Medicus

11

Stand easy, doctor." The second spear settled into his seat, rested muscular arms on a desk that seemed too small for him, and gave Ruso the kind of look that said nonsense would not be tolerated.

Ruso decided he did not envy Valens the challenge of persuading this man to hand over his daughter in marriage.

"We've had a complaint," continued the second spear. "About a body."

"Sir?"

"A girl from a bar."

"Yes, sir. Merula's."

"You took it in?"

"Yes, sir. Nobody knew who she was at the time."

The second spear nodded. "Probably just as well. It might have been somebody's wife. Most of us keep our women well guarded, but you always get the odd one who thinks she knows better. So, then what happened to it?"

Ruso explained. His pauses were punctuated by grunts of assent from across the desk, followed by, "Right. So who cut the hair off?"

"I don't know, sir. It was like that when she was brought in."

"And you didn't think to warn the owner?"

"No, sir."

"Well, they're not happy. They got a bit of a shock when they saw it and they want to know if we did it."

"Absolutely not, sir. You can check with the gate guards. She was found by a couple of fishermen. You could ask them."

The second spear shook his head. "Doesn't matter. As long as we can't be blamed for it. I'll send someone over to calm them down. And tell them to forget any ideas about compensation."

"Thank you, sir. Any luck finding the culprit yet?"

"No. Don't expect we ever will. We'll keep an eye open, but I doubt much will turn up. No witnesses, of course. It's the usual story: These people are quick enough to complain, but blind, deaf, and dumb when you start asking questions. Turns out the girl was offered protection and chose not to take it."

"She might not have understood the dangers, sir. She'd only been here ten days." It was about the same length of time that Ruso had been here himself.

"Hmph. Not what you'd call bright, these locals. Did she think they'd got two of our lads down there on security for fun?"

Ruso said nothing.

"This will knock a bit of sense into the rest of them," the second spear went on. "At least for a month or two. Bloody nuisance, all of them. Haven't been here long, have you?"

"No, sir."

"In a civilized country-even in parts of Britannia-we'd leave the town council or tribal elders or what-have-you to sort this kind of thing out. 'Round here, just because they're living on army land, they expect us to wipe their backsides for them. If it was up to me, I'd have a curfew and flog anything that moves after dark. Still, we should have a bit of peace and quiet for a while. You won't find many women hanging around the streets tonight."

"No, sir," agreed Ruso, who had not planned to look for any.

The second spear leaned back in his chair and folded his arms."When I was up with the Ninth," he said, "one of the medics took in a body. Thought he was being helpful. The natives got the idea he was cutting it up for anatomy lessons. Caused a riot. Ended up with a whole lot more bodies, three of them ours. My advice, Doctor, is not to get involved with the locals if you can help it."

"Yes sir," said Ruso, glad the second spear did not know who was in Room Twelve.