Peter Tremayne - Our Lady of Darkness

Fidelma suppressed an impatient sigh. ‘Please explain — and with more detail.’

‘When I saw the figure, I raised my torch in order to challenge it but before I could do so, I was challenged to identify myself. It was the Abbess Fainder who sat on the horse.’

Fidelma’s eyes widened slightly. ‘Abbess Fainder?’ she echoed, stupidly. ‘She was sitting on horseback here by the body in total darkness?’

‘That is what I have been telling you,’ Mel nodded. ‘As soon as I identified myself, she said: “Mel, there is a body here. Who is it?” That is what she said. I stumbled forward in the dark and peered down. It was lying in the dark shadows of the bales and that was how I nearly tripped over it. I saw at once that it was a young girl and that she was dead.’

‘What bales? Show me exactly where the body was positioned.’

Mel pointed to where some bales and a few boxes were piled nearby on the quay.

‘It lay just there.’

Fidelma frowned as she scrutinised the spot.

‘Are you saying that those boxes and bales are the same as on that night?’

‘I did not mean to imply that. They are different but similar boxes, and bales stood there on that night. I would swear that they stood almost in the same position.’

Fidelma glanced at him swiftly. ‘You would swear, even though it was dark?’

‘It was my task to examine the spot in daylight to show the Brehon.’

‘What did you see of the body by your torchlight?’

‘You could see hardly anything in that light. The girl had a dress on but not the robes of a religieuse.’

‘I see. So it was only later that she was identified as a novitiate at the abbey?’

‘I suppose it was.’

‘What was Abbess Fainder doing all this time while you were examining the body?’

‘She waited until I had finished. There being nothing that I could do for the poor lass, I stood up and told the abbess that the girl was dead. She instructed me to bring the body to the abbey and said that she would go on to find the physician, Brother Miach. So I-’

‘Wait one moment,’ Fidelma interrupted. ‘Did Abbess Fainder tell you why she was here, sitting on her horse in the darkness and within feet of a dead body?’

Mel shook his head. ‘Not at that time. Later on I think she told the Brehon, Bishop Forbassach, that she had been returning to the abbey from some distant chapel and was about to enter the gate when she saw the dark shadow of the body and rode towards it just as I appeared.’

Fidelma pressed her lips tight for a moment, glancing from the gates of the abbey to the spot which Mel had indicated and measuring the distance.

‘Yet you could hardly see it in the shadows of the bales even though you were carrying a torch and were right next to it? I will have to speak further with the abbess,’ she muttered. ‘Well, continue. I am confused as I was told that there was an eye-witness to the killing.’

‘There was, indeed. I shall come to that,’ continued Mel. ‘When the abbess went into the abbey, I realised that I would need some help in the task; I also needed to let my men know where I was. So I waved my torch as a signal to my comrade who was on watch at the next quay, andhe came to join me. It was then that I heard a sound behind the bales. I called out and raised my torch. The light illuminated a young girl standing behind the bales.’

‘Had you noticed her before?’

‘Not in the darkness. Nor had the abbess noticed her. I demanded to know who she was but she was in a distressed condition, shivering and frightened. It was some time before we learned that her name was Fial and that the dead girl was her friend Gormgilla. She told me that they were novitiates at the abbey. Apparently, she had come to the quay to meet her friend, and saw Gormgilla struggling with the figure of a man. She stood rooted to the spot in fear and in that moment, the man rose from her friend and ran off in the direction of the abbey. The girl said that she recognised him as a Saxon religious who was staying there.’

‘Why wasn’t this girl noticed before?’

‘I told you, it was dark.’

‘You had a torch and had stood some time on this quay.’

‘Torches do not cast a great amount of light.’

‘There was enough light for the abbess to see the dead body from horseback at a distance of several metres and ride over to it. Now it seems there was enough light for this girl, Fial, to recognise the killer. And presumably recognise him from a distance. Was she ever asked why she didn’t scream or come forward to help her friend?’

‘I think that she might have been asked at the trial. She was probably too frightened to move. It can happen.’

‘It can. But why did she not come forward when the abbess rode up, or when you arrived? Why did she not cry out to the watch to help her?’

Mel considered the question before replying with a shrug.

‘I am not a dálaigh, lady. I am a simple captain of the watch …’

Fidelma shot him a glance and smiled. ‘No longer. You are now a commander of the palace guard. How did you receive your promotion?’

Mel was not abashed.

‘I was informed that the King was pleased with my vigilance and I was to become a commander of the guard at the palace. Bishop Forbassach recommended me.’

Fidelma was silent for a moment or two.

‘So, this girl, Fial, appears out of nowhere …’

‘From behind the bales on the quay,’ corrected Mel.

‘She says that she has seen everything in the darkness and yet didnothing,’ mused Fidelma with cynicism in her voice. ‘Did she confirm Abbess Fainder’s story?’

Mel looked startled. ‘I did not know that the evidence given by the abbess needed confirmation.’

‘Everything concerning an unnatural death needs confirmation, even the evidence of a saint,’ replied Fidelma shortly. She glanced at the bales, walked across to them and looked towards the abbey gates.

‘Let us consider this,’ she began quietly. ‘Fial and the dead girl are novitiates at the abbey. Fial says that she has arranged to meet her friend here on the quay. We will leave aside the fact that it is a very curious hour to meet — in the dead of night.

‘Fial tells us that she arrived and saw her friend in the process of being attacked by a man whom she identifies as Brother Eadulf; he then ran back to the abbey. Is that right so far?’

‘That is the story as I was told it by the girl.’

‘And yet, in order to take up a position hiding behind these bales — and I presume you have identified their position correctly — Fial must surely have walked by her friend while she was being attacked. Only if she had arrived before her friend, or with her friend — and then remained hidden while Gormgilla was attacked — does her story make any sense.’

Mel frowned and examined the position she had pointed out, as if for the first time realising the implication of Fial’s account.

‘It was dark,’ he hazarded. ‘Perhaps in the dark she walked past her friend and the attacker?’

Fidelma smiled thinly. She did not have to say anything for him to recognise how weak his suggestion was. After a moment she turned to the obvious anomaly.

‘There is a very curious time-lapse between the murder being committed, being witnessed by the girl and then her coming forward. One must presume that the murderer had fled from the scene before Abbess Fainder arrived. His only path back to the abbey gates from this quay would have been blocked by the abbess who had halted her horse at the end of the quay. Do you agree?’

Mel nodded silently, following her logic.

‘So Fial had waited behind those bales for a long time. She had witnessed the murder; she observed the murderer leave the scene — running back to the abbey, according to her testimony; she watched Abbess Fainder arrive; she saw your arrival and examination of thebody; she waited while the abbess returned to the abbey and you summoned your comrade. Not until then does she come forward . Was she ever asked why she stood there in the darkness and waited so long?’