Table of Contents
Murder! - Part 4
After an evening of constructive facilitation of the investigation the patrol meet up to discuss their remaining suspects. They decide to look at the people inside the Ministry of Internal Affairs first, because if they can rule them out they can enlist support to make their investigation official. It will need careful handling, so the first thing is to get Gregory close enough to decide whether or not they look enough like the person he saw leaving the murder scene.
Deacon Elvar
They go back to the personnel offices, on pretence of asking questions about their posting to the border, and look for Deacon Elvar. It doesn't take long for them to see him in the corridor. This is enough to rule him out because he's a completely different build to the murderer (slightly shorter and fatter).
Archbishop Hugh
The Archbishop is their senior commander, so they know where his office is, although he's several levels above them. So they speak to his private secretary and say that they've been told to collect some special delivery for Fort Albany. While there they discover that the Archbishop is out for the day at the seminary.
The patrol (minus Melody) goes to the seminary to see if they can listen to Archbishop Hugh speaking to the students. By luck there is a question and answer session in progress. The patrol get to join in and manage to ask a couple of questions. They decide that the Archbishop has the same accent as the murderer but is too small and slight in build.
Given this they hang back at the end of the session and approach the Archbishop to tell him the story and make their investigation official. Hugh is very co-operative and listens well. He gets the whole story from them and the list of suspects (although they don't mention that the boot print shows a modification). He asks the patrol to leave it with him and to report back to his office at midday for further order. Hugh suggests that they be ready to travel when they report back in.
Evening
Back at their accommodation they catch up with Melody. She had split off from them to investigate the Chief Priest, one of their other two remaining suspects. The other being Deacon Marius of the Templeton City Watch. Melody saw the Chief Priest and heard him speak to his private secretary. She believes that he can't be ruled out, he sounded exactly like the murderer and is also the same height and build.
Leaving Templeton
Having packed up for travelling the patrol return to Archbishop Hugh's office. He isn't there, but Deacon Marius is. There are a stack of sealed packets on the private secretary's desk. One for each of the patrol and another for the commander of Fort Albany. They are personally addressed and bear the words “NOT TO BE OPENED IN TEMPLETON” on the front and back of the envelope.
Marius smiles at them and tells them not to worry. He shows them the soles of his very old pair of boots, which are the standard pattern. The hob nails are practically worn flat into the leather. Marius tells them that they've found the owner of the boots, and by extension the murderer, so they need to get the patrol out of the city as soon as possible. He's going to escort them out of the city walls and over the horizon to make sure that they stay safe.