Free Shroud for the Archbishop by Peter Tremayne

life.
    Fidelma’s eyes narrowed as she saw the traces of lesions around his neck.
    Cornelius saw her examination and moved forward with a grim smile.
    ‘As you see, sister, strangulation.’
    ‘Not by use of the hands, though.’
    Cornelius raised his eyebrows at Fidelma’s observation, doubtless surprised at her attention to the detail.

    ‘No, that is true. He was garrotted by his own prayer cord.’
    The religious wore knotted cords around their habits which doubled as a belt and as a guide for their prayers, each knot marking the number of prayers to be said daily.
    ‘The facial expression seems one of tranquillity, as if he were merely asleep,’ Fidelma said. ‘There seems little sign of his violent end to life.’
    The Alexandrian physician shrugged.
    ‘He was probably dead before he knew it. As I have said, it does not take long to achieve an unconscious state once the carotid arteries are compressed … here and here,’ he indicated on the neck. ‘You see,’ he began to warm to his theme as a teacher imparting knowledge to bright students, ‘it was the great physician Galen of Pergamum who identified these arteries and showed that they carried blood and not air as had been commonly supposed before. He named them carotid from the Greek word to stupefy, showing that a compression of these arteries produces stupor …’
    Brother Eadulf shot an amused glance at Fidelma.
    ‘I had heard,’ he intervened, ‘that Herophilus, who founded your own great school of medicine at Alexandria three centuries before the birth of the Christ, argued that blood not air passed through the arteries and that was four centuries before Galen.’
    Cornelius stared at the Saxon monk in some astonishment.
    ‘You know something of a physician’s lore, Saxon?’
    Eadulf grimaced disarmingly.
    ‘I studied for a few years at Tuaim Brecain, the premier school of medicine in Ireland.’
    ‘Ah,’ Cornelius nodded, satisfied with the explanation. ‘Then you may have a little knowledge. The great Herophilus
certainly did reach that conclusion, but it was left to Galen to clearly identify it as fact and name the function of the carotid arteries. Additionally, the jugulum , that which we call the collarbone, gives its name to several veins here. These convey blood from the head while the arteries send blood to the head. All were compressed in the case of Wighard. Death, I believe, was within seconds.’
    As he was speaking, Fidelma was examining the limbs and hands of the corpse, paying particular attention to the fingers and the nails. Finally she straightened.
    ‘Was there any sign of a struggle, Cornelius?’
    The physician shook his head.
    ‘How was the body lying?’
    ‘Face down on the bed, as I recall. Rather, the torso was on the bed while the lower legs were on the floor as if he had been kneeling by the side of the bed.’
    Fidelma exhaled gently in thought.
    ‘Then let us remove ourselves to Wighard’s chambers. It is essential I know the exact position of the body.’
    Furius Licinius interrupted by clearing his throat.
    ‘Shall I ask the decurion Marcus Narses to attend us, sister? It was he who found the body, as well as apprehended the murderer.’
    A brief expression of vexation crossed Fidelma’s features.
    ‘You mean, he apprehended Brother Ronan?’ she corrected softly. ‘Yes, by all means have this Marcus Narses meet us in Wighard’s chamber. Go and find him. Cornelius will conduct us to the chamber.’
    The physician stared a little resentfully at Fidelma’s assumption that he would obey her orders but he made no protest.
    ‘This way, then.’

    They left the mortuarium and crossed a small courtyard, following a maze of passages until they came out into a pleasant courtyard, dominated by a fountain. Cornelius led Fidelma and Eadulf across the yard and into a building of three storeys in height, ascending a marble staircase. This was clearly the domus hospitale of the Lateran Palace, the guest quarters