Matthew questions the layman who locked the church the night the friar was killed. He tells him that he did everything as usual, but Matthew is certain that he is lying. When he presses him, the man takes off, and Matthew chases him, surprised to find a path that was hidden. He reaches an area of the city where he has never been to and is clearly deprived. The man is nowhere to be seen, but then he sees a group of men who are obviously dangerous. So he finds himself at the mercy of these men who start beating him up, and then a woman tells him to stop. The woman later introduces herself as Janetta of Lincoln, and Matthew does not feel safe to trust her.
Another woman is killed. This time it is Frances de Belem, the woman who asked him for help to get rid of the baby she carried. Frances is found in the yard of Michaelhouse, and when Matthew runs to her, the only thing she says is that this was not done by a man, and then she dies. This is not the same as with the other women because Frances was not a prostitute, but maybe the killer didn't know. What Matthew does see is that she has the same mark on her foot than the other dead women. When Matthew goes to tell her father, the man says that he is certain that Frances had a lover, but he doesn't know who. De Belen asks Matthew and Michael to invesitgate the crime because he doesn't trust the sheriff, and even though Matthew thinks this is not a good idea, he can't turn him down.
Matthew is attacked again when one night he returns to Michaelhouse past the curfew. He climbs a wall and when he drops on the other side, he hears someone in the house. When he confronts the intruder, a much bigger man appears, but thankfully, Cynric appears and helps him. The men ran and then the door is set fire to. Matthew didn't see the two men's faces because they were wearing hoods. The next day Matthew checks the door, and he realises that it was set fire by an arrow, which means that there was a third person involved as the other two were inside.
Matthew and Michael think that they need to check how the furniture in Father Buckley's room disappeared as well as him. The most logical argument is that the tables and chairs must have been thrown through the window into the back garden, and they find signs that proves them right, and they also find some blood stains.
Matthew and Michael return to St Mary's Church to talk to the chancellor, but they have no information to give him. What the chancellor tells him is that the friar was seen in the church for three days, praying. He has also got the licence to unbury Nicholas the York, the man who wrote the history of the university. Since this book could be the key to the murder, Michael says that he wants to read the book, and the chancellor agrees as long as she is locked in with the book. While Michael is reading in the tower, Matthew decides to check the tower and the belfry, and when the bells are tolling, he sees that there is a bag from which a foot protrudes. With the help of Michael they manages to take the bag from its position, and they first think that the dead man in the bag is Brother Buckley, but when they call the chancellor, he identifies the man as Marius Froissart, who days ago claimed sanctuary after murdering his wife. The thing is that the man vanished after the first night, and the sheriff and his men have been trying to find him, but it seems that someone killed him. Matthew learns that there was a witness to the man killing his wife, and it is Jeanetta of Lincoln.
I am really curious to know if the crimes of the women and of the men in the church are connected somehow. Who killed the women and the men and why?
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