Paul Doherty: The Assassin's riddle

Watkin belched noisily and squirmed in Sir John’s grip.

‘This is a friend of mine,’ said Athelstan, bringing the Sanctus Man forward. ‘He would like to see your miraculous crucifix.’

‘It’s not for sale.’ Watkin glared at Athelstan’s visitor suspiciously.

‘Oh, I don’t want to buy it, sir. But come on, the evening is drawing on and time is money.’

‘Is the cemetery cleared?’ Athelstan asked.

‘It is, Father,’ Watkin replied.

Athelstan led the way out, across the yard and in through the lych-gate. The miraculous crucifix at the far end stood on a specially made altar of bricks and clods of earth; these were almost covered with lighted candles, placed there by the visitors.

‘It looks the part,’ Cranston murmured. ‘You can even see the red streaks of blood above a sea of fire.’

The Sanctus Man walked forward and, before Watkin or any parishioner could stop him, he knocked a few candles aside, picked up the crucifix and brought it down.

‘Put it back!’ Pike the ditcher bellowed to a chorus of shouts and threats.

‘Stand away!’ Cranston warned.

The Sanctus Man studied the crucifix carefully. Athelstan glanced at the streaks of blood now covering the face and body of the Saviour. ‘It is blood,’ he declared.

‘I’m sure it is,’ the Sanctus Man replied.

‘How did they do it?’

The Sanctus Man examined the figure and the cross itself. ‘There is no secret lever or clasp,’ he murmured. He tapped the figure. ‘And this is solid. Good wood.’ He glanced round the group. ‘It’s going to be a beautiful night,’ he declared surprisingly and pointed up to the sky. ‘A balmy evening.’

‘What’s that got to do with it?’ Hig the pigman shouted.

‘I just said it was a very pleasant evening. However, if it had been raining or snowing…’ He stared closely at the eyes of the crucified Christ carefully. ‘Who carved this?’

Huddle the painter shuffled forward sheepishly, turning sideways as if he didn’t want to meet Athelstan’s eye.

‘You are a very good artist.’ The Sanctus Man smiled at him. ‘But tell me, sir, would the miracle have occurred if it had been raining or snowing?’

‘What nonsense is this?’ Cranston asked.

The Sanctus Man handed the crucifix to Athelstan. He took a gold coin out of his purse. ‘A fortune,’ he breathed. ‘More gold than you’ll ever see in your life. It’s yours, on one condition. Brother Athelstan…’ He didn’t turn but kept his hand outstretched. ‘As I came here I passed the Piebald tavern. This is what we’ll do. I will put this crucifix into a vat of ice-cold water. The good landlord will have one. When it is taken out first thing tomorrow morning the bleeding should have stopped. If I come back and it hasn’t, this gold will belong to your parishioners. I shall also declare the relic to be one of the greatest in Christendom. I will pay,’ his voice rose, ‘five hundred pounds to make it mine. Well?’

Huddle shuffled his feet and looked away. Watkin and Pike the ditcher began to edge back into the crowd of parishioners. Their confederates and lieutenants, Tab the tinker, Hig the pigman and Cecily, seemed to have lost interest.

‘Come! Come!’ the Sanctus Man cried. ‘Are you saying the Good God would allow a great miracle to be stopped by a barrel of water and a dusty cellar?’ He put the gold back in his pouch.

‘What trickery is this?’ Athelstan stepped forward and grabbed Huddle by his jerkin. The painter, his face pallid, looked over his shoulder searching for Watkin. ‘Tell your priest! Come on, tell your priest!’

‘I shall tell you how it’s done,’ the Sanctus Man proclaimed. ‘Let him go, Brother.’ He pushed the crucifix into Athelstan’s hands. ‘Look at the eyes, Brother. You can’t see it but there are very small holes. Inside each wound there will be such a cavity. Now the hole is covered up with a glaze of wax the blood should really have dried but Huddle mixed a potion to keep the blood slightly fresh.’

Athelstan nodded, quietly marvelling at the trickery.

‘Now, if the crucifix had been hung in a cold church,’ the Sanctus Man continued, enjoying himself, ‘the wax would harden, and inside the cavity both the blood and the tincture would eventually dry. The longer it was left, the harder it would become.’

‘The candles!’ Athelstan exclaimed. ‘When the crucifix was put up near the baptismal font, candles were lit. The iron spigots were on a level with the Saviour’s body’

‘The heat would liquefy the blood and the tincture,’ the Sanctus Man explained. ‘And you have a crucified Jesus who bleeds.’

‘But so much blood!’ Cranston exclaimed.

‘The cavities can always be refilled.’

Athelstan walked towards his now cowed parishioners. ‘Why?’ he demanded. ‘Why this knavery? Are you so short of pennies? Must you cause such mischief, petty blasphemy, trickery!’

‘Tell him,’ Huddle cried at Watkin. ‘Father,’ the painter continued, ‘I confess it was my idea. A painter in Genoa had done something similar, a sailor told me whilst I was dining in the Piebald tavern. I told Watkin…’

The parishioners stepped away from the dung-collector, who began noisily to protest.

‘You always insist on being leader of the parish council!’ Pike shouted treacherously. ‘Tell Father the truth!’

Watkin stepped forward like a little boy. ‘We did it for you, Father,’ he declared, shrugging his leather-garbed shoulders. ‘Oh, I admit, Father, I have spent some of the money on refreshments…’

‘That’s a crime!’ Cranston bellowed.

Athelstan gestured for silence. ‘Did you know, Benedicta?’ he asked quietly.

She shook her head. ‘I think you should ask them why: I have a faint suspicion.’

‘We’ve heard you were leaving,’ Watkin blurted out. ‘Sir John here, in his cups at the Piebald tavern, was mourning the fact, after you and he had returned from that bloody business at Westminster.’

‘And?’ Cranston asked.

‘We were going to give the money to you,’ Watkin declared defiantly.

‘I beg your…!’

‘Oh, not as a bribe,’ Tab the tinker added anxiously. ‘We were going to ask you to take it to the Regent, honestly, Sir John, give it to him as a gift.’ He wetted his lips. ‘If not the Regent, the mayor, some alderman: anyone with influence with Father Prior.’

Athelstan confronted his parishioners. ‘Don’t lie,’ he warned.

‘We are not, Father,’ they all chorused back.

‘Do you all swear,’ Athelstan raised his voice, ‘that that was the reason you did it? Swear on the cross and the lives of your children?’

The parishioners now roared their assent.

‘But you still did wrong,’ Athelstan declared, shaking his head. ‘You did very wrong and restitution has to be made.’ He thrust the crucifix into Huddle’s hands. ‘Burn this!’ he ordered. ‘You will tell the curiosity-seekers that the candles caught the wood. God’s fire burnt it.’

‘I’ll do it now, Father.’

Huddle loped off, the crucifix under his arm, to the small brick enclosure behind the church where Athelstan made a bonfire of materials no longer needed.

‘Sir John will collect all the money,’ Athelstan continued. ‘Every single penny. He will keep it in trust and give it to one of the almshouses in the city. For the rest, I must thank…’ He turned but the Sanctus Man had disappeared, going as quietly as he came.

‘Sir John! Sir John!’ Flaxwith, covered in sweat, came hobbling through the cemetery gates, Samson, tongue out, running beside him. ‘You must come now, Sir John, to the Tower! The clerk, Alcest, he’s had a seizure! Master Colebrooke says it was unexpected.’