[Roger the Chapman 05] - Eve of Saint Hyacinth by Kate Sedley Page B

care about the answer. He followed me inside, tripping noisily over his own two feet and giggling like an idiot as he did so. When he had picked himself up I pressed a hand on his shoulder.
    'Hold hard a bit, while our eyes get accustomed to the darkness.'
    He did as he was bid, standing docilely at my side until the gloom began to assume form and shape, revealing the beams overhead and what looked like a ladder for mounting to the second storey in one corner. A couple of barrels stood in the middle of the floor, while a bundle of some sort lay against the farthest wall.
    'Nothin' 'ere,' Philip whispered, the quiet of the empty warehouse beginning to affect him.
    I, too, felt that it would be desecration to raise my voice and whispered in return, 'Nevertheless I'll just look around and make sure.'
    I moved forward slowly, the musty smell of damp and disuse strong in my nostrils. Now and then I heard the scurry of a rat or a mouse as it ran for the safety of its hole.
    In the middle of the room I paused. Philip was right, there was nothing to be found down here and I was just considering whether, without a light, it would be wise to venture up the ladder when the sound of a groan lifted the hairs on the nape of my neck. I spun round and saw that the bundle against the wall was moving. In two strides I had reached it, ignoring Philip's startled cry of fear, and fallen on my knees. What I had thought to be some abandoned rubbish was in truth the body of a man, and of a man still living.
    But not for long. Even as, with trembling hands, I lifted him in my arms, he gave one last, gasping cry and his head lolled backwards. Thaddeus Morgan - for I had not the smallest doubt of his identity - was dead.
    I turned my head and looked up to see Philip, his hand over his mouth, the whites of his horrified eyes clearly visible in the gloom~ standing beside me. At the same time I realized that my right hand, which was pressed against Thaddeus Morgan's breast, was growing warm and sticky with what could only be blood. Whoever had killed him had stabbed him and I wondered if the murderer's weapon might still be lying around somewhere, although it was far more likely that he had taken it with him.
    'For God's sake come away!' Philip was urging. 'Leave the poor devil for the Watch to find. 'S none of our business. '
    'I think I know who he is,' I said. 'I want you to do something for me. Go back to the Three Tuns and look for those men who were sitting in the corner. If by some mischance they've already gone, search the surrounding streets in the direction of Baynard's Castle. Tell them Roger the chapman sent you and that it's urgent they come at once, but make no noise about it. If they show any reluctance, whisper- and I mean whisper - the name of Thaddeus Morgan.'
    Philip sniffed. 'I should've remembered you was mixed up in something fishy the last time we met,' he remarked bitterly. 'But I didn' suppose as 'ow you made an 'abit of it. All right! All right! I'll go. But 'ow c'n I be sure I got the right villains? I didn' mark 'em all that well, though I could see you was intrigued by 'em.'
    'They're not villains,' I said. 'One's about your own age, the second's a youth of seventeen or so and the third, well, you can't mistake him. His right arm's in a sling and his left foot is bandaged. He's using a crutch.'
    Philip, despite the fact that he was shaking with fright, gave a crack of laughter. 'A bit careless like, ain't 'e? Must be blind, too, I reck'n.'
    A moment later, he was gone. I laid down my burden, crossed the floor in his wake and pushed the door nearly shut, leaving myself only the merest crack of light. I wanted no one else attracted to the warehouse. In any case, my eyes were by now so used to the darkness that I was able to move about more or less at my ease. I returned to Thaddeus Morgan and my probing fingers immediately located the wound which had killed him. The knife had entered just below the heart and the fact that he had