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and prepared it, the items were removed. I have them in my chamber.’
    Fidelma controlled the disapproving response that came to her tongue. What was the point of her examination if vital evidence had been removed? She checked herself and said: ‘Be so good as to tell me where these items were placed on the corpse.’
    Abbess Draigen sniffed dangerously. She was obviously unused to being ordered to do anything, especially by a young religieuse.

    ‘Sister Síomha and Sister Brónach, who found the corpse, will be able to inform you of this matter.’
    ‘I will speak with them later,’ Fidelma replied patiently. ‘As of this moment, I would like to know where the items were found.’
    The abbess’s mouth tightened and then she relaxed a little yet her voice was stiff.
    ‘There was a copper crucifix, with a leather thong, poorly made, gripped in the right hand of the corpse. The thong was wrapped around the wrist.’
    ‘Did it seem to have been placed there?’
    ‘No; the fingers of the hand were clasped tightly around it. In fact, the sisters had to break the bones of two fingers to extract it.’
    Fidelma forced herself to examine the hand in order to verify it.
    ‘And apart from the breaking of the fingers, when the body was washed, was any particular attention given to the hands? Were they specifically manicured?’
    ‘I do not know. The body was washed and cleaned in accordance with custom.’
    ‘Can you speculate on the blue stain?’
    ‘Not I.’
    ‘And what was the other item which was found?’
    ‘There was a wooden wand inscribed in Ogham on the left arm,’ continued the abbess. ‘This was tied on to the forearm and more easily removed.’
    ‘Tied on? And you have this still? You have it together with the binding?’ pressed Fidelma.
    ‘Of course,’ replied the abbess.
    Fidelma stood back and surveyed the corpse.
    Now came the most distasteful part of the task.
    ‘I need help to turn the corpse over, Abbess Draigen,’ she said. ‘Would you assist me?’
    ‘Is it necessary?’ demanded the abbess.
    ‘It is. You may send for another sister, if you so wish.’

    The abbess shook her head. Sniffing at her piece of cloth to inhale the odour of lavender, before thrusting it into her sleeves, the abbess moved forward and helped Fidelma manipulate the corpse, firstly moving it on to its side and then over so that the back was exposed. The blemishes were immediately apparent. The marks of recent welts crisscrossed the white flesh as if this body had been scourged before death. In life, some of those abrasions had broken the skin and caused bleeding.
    Fidelma breathed in deeply and promptly regretted doing so for the stench of decay caused her to retch and cough, scrabbling for her lavender cloth.
    ‘Have you seen enough?’ demanded the abbess, coldly.
    Fidelma nodded between coughs.
    Together, they returned the corpse to its former position.
    ‘I presume that you now want to see the items found on the corpse?’ asked the abbess, as she conducted Fidelma from the cave into the main store room.
    ‘What I want first, mother abbess,’ Fidelma replied carefully, ‘is to wash.’
    Abbess Draigen’s lips thinned, almost in a malicious expression.
    ‘Naturally. Then come this way, sister. Our guests’ hostel has a bath-tub and it is the hour when our sisters usually bathe so the water will be heated.’
    Fidelma had already been shown the tech-óired, the guests’ hostel of the abbey, where she would be staying during the time she was with the community. It was a long, low wooden building divided into half a dozen rooms with a central room for a bathing chamber. Here there was a bronze container in which water was heated by a wood fire and then poured into a wooden dabach or bath-tub.
    The abbey apparently followed the general fashion of bathing in the five kingdoms. People usually had a full bath every evening, the fothrucud which took place after the evening meal, while first thing in the morning