A Mortal Bane(129)

The bishop and Bell both leaned forward to look. “There is not,” the bishop agreed.

Bell reached out for the candlestick, saying, “May I?” and took it from the prior’s hand, twisting it this way and that. A moment later he said, “There is a mark. See, very small, in that corner.”

Someone in the room drew a sharp breath, but Bell could not tell who, and a brief argument began about whether what Bell saw was a craftmark or some irregularity in the metal.

Bell turned his head, “Magdalene,” he said, “you are used to making out small patterns. Come and look.”

She rose with some reluctance, afraid she would not only see a mark, but recognize it. Then she thought of Brother Godwine’s battered head. Her lips firmed. There had been no need for that. A single blow would have rendered Brother Godwine unconscious; then the thief could have taken whatever he wanted and gone away. She would not protect the man who had battered in Brother Godwine’s head, client or no client. Besides, the man who made the candlestick was not necessarily connected with the murder. She lowered her gaze to the foot of the candlestick and shifted it to catch the light.

“That is a made mark,” she said, concealing a sigh of relief. Despite all her reasoning, she was glad she did not know the sign—except for one thing. “I do not know the mark,” she added, “but look here, just below it. Is that not an S? Could that mean Southwark?”

“It could mean anything,” the prior said. “Some craft-masters can read. It might be the initial of his name.”

[page]“Hmmm, so it might,” the bishop said. “Bell, tomorrow you should go to the Goldsmiths’ Hall and speak to the guildmaster. He will surely know the names of all his members. It might be worthwhile to question those whose names begin with an S.” He took the candlestick from Bell’s hand and looked up at him. “So, Bell, what do we know? Is the man who wielded this the same who killed Baldassare?”

“If Baldassare was killed not for what he carried but for being in the church at the wrong time, it is possible. And the golden pyx did disappear from the safe box about the same time. But this seems far more an act of fear and rage. Baldassare seems to have stood talking to the man who killed him. Would he have allowed that man to come close if he had seen him stealing church plate?”

“You think this is a common thief, who hid in the church and when Brother Godwine knelt to check the safe box, struck him, took his keys—”

“Struck him with what?” Bell asked. “Brother Godwine was killed with the candlestick. Does that not mean that the safe box was open, the candlestick in the thief’s hand, when Brother Godwine entered, possibly rushed at the thief, shouting? No, if that had happened, either the thief would have fled or he would have run at Brother Godwine, in which case the porter would have been struck out in the church, not behind the altar.”

“Perhaps the thief was kneeling down behind the altar removing the candlestick,” Magdalene said. Then her breath caught and she raised a hand to her lips.

The words had just popped out before she thought, because she had remembered vividly how she and Dulcie had lost sight of the monk who was returning the candlestick…the same candlestick? She glanced swiftly from the bishop to the prior to Bell, but if any had noticed her guilty reaction, he most likely put it down to her anxiety at having spoken out in such august company without permission.

Guilt flooded her. She and Dulcie had seen a monk with a candlestick the night after Baldassare was killed. That had to mean something. She should tell someone about it, but she did not dare, did not dare admit she had been in the church that Thursday night. She glanced up nervously and saw that Bell and the bishop were looking at her with approval.