"Which would make still more noise. Unless our lockkeeper is very hard of hearing or an unusually sound sleeper."

"Or he killed the man himself."

I studied the lockkeeper who stood silently outside the ring of men around the body. "Perhaps he did. Although I hardly think he'd hide the body in his own lock. Why not send him downstream? Or not bring him to the canal at all?"

"What should we do, sir?" Bartholomew gazed up at me, blue eyes gleaming with eagerness.

I had asked Bartholomew for help in two previous investigations, and he had obviously decided that he would help me again.

"I think we should have a care," I answered. "Someone near this place does not mind slicing throats."

Bartholomew looked startled, as though he'd not thought of that. "You say truth, sir. Where Mr. Denis is concerned, it's best to go carefully."

He followed me as I moved on, looking about. The Sudbury School rested on a rise of land above the canal. To the west and north, up the canal, lay the village of Sudbury. Trees lined the towpath, the narrow lane that the barge horses traversed with their guides. The canal widened as it curved to the east, shaded by cool trees, its banks shrouded in mist.

The pond that held the water for the lock lay on the west bank of the canal. I rode to it carefully, scanning the undergrowth for any disturbance. I found none. I likewise found nothing in the mud surrounding the pond, except tracks of deer and smaller creatures that had wandered here for a drink.

I suppose I wanted to find two distinct sets of footprints, the dead man's and the killer's, and broken bracken that designated a struggle. A fresh set of footprints leading back to the killer would have been most helpful as well.

A doctor had arrived by the time Bartholomew and I returned to the lock, looking rather nauseated as he stooped over the corpse. I wondered whether he was the sort of doctor who examined his patients from across the room, pronounced what was wrong with them without touching them, and then prescribed an expensive tonic and collected his fee.