'In this place, sir, after what happened – we are surrounded by enemies, Master Shardlake-'
I saw he was terrified, and smiled reassuringly. A nervous witness, like a nervous horse, needs to be soothed along.
'Calm yourself, sir. Now, we are tired and would be grateful for a little of that wine while you tell us exactly what has happened here.'
'Oh sir, by Our Lady, the blood…'
I raised my hand. 'Start at the beginning, from your arrival.'
He poured us wine and sat down on the bed, running his fingers through his shock of white hair.
'I did not want to come here,' he sighed. 'I have laboured hard in the vineyard at Cambridge, working for Reform since the start, and I am too old for assignments like this. But Robin Singleton was my student once, and he asked me to help him try for the surrender of this pestiferous house. He needed a canon lawyer, you see. I could not refuse a summons from the vicar general,' he added resentfully.
'That is difficult,' I agreed. 'So you arrived here what, a week ago?'
'Yes. It was a hard ride.'
'How did the negotiations proceed?'
'Badly, sir, as I knew they would. Singleton went blustering in, saying this was a decayed and sinful house and they would be well advised to take the pensions he offered and surrender. But Abbot Fabian wasn't interested; he loves his life here too much. Playing the country squire, lording it over the stewards and reeves. He's only the local ship chandler's son, you know.' Goodhaps drained his cup and poured himself another. I could not blame the helpless old noddle, all alone here, for seeking succour in his pitcher.
'He's clever, Abbot Fabian. He knew there would be no more forced closures, not after the northern rebellion. The commissioner told me to find something in my legal books to threaten him with. I told him he was wasting his time, but Robin Singleton was never any good as a scholar; he made his way by bluster. God rest him,' he added, though as a good reformer he did not cross himself.
'What you say is true enough,' I agreed, 'unless one can find other breaches of the law. Sodomy was spoken of, I hear, and theft. Capital offences both.'
Goodhaps sighed. 'For once Lord Cromwell has the wrong notion. The local Justice is a good reformer but his reports of land sales at undervalue don't hold water. There is no evidence of anything improper in the accounts.'
'And the talk of vice?'
'Nothing. The abbot insists they have all reformed since the visitation. The last prior encouraged those vile practices, but he was removed together with a couple of the worst offenders, and that Scots brute put in.'
I emptied my cup, but forbore to ask for more. I was bone-tired, and the wine and the warmth from the fire made me want to lie down and sleep, but I needed a clear head for some hours yet.
'How do you find the brothers?'
He shrugged. 'Like them all. Lazy and content. They play cards and hunt – you'll have seen the place is crawling with dogs – and skimp the services, but they observe the injunctions, have sermons in English, and don't have bawdy women walking around the place. That red-faced prior's a disciplinarian. He makes himself out a supporter of Lord Cromwell's injunctions, but I trust none of them. The senior monks are a smooth, clever lot but under the surface they're all full of the old heresies. They keep that to themselves, though. Except that Carthusian cripple, of course, and he's not part of the community.'
'Ah yes, Brother Jerome. We encountered him.'
'Do you not know who he is?'
'No.'
'A relative of Queen Jane, God rest her. He refused the oath, but to have him executed like the other Carthusians would have been an embarrassment. They tortured him into swearing, and then hid him away down here as a pensioner – another relative is a big landowner hereabouts. I would have thought Lord Cromwell's office would have known he was here.'
I inclined my head. Tapers get lost, I suppose, even in his office.'
'The other monks don't like him because he insults them, calls them soft and lazy. He's not allowed to leave the precincts.'
'No doubt Commissioner Singleton spoke to many of the monks to see what he could uncover. Some of those involved in the sodomy scandal would still be here?'
'The tall one with wild fair hair perhaps?' Mark interjected.
Goodhaps shrugged. 'Oh, him. Brother Gabriel, the sacrist. Yes, he was one. Looks quite normal, doesn't he? Big and tall. He has a wild look about him sometimes, though. Commissioner Singleton pressed them, but they all say they are as pure as angels nowadays. He got me to do some interviews, question some of them about the detail of their lives – though I'm a scholar, I'm not trained for that sort of thing.'
'I gather Commissioner Singleton did not make himself popular? I knew him, by the way. He had a fierce manner.'
'Yes, his brusque ways never made him friends, not that he cared.'
'Tell me how he died.'
The old man hunched his shoulders and seemed to shrink into himself.
'He had given up trying to pressurize the monks. He set me to listing all the ways a monastery may break the canon law – scraping the bottom of the barrel. He spent most of his time looking through the accounts and the archives. He was getting anxious, he needed something for Lord Cromwell. I didn't see him much the last couple of days, he was busy going through the bursar's accounts.'
'What was he looking for?'
'Any trouble he could find. As I said, he was scraping the bottom of the barrel. But he has some experience of these new Italian accounts, where everything goes in twice.'
'Yes, double-entry. He knew his accounts then, if not much law?'
'Yes.' He sighed. 'That last night we had supper on our own as usual. Singleton appeared in a more cheerful mood. He said he was going to his room to look at some new book he'd prised out of the bursar. The bursar himself was away that night – the night it happened.'
'Would the bursar be a fat little man with black eyes? We saw someone like that in the courtyard, arguing about money.'
'That's him. Brother Edwig. Arguing with the sacrist about his building schemes, I daresay. I like Brother Edwig, he's a practical man. Doesn't like spending money. We could do with someone like him in my college. When it comes to the day-to-day running of the monastery, Prior Mortimus and Brother Edwig have control between them and they run tight ships.' He took another draught of wine.
'What happened next?'
'I worked for an hour, then said my prayers and went to bed.'
'And slept?'
'Yes. I woke suddenly at about five. There was a commotion outside, then a great bang on the door – just like the prior made just now.' He shuddered. 'The abbot and a dozen monks were outside. The abbot looked shocked, startled out of his wits. He told me the commissioner was dead, someone had killed him, I must come at once.
'I dressed and went down with them. It was all so confused, everyone was babbling about locked doors and blood, and I heard someone say it was God's vengeance. They found torches and we went through the monks' quarters to the kitchens. It was so cold, all those endless dark passageways, monks and servants standing around in little huddles looking scared. And then they opened the door to the kitchen. Dear God.' To my surprise, he quickly crossed himself.
'There was this smell of-' he gave a fractured laugh – 'a butcher's shop. The room was full of candles, they'd put them on the long tables, the food cupboards, everywhere. I stood in something, and the prior pulled me to one side. When I lifted my foot it was sticky. There was a great pool of dark liquid on the floor, I didn't know what it was.
'Then I saw Robin Singleton lying in the middle of it on his stomach, his robe all smeared. I knew there was something wrong, but my eyes could make no sense of it at first. Then I realized he had
