‘Exactly when are they all expected to arrive?’ she asked, feeling, as Brocc had forewarned, it was not good news.
‘Within a few days, by the end of the week at the latest.’ Brocc was clearly nervous at being host to such an assembly where he stood in place of the accused. ‘Tell me, cousin, are you any nearer to resolving this mystery?’
His voice was almost pleading but Fidelma could not allay his obvious fears.
She stood up and moved to the window, peering down into the inlet.
‘I saw, as we were coming into Ros Ailithir, that Mugrón’s warship still rides at anchor out there.’
Brocc’s shoulders sagged a little.
‘Laigin will not give up their plaint before the assembly meets.’
Fidelma turned back into the chamber towards the abbot.
‘I presume the High King and his entourage will come by ship around the coast?’
‘As will the king of Laigin and his retinue,’ confirmed Brocc. ‘I am expected to give hospitality to all of them. Brother Rumann and Brother Conghus are at their wits’ endto find extra accommodation and food. Oh, and that means that the extra chamber in which you have conducted your investigations can no longer be available to you. You may still use the same chamber in the hostel for personal use, as befits your rank, but the young warrior, what’s his name … Cass? He will have to use a bed in one of the dormitories.’
‘It cannot be helped. You have much to do to prepare for the assembly.’
Brocc examined her with a pessimistic eye.
‘And you also, cousin, for on you depends all our futures.’
Fidelma did not need Brocc to remind her. The words of the Gospel of Luke came suddenly into her mind: ‘Unto whomsoever much is given, of them shall much be required.’ Never, since she had received her qualification in law, had so much been required of her. She felt that responsibility was like a heavy weight. Despite her most strenuous efforts she was still looking into a smoked mirror where enticing shadows could be seen but nothing that was clear nor which made any sense.
Brocc saw the anxiety on her face and relented his own attitude.
‘It is just that I am truly beginning to worry now, cousin. I have never attended a High King’s assembly before,’ he added with some morbid fascination. ‘Were it not that I am charged as responsible in this matter it would have been an exhilarating experience.’
Fidelma raised a cynical eyebrow.
‘Exhilarating experience? It may also be a fatal one if I cannot present a case that will clear you and prevent the claim of Laigin leading to a war between the two kingdoms.’
There was an uncomfortable silence, then Fidelma said, without expectation of a positive answer: ‘You have not told me whether there is any news of Sister Grella. I presume she has not returned?’
Brocc grimaced gloomily and confirmed her expectation.
‘No. She has simply vanished. From what you told me I fear that she has fled with her guilt.’
Fidelma frowned and rose.
‘That we shall see. I shall need the material which I left with you.’
Brocc nodded readily, reaching under his table for the keys. She watched as he went to the cabinet and unlocked the door, swinging it open. He took out her marsupium and handed it to her.
She rummaged through its contents to check everything was there.
Fidelma gave a sharp intake of breath. Someone had been through the contents of the bag. The burnt piece of Ogham stick and the pieces of vellum that she had found in Sister Grella’s chamber were gone. Yet the linen bonds and the skirt from which they had been taken were still there.
‘What is it?’ Brocc asked, moving swiftly to her side.
She stood quietly awhile. It was no use responding emotionally to the disappearance of the crucial evidence which she had gathered and placed there for safekeeping.
‘Someone has removed some vital pieces of evidence from my bag.’
‘I do not understand, cousin,’ breathed Brocc. He looked genuinely bewildered. His face was flushed with mortification.
‘When was the last time you opened this cabinet, Brocc?’ she asked.
‘When you asked me to deposit the bag into it for safekeeping.’
‘And where have you kept the keys?’
‘They are hung, as you have seen, on hooks under this table.’
‘And many people knew of that?’
‘I thought that I was the only one who knew exactly where the keys were kept.’
‘It would not take a great deal of effort to find them. How many people knew that valuables were sometimes kept in that cabinet?’
‘Only some of the senior members of the abbey.’
‘And, needless to say, anyone could have access to your chamber while you were performing the duties of your office?’
Brocc exhaled softly.
‘No member of the brethren of this abbey would commit such a crime as theft from their abbot, cousin. It trespasses against the boundaries of the rules of our order.’
‘So does murder,’ Fidelma replied dryly. ‘Yet someone in this abbey killed both Dacán and Sister Eisten. You say only the senior members of the abbey knew that valuables were sometimes placed there. Such as who?’
Brocc rubbed his chin.
‘Brother Rumann, of course. Brother Conghus. Our chief professor Brother Ségán. Brother Midach … oh, and Sister Grella, of course. But she is not here. That is all.’
‘It is enough.’ Fidelma was irritated. ‘Did you by any chance mention that I had left some valuables with you while I was away?’
Brocc started nervously and a red glow suffused his thin cheeks.
‘My senior clerics did ask me where you had gone,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘I could not tell them, as I did not know. But they were all concerned that this matter be cleared up. I said that I thought you had evidence, that you left … well, I think I mentioned that … I said that Sister Grella was to be held until you returned and …’
He faltered under Fidelma’s angry gaze.
‘So, perhaps it would not take long for anyone to find the logical hiding place for these keys. You might just as well have issued instructions.’
‘What can I say?’ Brocc spread his hands as if to shield himself from the scorn in her voice. ‘I am truly sorry.’
‘No more sorry than I, Brocc,’ Fidelma snapped, moving for the door, angered at Brocc’s careless attitude which had led to the loss of her salient evidence. ‘But the loss of that material will not prevent me from discovering the culprit, only, perhaps, from proving their involvement.’
The first person she saw as she crossed the quadrangles to the hostel was the young Sister Necht. She looked startled as she caught sight of Fidelma.
‘I thought that you had left us,’ she greeted in her slow, husky voice.
Fidelma shook her head.
‘I cannot leave until my investigation is complete.’
‘I heard that you have ordered that Sister Grella be held.’
‘Sister Grella has disappeared.’
‘Yes. Everyone knows and believes that she has fled. Has anyone looked for her at Cuan D6ir, Salbach’s fortress?’ the novice suggested.
‘Why so?’ demanded Fidelma, startled.
‘Why?’ The sister rubbed her face and considered for a moment. ‘Because she has frequently visited there without telling anyone. She is a good friend to Salbach.’ Necht paused and smiled. ‘I know this because Sister Eisten told me.’
‘What did Eisten say?’
‘Oh, that Grella once invited her to Salbach’s fortress because Salbach was supposed to be interested in her orphanage. She told me that they seemed very good friends.’
Fidelma looked at the guileless eyes of the novice for a minute.
‘I understand that Midach is your anamchara, your soul-friend?’
Fidelma wondered why the question brought such a look of panic to the novice’s face. Yet it was gone in a trice. Sister Necht forced a nervous smile.