Free The Seventh Trumpet by Peter Tremayne Page A

his office for a burial. We discovered a body …’
    ‘This man, Saer, told me about it,’ Brother Biasta said quickly. ‘I saw the body in the chapel while in search of my cousin, and there met the carpenter. The poor fellow has no identity, I am told?’
    ‘None at all,’ returned Fidelma.
    ‘That is sad. I hope you are able to give the corpse a name before you bury him. Now, may I go to see my cousin? Perhaps I can sober him up enough to get him back to his own bed.’
    Fidelma glanced at Fedach Glas and nodded. The tavern-keeper offered to take Brother Biasta to the cabin in which they had laid Brother Ailgesach.
    Grella served Saer with ale while Gormán and Enda joined them, leaving Fidelma and Eadulf together.
    ‘Well, what now?’ Eadulf prompted after Fidelma had been silent for a moment or two.
    ‘A difficult choice is to be made,’ she replied.
    ‘Do you think the two people who stayed with Brother Ailgesach last night have some connection with the murdered man? Why would they stay with Brother Ailgesach?’
    Fidelma turned to Saer and called him over.
    ‘I am told that you and Sétna, a woodsman, were at the chapel last night?’
    The carpenter looked surprised. ‘We were,’ he agreed. ‘Sétna helped me carry some roofing planks for the chapel.’
    ‘Did you see Brother Ailgesach’s visitors?’
    Saer’s face was blank. ‘Visitors?’
    Fidelma tried another tack. ‘You and Sétna took the wood to the chapel. Was it dark when you both left?’
    ‘I had to leave before dark. I left Sétna marking the planks for use.’
    ‘Ah,’ Fidelma let out a soft breath. ‘So Sétna remained behind. And what time did you go to work on the chapel roof today?’
    ‘I suppose it was after the sun reached its zenith. I had to do some work on my own cabin before I went to the chapel. In fact, I had barely arrived when you and your party came by, lady.’
    ‘So that makes sense,’ muttered Eadulf after she had thanked him for the information. ‘Brother Ailgesach’s two visitors had already left. So now we have to wait until Brother Ailgesach sobers up and tells us who they were.’
    ‘That is one choice,’ Fidelma agreed.
    Eadulf stared at her. ‘You propose to wait here until that time? Why, it will be tomorrow at least. It would be just as easy to set out after the two and follow them north, trying to overtake and question them.’
    Fidelma ignored the sarcasm in his tone. ‘That had occurred to me.’
    ‘Maybe they were simply relatives. Being religious does not exclude one from coming from a noble family. Mind you, that would mean they were also relatives this Brother Biasta.’
    ‘This is true,’ agreed Fidelma. ‘There is one thing that troubles me about Brother Biasta. How did we come to miss him on the highway?’
    Eadulf was unsure what she meant.
    ‘The chapel is within walking distance to the south,’ she said. ‘Do you agree?’ When Eadulf conceded the fact, she went on: ‘We rode our horses north up the highway until we came to the tavern – but saw no sign of this Brother Biasta, who says he came down from the north. We have not been in here long enough for him to pass by the tavern, reach the chapel, speak with Saer and then return here with him. He was not on the highway nor have any merchants’ carts passed.’
    Eadulf thought about the matter. ‘The logical conclusion is that he did not come down the highway but rode across country or came up from the south.’
    ‘Yet he said that he came from the north,’ Fidelma emphasised.
    ‘Then we will ask him to explain how that was possible when he comes back.’
    At that moment the door opened, but it was not Brother Biasta. It was Fedach Glas who returned by himself.
    ‘I pointed to the cabin and left Brother Biasta to make his own greetings with his cousin. Not that they will be able to have much of an intelligible exchange.’ The innkeeper went to the bar and poured himself a small beaker of ale and swallowed half of it in