“Hmmm, so it might,” the bishop said. “Bell, tomorrow you should go to the Goldsmiths’ Hall and speak to the guildmaster. He will surely know the names of all his members. It might be worthwhile to question those whose names begin with an S.” He took the candlestick from Bell’s hand and looked up at him. “So, Bell, what do we know? Is the man who wielded this the same who killed Baldassare?”
“If Baldassare was killed not for what he carried but for being in the church at the wrong time, it is possible. And the golden pyx did disappear from the safe box about the same time. But this seems far more an act of fear and rage. Baldassare seems to have stood talking to the man who killed him. Would he have allowed that man to come close if he had seen him stealing church plate?”
“You think this is a common thief, who hid in the church and when Brother Godwine knelt to check the safe box, struck him, took his keys—”
“Struck him with what?” Bell asked. “Brother Godwine was killed with the candlestick. Does that not mean that the safe box was open, the candlestick in the thief’s hand, when Brother Godwine entered, possibly rushed at the thief, shouting? No, if that had happened, either the thief would have fled or he would have run at Brother Godwine, in which case the porter would have been struck out in the church, not behind the altar.”
“Perhaps the thief was kneeling down behind the altar removing the candlestick,” Magdalene said. Then her breath caught and she raised a hand to her lips.
The words had just popped out before she thought, because she had remembered vividly how she and Dulcie had lost sight of the monk who was returning the candlestick…the same candlestick? She glanced swiftly from the bishop to the prior to Bell, but if any had noticed her guilty reaction, he most likely put it down to her anxiety at having spoken out in such august company without permission.
Guilt flooded her. She and Dulcie had seen a monk with a candlestick the night after Baldassare was killed. That had to mean something. She should tell someone about it, but she did not dare, did not dare admit she had been in the church that Thursday night. She glanced up nervously and saw that Bell and the bishop were looking at her with approval.
“You are very likely right,” Bell said. “Godwine may have walked right up to the thief before noticing him. And the thief might not have noticed Godwine coming if he were kneeling down looking into the safe box. Then Godwine exclaimed; the thief rose up with the candlestick in his hand—and struck.”
“But that would mean the thief already had the keys.”
Winchester’s eyes moved to look at the sacristan, who leapt to his feet.
“I did not. I did not,” he whispered, his eyes bulging.
The prior went and put an arm around his shoulders; Brother Paulinus was shaking so hard he would have fallen except for that support. “On my soul,” the prior said, “I will swear that Brother Paulinus would sooner…would sooner visit a whore than steal from the church.”
“If Brother Paulinus had visited the whore, he would have a much better case for accusing her of stealing,” the bishop said dryly. “She would have then had a chance to steal his keys and make a copy.”
“Make a copy,” Bell repeated. “I have a fear that not only the key was copied. Father Prior, I think you had better look most carefully at the church plate. You said that Master Jacob made your solid silver candlesticks, but you thought this one was yours until you examined it closely. So, then, this is a copy of the candlestick you gave to the church. How many other items in the safe box are copies?”
“Oh, my God,” the prior breathed.
He turned away as if to go back to the church, but the bishop said, “Never mind that now. Tomorrow will be soon enough to discover what has been stolen. More important now is to discover who had access to Brother Sacristan’s keys…or yours.”
“No one,” Brother Paulinus shouted. “I kept my keys with me at all times.”
“Now that cannot be so,” the prior said soothingly. “You had them all on one ring and I know you lent your keys to Brother Cellarer when one of his was damaged, and to Brother Porter when he needed to get more bedsteads from storage. And you must have given them to the lay brother who assists you to take the plate out for cleaning.”
“Knud,” Bell said with satisfaction. “I knew he was hiding something.” But even as he said it, his voice became uncertain. The bishop looked at him inquisitively and he shrugged. “Hiding something, yes,” he said in reply to Winchester’s expression, “but not something like stealing the church plate. Besides, it must cost something to have copies made and plated with silver. I do not think Knud—”
“If he sold a small item first,” the sacristan said, breaking his silence for the first time, “something no one missed, that would give him a sum to start with.”
“Shall I fetch Knud?” Bell asked.
The prior sighed. The bishop said, “I think you must.”
“He does not know where Knud sleeps. Let Brother Elwin go,” the prior suggested.