"You pay him enough to spend ten ducats for amethyst buttons on a single doublet?" Even if the lady had the disposition of a badger, she could not be worth that much.
Bernardo scowled, eyes glittering. "She has recently indulged him by letting him collect some of her rents, and I am of a mind to have my bookkeepers review her ledgers to see how much of that money may have inadvertently gone astray, but I do not see how that can possibly concern you. Now, if you have no further questions-"
I flashed my best mountebank-apprentice smile. "Oh, but I do! Two of them. I should prefer to put them to you in private, though."
Furiously red to the tips of his ears, Jacopo marched across to the door and this time he did slam it behind him.
"I am informed," I said, "that the Ten sent a fante to ask you some questions just after I left on Saturday. Will you tell me briefly what they wanted to know?"
I expected the big man to refuse. He swelled even larger, but then he shrugged. "Questions much like yours. Had I heard from Zorzi? Did I know where he was? I told them I had assumed for years that his head had been turned in for the bounty money so the Ten should know the answers better than I did."
"Had assumed? You don't now?"
"What are you after?"
"I'm curious to know why the Ten feel the need to ask. That was all they wanted-to rehash the old inquiry?"
"They asked much the same rubbish you've been asking-where I was when Father was murdered. Where Domenico was."
I raised an eyebrow. Mine might not be as bushy as his, but they are trained to be expressive. "So the Council doesn't trust its own records? Or it thinks the case needs revisiting? How interesting! Thank you. The second question. You had a family meeting yesterday. Why was your mother not present?"
Bernardo reared up on his feet. "This is intolerable! I have been more than patient with you and shall not stand for any more of this insolence. Get out! Remove your impudent, upstart San Barnaba carcase before I have it thrown out."
I bowed, backed to the door, and bowed again as if he were the doge himself. I thought I knew who had killed his father and so did he. It had not been Zorzi.
23
The moment I closed the door behind me, Jacopo grabbed my shoulder in a crushing grip, spun me around, and slammed me back against the wall. I had not been mistaken in estimating his strength. His eyes blazed; his face was scarlet with fury. He thrust it close to mine.
"Bernardo is a lying turd!" he roared. "Alina pays me nothing and I do not wait on her! She hates me because I'm living evidence of her husband's lechery. She treats me like mud, as you saw, and wouldn't give me a stale crust if I were starving. My money comes from a share in the family fortune."
I had hold of my dagger by then, and silently raised it so the point was in the gap between our two noses. Realizing that I could have put it elsewhere and still could, he released me and backed off.
"I understood that only sons born in wedlock could share in a fraterna," I said quietly. Was I actually going to hear a true story in the Palazzo Michiel?
"It's only a very small share compared to theirs. They voted me in. There's nothing to stop them doing that."
"Why should they? You said they were planning to throw you out last December."
Jacopo pouted like a sulky child. "I said that because by then you'd spotted that I was one of Gentile's by-blows. We try… My brothers prefer to keep our relationship a secret. Officially I'm just Jacopo Fauro, Domenico's secretary."
That excuse made no sense, but by then he must have been hopelessly entangled in the conflicting falsehoods he had told me.
"Why should they be so generous? Just brotherly love?"
He turned and started walking, forcing me to follow if I wanted to hear his reply.
"You heard Domenico ask my advice. I help him! I have an eye for design. When he hears of a property that may be available, I go and make the first inspection. He almost always accepts my judgment now. I help conduct buyers around. He needs someone he can trust not to accept bribes."
I thought I wouldn't trust Jacopo to put a soldo in the poor box for me. He stayed quiet until we were descending the great staircase.
"Dom likes me to dress up," he said. "It impresses the customers."
"And girls?"
"No. I wear rags when I go prowling. They charge too much if I dress fancy." He said that seriously. It might even be true.
When we reached the outer door he opened it for me and closed it without another word. It was a fine winter afternoon and I enjoyed my walk home across the city.
I found the Maestro in his favorite chair by the fireplace, opposite a lady dressed in the style and quality that indicate the wife of a successful merchant or member of a learned profession-doctor, apothecary, lawyer. At first glance I assumed we had a new client, probably wanting a horoscope or other foretelling. To my astonishment, I realized that she was Violetta, woman of infinite variety. She was smiling and he seemed to be in a fairly good mood, although it is always hard to tell with him.
"You look disgustingly smug, apprentice," he said. "You have discovered who is murdering courtesans?"
"No," I admitted. "I know why they are being killed, though. And I know that Zorzi Michiel did not kill his father."
Nostradamus cautiously eased himself farther back in his chair. "Then you had better tell us that before madonna Violetta leaves. Bring a chair."
I fetched one of the pair that stand beside the armillary sphere. Normally it is the Maestro who reveals the solution to the mystery, so I was eager to get my chance this time, especially with my darling present.
"Gentile Michiel was killed with a khanjar dagger, which they still keep on display, and which was freely available to anyone in the house. Contrariwise, any outsider would have had much trouble getting hold of it, and no servant would have been admitted to the Basilica that night. In short, that weapon trumpeted to the heavens that the killer was a member of the family.
"Jacopo was only a child then. Bernardo and Domenico had fair but not unassailable alibis. Zorzi refused to give one. I don't know about Friar Fedele, but he has renounced the world and the flesh, so what motive could he possibly have? The same goes for the daughter, Sister Lucretzia.
"But donna Alina was frantic that her favorite child was about to be dispossessed. She lived a very secluded life, kept in purdah by a tyrannical, puritanical husband, so-unlike her sons-had no opportunity to go out and buy some nondescript, anonymous weapon. Ergo, she was the one who took the dagger. She need prepare no alibi, because she was entitled to be present. She is right-handed. No man, tall or otherwise, pushed her aside-she made that up. She carried the sheathed dagger in her left hand, perhaps hidden in her sleeve or a muff. In the crowded darkness, she drew it with her right, threw herself at her husband, and stabbed him in the back. They fell together and she screamed that she had been pushed."
The Maestro did not seem surprised, but I never expect him to. "Why did the Council of Ten not see this?" he murmured. "Are you really so much smarter than they are?"
"On average, yes," I admitted. "I expect they were hampered at first because the idea of a lady, a noblewoman, committing such a crime is almost unthinkable. Gentile's sons were unlikely enough, but his wife defied belief. No doubt the inquisitors would have worked their way around to the idea if they had been given time, but at first they did not even think to ask if any of the family recognized the weapon. Eventually young Jacopo blurted out in front of witnesses that the khanjar was missing from its display case."
"Who told you that?"
"He did. But even before that happened, donna Alina's children must have known who was guilty. The lady is undoubtedly crazy by most standards, but her sons decided to protect her, which tells you what sort of a husband she must have had. Domenico himself told me, 'Run from hounds and they will chase you.' Zorzi was chosen to be the goat. I expect he was bribed with a substantial pension, enough to buy all the courtesans he can handle, wherever he is. Lechery was his only interest in life and it is available anywhere for a price. He probably dropped a confession in the Lion's Mouth on his way out."