The Alchemist's Apprentice (26 page)

The Maestro spread his tiny hands in resignation. Perhaps only I, who knew him so well, guessed what was coming. “Nothing more, Your Excellency. I have demonstrated what I set out to demonstrate. Didn't you see who committed the murder?”

“There is no poison in this glass!” Orseolo snapped, turning it upside down. Then he realized that he had made a very stupid statement. “And I did not see how or when anybody could have put any there.”

“Because you rarely set it down,” the Maestro retorted. “Your father, examining books with a crippled hand, did not cherish it so closely. Alfeo, would you bring the others in, please?”

Turning, I almost walked into monolithic
Missier Grande
, who was standing right behind me, watching over my shoulder. But everyone else out there was listening too, so all I had to do was step aside and let them file past me. I beckoned Benzon and Pulaki to join us, since they also qualified as suspects. No one objected to their presence.

Missier Grande
closed the door and stood in front of it, arms folded. Imer and Benzon began pulling chairs closer to the table. The four nobleman finished up in front of the Maestro like children before a teacher, but the rest of us were content to sit back against the wall. I certainly was, because I found myself next to Violetta. By purest chance, of course. She ignored me, attentive to the odious Pasqual at her other side.

“You will forgive me,” the Maestro said with a hint of malice, “if I point out that everyone who was in this room that night had to be a suspect. For example, the person who had the best opportunity to poison the procurator's glass was his granddaughter, who never—”

“You dare suggest such a monstrous thing?” her father roared.

“No,” the Maestro said mildly. “I am not suggesting that she did so. I am merely arguing that, since nobody witnessed the terrible deed, we must set aside all preconceived ideas and proceed by a careful analysis of the evidence, regardless of where it may lead us. I am sure His Excellency the inquisitor, and attorney Imer, and
Missier Grande
…and the
vizio
…will all confirm that this is the only way to make out a case against anyone. I could quote the immortal Aristotle, universally recognized as the paradigm philosopher, and the polymath Roger Bacon…but I digress.”

He put his fingertips together and I braced for a lecture.

T
he means were obvious from the start,” the Maestro said. “Even before he left this house I knew that the procurator had ingested poison. I knew the name of that poison. There is no known antidote. Any physic other than time and rest would have been hazardous in a man of his age, so I recommended none. I knew from its effects that the drug had almost certainly been administered in this room, and madonna Bianca later confirmed to my apprentice that her grandfather had eaten nothing for some time beforehand.

“Most crimes have an obvious motive, but this one did not. The procurator had reached the pinnacle of his political career, his honored son now supervised the family business affairs, and most of his old enemies have long since preceded him to a better realm. The minister will understand that I speak in generalities when I note that family members are generally more likely to have motives for violence than strangers are, unless we include footpads and pirates, who are not in evidence in this case. I trust that Ambassador Tirali will take no offense at an observation that poison seems an extreme way to eliminate a rival bidder in a book sale.”

Vasco was whispering a translation to the Feathers. The Maestro paused to let him catch up.

“I am happy to learn,” Ambassador Tirali remarked, in a heavy-handed parody of the Maestro's style, “that my notoriously voracious acquisitive bibliophilic instincts are not suspected of leading me into mortal sin. As I told
sier
Alfeo yesterday, a political motive seems equally improbable. So why was Bertucci murdered?”

The Maestro was not about to spoil his own enjoyment by telling him that, not yet. “I could see no ready answer. Sir Bellamy and his wife are strangers, visiting our city to buy art, not to murder our national heroes. Our host here and the servants seem equally improbable killers. I was forced to wonder if the intended victim could have been someone else, such as our Most Serene Doge Pietro Moro. When the book dealer Karagounis was exposed as a Turkish agent, this explanation suddenly became worthy of serious consideration. The doge testified to Alfeo that he chose to drink retsina, which he rarely touches, simply because he knew the procurator would be here and would choose it. So an accidental switch of glasses must be considered.

“But consider the complications required! The doge should not have left the palace without his counselors. He should not have consorted with foreigners. He did so, he told Alfeo, because at the last minute he received a note from his old friend warning him that the books actually sold might not be those he had been shown.”

“I object!” The howl came from Ottone Imer.

Nostradamus dismissed his complaint with a wave of his hand. “I do not say that was the case, attorney. I merely report what the doge said, quoting a note from the deceased, who might, just possibly, have been deceived by a deliberately planted rumor. Or the note might have been forged. But the chances that this too-complicated trap would lure the doge here in person were extremely remote, and even if he did decide to come and see for himself, why go through all the legerdemain with poison and retsina—a wine the doge was very unlikely to choose anyway, so far as a man like Karagounis could know?”

“I told him,” Imer grumbled. “I told him no one would want it, but he insisted on bringing some.”

“Quite. As I was saying, to a Turkish agent the poison would be an unnecessary complication. An ambush in a dark doorway would be far more effective. So you see, Your Excellency—” now the Maestro carefully addressed the inquisitor “—although the official theory cannot be absolutely disproved, it requires a lot of unlikely suppositions.
Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate,
¹
as the saintly Brother William of Ockham taught us.”

Donà did not comment. He did not look very pleased, either, from what I could see of his face from where I was sitting. I glanced at Violetta, and she was smiling quietly at no one in particular. So she had seen the answer! I wondered whether she had applied Aspasia's sensitivity or Minerva's logic.

Having trashed the official government verdict, the Maestro pressed on. “
Vizio
, ask Sir Bellamy for me: When he and his lady visited Karagounis at his residence to view whatever books he had for sale, did he offer them wine?”

Translation…Bellamy nodded.

“Retsina?”

Hyacinth pulled a face and said what Vasco translated as, “The madonna says that whatever it was it tasted terrible.”

“You see,” the Maestro continued happily, “we assume that the poison could not have been concealed in the other wines—although this is not certain, because no authority I have consulted gives a recipe for isolating venom from the leaves and I have not had time to carry out my own experiments. But very few people have a taste for retsina. So the question becomes, who else was drinking retsina that night?”

“I tried it,” Pasqual said. “But I promise never to do so again. And while I have the floor, I will point out that I never stood next to Procurator Orseolo. There was always at least one person between him and me.”

“Oh, this is a stupid waste of time!” Minister Orseolo made as if to rise. “If you have an accusation to make, then make it now. Otherwise my children and I are leaving.”

“Two minutes more, if you please, Your Excellency. I think some of you know whom I am about to accuse?”

Violetta said, “Yes.”

Orseolo sat back again, glaring at her. Just about everyone else was frowning, except Bianca and Benedetto, who both looked horrified. There was a murderer in the room?

“Very well,” the Maestro said. “One more digression and I am done. The poison in question is not available for purchase in the city.
Sier
Alfeo established this for me the next day. That means that the murderer obtained it from the mainland or from even farther afield and the crime was planned long in advance. Unfortunately, this information is not as useful as one would like. Madonna Bianca, for example, would seem to have no opportunity to acquire the herb in question, even if some demented nun in the convent had taught her its properties. But her brother attends university in Padua. I assume he came home for Christmas and…No, I am not suggesting that the procurator's grandchildren conspired to murder him! I am just pointing out that the poison could have been acquired, given time, by almost anyone in this room. It tells us only that the motive was not a sudden impulse. Either the murderer planned the crime well in advance…” He paused, enjoying the attention like a child performing for family friends.

“Or?” Minister Orseolo demanded.

“Or the murderer is a professional killer, Excellency.” The Maestro stretched his lips in a smile. “Madonna Bianca, are you certain that no one put poison in your grandfather's glass?”

She was by far the youngest person in the room, reared in the shelter of the cloister, but she held her chin high and was not intimidated. “I did not say that, Doctor Nostradamus! I said I did not see it happen. But I was keeping an eye on his drink, in case he forgot it. I should have seen if anyone had tampered with it.”

“Except once. You noticed the doge leaving, because he walked out when the attorney and Sir Bellamy were having their shouting match. They made so much noise that a servant looked in to see what was going on. That was the only moment when everyone was distracted and the substitution would have been safe.”

I watched faces, as many as I could. I saw realization and even some nods. Imer was twitching again.

“So who,” the Maestro said, “would have known that there would be a convenient ruckus? Who could have obtained the poison somewhere outside the city and had it ready to tip into a glass or switch glasses? Not Feather himself. All eyes were on him. But his wife fits these requirements.”

Hyacinth snapped something at her husband.

“No!” Feather jumped to his feet and gabbled a tirade at Vasco.

The
vizio
translated. “Sir Bellamy denies that his wife did so and demands that the English ambassador be summoned.”

All eyes settled on State Inquisitor Donà in his splendid scarlet robes, presiding like a judge. He stroked his beard a few times. In his way, he was as much a showoff as the Maestro.

“Tell the foreigner to sit down while we hear more of this.”

The Maestro bowed his head in acknowledgment. “Your Excellency is kind. Of course there are questions I must answer. How did she know that retsina, or something equally pungent, would be on offer that evening? How did she know that the procurator would be present, how did she know he would choose the retsina if she had never met him? What possible reason can a visiting art dealer have to murder a senior officer of the Republic? And how did she and her husband come to gate-crash the party?”

“I did not invite them!” Imer shouted. His chair was against the wall at the far end from me, so I could not see him well. I could hear the panic in his voice easily enough. “And neither did Karagounis! I accused him of it. He denied it. He said they had come to his apartment and he had shown them some other documents. He had not told them about the auction and
did not
invite them to my house! I had told him that nobles would not come if there were foreigners present. I told
him
not to come, but he did.”

The Greek had not trusted his local hireling.

Vasco's whisper droned in translation. Both Feathers started shouting denials before he was even finished. He calmed them down and translated.

“Monseigneur Bellamy insists that this is not true. The Greek did tell them that they would be welcome. He invited them to come and dine, to view the books and bid on them, and to meet important people.”

The Maestro nodded. “But that invitation would have had to come through the interpreter, Domenico Chiari. What went in may not have been what came out. Today Alfeo exposed Chiari as a swindler. I trust, Your Excellency, that he was taken into custody and questioned about these events?”

Only the Maestro would have the audacity to cross-examine a state inquisitor. Donà stared very hard at him while the rest of us held our breath. Finally he said, “The man Chiari has confessed to art fraud and is currently naming his accomplices.”

I had sent him to the torture chamber. I said a hasty prayer for both of us.

“But,” Donà continued, “despite careful interrogation, he persists in denying knowledge of the murder. He claims he did not even know about the viewing planned for this house and could not have told the Feathers about it.”

The Maestro shrugged. “It is
sier
Bellamy's word against his.
Vizio
, pray ask the foreigner if he is truly married to—”

Bellamy did not wait for a translation, and his French improved dramatically. “No! I am her servant. We do not share beds. She paid me to pretend!” He jumped up and moved his chair well away from Hyacinth.

Hyacinth was not the sort to remain silent. She burst into an excited babble of French, English, and Latin.

When she paused for breath, a very unhappy-looking Vasco said, “I cannot remember all that, Your Excellency. But she denies using poison. She says she never met the procurator before and would not know him if she ever met him again. She came to Italy to buy art and she pays her secretary to masquerade as her husband because single ladies traveling alone may be molested. Domenico told her the book viewing was open to everyone. And she again asks to see the English ambassador.”

The inquisitor nodded, but I was certain that the Maestro's accusations had not surprised him. He or someone in the Council of Ten had worked it out. Two people working together are much more effective than one alone. I should have seen that for myself without having to have my nose rubbed in it, and now I could understand her clumsy efforts to flirt with me as a desperate effort to find any available ally to help her escape from the trap.

The inquisitor said, “You have brought serious charges against these persons, doctor. Can you also supply us with their motive?”

The Maestro looked offended. “Certainly.”

“Then will you—”

“Lies!” Hyacinth shouted, on her feet, towering over both her husband and even Vasco. “I demand the ambassador!” She had taken two quick strides towards the Maestro before Vasco grabbed her arm and stopped her. To my regret she did not flatten him on the floor with a single punch; did not even try, in fact. Realizing I was on my feet with my sword out, I sheathed it and sat down.

“Silence!” Donà said. “
Missier Grande
, have the foreigners taken to the palace and lodged in the Leads as witnesses in a case of murder. They may have one cell or two, as the woman chooses. You may tell them that their ambassador will be informed in due course.”

Missier Grande
opened the door and called in two
fanti
, large young men wearing swords. He nodded to Vasco. No one said a word. Even the Feathers seemed to be shocked into silence. They vanished out the door with the
vizio
and the guards.