Angel of Death

girlish the eyes, now brimming with tears. Was this man strong enough to plan and carry out a blasphemous murder?
    'The dean,' the secretarius began slowly, 'was a strange man, with strange desires, very secretive. I have held this benefice a year and never once did I see a document or write anything for him which could be held against him. Yet there was a…' Blaskett paused. 'I do not mean to speak ill of the dead, but there was a smell of corruption about him. He was very friendly and sometimes when I was sitting writing he would stroke my hair. I objected. Plumpton, a man who loves listening to other people's conversations, heard the ensuing altercation.'
    'And after that? I mean,' Corbett said, 'your relations with the dean?'
    'Cold and formal. I think if he had lived,' Blaskett paused. 'I think if he had lived, perhaps I would have been dismissed from my post. Not from my prebend, but as a secretarius.'
    'Do you know, Sir Stephen, anything which might solve this mystery of why de Montfort died? Who killed him? When and how?'
    'No, I do not.'
    Corbett looked at the scrap of parchment which bore the plan of where the celebrants stood at that fateful mass.
    'Sir Stephen, may I remind you, that you were the last person to drink from the chalice before it was passed back to the dean.' Corbett stared at the young man. 'Some people might say because you held the chalice last, it gave you the opportunity to poison the wine.'
    Blaskett almost sniggered. 'For a man who is a chief clerk in the king's chancery,' he said spitefully, 'you are peculiarly dull-witted. You have asked that question of all my colleagues and yet you consistendy ignore one fact.' 'Which is?' Corbett snapped.
    'After the mass was stopped and de Montfort's body was carried to the sacristy, I understand you examined the chalice and other sacred vessels on the altar?'
    'That is correct.'
    'I also saw the chalice later. Did you detect any sign of poison in the consecrated wine?' 'No, I did not.'
    'Then how could I put poison in a cup from which de Montfort drank but which you later found to be free of poison? There is a conundrum there, Master Clerk. I think you should resolve that before you start implying, however much I may have disliked de Montfort, that I slipped poison into a sacred chalice during mass.'
    Corbett stared at Blaskett. The young man's rather effeminate, childish approach was just a mask. In fact, he was probably the sharpest of all those he had interviewed and the riddle he posed could not be resolved. If the chalice was poisoned, why had he failed to detect poison in it when he examined the sacred vessels? Corbett mused on this puzzle for a few moments before continuing his interrogation.
    'Sir Stephen,' Corbett said, 'it could well be that in the confusion and chaos following de Montfort's sudden death, somebody came back to the altar with another chalice.'
    The young priest laughed.
    'What are you saying? That there were two identical chalices? But that was de Montfort's. There are no two chalices in our inventory, or amongst the church plate, which are so similar. You are saying that someone, while people are rushing around the sanctuary examining de Monfort's body and taking it to the sacristy, someone came up with a similar cup, placed it on the altar and took the poisoned one away? And no one noticed? And that this person had such a chalice ready? I find that incredible.'
    Corbett looked away and stared up at the rafters. It was incredible but there was something, something Blaskett had touched on which stirred a memory. The thought eluded him. Something he had seen on that altar which was wrong, which should not have happened.
    He glanced back at Blaskett. 'I thank you for poindng out the conundrum, Sir Stephen. I have finished with my questions. I would be most grateful if you could ask your colleagues to return.'
    A few minutes later, the canons, all of them openly resentful at being summoned hither and thither by a man like Corbett, filed into the chamber and regrouped themselves around the table. Corbett asked a few desultory questions, particularly about de Montfort's wealth, before turning to Hervey.
    'Master William, I would be grateful, once this is finished, if you would draw up a letter in the king's name and take it back to Westminster to seal, ordering the sheriffs and bailiffs of Essex to examine Cathall Manor and send to the Chancery immediately any reports they may have about Sir Walter de Montfort or his