Four for a Boy

Chapter Seventeen

“I’ve had men executed for such incompetence!”

The City Prefect stamped back and forth in the corridor outside his office, too angry to stand still. His misshapen forehead was coated with droplets of sweat, the poisonous distillation of his rage.

“You’re telling me that you saw a man you personally identified as one of those murdering bastards and you allowed him to escape?” He came to a halt in front of Felix and stabbed a blunt finger at the excubitor’s chest. “Why didn’t the pair of you arrest him on the spot?”

“With respect, Prefect,” Felix answered in even tones, “we have not been given authority to arrest anyone. We could only have interrogated him.”

“A good excuse. You prize pair weren’t about to pursue a fellow the size you describe. Or was it a case of bribery?” When the Gourd’s big head swiveled toward John, the terrible asymmetry of his skull was obvious. Someone who didn’t know better might have said the man had suffered a horrific injury, one sure to prove fatal.

The Prefect wiped his dripping forehead with a rough shirtsleeve. “We’re not senators or courtiers. We don’t have time to lounge about and debate philosophy while the city burns. Take as many men as you need and arrest father and son immediately. We’ll have the truth out of them before the sun rises again.”

***

It was nearly dark by the time they had gathered the required force and tramped back to Viator’s warehouse.

“We’re lucky we escaped with our heads,” growled Felix. He was still clearly angry.

“Our heads are currently protected by both the emperor and Justinian,” John pointed out.

“What makes you think that would stop the Gourd? I knew I was in for trouble as soon as I found out I’d been yoked to a eunuch. When you’re in a fight you want a man to protect your back.”

“If you hadn’t been so stupid as to shout at the Blue and warn him off we would’ve had hold of him before he even noticed us!”

“Why didn’t you grab his cloak when you had the chance? Afraid to grapple with him, I suppose. We’ll be lucky to come out of this alive.” Now Felix sounded mournful.

“If we don’t cooperate better we certainly won’t.”

Felix grunted. He had realized the truth of what John said and had also noticed the smirks on the faces of those men near enough to overhear their heated argument.

A search of Viator’s warehouse revealed it was deserted.

“Not even a rat,” said Felix in disgust. “But that’s not surprising. If I were a rat I wouldn’t take up residence in this pile of rocks with all the granaries I could wish to live in so close to hand.”

A score of the Gourd’s men had been clattering up and down the narrow lanes between the stacked marble and stone shouting to one another for some time before an old man with a lantern in one hand and a staff in the other limped through the main doorway. His pointed chin reminded John of a rat, after Felix’s mention of that verminous creature.

“What are you doing here, grandfather?” Felix asked brusquely.

The man blinked and his features twitched. He shuffled a step forward, leaning heavily on his staff. “I am the night watchman, sir. I’ve just come on duty.”

“You?” Felix said.

“I am the only watchman Viator needs in the warehouse,” the old man said in an unperturbed but loud voice that led John to deduce he was probably half deaf as well as lame. “No thief is going to grab one of these pretty blocks of marble and run off with it under his cloak.”

“What if they show up with a cart?” Felix asked.

“There’s another man on watch for carts all night long. His perch is just in front of Viator’s house. Since the master’s dwelling overlooks this very warehouse, the master is able to keep half an eye on things himself most of the time as well. As you can see, everything is perfectly secure.”

***

They climbed the stairs down which they had chased Victor that afternoon, turned, and made their way along a stretch of street paralleling the seawall. Viator’s house was easy to pick out, even before they read the plaque beside its door. The boxlike structure was festooned with a variety of marble decorations. Columns, lintels, cornices, decorative panels, and bas-reliefs jostled each other on its bricks walls. The building resembled a warehouse in the middle of a magickal transformation into a temple or vice versa.

“No one’s home,” Felix concluded after pounding at the door for some time. “Not that I expected it. After our visit they probably found urgent business in the country.”

“Or another country.”

A flagstoned space boasting a fountain and several benches sat between Viator’s house and the seawall. The man who supposedly used this vantage point to keep a watch on the warehouse, whose tiled roof John could glimpse below, was nowhere in sight.

“The servants must have been told to make themselves scarce,” Felix remarked. “I suppose we’ll have to knock the door down, to be certain.”

“Perhaps one of the neighbors observed something,” John suggested. “In particular the fellow who’s been almost falling out his window ever since we got here.”

He pointed at the stolid and unadorned house next to Viator’s. At the gesture a shadowed outline visible in the illuminated window ducked out of sight.

“You have sharp eyes. Let’s hope we can get to him before he escapes too.”

Felix’s pessimism was unfounded. The observer suddenly emerged, and briskly greeted them.

“I am Theophylaktos, sirs. I happened to notice your fruitless pounding on my neighbor’s door. I would be most pleased to assist if I can.”

At closer range the man still had the look of a shadow cast by a guttering flame. He was bundled up in an overly bulky cloak and as he talked he continuously bobbed his head, first at Felix, then John, while rubbing his hands briskly together. His features never seemed entirely to emerge from shadow.

“We seek to interview Viator and his son,” Felix said grimly.

“Indeed?” Theophylaktos drifted to the edge of the seawall and looked down over it. John and Felix followed.

“This is much the same view as from my windows, sirs. This afternoon one of my servants was wasting time staring down at the docks. ‘What is so interesting that you’re neglecting your duties?’ I asked him. Then I saw Victor being chased into his father’s warehouse and thought to myself, ahah, that boy is in real trouble now. And so after you left I kept watch just to see what happened next.”

“I can understand your curiosity,” Felix remarked.

“We get all sorts of ne’er-do-wells around here, being right next to the docks,” their informant replied. “It’s a good location for me, though, since I’m a ship owner. My vessel casts off for Egypt at dawn tomorrow. May the Lord send good weather.”

“Your cargo on that particular ship wouldn’t happen to include Viator and his son would it?”

The question sent Theophylaktos into a frenzy of hand wringing. “Certainly not,” he said faintly.

“Do you have any information concerning the two men we’re seeking?” John put in.

“I was getting to that. I apologize for rambling. Wasting your time, I know, sirs. That won’t do. Time is short whenever official business is concerned. Even the candles burn faster. Yes, Viator and I are good friends.”

“Have you seen either of them since late this afternoon?”

“Oh, yes! Indeed I have. That’s what I was going to tell you. I happened to be looking out of my window at the very instant they came out of their house. They were carrying a couple of small bags. It was so soon after you departed, I’m surprised they didn’t trip over your boot heels.”

“They could have been going to buy something at the market,” Felix suggested artfully.

“But what are servants for if not to go to the market? No, I believe they were going off on a trip. They were definitely dressed for travel.”

“In addition to being observant, you are a man of logic,” Felix said. “I couldn’t argue with your reasoning, even if it were possible for me get a word in.”

“Viator would not agree, I fear. He had no faith at all in anything I said, despite my own modest success in business. For example, I tried to warn him when he showed me a contract some while ago. It was with a senator, but I noticed it wasn’t properly signed. I told him I thought this might raise problems later. He wouldn’t listen. Said it was a favor for a friend. Then just as I predicted, an argument arose about the quality of the goods he supplied. The last I heard there was talk about a law suit.”

John and Felix exchanged glances as the garrulous ship owner rattled on. “Now, I happen to know Viator is in financial straits right now. Taxes, for one thing. Then there was that shipment of marble that sank only last month. Some said it was no accident, yet how can a storm be conjured up at will? Then, too, he was worried about his son running wild. Very sad.”

As Theophylaktos spoke his gaze wandered, from John to Felix, then to the warehouse below, from it to his ship. Even once or twice up toward the night sky.

“You say you’re a friend of Viator’s?” Felix asked

“Yes, and friends watch out for their friends. Especially given the current state of affairs. This reminds me, Viator told me he thought he was being followed around. I advised him that there are always hordes of people surging about the docks. He was uneasy. I think Hypatius’ death was very much on his mind.”

“Did he know Hypatius?” John asked with interest.

Theophylaktos rubbed his hands together so vigorously John could hear the palms rasp against each other. It reminded him of the rustling of dry leaves blown down a lane as summer died.

“Indeed he did! That was another example of his lack of business acumen. Hypatius was a very good friend of his. Or was, until he cheated Viator out of a great deal of money even though Hypatius knew Viator’s finances were stretched. I’m not certain of the details. Now I suppose it will never be resolved.”

He drew a breath and looked back toward his house, down at the roof of the warehouse, and then finally at John and Felix.

“So I suppose it was natural he got it into his head that he was suspected of Hypatius’ murder. When you arrived this afternoon, well, you can see he would prefer to make himself scarce. That explains why his son has disappeared too. In the circumstances, you wouldn’t want to leave any of your family behind either.”

It was with some difficulty that John and Felix managed to separate themselves from the verbal clutches of the excessively helpful ship owner. The men recruited to apprehend the vanished fugitives lounged on the other side of the street, their impatience poorly concealed.

“I’m afraid Viator’s neighbor is confused. It’s the son who’s suspected of murder, not the father,” Felix remarked to John in an undertone.

“Unless Viator incited his son to do it. If the son really is the culprit.”

“Either way, unfortunately, we have to return to the Gourd with empty hands.”

“I must say I am not looking forward to that.”

Felix laughed mirthlessly. “Then I suggest that you contemplate instead the wine which we will doubtless require to revive ourselves immediately afterward.”