Peter Tremayne - Penance of the Damned

‘When this was used as the main guardhouse, the rooms for the guards were on either side of the ground floor here. The two brothers you were enquiring about have their quarters here now.’

Lachtna then pointed to the stairs.

‘I came in and, hearing the voice of Brother Tuaman shouting for help from above, I rushed directly up the stairs.’

He led the way and on the next floor they found themselves in a small ante-chamber with four doors leading off it. One of these doors was hanging on one hinge with the woodwork splintered.

‘It was Brehon Faolchair who suggested that things remain untouched until a decision on this matter was made,’ explained Conri.

Lachtna pointed to the door. ‘When I came up the stairs, I saw Brother Tuaman standing outside this door, which was the abbot’s chamber. He told me that he feared something was wrong. He had heard a cry from within and a noise, like something falling. He had knocked on the door to see if the abbot needed assistance but, having received no answer, he tried the door and found it was locked. It was locked from the inside.’

‘One moment,’ Fidelma said. ‘I just want to make sure that I know what other chambers are on this floor. This is the abbot’s door. So who occupied the other three chambers?’

Lachtna turned and indicated with his hand. ‘That one opposite is the steward’s chamber. That at the far end is occupied by the abbot’s deputy, Prior Cuan. The one next to the abbot’s room is an empty chamber. I can assure you, lady, that there are no means of reaching the abbot’s chamber from any other.’

‘And you say that the two scribes have their chambers below stairs?’

‘That is so, lady.’

‘We know the steward was here, outside the abbot’s door – but where was Prior Cuan at this time?’

The warrior was diffident. ‘He was not here, lady. Nor do I know where he was.’

‘So let us return to what happened. You say that the door had been locked from the inside. Why do you say that?’

Lachtna blinked for a moment and then gathered his thoughts. ‘There was no key on the outside, lady. Brother Tuaman and I put our shoulders to the door and managed to smash the lock.’

Fidelma glanced at the lock where it had been splintered. The metal of the door lock had clearly been wrenched from the surrounding wooden holdings by force from the outside. ‘Continue.’

‘Well, we burst into the chamber. I saw the warrior first. He was sprawled on his face, one arm flung out with a bloodied knife near his hand.’

‘Near his hand?’ Fidelma queried.

‘Yes. His fingertips were barely touching the handle, as his fingers were splayed out. I presume he dropped the knife as he fell forward.’

‘And what sort of state was he in?’

‘He was groaning as if coming to his senses.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Well, I then saw the body of the abbot. He lay slightly forward as if he had been facing the warrior, crumpled up and covered in blood from stab wounds. Oh, and near his left hand was his staff of office. That had fallen by his side.’

‘But you are certain the door was locked from the inside?’ she asked again.

‘It clearly was, lady.’

‘Do you know that as a fact, or is it an assumption? This is important. Could someone not have slipped out of the door and locked it unseen to Brother Tuaman?’

The warrior shook his head. ‘I know it was locked on the inside for, as we burst into the room, I felt something hard under my foot. I looked down and saw the key on the floor. Then, of course, I saw the warrior and the body of the abbot.’

‘How do you think the key came to be on the floor?’

‘I believe it was probably in the lock on the inside and, as we smashed open the door, the force of our blow must have jolted it from the lock and it fell.’

‘Show me where.’

The young man pushed open the smashed door and pointed to an area immediately behind it. The spot was slightly to the centre rather than immediately under the lock.

‘Where is the key now?’ she asked.

‘It was handed to Brehon Faolchair.’

Fidelma cast her eye over the door. It was a stout oak door although there were some knots in the ageing wood, and cracks. Indeed, a couple of the knots had simply disappeared with age and wear.

‘Are there keys to the other rooms?’

‘There are, lady.’

‘Would any others fit this lock?’

‘I doubt it,’ replied Lachtna. ‘This place was originally built to hold prisoners as well as the guard. I was told that our locksmiths made all the keys of different shapes. That was back in the days when Oengus son of Nechtan was our prince and very wary of his enemies. He felt the differences in locks and keys were a better security than …’

Fidelma held up her hand to stay the other’s sudden enthusiasm for the subject. She entered the room and looked about.

It was fairly small chamber. A window gave light but it had iron bars inserted in such a way that no one could use it to exit or enter. A cot bed, a cupboard, a chest and a desk with two wooden chairs comprised the furnishings. She saw nothing that gave her any ideas of how someone could conceal themselves in the room.

‘In your opinion, Lachtna, is there any way someone could have entered this chamber, knocked out Gorman, the warrior, and killed the abbot in the manner Gorman claimed?’

The young man shook his head. ‘Not unless they were a puca , a shape-shifter, lady, and could move through solid walls. Look, even the one window there is a full storey high above ground and has iron bars across it. The windows were barred to hold the prisoners in the old days.’

‘But there is a closet in that corner and a chest under the window. Could an assassin have hidden there?’ Eadulf asked.

‘Anything is possible.’ The young man walked to a position before the desk-like table. ‘The Cashel warrior claimed he was attacked from behind. From the position where I found him, he was on the floor at this point. The abbot was lying in front of him. From where I am now standing, lady, if a nameless assassin was hiding either in the closet or the chest, how could he not have been observed emerging from these hiding places? How could he come round to strike the warrior from behind without being seen? The chest is there, under the window to the warrior’s right. He would have seen the lid opening and the assassin having to climb out from a horizontal position. He did not. And the closet is almost directly behind the abbot, slightly to the left shoulder of where he stood. The abbot might not have seen an assassin emerge from that but the warrior would have done so and presumably raised the alarm.’ He paused. ‘That is, if his story is true.’

Fidelma was silent for a moment or two, examining the positions indicated by the young warrior.

‘You have a keen eye for observation, Lachtna,’ she praised him.

‘It is my training,’ Lachtna admitted modestly. ‘I notice things. It is why I noticed the key on the floor behind the door and why I then ensured that it was presented to Brehon Faolchair because Brother Tuaman had failed to see it. The key is the confirmation that the door had been locked on the inside – and that is essential evidence.’

‘True,’ Fidelma agreed. ‘What do you think of Gorman’s claim that he had been hit over the head and that he was not the killer?’

Lachtna looked uncomfortable. ‘I know you have come here to defend him, lady. That is the talk among the household guards here. I hear he is the commander of the bodyguard of the King of Cashel.’

‘Don’t let that influence your opinion,’ Fidelma told him. ‘Just tell me what you think.’

Lachtna spread his arms. ‘If I had discovered a fox in a chicken run with feathers in its mouth and a dead chicken before it, it would be hard not to believe that the fox was guilty of killing the chicken.’