Michael JECKS - The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker

‘Murder my master. I couldn’t have!’ he cried. ‘He was like my father, was Master Ralph.’

‘Is that why you robbed him?’ demanded Roger harshly.

While he professed his innocence and denied any involvement in either the theft or the murder, Baldwin studied the apprentice carefully. His long slender fingers twitched and moved as he spoke, pointing at his breast in devout rejection of guilt, clasping together as he fervently implored their belief, washing over and over as he proclaimed his innocence. There was helplessness and despair in his eyes but not, so far as Baldwin could detect, any hint of guilt.

‘Tell us exactly what happened that morning,’ Baldwin said at last when Roger had run out of accusations.

Elias licked his lips, then went through the whole sorry story once more. He had told it so often now that the tale was beginning to sound artificial even to himself. Could he have remembered things wrongly? Might he have invented something by mistake? He had heard of such things. It was growing difficult to know what was true and what wasn’t.

Baldwin listened attentively. ‘So you tried to get in by the door at the front of the hall, then went to the back. You didn’t at any time go into the shop?’

‘No, sir. I tried the shop’s handle, but it was locked.’

‘Yet when Bailiff William tried it, the shop was open,’ the Coroner grunted.

Elias held out his hands helplessly. ‘It was locked when I tried it.’

Baldwin nodded. ‘With regard to the money and jewels your master had been given – had you ever seen them?’

‘Yes, I saw them when the two clerks brought them, early in the month.’

‘Who were they?’

‘Master Peter and Jolinde Bolle.’

‘Did they bring them to the shop?’

‘Yes. My master and I were working when they arrived, so they had to.’

‘And your master’s shop has how many rooms?’

‘Only the one.’

‘So you were in the same room with your master? You saw everything as the two clerics handed over the jewels?’

‘Yes, sir. I saw it all. The clerics had brought money and gems with them and they passed over the money and counted it with my master, getting him to sign their receipt with his mark and seal, then they tipped out all the jewels and pearls that he was to use to decorate the gloves and got him to mark their receipt again.’

‘Do you remember the amounts?’ Simon asked.

‘There was two pounds, one shilling and one farthing in cash; in stones there were two rubies, forty-four gems and a small number of pearls. My master was not happy because the money was less than he had agreed with the Dean and he wasn’t sure how to split up the quantities of gems between gloves, for he had been asked to make ten pairs and the gems and rubies wouldn’t divide easily between them. He was grumpy about it and said that he’d speak to the Dean, but one of the clerks, Jolinde Bolle, said that the Treasurer had decided they couldn’t afford so much, not with the building work continuing.’

‘I see,’ Baldwin said musingly, then he looked up as a sudden thought struck him. ‘You say your master put his mark to the receipts?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Could he read?’

‘No, sir.’

Baldwin’s face cleared. ‘Good. I begin to see a way through part of this mystery. Perhaps, anyway. Where did your master put the money and jewels?’

‘Sir, he had a strongbox in his chamber. When he was in his shop, he would take it there with him so that he had money to give in change to buyers, but also so he knew where it was. He didn’t want to be robbed like poor Master Karvinel. He has…’

‘Yes, yes, we know of Karvinel,’ Baldwin interrupted testily. ‘Tell us about the money.’

‘When the clerics and my master had counted it all, he put it into his strongbox. That was that.’

‘To return to the day he died: the money was all gone?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘So someone could have broken in, taken the money from the box and fled with it,’ Baldwin considered. ‘Maybe that was happening when the glover arrived and he confronted the thief. The thief struck him down, then made his escape?’

Baldwin turned to the Coroner. ‘You told us that there were some seven wounds in the front of his chest and four in his back. Simon said at the time that it sounded frenzied, but all the lunatic killers I have known lose all sense of restraint when they stab. They thrust with main force, and that drives the blade up to the hilt. Yet Elias’s knife was an inch broad at the hilt. The wounds were all half-an-inch wide, so it couldn’t have been Elias thrusting home his own knife.’

‘It’s a thought,’ Coroner Roger said.

‘Let’s take it as a proposition. Perhaps someone went to the glover’s door and asked to see something in the shop? They entered, and as soon as the killer could, he whipped out a dagger and stabbed him four times in the back. The glover fell to the floor, and the killer made sure he was dead by stabbing him again in the chest. Then he made his way back into the hall, up to the chest, took what he needed, and departed.’

‘But, sir,’ Elias protested weakly, ‘if he’d done that, I’d have been able to get in. As it happened, the door was locked, and so was the back door. Yet when I returned to the front, the door was ajar.’

‘Right.’ Baldwin started again. ‘The murderer went to the glover’s door and asked to see something in the shop. He followed Ralph inside, murdered him, took his keys and locked the shop door. Then he returned to Ralph’s house, locked the doors after him, and ransacked the place looking for the chest. When he…’

Simon growled, ‘Baldwin, what about the apprentice? He’d have known that Elias would soon be back with bread in the normal routine.’

‘Ah yes,’ Baldwin said, turning to Elias. ‘You were away a while, talking to Mary, you said?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Would you say you were away for longer than usual?’

Elias recalled his hasty rush back to the house. ‘Oh, yes, sir. I was very late, I knew that.’

‘The thief obviously knew he had plenty of time,’ Baldwin said. ‘He knew Ralph was alone, and that must mean he knew that the apprentice was out.’

‘You are assuming someone planned this?’ Coroner Roger demanded. ‘What if it was a mere spur-of-moment attack?’

‘There are too many coincidences,’ Baldwin told him. ‘A man decides to rob the glover just at the time that the glover has all that wealth; he stabs the glover without knowing whether someone else is there. How often does someone do that? And just by chance, this is the day that Elias is particularly late home… No, it does not sound likely to me.’

‘You mean it was all premeditated?’ the Coroner asked sceptically.

‘The murderer knew what the household routines were; he had either been watching it, or had someone tell him,’ Baldwin said. ‘The man who killed Ralph must have been confident that Elias would be late back. Yes, he knew he had plenty of time.’

‘And yet Elias was back before he had finished,’ Roger pointed out.

‘Yes, but maybe the man couldn’t find the chest as quickly as he had hoped. Maybe he hadn’t expected Elias to be back so quickly.’

Roger stood and motioned Elias back into the gaol. ‘Sorry about this, lad, but you’ll have to stay in there a while longer.’

‘Just one last question or two, please,’ Baldwin said. ‘Elias, your girlfriend – has she been able to visit you?’

‘No, sir. I wish she could, but Mary is very busy and I doubt her father would want her to come to a place like this.’

‘Quite understandable!’ Baldwin said, glancing about him. ‘Now: is there anything else you can tell us about that day, Elias?’