Ian Morson - Falconer and the Death of Kings

Despite their lowered tones, Falconer drew his two companions further away from the door. He didn’t want Edward to overhear what he was about to say.

‘I have been thinking about Jack Hellequin, and how he is always around when things go wrong. He seems to chase death around just like his name suggests.’

He was about to tell Saphira of his mishap on the bridge, and how he now thought Hellequin was the perpetrator before becoming his saviour. But he didn’t want her to hear how close he had come to death. He was now convinced that the fleeting glimpse he had got of a youthful face inside the hood of the man who barged into him was that of Hellequin. No one had seen his attacker leaving the bridge for one very good reason. Hellequin had turned back to check that his actions had resulted in Falconer falling into the river. Confronted with his victim hanging on for dear life, and surrounded by witnesses, he had had no alternative but to save the man he had wanted to kill. And as the attack had been close on Falconer’s visit to the Paris Temple and his request to speak to Odo de Reppes about the Templar’s foul deeds in Viterbo, there had been good reason to try to kill him. Falconer also wondered if his uncanny feeling of having been watched while leaving the donjon tower was to do with Hellequin lurking in the vicinity. It occurred to him that even Odo de Reppes himself may be at risk from such a demon. Saphira interrupted his reverie.

‘William, explain yourself.’

‘Hellequin was hiding himself in Paris. Such a youthful-looking person would find it easy to secrete himself in the student community. It is a chaotic assemblage, with young men coming and going without too much scrutiny. He probably attached himself to Adam Morrish’s medical school because he knew much about medicines already. I think he wanted access to the drugs Adam stored in his medical chest. And he found he had a hold over Adam, thereby gaining access to the chest. With it, he amused himself by dispensing some of the more interesting drugs to the other students. It was something he had done before.’

‘What do you mean?’

Falconer shrugged in response to Thomas’s question.

‘I am only surmising. Perhaps he took the drugs only in order to confuse the mind of Paul Hebborn, so that he could arrange for Morrish to kill him more easily.’

Thomas gave a yelp that Falconer quietened with an admonitory finger to his lips.

‘Quiet. Edward must not hear us.’

‘But why do you think Jack Hellequin arranged the death of Paul Hebborn? Why would he want him killed? And what about John Fusoris?’

‘Oh, yes, he certainly had Fusoris killed too. And for a similar reason.’

Saphira’s face broke into a soft smile of realization. She could see where Falconer was going with all this, but she let him continue. She did not want to steal his thunder.

‘He had a hold over Morrish and got him to kill Hebborn because of a curious coincidence.’ He grimaced. ‘You know how I hate coincidences. But in this case they form the cause and origin of all this mess. Paul Hebborn was just unlucky to have been caught up in it.’

‘It has to do with Hebborn’s family being one of the disinherited ones after the Barons’ War in England, doesn’t it?’

Falconer nodded eagerly at Saphira’s supposition.

‘Exactly. Not only did Hebborn know who Hellequin really was, but Hellequin also knew who Adam Morrish wasn’t.’

Thomas could contain himself no longer.

‘This sounds more complicated than the Gordian knot. Do I have to cut through it myself, like the great Alexander? Tell me what you mean by it.’

Falconer patted Thomas on the arm.

‘Hellequin knew Adam wasn’t Amaury de Montfort, despite the rumours, for a very simple reason. Hellequin himself is Amaury.’

Thomas took a deep breath and continued Falconer’s line of thinking.

‘And poor Paul Hebborn knew Hellequin was Amaury because he had seen him, albeit at a distance, in the medical school in Padua.’

‘Yes. Maybe he wasn’t sure at first. It may have taken him a while to figure out why he recognized Hellequin. But when he realized, he must have inadvertently let Hellequin know the truth. If the game of taking opium had already begun, it would have been easy for Hellequin…’

‘Amaury.’

‘. . For Hellequin-Amaury to feed Hebborn opium and lure him to the tower of Notre-Dame for a secret meeting. He was hoping Hebborn would merely step off into space while his mind was befuddled.’

‘But he made sure Morrish was there, just in case he didn’t fall. And when he didn’t, the faker pushed him.’

‘Either way, Hellequin… Amaury… damn it, I have known him as Hellequin too long to change now… he was responsible for Hebborn’s death. And he was equally responsible for Morrish killing Fusoris. He no doubt feared that Hebborn had spoken to him and told him his secret. If Hebborn had a friend among the students, it was Fusoris. And sadly that was his death warrant.’

Thomas’s face looked as though it had been carved in stone. He remembered that Hellequin had known of Thomas’s interest in Fusoris, because he had asked Jack how to find him. A sense of guilt hung over him like a dark cloak. He had been duped by Jack Hellequin, whom he had liked. Amaury de Montfort’s youthful looks had stood him in good stead in his guise as a student of medicine, who would have already spent several years studying the arts. As Thomas had done so recently himself. It turns out he was thirty years of age and adept at dissimulation and deceit. From what William was suggesting, his distribution of opium had not begun with the students of Adam Morrish.

‘When you said Amaury had done this before in relation to using opium, what did you mean?’

‘I was recalling what Sir Humphrey Segrim had said to me before we left England. He had sworn that Odo de Reppes had been wild-eyed when he saw him in the church in Viterbo.’

‘At the murder of Henry of Almain.’

‘Exactly. Odo said the same thing when I questioned him. He said he had felt euphoric both before and during the foul deed. And the two other de Montfort brothers had apparently behaved wildly too. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Hellequin made them feel quite reckless with opium then incited them to do what they did. It was a bloody and a crazy act. He then made sure he was well out of the way when it all came to a head, and therefore innocent of complicity. It was the same with Adam Morrish. He kept his own hands clean and had someone else perpetrate the deeds we have been investigating.’

Saphira touched William’s arm.

‘But if Hellequin is indeed Amaury de Montfort, do you not want to tell the king and let him deal with it?’

Falconer shook his head.

‘Edward is too engrossed in his feud with the de Montforts to use a clear head. He will blunder around, throwing men-at-arms at the problem. Meanwhile, Amaury will slip away. No, we must try to find him ourselves, quietly and discreetly.’

‘Where do we start?’

It was Thomas’s question, and Saphira answered it.

‘If the gates of the city are still closed, and there are guards on the bridges, then the only way out of the city is by the river itself.’

‘Exactly.’ Falconer shepherded them further down the passageway. ‘And we should get to the river bank as soon as possible. Hellequin has had a head start on us already.’

They hurried along the labyrinth of corridors in the Royal Palace and out into the street. There they stopped, realizing the enormity of their search. Boats lined both sides of the Seine, though it was from the Right Bank that most of the craft plied their trade. The area around La Grève was where many seagoing vessels loaded and unloaded. Falconer suggested that would be where Hellequin would make for. But Thomas disagreed.