by Rik Hunik
"Great. Can you hire one for me?"
Orfeo nodded. "What do you need?" He resumed eating.
I took out the piece of paper Zena had given me last night and put it on the table in front of him. "Find out everything you can about this company, and see if you can find anything unusual about Nahasa Furniture in the past few years."
Orfeo unfolded the paper with one hand and looked at it. "I know a couple of students I can hire to get right on it. When do you want it?"
"Tomorrow morning would be nice, but it's not really all that urgent. Just send me the bill."
Orfeo grinned. "You can count on that." After concentrating on eating for a while Orfeo took on a thoughtful expression and looked at me. "You know, if you were a law student you could get in to look at government records yourself and I'm pretty sure you'd find things."
I looked at him like he was crazy. "I don't want to be lawyer."
He suppressed a smile. "I know that. You don't need to be a lawyer, just a law student, and to be a law student you only have to be enrolled in one class." He leaned forward as much as his stomach would allow so I leaned closer. "And to be honest, you wouldn't even have to attend the class all the time."
"Well, I have to admit the idea has some merit, if not a great deal of appeal. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip."
# # #
After lunch I caught a cab to my mother's place.
"You're late for lunch again," she greeted me when I walked into her dining room, where her maid had directed me. "And there's no pie left today."
"That's too bad." I pulled out a wooden chair and sat down across the table from her. "I had an important meeting at lunch regarding your necklace."
"Wonderful." Her hand touched her chest, where the pendant would hang. "I want to wear it when I go out with Orfidius tonight."
I smiled when I thought about Orfidius's reaction to her wearing the necklace he had stolen from her. "I'm afraid that's not possible because I don't have it yet, and I can't get it back to you tonight."
"So why did you come here?"
"To tell you that before your necklace can be recovered you have to go to the police station right away to report it stolen, so a warrant can be issued. Then a team of police will go and get it."
"Is that all I have to do? Well let's go then."
So I accompanied her down to the police station and helped her fill out all the forms. While we were in the thick of that I saw Inspector Marco across the room. He caught my eye and nodded, and a few minutes later he showed up at the counter.
"What brings you in here today, Berk? Did you find another dead body?"
I cracked a hint of a smile and shook my head. "Not yet. I'm helping a client retrieve a piece of stolen property."
His eyes shifted to my mother and brightened, and his smile got wider. "And who is your lovely client?"
"My mother, Vera Halvorsen. Inspector Marco." He took her hand and she let him keep it just a bit too long, I thought. To keep her from flirting anymore I started telling him about her necklace, skipping a few parts and ending with where I had traced it to.
"The Lion of the Sea, you say?"
I nodded.
He rubbed his chin. "We've suspected her captain of smuggling for a few years now, but never managed to get anything on him. You're certain the necklace is in his cabin?"
I nodded again. "Unless he moved it, but I gave him no reason to suspect anything. Over the years I've developed an affinity for that necklace, so if it's anywhere on the ship I'll find it."
He relaxed and nodded. "That's good." He turned and spoke briefly to the officer processing our paperwork, then said to us, "Wait here." He disappeared into an office for a few minutes and came out to report, "It's all set up for tomorrow, right around this time. I'll deputize you for the afternoon so you can come along."
"That's great." Maybe Orfeo was right about my police contacts. "Thanks a lot, I'll see you then." He disappeared into the innards of the police station while my mother and I finished the paperwork.
Chapter 15
The afternoon was still young so I set out to find the Temple of Hermia. Orfeo could only tell me that it was somewhere in Old City a few blocks from Rome Street, but that left a fair bit of territory to cover. I slipped the ring on but it didn't help. Almina hadn't had it long enough and Aldwin had gone somewhere or done something so that my talent didn't work on him.
I started at the bench where Chad had received the package from the cloaked woman and headed east, assuming the priestess, if such she was, had been smart enough not to head straight home, and began asking people on the street about the Temple of Hermia. I got lots of blank faces and shrugged shoulders, and a few strange looks from people who apparently thought I shouldn't want to be going there. Finally a rather homely young woman in an expensive dress was kind enough to direct me to it.
Following her directions I walked north half a block, then turned west and there it was, fifty yards away, standing on a small rise across the street. A wide flight of white marble steps led up to the columned, rectangular porch attached to the square front part of the temple. The main part of the Temple Of Hermia was a taller, cylindrical building, faced with clean, white marble, and topped with a domed roof. A rectangular wing with a gently sloping, peaked roof of red clay tiles extended from each side. Walking around the block I discovered that the back was a walled courtyard, serviced by a locked gate of heavy timbers.
Returning to the street in front of the temple I found a public bench under a tree where I could lounge around inconspicuously while watching the entrance. Between the columns of the porch I could see a pair of heavy wooden doors that stood open.
Traffic on both sides of the street was steady but not too heavy, with a lot of people patronizing the nearby stores. Women in distinctive, shimmering white gowns, evidently priestesses, came and went from the temple.
A gray-haired woman, moving with stately poise in a gown far more elaborate than the others, caught my eye and I watched her get into a coach and ride away. Her familiarity kept nagging at me until I remembered seeing her in my vision as she accompanied the disguised Aldwin out of Gray's Roadhouse. If Aldwin wasn't in that Temple I was willing to bet the gray-haired woman knew something about what had happened to him, and she would be back.
I tried to get an impression from the ring but again it proved useless.
As I considered possible schemes for gaining entry another hour dragged by and the shade crept away from my bench until I was fully exposed to the sun. I got thirsty and my bladder began sending me a gentle but urgent message so I vacated my post to urinate in a nearby alley that smelled like I wasn't the first to do so, then resumed my surveillance from a different spot.
Traffic into the temple began to increase so I assumed some sort of service was due to begin soon. Most were women, of all ages, in the colorful garb of regular citizens. None of them looked poor and some appeared to be quite wealthy. Most of the women arrived alone or in small groups, but some were accompanied by a man, and there were even a few unattached men.
I crossed the street and strolled slowly down the sidewalk, timing my arrival so I could tag along with a group of men and women entering the temple. I found myself in a vestibule, cool and dim after the bright sunlight outside. I felt a subtle urge emanate from the ring so, without hesitating to think about it, I split from the group and went through a partially open door to my right.
I climbed a stone staircase that curved gently, along the outer wall, to the second floor. A curved passage led me to another door that let me into one of the wings. I touched the doorframe and got an impression of a constant flow of women in white gowns going back and forth through here. It could be the dormitory.
Two women came out of a room twenty feet in front of me, engrossed in a discussion of an obscure theological point. I stepped aside against the wall and they walked right past without giving me a second look. Apparently men were allowed up here.
I concent
rated on the ring and got the impression it had been hidden nearby, without being disturbed, for at least a couple of weeks. I went through the door and walked slowly down the corridor, trying to find the door where the ring made the deepest impression.
"Can I help you?"
I jumped guiltily. A woman in a white gown had approached me silently from behind. I slipped the ring off my finger and showed it to her. "I'm trying to return this ring but I'm not sure which room."
The woman examined the ring with narrowed eyes. "I saw that ring just the other day. You want Adeela, around the corner, second door on your right."
"Thank you." I watched her walk away, wondering if her appearance had been luck, coincidence, or some unusual aspect of my talent.
I went to the indicated door and knocked gently. It opened to reveal a pale, young woman who looked me over from head to foot with a disdainful glance, but it seemed to me that her eyes stuck for half a second too long on the ring I held in my hand. "May I help you?" Her voice was smooth, perfectly controlled.
For a couple of seconds I was unsure what to do. Even if this was the woman who had given the ring to Chad I still had to find out how she had come to possess it, and hope the trail led me to Aldwin. I opted to stir things up. "Are you Adeela?"
She nodded, her expression neutral.
"I understand you paid a kid to deliver a package for you last night."
She looked down at the ring and her eyes stuck to it longer this time, her face hardening slightly, becoming less than pretty, and that's when I remembered Chad mentioning the size of her nose, but it wasn't so prominent you'd notice it right away and she had a presence such that no man would be ashamed to walk down the street with her at his side. She allowed a tentative, "Yes."
"I'm afraid this ring has been identified as stolen," I lied. "If you can clarify how and where you got it, perhaps prosecution can be avoided." I smiled with my lips pressed together.
Anger flared in her eyes but it quickly died, except for a dangerous spark still lingering in their depths as she spread a smile across her face, tucking a lock of dark brown hair behind her ear, but it was too short to stay there, considerably shorter than the current fashion,. "Almina sent you didn't she?"
I returned her smile with a real one this time. "Yes, she did. How did you know?"
She opened the door wide and stepped aside. "Please come in and I'll tell you everything you need to know."
This is too easy, I thought as I cautiously entered the small chamber. The air felt pleasantly cool, but indirect daylight coming in through a small window in the far wall highlighted the youthful curves under the shimmering, pearly white gown and I felt a rush of warmth.
"Have a seat." Furniture consisted of a single bed on one side and a small wooden table with two chairs under the window. Adeela gestured to one.
I sat. This wasn't the way I had expected this interview to go but I wasn't complaining yet.
"Care for a drink of wine?" She was already getting a pair of glasses from a small cupboard beside the door.
"Please," I said, quite thirsty from my stakeout.
She set the glasses in the middle of the table, poured the wine, then gestured for me to help myself to a glass. I took the one on the left and sipped, finding it crisp and refreshing, an excellent vintage, though I couldn't identify it.
Adeela sat and sipped at her own wine, her sharp eyes watching me. I took a larger drink, then another, setting the nearly empty glass back on the table, but I found myself unsure how to proceed, so I picked up my glass of wine and finished it off. As I set the empty glass on the table a delicious warmth spread from my stomach and I felt my head expand slightly and the light got brighter.
Adeela sipped her wine and licked her lips and I felt a sudden, powerful desire to kiss those shiny red lips, to taste them, to feel them crushed against my own. I stared at her tongue as she licked her lips again, slowly, deliberately. Fascinated, I watched her lips move as she spoke, making every word distinct, "That ring was never stolen. Give it back to Almina. I want her to have it, that's why I sent it to her. Make sure she gets it."
"Yes, I will do that." It was easy to agree but my tongue felt thick and I had difficulty making words and it was hard to think too, but I knew I wanted Almina to have the ring. I tried to get up but my legs didn't cooperate.
"Don't go yet," Adeela said, rising to stand in front of me. "I haven't had my fun yet." Leaning down she planted a passionate kiss on my lips.
My desire for her flared out of control and I reached up to grab her around the waist to pull her close but my limbs were slow to respond and she slipped from my grasp. She stood back a few steps and her hands did something to her gown that made it slide down her youthful body in a most enticing way, revealing her breasts, erect nipples, a flat stomach, her pubic bush and her long legs as it gathered into a shimmering pile at her feet.
Maddened by lust and desire I launched myself at her but she grabbed my left arm, stepped aside, spun me around and pushed me. Totally disoriented, I fell, but only as far as the bed, landing flat on my back, and before I could move she jumped onto the bed, straddling me, her strong hips gripping my legs, her youthful breasts swaying in front of my face.
# # #
I reached up with both hands to grab my aching head. My stomach made ominous sounds, my mouth tasted like powdered shit and I was walking in the dark down an unknown street. Too much partying again, I thought. I better get back to the dormitory. I wonder who I was with; she sure wore me out.
After walking a couple of blocks the night air cleared my head somewhat and I remembered that I was in Agrippina, not Rome, and I wasn't a student anymore. I came to a cross street I recognized and soon I was on familiar ground. I had been going in the right direction and I was already halfway home. The exercise and fresh air revived me a bit more but my head still felt like it was full of mud and I felt drained.
When I got home I fell onto my bed fully clothed, pulled a blanket over myself and sank into slumber.
Chapter 16
The next morning I woke up ravenously hungry and downed a hearty breakfast twice my usual size. After I appeased my hunger I felt so tired I wanted to crawl back into bed but the sunlight shining through my front window at a steep angle indicated that it was only a couple of hours till noon.
I went down to my office, where a message had been dropped through the mail slot in my door. It was from Orfeo, requesting to see me first thing in the morning. It was too late for that but I headed out right away.
Because I was tired but in a hurry I grabbed a cab. During the ride I tried to reconstruct the previous night but the pieces kept slipping out of place. I clearly remembered drinking and dancing with a pretty woman, and I vaguely recalled something about a ship, the police, my mother, and a woman in a white dress, all together but disconnected, like in a dream, or distant memories from different times.
A receptionist ushered me into Orfeo's cramped little office. I sank onto a straight-backed, wooden chair beside a seven-foot high fig tree in a terra cotta pot jammed in the corner behind a bookshelf.
"Good morning, lazy bones," he greeted me. "What were you up to last night? I thought you had a couple of cases to work on. Or did you give up on them?"
I scratched my head, thinking hard, trying to keep up with his banter. "I must have been out drinking pretty late last night."
"Don't remember, hey? That's usually a bad sign. How's your head?"
I shrugged. "I'm a bit tired but my head feels fine. It's just my memory that's foggy."
"You do remember saying you would pay me, don't you?"
For a second or two I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but then it came back to me. We'd eaten lunch together yesterday. Orfeo's nudge had restored my memory of our meeting. "I told you to send me the bill. I didn't say I would pay it."
"If you don't pay I'll have to sue you."
We both laughed and then I asked, "What did you dig up for me?"
; Orfeo looked all over his desk, then started shuffling papers.
"By your left elbow," I said.
He looked there and found the sheets he wanted. "Here it is. Apparently the Good Fortune Company was nothing but a name and an office. They were listed as a consulting firm but there is no indication that anyone other than Nahasa Furniture ever consulted them, which is strange when you consider that the Good Fortune Company was owned by Aldwin Nahasa."
I raised an eyebrow and Orfeo continued.
"The interesting thing is that it was dissolved about three months ago, after all its assets were liquidated and drained off. It looks to me like Zena called it right. Aldwin evidently planned his disappearance as much as two years ago, when he started siphoning large amounts of cash out of his furniture company to set himself up wherever he went."
I nodded in agreement and approval. "Anything else?"
"A large chunk of Nahasa Furniture stock was sold last year. The Good Fortune Company handled the sale. Guess who bought it?"
My mind wasn't very sharp this morning so the silence stretched.
"None other than the son, Cal."
I frowned. "Does that make any sense?"
Orfeo shrugged. "They must have done it that way to keep the transaction from being too obvious. The paper trail is there to see, if you know where to look and do a bit of digging, but they didn't break any laws, so who is going to complain? Aldwin got a pile of cash that can't be traced past the Good Fortune Company and Cal gained control of the furniture company."
"That could all be true but it doesn't help me find Aldwin."
"There is one more thing." I looked at him without much hope. "We checked Aldwin's income tax file."
My eyebrows went up. "You can do that?"
Orfeo winked. "Only parts of it, and only if you're very careful."
"What did you find?"
He shuffled a different page to the top. "Over the past two years Aldwin made a lot of donations to religious institutions, most notably a series of substantial donations to the Temple Of Hermia."
