A Mortal Bane(63)

“A murder cannot be pleasing to God, no matter what the cause,” Bell said, wondering if the sacristan was mad.

“That is true,” Brother Paulinus said. “Yes, quite true.” He shuddered suddenly and his eyes came away from the crucifix and fixed on the ground. “It was horrible. Horrible to find a dead man covered with blood on the church porch. I had sent Knud to discover why the crows were making so much noise. He found the body and cried for the infirmarian, who looked at it and told us the man was dead. The infirmarian called his assistants to take the body away.”

“Did you know who the man was?” Bell asked, frowning.

“No, I did not. I had never seen him before in my life. But I knew at once who had stabbed him, and I knew even the bishop could not shield those whores from punishment for such a crime. Maybe a papal legate…. No, not even a legate. So I went to demand a confession from the whores.” His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “Foul beasts, they are further lost in sin than even I believed, and they resisted me. They would not acknowledge my God-granted knowledge of their evil and abase themselves; they even threatened me when I tried to chastise the idiot for mocking me.”

Bell’s teeth set hard at the thought of Paulinus hurting Ella for mocking him—as if Ella would know how—but that was not important. Could Paulinus have killed Baldassare to steal the pouch and destroy the bull that would make a man he considered unworthy a legate?

It was too soon, Bell thought, to come to such a conclusion. Sabina had heard the sacristan’s voice just before she found the body, so he was in the church when Baldassare was killed. But it seemed impossible that Baldassare had come to meet Brother Paulinus or that Paulinus could have known he was a papal messenger.

“Those whores—” Brother Paulinus began angrily.

Bell watched the sacristan’s face. The insistence on Magdalene’s guilt might be a result of Paulinus’s prejudice against carnal sin, but it could also be an effort to protect himself. If the whores were adjudged guilty, no one would look further for a murderer.

“It would be best,” Bell said, “to leave the whores to me. Since they are already excommunicate, there is little with which you can threaten them.” The implication that he could and would use other threats would save a lot of argument. Bell thought. “Now,” he continued, “I need to speak to Knud to learn exactly what he saw when he found the body.”

“Is that really necessary?” Paulinus asked. ‘The man was greatly disturbed. He did not touch Messer Baldassare—”

“Did you see that?”

The sacristan frowned. “No, but why should he—”

“I wish to speak to him. I need to know if the blood was red or brown, dry all through or jellylike, how the knife stood, whether erect or fallen out. Such things Knud would not speak of in the first excitement, but he is likely to remember under careful questioning.”

“You will give him nightmares.”

“I am sorry for it if I do, but it is more important that the killer be caught than that one man sleep easily. He can pray for peaceful slumbers.”

“I do not see how the horrible details you will bring back to his mind can help find a murderer,” Brother Paulinus protested.

Bell did not think they would help much, either, because he was convinced that Baldassare had been killed only moments before Sabina found him, just after Compline. However, he could scarcely admit to Paulinus that he wished to ask Knud whether he was with the sacristan when Sabina had heard his voice calling, “Who is there?”