Two servants came forward and hesitantly climbed down into the silt, probing with their poles. At length one of them called out and held something up. Two gold chalices.
'Orphan was supposed to have taken those,' the prior breathed.
I had hoped we might find the relic, but another ten minutes of searching revealed nothing beyond an old sandal. The servants climbed out again, and the man who had found the chalices passed them to me. I gave him his shilling and turned to find the prior looking at them.
'They're the ones, no doubt.' He let out a long breath. 'Commissioner, remember, if you find the man who killed that poor girl, give me some time alone with him.' He turned and walked off. I raised an eyebrow at Mark.
'Does he really feel for her death?' he asked.
'There is no end to the strange depths of the human heart. Come, we must go to the church.'
CHAPTER 25
My legs were tired and my back hurt as yet again we plodded back to the monastery. I envied Mark as he ploughed on energetically, sturdy legs kicking up the snow. When we reached the courtyard I stopped to catch my breath.
'The trail in that room leads us back to Brother Gabriel. It seems he was concealing things after all. Let us go and find him. We'll look for him in the church first. When I talk to him I want you to stand just out of earshot. Don't ask, there is a reason.'
'As you wish, sir.' I could tell he was annoyed by my secrecy, but it was part of the plan I had made. I had been surprised by what I had found in that passage, but I could not help a feeling of satisfaction that my earlier suspicions of Gabriel had not, after all, been groundless. Truly the human heart holds strange and unaccountable depths.
The day was still cloudy and the church interior was dim as we walked down the nave. There was no susurration of prayers from the side chapels; it must have been the monks' recreation time. I made out the figure of Brother Gabriel halfway down the nave. He was supervising a servant polishing a large metal plaque set into the wall.
'The verdigris is coming off.' His deep voice echoed around as we approached. 'Guy's formula works.'
'Brother Gabriel,' I said, 'I fear I am always sending away your servants. But I must talk with you again.'
He sighed and bade the man depart. I read the Latin engraved into the plaque above the figure of a monk lying on a bier.
'So the first abbot is buried there in the wall?'
'Yes. That metalwork is exceptional.' He glanced at Mark, who stood a little way off as I had bid him, then turned back to me. 'Unfortunately it is a copper alloy, but Brother Guy came up with a formula for cleaning it.' He spoke rapidly, his manner nervous.
'You have a busy life, Brother, responsible for the church music and the decoration too.' I looked up at the railed walkway, the statue of Donatus with the tools lying beside it and the workmen's basket secured by its cat's cradle of ropes to the walkway and the bell tower. 'No progress with the works, I see. Are you still negotiating with Brother Edwig?'
'Yes. But surely you have not come to discuss that?' Irritation crept into his voice.
'No, Brother. Yesterday I put a case to you, a lawyer's accusation, you said. An accusation of murder. You said I was building a false picture.'
'Yes, I did. I am no murderer.'
'One thing, though, we haranguing lawyers develop is an instinct as to when people are holding things back. We are seldom wrong.'
He said nothing, eyeing me intently.
'Let me put another case to you, a set of suppositions shall we say, and you can correct me as we proceed if I err. Is that fair?'
'I do not know what trick this is.'
'No trick, I promise. Let me start with a meeting of the obedentiaries a few months ago. Prior Mortimus mentioned the old monks' cell and a passage leading from the infirmary to the kitchen quarters.'