Paul Doherty - The Mysterium

Corbett pointed at Ranulf. ‘What the Mouseman said may be important.’

‘What’s the matter, master?’

‘A faint suspicion, Ranulf, though it’s no more than feathers in the wind. What we must do, to quote Scripture, is build our house on rock. I think I have found that rock. In the meantime,’ he gestured round, ‘make this place warm and lighted. I am going to return to my own chamber. I shall wash, change and go down to the kitchens. Let me know when the coroners’ rolls have arrived, then we’ll begin.’

The hour candle had burnt two more rings when Corbett returned to the chancery chamber to find his table heaped with rolls of manuscripts. They were arranged according to each regnal year. Fleschner had been coroner for about ten years before the capture of Boniface Ippegrave, and a host of entries were entered under his name, each giving the barest details of the crimes committed: the date, the place, the name of the victim, possible suspects and the outcome. Corbett and Ranulf worked steadily through the lists, and the abbey bells were tolling their dusk warning before Ranulf suddenly rapped the table.

‘Master, look at this.’

Corbett hurried across. Ranulf moved the oil lamp, repositioned the roll and pointed to a four-line entry for Candlemas 1280: Emma Evesham, wife of Walter Evesham, clerk, killed by unknown assailants just after dusk on the corner of Amen Court as she was returning from the almshouses. No suspects were listed. Corbett caught his breath. A further sentence explained how Emma’s maid Beatrice had also been with her; she had apparently escaped and could not be traced. The coroner’s conclusion was that Emma Evesham had died ‘an unnatural death other than her natural one’.

‘Emma Evesham,’ breathed Corbett, ‘killed in a street attack like so many others, what, about four years before the Mysterium was unmasked? And this maid Beatrice, who seems to have just disappeared? Was she party to the attack? Or was she abducted and later killed?’

Ranulf simply pulled a face.

Corbett could hardly contain his excitement. He went to his own chancery pouches and drew out the scraps of parchment taken from Boniface Ippegrave. He sifted amongst these and found the one with the list of names: Emma, Furnival, Bassetlawe and Rescales. This he handed to Ranulf.

‘Take great care of this. Go down to the exchequer and main chancery. Tell the clerks there to stop everything and search the records for these other names: anything to do with them. Once you have organised that, go to Evesham’s mansion in Clothiers Lane; talk to the maid, servants, neighbours, anyone, the cat, the dog, the pigeons.’

‘Master?’ Ranulf could see that Sir Hugh was excited, agitated, as he always was when a problem was about to unravel.

‘Try and trace,’ Corbett insisted, ‘an old servant, a maid, a nurse, anyone who knew Emma Evesham, who served in her household twenty-four years ago. There must be someone,’ he mused.

‘And you, master, you’ll take to wandering?’

‘Ranulf, I confess,’ Corbett struck his breast in mock sorrow, ‘I’m agitated and confused but I’m also hungry. I am going to eat and drink, adjourn to my own narrow room and reflect. Rouse me when you have made progress.’

He left the chamber, but instead of going down to the palace kitchens, he slipped into the exquisite, incensed-filled chancery chapel. He loved this little jewel of a chamber, an exquisitely furnished house of prayer with dark oaken wainscoting covering most of the walls, its floor tiled with the original design of a map of the world with Jerusalem at the centre. Prie-dieus with velvet padded kneelers ranged before an altar of carved porphyry. In the centre of this stood a pure gold crucifix flanked by candles of the same precious metal. Above the altar, against the backdrop of a luxurious Bruges tapestry depicting the Marriage at Cana, a silver-gilt sanctuary lamp glowed fiery red beside a jewel-encrusted pyx holding the Sacrament. Corbett crossed himself, knelt at a prie-dieu and quietly intoned the ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’ — ‘Come Holy Spirit’. When he reached the line ‘If you take your hand away, nothing good in man will stay, all his good is turned to ill’, he closed his eyes. What he was about to confront was certainly devoid of God’s righteousness, brimming with the rottenness of sin, a corruption that had engulfed other souls over the years. He was about to enter the Garden of Midnight Souls, cross the Meadows of Murder, and there, sheltering in the shadows darker than night, lurked a true son of Cain.

When Corbett had finished his prayer, he blessed himself and rose, then crossed to the small Lady Chapel to the left of the altar, a simple recess holding a carved statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. There he lit three tapers, for his wife and children, blessed himself at the water stoup and left to make his way to the palace kitchens.

The kitchens, a range of buildings around a cobbled yard, were frenetically busy. The fleshing tables just inside the door were awash with the blood of deer, rabbit, pig and lamb. Quails, pheasants, larks and pigeons hung on hooks by their throats, drenching the floor beneath with their gore. Fires built up with dried pine logs blazed like the fury of hell. Cooks and spit boys, bathed in sweat, basted chunks of meat with oil and herbs. Bakers wailed about their pastry and sweetmeats being ruined. Chamberlains supervised the washing of royal cups, dishes and platters in vats of steaming water. Dogs and cats nosed the floor and fought over scraps. Stewards and comptrollers watched the stores being opened, the wine casks broached, the precious plate and cups being carried in. All this busy activity was directed at the huge door leading to the covered gallery stretching towards the King’s banqueting chamber.

Corbett slipped through the bustle. He begged a cup of wine and a piece of freshly roasted quail meat, which tasted delicious, then he went and sat on an ale bench just within the doorway, chewing quietly and enjoying the warm glow of the wine and the soft sweet meat. He was tempted to stay, eat some more, but his eyes were growing heavy, and he did not want to fall asleep in public. He retreated from the confusion and went back to his own chamber. There he took off his sword-belt, kicked off his boots, wrapped his cloak about him, stretched out on the cot bed and fell into a deep sleep, only woken by Ranulf shaking him vigorously.

‘Master?’ The clerk crouched down. ‘Master, you’ve got to wake up, it’s well past compline. You’ve been asleep for hours. We have news.’

Corbett, still half asleep, pulled himself up and swung his legs off the bed. Ranulf went across, fetched a stool and sat opposite him.

‘What news?’ Corbett asked.

‘Those three names. .’ Ranulf paused as Corbett took a tinder and lit the small candelabra on the bedside table. He pulled both table and candelabra closer towards him.

‘The three names, Ranulf?’

‘All senior clerks of the chancery, old men. They died rather mysteriously in the eighth and ninth year of the present king’s reign.’

‘Mysteriously?’

‘One at a time. Their deaths,’ Ranulf shrugged, ‘were seen simply as accidents, but it’s strange that Boniface Ippegrave should list their names. Rescales fell down the steps of the old turret tower — you know where the chancery records are stored. He was an old man, the light was poor, he stumbled and broke his neck. Furnival? Well, he liked his wine and often drank deep at night. He also liked the river; his corpse was fished from the Thames close to King’s Steps. The verdict was that he was so inebriated he must have missed his footing and fallen into the water.’

‘And Bassetlawe?’

‘He died rather quietly, sitting at the buttery table enjoying a tankard of ale and some bread and cheese. He was found with his head on his arm as if asleep, but his heart had failed. Master, you don’t think they were accidents?’