Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson [82]
"And so he did. After all, it was Grodoveth whose foot snapped the cord that sprung the trap that beheaded him, much the same way that he beheaded Dovo after he and Tobald heard the man bragging in the Bold Bard. The motive was what I stated last night, though the perpetrator was the one with the military training. Tobald would have made a botch of beheading.
"And Grodoveth's own beheading was less than clean. The axe came out of the wall before he had time to react and, well, you saw the results."
"Yes," I said, "and I saw other things, too, things that I didn't recognize at the time. The axe was chipped where it hit the stone floor after passing through Grodoveth's body, and the two gouges on the handle were from where it had lain in its holder all those centuries, the pressure of the spring cutting into the wood. And when the spring was released, it cut into the handle even more deeply, exposing the wood underneath." I shook my head, angry at myself. "I wondered at the time why Fastred's axe wasn't buried with him. I should have realized that it was, that it guarded his tomb. I should have seen it."
"Don't be too hard on yourself. You entered with presuppositions in mind. I was fortunate enough to enter seeing precisely what happened. I must confess that my curiosity got the better of me then, and I searched Grodoveth's garments. In them I found a vial of poison identical to the one I later found in Tobald's cloak while I was examining him. It seems the Iron Throne was taking no chances. Oh, I didn't need to analyze it, since blackweed has a very distinctive odor when found in such a concentrated dose. And when I found the Iron Throne sigil as well, it all fell together,"
"Grodoveth had a sigil, too?"
"Not too. Tobald didn't have one, at least not on him. As you recall, I stated only that the sigil was found with the vial of poison, and that was true."
I suddenly remembered another fancy bit of wordplay. "The same way you said you 'extracted' the poison, not from Tobald's blood but from his cloak. And when we learned that it was poison, and you said that you 'gave him something for it,' you meant you replaced it with the crystal."
"Precisely. Well done, Jasper. Camber Fosrick would be proud of you."
"But why didn't Tobald have a sigil if he was working with the Iron Throne?" I asked.
"Oh, I suspect he did, but Tobald was never as bold as Grodoveth, who logically never expected to be searched. I imagine the Purple Dragons will find a similar sigil among Tobald's possessions in his home, carefully hidden away somewhere."
I looked at our footprints on the floor, and the opening in the wall from which the axe had come flying out. "Then the footprints that I saw here of the heavy man were yours. But I don't understand why you hid the trap with clay."
"Because once I found incriminating evidence on Grodoveth's body," Benelaius said, "I immediately suspected that Tobald might be in league with him. They were, after all, inseparable when Grodoveth visited Ghars, and my assumption did prove correct. I suppose the plot to make it look like Tobald was solely responsible was forming itself in my brain even then."
"Then that was why you left the pills on the floor."
"The pills?" He looked up absentmindedly. "Oh, yes, even I lose things from time to time."
"Crushing them was a nice touch," I said with a smirk.
"Indeed. Too obvious otherwise. It was necessary, you see, that Tobald was believed to be the killer and no one else. After all, Grodoveth had already paid for his crimes with his life, and it would be a great disgrace to the throne were the king's cousin-by-marriage to be proven a traitor. But this way he can be remembered as a loyal servant of the king. It was necessary that Tobald, who was equally as great a traitor, and had every intention of destroying his own town in order to kill the merchants, pay for Grodoveth's crimes as well."
"But why was Tobald so anxious to have the killer found, particularly since the orders were instant death?"
"That was especially why he wanted him found. Tobald