An Ensuing Evil and Others Read Online Free PDF Page B

and would trace them to my ownership. Why…”
    MacBeth, ignoring her, was also searching the room carefully. Finally he stood before her.
    “There are no jewels here, madam,” he observed heavily.
    “I do not understand it. He would not have given them to anyone else for safekeeping unless…” Her eyes widened as she stared at her husband.
    MacBeth turned to the brehon. “Do we not have another motive before us, Cothromanach? The assassin was not solely a murderer but a thief.”
    “It would appear so. Yet, let me remind you, noble lord, that the killer, thief or no, was still known to the prince. Why else would the killer be let into the chamber, why else would the prince have turned his back on the hand that then struck him down?”
    MacBeth bowed his head in thought. Then he smiled grimly. “I have an idea. Garban!”
    The servant came forward.
    “Are the gates still secured and my sentinels in place?”
    “Not even a mouse could have left this castle without them being aware of it, noble lord.”
    “Good. Then we shall search for Lady Gruoch’s jewels. I doubt whether our assassin has had time to dispose of them.”
    “Very well, noble lord. Where shall I start?”
    MacBeth looked through the opened door into the corridor. “We will start with Segan s chamber, it being nearest. Proceed, Garban. You, madam, will return to your chamber until I send for you.”
    MacBeth and Cothromanach followed the elderly steward into the servants bedchamber. As Garban entered, he seemed to stumble and reached out a hand to steady himself on the wall. He cut short an exclamation and brought his hand away. His fingertips were stained with blood.
    MacBeth asked Garban to bring a candle, which he did. There was a small patch of blood on the wall, at shoulder level.
    Garban began to make a diligent search, and it was not long before, examining beneath the bed, he emerged with a cry of triumph. He held out a small leather sack. They watched with fascination as he opened it and poured its contents on the bed. The muddle of jewels glittered and sparkled in the candlelight.
    “Are they the jewels that you gave to the Lady Gruoch?” demanded the brehon.
    “They are, indeed,” replied MacBeth with satisfaction. “Garban, fetch the servant Segan back here, but do not mention this discovery to him.”
    “I understand, noble lord,” Garban said with a grim smile.
    Cothromanach the brehon looked thoughtfully at MacBeth. “Did you expect to find the jewels here?”
    “As soon as I heard my wife’s explanation—yes. I began to understand how and why this foul deed was done.”
    “Explain your deduction, my lord.”
    “Not hard. This is what I believe happened: Maybe the prince Malcolm told his servant that he would be receiving the jewels from his sister. Maybe Segan saw the Lady Gruoch come to his master’s chamber and observed her entering with the sack. It was not politics that motivated Segan but greed. He waited until the castle was quiet and then he went to rouse his master by tapping at the door. Malcolm let him into the chamber, half-asleep. Seeing only Segan, a servant he trusted, he turned his back on him. That was when Segan struck. Two swift but fatal stabs in the back. He found the sack of jewels and took them back to his own bedchamber and hid them where we have now discovered them.”
    “How then did Segan receive his own injuries?”
    “Easy to tell. He had his story ready, that the murderer had stood behind the door and had given him a blow on the head which rendered him unconscious so that he could not recognize who it was. But this was the difficult part. Have you ever tried to give yourself a blow on the back of the head? Nevertheless, he needed some visual sign to show that he had been attacked. In fact, I might not have spotted the flaw in his story had not you realized it.”
    “That the injury was in the front?”
    “Exactly. He went to the wall and banged his head against it, causing the abrasion.