An Elegant Solution(46)

It was then that I noticed for the first time that Master Desiderius was also an observer among the townspeople, beneath a mural of Ephialtes of Trachis bowing to Xerxes. Desiderius had always seemed to me more interested in past or distant than in present, yet he was very alert to the proceedings, and to the expressions and glances of all the actors.

Gottlieb pronounced, “I first summon Gustavus, who keeps the Boot and Thorn.”

The man stood and came to the center of the room where he settled, feet apart, arms crossed, and beard bristling, just as he would in his own kitchen, and a whiff of his fires was with him. “I am Gustavus.”

“Gustavus employed Knipper, he and fellow innkeepers in the four cities, and he knew Knipper as well as any man.”

“I don’t know who killed him,” Gustavus said. It would have been a fearless man to challenge him. And Gottlieb had no fear, but also no need to challenge.

“Gustavus met Knipper and his coach, and no one saw Knipper after that,” Gottlieb said. “On the next morning Knipper wasn’t found to drive his coach. Gustavus sent the coach to Freiburg with the boy Willi driving it. The corpse of Knipper was packed in a trunk among the luggage. Is this all true?”

“I know nothing of it to be false,” Gustavus said.

“And Willi put the trunk on the coach?”

“Ask him.”

“Ask him.” Gottlieb said more in long silence than words would have. “He can’t be asked. You’re finished. Sit down.”

Gustavus returned as heavily as he’d come, and his boots sounded like axes against a tree. Huldrych was trembling, very visibly. Gustavus stood for a moment in front of the Physics Master watching him, then sat between the brothers Daniel and Nicolaus.

“Yes,” Gottlieb said once more. “Willi must be asked, but he is in Strasbourg.”

“He was arrested,” Caiaphas said, like a rasp on the wood of the room. “He brought a corpse into the city, which is against our law.”

“And you have brought a corpse into Basel,” Gottlieb answered. “Which is against our law.”

“I was returning it!”

“Returning. So you have proof that the coachman was a corpse when he left here.” Before there could be an answer, Gottlieb said, “I summon next Masters Daniel and Nicolaus, who were passengers on Knipper’s last drive.”

Nicolaus was always averse to public attention. In Daniel’s company, he was never the center of it. He was hardly noticed beside Daniel’s jaunty brilliance. “Go ahead, Cousin,” Daniel said. “Have at it.”

“Have care,” he was answered.

“Have it over with.”

“These two were also last to see Knipper,” Gottlieb said. “Their arrival in Basel was well anticipated.”

“As is our departure, by some.”

“The date of your arrival was known. The date of your departure is only imagined.” That, for a moment, left Daniel without a reply.

“But why is this important?” Caiaphas said, interrupting again. “It isn’t important.”

“You’re a poor judge of importance,” Nicolaus said. As always when he chose to speak, it was unexpected, and far more in that heavy and formal room. “In particular your own.”

That affront was a lightning bolt. It was as if the air had been pulled from everyone’s lips, and a soundless vacuum had been created. That made the next words even greater.

“My sons’ arrival in Basel was very important.” Master Johann’s voice was like the Rhine: broad, deep, unstoppable, and difficult to cross. No one could say anything beyond that statement, least the sons themselves.

“These two,” Gottlieb said, “returned to Basel, well-known in advance. Upon their arrival the coachman was murdered, and the stable boy who could tell more of it has been withheld from us. For what reason did you return?”

“What reason?” Daniel said, and he may have been daunted. The question was pointed, the tip of the spear that Gottlieb was holding toward him. Or he may not have been daunted. “I hadn’t seen my family in two years. Why wouldn’t I have returned to my family and city?”

Nicolaus was silent.

“I think there was another reason,” Gottlieb said.

“Think what you wish.”

“I want to know the reason.”

“It’s not important!” Caiaphas said. “Go on to something else.”

“And I want to know, as well, why the reason is important to you, sir,” Gottlieb said to Caiaphas, “that you don’t want it known.” He waited a few moments. Daniel and Nicolaus waited, one patient and one not. Caiaphas didn’t answer. Then Gottlieb said, evenly and plainly, “Then I summon Magistrate Caiaphas before this Inquiry to answer my questions.”