over land, one over a will, and the warehouse conveyancing. Pelican Warehouse, off Salt Wharf.
‘What’s a pelican?’ Barak asked.
‘A bird from the Indies. It has a huge pouch in its beak, to hold fish. Or secrets.’ I looked out of the window. ‘Ask Bealknap to step in here, would you? Tell him, quietly, that we believe the dead man is Marchamount.’ A thought occurred to me. ‘John, would you add a couple of cases to the bottom of this list. Any cases of mine, choose them at random. Then bring it to me.’
Skelly, who had been standing open-mouthed, nodded and went into my office. A minute later Barak returned, Bealknap beside him. The rogue’s eyes were full of fear.
‘Is this true? Serjeant Marchamount is murdered? I feared it when I heard—’
‘It is, Bealknap, though you’ll say nothing, I order you by Lord Cromwell’s authority. But I think no one who has any association with Greek Fire is safe any more.’
He waved his hands in angry desperation. ‘But I’ve told you a dozen times, Shardlake, I’ve had nothing to do with it! It’s over the priory matter that Sir Richard’s been putting pressure on your cases, it’s not about Greek Fire! I had nothing to do with the pestilential stuff beyond being a messenger!’ Between fear and anger he was almost dancing; I had him worried now.
‘You told Rich nothing about Greek Fire, I hope?’
‘And get on the wrong side of the earl? Of course not!’
I handed him the list. ‘Here, these are the cases I’ve lost recently. Can you confirm these are the ones Rich took from me?’