The Medieval Murderers - The False Virgin

Two days into our homeward journey, I decided it was time to pull at a few threads and see what unravelled. The first person I came across on deck happened to be Bertuccio Galuppi. He was staring out beyond the prow of the ship as if seeking the first sighting of Venice lagoon and its protective shingle bank. We had hardly spoken since getting on board, each of us avoiding the other for whatever reason. Now, I would confront him with his suspicious meeting with Stefano. He was concentrating so much on the vista ahead that he didn’t hear me until I was right behind him. Suddenly realising I was there, he turned to go, much as he had done for the past two days. I grasped his arm abruptly.

‘Don’t go, Messer Galuppi. There is something we must discuss.’

He looked down at my fist crushing the cloth of the arm of his fine jerkin, and tried to release himself from my grip. I was unmoved, and pulled him closer to my face.

‘You may think you are something special here, Galuppi, seeing as you are old family and all that rubbish. But I am the person the Doge confided in, and I will be reporting to him when we return. And I may have to tell him about your rendezvous with a common oarsman in some low tavern, and the conspiracy that it no doubt points to. So you’d better listen to me.’

Galuppi did that sneer that is a part of the armoury of the upper classes. In fact, I was afraid he saw through my feeble reference to a conspiracy, and could tell I had no idea why the two men had met.

‘Oh, so I must listen to you, must I, Zuliani? Well, let me tell you something. Your little task for the Doge was only a pretty charade to cover up the real reason we were on Sifnos. I was charged with the task of getting rid of Niccolo Querini by any means available. So while you were stumbling around talking to the domina and that monk, I sought out a likely member of the crew to assist me. The debtor Stefano was ideal. A man who would do anything for money. If you saw us together the other day, it was when I paid him off. He told me he had carried out his orders to the letter. Now, let go of my arm.’

Stunned by his admission, I did so, and he pushed past me. He was making for the cabins at the stern, but stopped for a parting shot.

‘And don’t think of running to the authorities with this. It was all done at the Doge’s behest, so no one will care to listen to you.’

With that final warning, he went through the door to the cabins, and I was left clutching thin air just as a wave broke over the bow. I would have been swept off my feet and perhaps over the side, had not a firm hand taken hold of me as I tumbled. Down on one knee and staring over the rail at the worsening grey sea, I blurted out my thanks.

‘I thank you, sir, for your life-saving timeliness.’

I heard Katie’s bell-like laugh, and realised the steely grip had been that of my own granddaughter.

‘Your eyesight is fading, Grandpa, if you think I am a man. I think I am more offended even than when you grabbed my tits at our first meeting.’

A passing sailor, sent to trim the sails, gave me a strange look on hearing Katie’s comment. Embarrassed, I hustled her back towards our cabin. I think I have mentioned our first encounter, when Katie had dressed as a boy and was stalking me. I had lurked in wait, and grabbed her roughly round the chest, not expecting a womanly figure to appear under my hands. But the sailor was not to know that.

‘You should not say things like that in front of others. That man will think I am some sort of incestuous pervert.’

Katie laughed. ‘He is probably jealous of your intimate knowledge of my luscious body.’

‘There you go again, Katie. Please stop it.’

She could see I was really embarrassed, and put her solemn face on.

‘Sorry, Grandpa.’

The truth of the matter was that I just didn’t get this parent business. I wanted to be a good example to my granddaughter. But whatever I did, it soon degenerated into the usual fun and games, it seemed. However, Katie did have something serious to tell me.

‘I have just been talking to Speranza, as you requested.’

‘Did you see the crucifix around her neck?’

A few days ago, I had noticed the leather thong around Speranza’s neck that disappeared under the front of her dress, and was curious what it held.

Katie frowned. ‘No. I went to touch the thong as I asked her, and she quickly put her hand over her chest to protect it. She said it was a family heirloom and personal to her.’ Her eyes lit up. ‘You don’t think it is the saint’s missing finger, do you?’

I shrugged noncommittally. ‘Maybe. Now, tell me. Is she all right? Her wounds, are they healing?’

‘No, the wounds are open and they are bleeding again. I can’t figure it out, unless they are truly stigmata.’ She said this in such a way that I knew she didn’t believe in the phenomenon any more than I did. ‘But that isn’t what I want to talk to you about. You see, while I was looking at her hands, she said something to me.’

‘What was it?’

‘She looked at me, all innocently in that virginal way she has now, and said she thought that Brother Hugh had killed Niccolo in order to ensure her husband did not lead her away from St Beornwyn. She sounded quite sure of it.’

I pulled a face. ‘That gives us two murderers in the space of a few moments.’

I explained to the puzzled girl the result of my confrontation with Galuppi. She was as surprised as I was at what he had said.

‘Galuppi involved in a murder plot? With direct orders from the Doge? I don’t believe it.’

‘What’s so unbelievable? That stiff, strait-laced Bertuccio Galuppi could arrange the murder of a man, if it suited the Republic? Or that the Doge – our noble hero of the Aegean – could order it done in the first place, if it fitted in with his own personal situation?’

Katie stamped her foot in frustration. ‘Damn it, Grandpa, why are you always so good at seeing through all the sham?’

‘Because I have lived a long life surrounded by hypocrites.’ I gave her a rueful smile. ‘I fear it is something you will learn too, if you stick around your grandfather. In the meantime, I need you to tutor me about aspects I find much more difficult to comprehend.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Families and marriage. Now there are two things that completely fox me.’

As well as Katie teaching me what went on between men and women inside families – a story with which I was completely unfamiliar – I had another task to perform. This occasioned delving deep into the bowels of the ship where the pitching and yawing was more stomach-churning than on deck, and the odours were of men’s sweat and bodily excretions. But it was worth it. Once I had found out what I had all along believed, I was ready to confront the killer of Niccolo Querini. I was glad to get back on deck and breathing in the clean, fresh air coming off the Adriatic, even if it was whipping up to gale force and throwing a stinging spray into my face. Being thrown from side to side, I reeled back to my cabin, and planned my next step. I hoped it would finally serve to unpick all those threads I had been teasing away at for the last few days.

The seas eventually eased, and I sent a message to the people concerned to meet me on the rear deck. I did it through Katie, because none of them would refuse a pretty girl. I didn’t tell her that, though – she would have slugged me. I stood on the deck with my back to the setting sun, so that when the others looked at me they would have to squint. Bertuccio Galuppi was the first to arrive.

‘What’s all this about, Zuliani? Hasn’t everything been settled to your satisfaction already?’

‘We shall see, Messer Galuppi. I just thought we should get our story straight before we reach Venice.’