Enda looked up as they entered, and then he and Luan rose in the presence of their commander and Eadulf.
‘We’ve come to collect the prisoner,’ Gormán told them.
‘He’s in the storehouse at the back. We’ve kept his hands tethered, just in case.’
‘No guard outside the barn?’ Gormán asked in surprise.
Enda smiled complacently. ‘With hands tethered and a bar on the door, what need was there? Anyway, the prisoner doesn’t seem inclined to escape.’
Gormán nodded and motioned the warriors to reseat themselves and continue their game. ‘We’ll fetch him ourselves.’
He and Eadulf went around to the back of the building where there was a general storehouse, mainly used for storing weapons and equipment for the warriors. As they approached, Gormán came to an abrupt halt and swore. Eadulf glanced at him in surprise, for profanity was hardly ever used by the young warrior. Gormán pointed.
‘Enda may have left his prisoner with hands tethered, but he is so sure of himself that he didn’t bother to put the bar properly in place to secure the door. A slight push and it would swing open. Damn his eyes! He’ll be doing extra guard duty for that omission.’
Eadulf saw that the heavy wooden bar should have been swung across the double doors, making them impossible to move. Instead, only a fraction of the bar had spanned the division, as if it had been hurriedly slotted into place.
Gormán pushed it aside and swung open the doors. Inside the storehouse it was gloomy. They stood for a moment at the open doors and heard a soft rhythmic creaking sound, like someone swinging a heavy object on the end of a piece of rope.
Eadulf was peering into the shadows beyond. Then, as his eyes grew used to the darkness, he exclaimed, ‘Quod avertat Deus! Gormán, get a light in here.’
Eadulf stood waiting at the door while Gormán ran back to the Laochtech. It was a moment before he returned, bearing a lantern and followed by Enda and Luan, with the latter carrying a second lantern.
‘I tell you, the bar was pushed fully into position. It was completely secure,’ Enda was protesting.
They came to a halt at the entrance behind Eadulf. Gormán and Enda raised their lanterns.
A body was swinging gently from a rope tied to one of the rafters. The dead man’s feet were only a short distance from the ground, but far enough above it so that there could be no weight resting on it. The position of the rope around the neck, the odd angle of the head, was enough to show that he had been hanged. The body was that of Rudgal.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Eadulf moved quickly and called upon one of his companions to hold the weight of the body while he loosened the rope. Luan put down his lantern, then he and Enda did as requested while Eadulf took a knife to sever the rope. The body was lowered to the floor. Eadulf did not need to examine the corpse to see that Rudgal had choked to death, for the face was blackened and the features distorted. There was something else that caught his attention; something protruding from the corner of the corpse’s mouth. At first Eadulf thought it was his tongue, but when he carefully took it with thumb and forefinger and pulled, he found it was a piece of cloth.
Enda was peering at the corpse without emotion. ‘So he preferred death to the rule of law?’
Eadulf glanced up at him cynically. ‘So you think he hanged himself?’
Enda was puzzled at his response. ‘Isn’t it obvious? No wonder he was calm about being brought here as a prisoner. He knew he would never have to face the consequences of his actions.’
‘He was calm because he thought he could bargain for his freedom,’ Eadulf corrected.
‘I don’t understand.’ Enda was still baffled.
Eadulf stood up impatiently. ‘The facts are obvious. Look! His hands, as you saw earlier, are still bound together. So you leave a man tethered in this place and, as you claim, you have secured the doors properly.’
‘Doesn’t the fact that the bar was in place, even though it was not done as correctly as it should have been, indicate that no one else was involved in this?’ Gormán felt obliged to defend Enda.
‘Are you asking me to believe that a man who has confidence that he can negotiate his way out of this situation resorts to hanging himself? Are you suggesting that a man with hands securely tied can, in the darkness of this place, find a length of rope, fashion a noose, throw the rope over that high beam, place the noose round his neck, tie the other end to that bar across there and. . then what? Miraculously levitate himself so that the rope leaves him suspended in the air?’
‘If he had tied that end of the rope it would have been secured, then he could have found something to stand on, place the noose round his neck and taken the plunge that ended his life,’ Enda argued.
‘So, if that were possible — which it is not — where would he have taken the plunge from? Where is the stool on which to climb or a wooden box? Are you saying that after he had hanged himself, he climbed down and hid them? And he did all this with his hands still tied together?’ Eadulf tried to keep the derision out of his voice
‘What conclusion is there, friend Eadulf?’ Gormán asked patiently.
‘While we have been speaking with the King, someone came to this shed, removed the bar, stuffed that cloth into Rudgal’s mouth in the form of a gag, took the rope, put it in position and then hauled the victim up, choking him to death. The killer then secured the rope to the bar, and left the body. Perhaps he left in a hurry, for he did not properly secure the bar in its place at the door. Rudgal has been murdered — silenced to prevent him revealing the information with which he planned to barter for his freedom.’
Gormán was staring at him in amazement. ‘But that means. .’
‘Yes. It means that someone in the palace is the killer. That same person who killed Brother Cerdic has now killed Rudgal, which proves that there must be a connection.’
‘Well, we can eliminate some people from being suspected of the crime,’ Gormán suggested brightly.
‘Such as?’
‘Well, everyone who was in Colgú’s chamber. They are still there, waiting for us to take Rudgal before them.’
‘That still leaves a lot of suspects,’ Eadulf pointed out gloomily. ‘You had better take charge here while I inform Colgú. Question anyone who had business in and around the Laochtech while Rudgal was incarcerated. Someone might have seen or heard something that could lead us to the killer.’
‘I’ll do my best, friend Eadulf.’
Eadulf was not prepared for the reception that he received from Colgú’s Chief Brehon, Aillín, when he reported the death. Everyone had been shocked by the news, but Brehon Aillín stood forward aggressively.
‘I should now take over this matter, lord,’ he said stiffly. ‘This is the second murder in your palace within days, and both remain without a resolution. I would argue that this is because I have not been allowed to follow the obvious suspect. I should have been permitted to investigate the killing of Brother Cerdic in the first place. Had I done so, perhaps this second murder would have been prevented.’
Fidelma’s eyes narrowed dangerously; she already anticipated who the pugnacious Brehon would suggest as ‘the obvious suspect’.