The House of the Red Slayer

especially someone who has drunk deeply.’
    Athelstan reflected on what the lieutenant had said. It did make sense. Both he and Cranston knew about the Nightshades, robbers who could enter a house under cover of darkness and plunder it beneath the sleeping noses of burgesses, wives, children, and even dogs. Why should this be any different? Athelstan studied the chamber carefully; the heavy granite walls, the stone-vaulted ceiling and cold ragstone floor beneath the rushes.
    ‘No, Brother!’ Colebrooke called out as if reading the friar’s thoughts. ‘No secret passageways exist. There are two ways to enter this chamber — by the window or by the door. However, there were guards in the lower chamber, we passed them as we came up, and the upper storey is blocked off by a fall of masonry.‘
    ‘Were any traces of blood found?’ Athelstan asked. He saw the lieutenant smirk and glance sideways at the gory corpse sprawled on the bed. ‘No,’ Athelstan continued crossly, ‘I mean elsewhere. Near the window or the door. When the assassin walked away, his knife or sword must have been coated with blood.‘
    Colebrooke shook his head. ‘Look for yourself, Brother. I found no trace.‘
    Athelstan glanced despairingly at Cranston who now sat like a sagging sack on the stool, eyes half-closed after his morning’s heavy drinking and vigorous exertions in the cold. The friar conducted his search thoroughly: the bedclothes and corpse were soaked in dried blood but he found no traces near the window, in the rushes or around the door. ‘Did you find anything else disturbed?’
    Colebrooke shook his head. Cranston suddenly stirred himself.
    ‘Why did Sir Ralph come here?’ he asked abruptly. ‘These were not his usual chambers.’
    ‘He thought he would be safe. The North Bastion is one of the most inaccessible in the fortress. The constable’s usual lodgings are in the royal apartments in the White Tower.’
    ‘And he was safe,’ Athelstan concluded, ‘until the moat froze over.’
    ‘Yes,’ Colebrooke replied. ‘Neither I nor anyone else thought of that.’
    ‘Wouldn’t an assassin be seen?’ Cranston interrupted.
    ‘I doubt it, Sir John. At the dead of night, the Tower is shrouded in darkness. There were no guards on the North Bastion, whilst those on the curtain wall would spend most of their time trying to keep warm.‘
    ‘So,’ Cranston narrowed his eyes, ‘before we meet the others, let’s establish the sequence of events.’
    ‘Sir Ralph dined in the great hall and drank deeply. Geoffrey Parchmeiner and the two guards escorted him over here. The latter searched this chamber, the passageway and the room below. All was in good order.’
    ‘Then what?’
    ‘Sir Ralph secured the door behind him. The guards outside heard that. They escorted Geoffrey out of the passageway, locked the door at the far end and began their vigil. They were at their posts all night and noticed nothing untoward. Neither did I on my usual nightly rounds.’ Athelstan held up his hand. ‘This business of the keys?’
    ‘Sir Ralph had a key to his own chamber, as did the guards, on a key ring below.’
    ‘And the door at the end of that passage?‘ I
    ‘Again, both Sir Ralph and the guard had a key. You will see them when you go below, hanging from pegs driven into the wall.’
    ‘Go on, Lieutenant, what happened then?’
    ‘Just after Prime this morning, Geoffrey Parchmeiner...‘ The lieutenant looked slyly at Athelstan. ‘You have met him? The beloved prospective son-in-law? Well, he came across to waken Sir Ralph.‘
    ‘Why Geoffrey?’
    ‘Sir Ralph trusted him.’
    ‘Did he bring food or drink?’
    ‘No. He wanted to, but because of the cold weather Sir Ralph said he wished to be aroused with Geoffrey in attendance. They would plan the day, and breakfast with the rest of the company in the hall.‘
    ‘Continue,’ Cranston blurted crossly, stamping his feet against the cold.
    ‘Well, the guards led Geoffrey up the stairs, let him through the passageway door and locked it behind him. They heard him go down the corridor, knock on the door and shout, but Sir Ralph could not be roused. After a while Geoffrey came back. “Sir Ralph cannot be woken,” he proclaimed.’ Colebrooke stopped, scratched his head and closed his eyes in an attempt to recall events. ‘Geoffrey took the key to Sir Ralph’s chamber from the peg but changed his mind and came for me. I was in the great hall. I hurried here, collected