Our Lady of Darkness

‘He is dead,’ she said hoarsely.

‘That I can see,’ agreed Fidelma grimly. ‘Why?’

‘Why?’ the abbess echoed in a daze.

‘Why is he dead?’ pressed Fidelma.

The abbess blinked, staring at her as if she did not understand. It took a moment for her to gather her wits.

‘How should I know?’ she began and then stopped abruptly. ‘You don’t think that I …? I did not kill him!’

‘With due respect, Abbess Fainder,’ intervened Dego, peering over Fidelma’s shoulder, ‘we have just come aboard and, opening the cabin door, we find Gabrán dead. From the amount of blood it is clear that he has been knifed to death. You are kneeling at his head. Your clothes are smeared in blood and you have a knife in your hand. How are we to interpret this scene?’

The abbess seemed to be recovering herself. She glared angrily at Dego.

‘How dare you! Who are you to accuse the Abbess of Fearna of common murder?’

Fidelma’s mouth twitched in black humour as she considered the situation.

‘No murder is common, abbess. Least of all this murder. It would take a fool not to point out the obvious. Are you trying to tell us that you had no hand in this murder?’

Abbess Fainder’s face was white.

‘I did not do it.’ Her voice cracked with emotion.

‘So you say. Come out on deck and explain it to me.’

Fidelma stood aside from the door and gestured for the abbess to leave the cabin. Fainder stepped out onto the deck and blinked in the daylight.

‘There is no one else on board,’ Enda reported with a note ofmalicious glee. He had made a cursory examination of the boat. ‘You appear to be alone here, Mother Abbess.’

Abbess Fainder sat down abruptly on a hatch cover and, placing her arms around her waist, she bent over and seemed to hug herself, rocking a little to and fro. Fidelma sat down beside her.

‘This is a bad business,’ Fidelma said gently, after a few moments. ‘The sooner we have an explanation the better.’

Abbess Fainder raised her anguished features to face her.

‘Explanation? I have told you that I did not do it! What other explanation do you need?’

There was enough of her old spirit left in the voice for Fidelma’s mouth to tighten impatiently.

‘Believe me, Mother Abbess, an explanation is needed and it had better be one that I am satisfied with,’ she snapped. ‘Perhaps you had best begin by explaining how you came to be here.’

The abbess’s features changed abruptly. The spark of her old arrogance burst out.

‘I don’t like your tone, Sister. Are you trying to accuse me?’

Fidelma was unconcerned. ‘I don’t have to accuse you. The circumstances speak for themselves. But if there is something that you wish to tell me, now is the time to do so. As a dálaigh I must report the evidence of my eyes.’

Abbess Fainder gazed at her as the shock of what she was saying registered. She opened her mouth, speechless for a moment or two.

‘But I did not do it,’ she said finally. ‘You can’t accuse me. You can’t!’

‘As I recall, Brother Eadulf said pretty much the same thing,’ Fidelma told her, ‘yet he was accused and found guilty of murder on much slimmer evidence. And here you are, actually found bending over the body, holding a knife, drenched in blood.’

‘But I am …’ The abbess’s mouth snapped shut as if she realised the conceit of what she had been about to say.

‘But you are the abbess whereas Brother Eadulf was merely a wandering foreigner?’ concluded Fidelma. ‘Well, Abbess Fainder? We are waiting for your story.’

A shudder went through the woman. Her haughty demeanour vanished and her shoulders slumped.

‘Bishop Forbassach told me that you had accused Gabrán of attacking you last night.’

Fidelma waited patiently.

‘Bishop Forbassach claimed that you would not lie over such a matter. So I came here to demand an explanation from Gabrán,’ went on Abbess Fainder. ‘I could not believe your story even if Forbassach did. Gabrán had …’ She hesitated.

‘Gabrán had … what?’ prompted Fidelma.

‘Gabrán is a well-known merchant on the river. He has traded with the abbey for many years, long before I became Abbess. Such an accusation brings an insult to our abbey and has to be challenged. I came here to see what Gabrán had to say.’

‘So you came here hoping to prove my accusation against Gabrán false? Continue.’

‘I finally found the Cág moored here. There was no one about. I came on board and called for Gabrán. There was no answer. I thought I heard a movement in the cabin so I went to the door and knocked. There was the sound of something heavy falling … I realise now that it was the body of Gabrán. Anyway, I called out again and went in. I saw the scene exactly as you saw it. Gabrán was dead and lying on his back in the cabin. There was blood everywhere. My first thought was for the man and I entered and knelt down. He was beyond help.’

‘Presumably this is how you explain the fact that your clothes are stained with blood?’

‘It is why my habit is bloody, yes.’

‘Then what?’

‘I was shocked by the knife-wounds that had been inflicted. I saw the knife …’

‘Where was this knife?’

‘Lying by the side of the body. I saw it and picked it up. I don’t know what made me do that. Some unthinking reaction, I suppose. I just knelt there.’

‘And then we arrived.’

To Fidelma’s surprise, Abbess Fainder shook her head.

‘There was something else before you came.’

‘What was that?’

‘It didn’t mean much to me then but now it does.’

‘Go on.’

‘I heard a soft splash.’

Fidelma arched an eyebrow. ‘A soft splash? What did you think it was?’

‘I think it was the murderer leaving the boat.’ The abbess shivered sightly.

Fidelma looked cynical. ‘The boat was moored alongside a jetty. What would be the need for anyone to leave the boat via the river, especially in this icy weather. And if it was the murderer leaving the scene of this crime, then your horse was tethered nearby and presented a very effective means of escape. Isn’t that so?’

Abbess Fainder stared blankly at Fidelma’s remorseless logic.

‘I am sure that someone was on this boat and left it by lowering themselves into the water,’ she repeated stubbornly.

‘It would certainly help your claim that you were innocent of this crime,’ agreed Fidelma, ‘but I have to say that it is unlikely in the extreme that someone, flying from this scene, would take that option. Look!’

She indicated the river side of the boat. The waters were flowing strongly at this point and the river was now more than five metres wide increasing the ferocity of the flow.

‘Anyone attempting to swim in that river would have to be a strong swimmer. No one in their right mind would choose that route when all they had to do was step onto the riverbank on the other side of the boat.’

Fidelma suddenly frowned as a thought struck her.

‘How could Gabrán navigate this boat up here against such a strong current?’

‘Easy enough,’ explained Enda. ‘While I was looking around this boat I saw the harness attachments. It is common, lady, for a couple of asses to be used to pull river boats against the flow of the river where the current is strong. Otherwise, poles are used to propel the vessel. It is done all the time.’

Fidelma stood up and looked around. While Enda was obviously correct, there was still something wrong.