12
“Stupid!? What are you suggesting, Mister Bulbus?”
“Mister Sulcus! Do what Father Gwenn suggested, and look at Claire! That woman on that cross over there is guilty as hell! But not in the way we always have thought!”
“Another theory, Mister Bulbus? Another suspect?”
“Tell me, Mister Sulcus! Who among these crucified behaves the most accepting?”
“No doubt, Claire and our tax collector Loxuru!”
“Right, Mister Sulcus! And for a reason! Because they ARE guilty of the murder!”
“Explain me, Mister Bulbus!”
“Mister Sulcus, do you think, either Claire or Loxuru would deliberately charge someone with a spade, or a fork!?”
“We have gone through that question almost a hundred times already, Mister Bulbus, and we both agreed, that the possibility would be very low! They are not that kind of people! Have you changed your mind about it,..?”
“No, Mister Sulcus, absolutely not! Claire would not make her hands dirty on it! But she would have paid for it!”
“Do you mean, a contract murder, Mister Bulbus?”
“Indeed, Mister Sulcus! Claire did not commit a murder! My hypothesis is now : she paid for one!”
“But who.. and why..?”
“The first question, Mister Sulcus, I will park for a moment! Contract murder, is, as we know, a business, an international business, and most likely, the contractors are now far away beyond the border of the Empire! Samaria, Ruthenia, Lechia, Borussia, to name a few! I hope, at last, since I would feel very uncomfortable if they would have been locals who still reside in the neighbourhood! The answer on the second question is hidden on the High Plains!”
“Explain yourself, Mister Bulbus!”
“As you recall, Mister Sulcus, I have gone through Claire’s tax file, with Livia Metella. There was that remarkable financial transaction, she had filed as expenses, for restitution! Metella already mentioned it, the day of Claire’s flogging! The suspicious thing about it was, that Loxuru had claimed for himself an allowance of twenty-five percent. That’s a big fee! Tax consultants claim, besides a fix renumeration, either a fixed amount on the retributions, or a percentage, which amounts five, and sometimes ten percent on the restitution, in the latter case, usually with a ‘no cure, no pay’ clause. Twenty-five percent, that’s really high!”
“How did Claire explain it?”
“According to Claire, it was an investment in the farm at the High Plains! The fee for Loxuru was so high, she said, because it was by all means a risky investment! Remember!?”
“Indeed! And..?”
“One, Mister Sulcus, there was no trace of the investment in the accountancy of the farm, - not unusual, the code of silence, you know! But secondly, why would she do a high risk investment in a farm she had intended to withdraw her share?”
“Are you suggesting, Mister Bulbus, that it was the murder contractor’s fee, she tried to deduct from her taxes? Nice try, ordering a hit and have the cost paid back by the tax payer!”
“Sure, Mister Sulcus, and our tax consultant Loxuru must at least have been aware for what the expended money had been intended, so he charged an extra fee, for trying to book it as a legal and deductible expense!”
“And what was in for Claire?”
“Acquiring the whole farm, Mister Sulcus! Of course, the daughter and son in law were still in the way, but she hoped that the dissatisfaction of the parents about their marriage would be a sufficient motive for murder. In Claire’s plan, the daughter and son in law would have been crucified here and now, instead of her!”
“Why moving he bodies, Mister Bulbus?”
“Finding the bodies was essential for more than one reason! Maybe, the murder contractors had hidden them too efficiently, I suppose? We have searched lots of places, but ignored the soil and the dung heap! No corpus delictii, meant that the heritage would be blocked, since he owners were missing, so no benefit for Claire? Who moved them? Well, remember what Father Gwenn just said about ‘an execution’! The victims must have trusted their assassins! Would you, as an assassin, enter a farmstead and search for a spade and a fork? Would you, on the other hand, when people would show up at your door, carrying a spade and a fork, just say : ‘Welcome, come in!’? Very implausible, isn’t it, Mister Sulcus?”
“What are you up to, Mister Bulbus?”
“The other crucial remark Father Gwenn made : where did the murder happen!? We have always assumed that it was on the victim’s farmstead, right? I am now convinced it was not! They have been lured somewhere by their assassins, who had their weapons prepared and ready! The victims have gone there without suspicion, to people they fully trusted! Nearby residents, probably! That explains another need to move the bodies! It would have been risky for the assassins to keep them on their own farmstead, obviously! for instance! And secondly, because they needed to be found, in the financial interest of the person who ordered the execution : Claire Brogilaigh, and obviously, the bodies had to be found on their own farmstead!”
“But who…”
“Don’t know, Mister Sulcus! Another local farmer from the High Plains, perhaps? Code of Silence! Meanwhile, all forensic evidence has likely vanished, to start with the victim’s bodies who have been cremated since.”
“But, Mister Bulbus! Claire should have known that finding the bodies would have meant, our first suspects, - those she had wanted to be blamed for it could have been released!”
“I think, Mister Sulcus, that was the flaw in her plan. Maybe, she expected us to keep pushing on them, or she had expected we would have searched the farmstead more meticulously from the beginning of our inquiry, and that we should have looked immediately under the dung heap! And also, the coming of Livia Metella forced Claire to focus on her tax issues, and she could no longer stick to the murder case.’
“As I understand, Mister Bulbus, if you are right, then Claire did not even lie when she said that the money for the hit, she wanted to deduct from her taxes, was a risky investment!”
“That’s indeed one way to see it Mister Sulcus! But with a twenty-five percent fee, Loxuru could go to dine with Corentus Bhoghall, split the fee in half with him, to accept it as a tax-deductable expense, and everybody would have been happy, had Livia Metella not played spoilsport! ”
“And what now, Mister Bulbus!? Where are you going..!?”
“To Claire!”
“Calm down, Mister Bulbus! The case is considered closed, remember!?”
“I want to know, Mister Sulcus! I said I was convinced for ninety-five percent of her guilt! I want it to be for the full hundred percent! Hey! Guard! Police! Will you please move those onlookers away!?”
“Yes Sir! Come you people! Move back! Police order!”
“But, Mister Bulbus! Octavianus will never allow us to reopen the investigation!”
“Mister Sulcus! Didn’t we recently discuss about becoming too bureaucratical? You are well underway! Like Father Gwenn just remarked : can we feel assured, when a spade-slasher and a fork-stabber live around, and are capable of butchering innocent people, just for pay!? I want to know who did it!”
“In the High Plains!? You will never find your suspect!?”
“Why not, Mister Sulcus?”
“Politics, live and let live, code of silence….”
“Just one minute, Mister Sulcus! I don’t know about you, but I want to come home and watch myself in the mirror without becoming disgusted!”
As the site around Claire’s cross was cleared, Inspector Bulbus got himself an executioner’s ladder and put it against the cross!
“Careful, Mister Bulbus, don’t fall!?”
“I am just climbing a ladder, Mister Sulcus!”
“I am not sure, Mister Bulbus, that our job insurance covers climbing on a cross!”
“Overruled, Mister Sulcus! Bureaucratic thinking!”
Detective Bulbus climbed the ladder, until he was at eye level with Claire.
Claire looked at him with wondering eyes. Bulbus had witnessed many crucifixions, but rarely had he seen a condemned from so close, after nearly two hours of hanging.
Claire looked exhausted. Her head was bent to her right, facing him. Her hair, she had been allowed to tidy, in the morning before her walk to the cross, looked ruined and was stiff of sweat. Her face had apparently aged ten years in two hours’ time, carved as it was with wrinkles. Over all her body stuck sweat and dirt, at many places, particularly on her arms of course, mixed with dried blood. Just a small trickle flew, dripping from under the nails through her wrists. Her body smelled, and insects had found their way to it. She breathed deeply, with a moaning sound.
A shiver went through Claire’s body, when Inspector Bulbus placed his hand inside her tight and softly rubbed it.
“How are you doing, Claire!?”
“Pain..! Tired…! Thirst…!” she said with a soft, heavy voice.
“Shall I bring you something to drink? Remember, it lengthens your suffering!”
“Drink..! Please…!”
“All right, Claire,” Detective Bulbus continued, while still softly rubbing her thighs, “but could you first be a good girl, and help me with something?”
As a reply, Claire started softly nodding her head.
“Listen, Claire! We know what happened in Maurandiacum! You have contracted a murderer, didn’t you? It was the fee for that crime, you tried to deduct from your taxes at a twenty five percent rate for Loxuru, there, right? That was that transaction about, isn’t it? Just tell me who murdered your sister and her husband, and where!?”
Claire kept nodding, without saying a word. Inspector Bulbus could not discern whether she actually confirmed his allegations or not. As, from the corner of his left eye, Bulbus felt a look falling on him, he turned his head briefly to the crucified Loxuru. Bulbus saw him watch he scene, and despite the exhaustion in his face too, it was clear, he looked obviously aware of what his conversation with Claire was about, and that he clearly was trying to extract a confession from her.
(to be continued)