Tabula Rasa(88)

“Do you know who this man is?”

Matto shook his head. “Will he get me now?”

“You must stay at home with your family so you’ll be safe,” Tilla told him. “I will warn your mother and brother. Now tell me about Aedic.”





Chapter 50

“Face it, Ruso,” Valens said, checking the apple for maggot holes before chopping it in two on the scarred surface of the operating table and handing half of it over. “You’re not thinking straight. I grant you he’s not the friendliest of characters, but it’s a bit much to imagine he spent his leave abducting and murdering people.”

“I’m not imagining anything,” Ruso told him. “The orders are to pin everyone down. Nisus left on the day that Candidus disappeared, and he came back the day after Branan vanished. I’ve already sent a message to the Phoenix. I’m just asking you to keep an eye on him.”

Valens flicked an apple seed onto the floor. “There must be a quicker way to do this than eliminating several thousand men one by one. Gallus has already wasted half the morning asking all the staff where they were the day before yesterday and then checking it. Besides, what if the chap who took the boy has deserted? It’s not much use knowing his name if we don’t know where he is.”

“There would be a quicker way,” Ruso told him, “if Virana could remember who was in the bar when Branan delivered the eggs.”

“Will it help if I ask her?”

“No, thanks. I’ve just come from there and she’s upset enough as it is.” Although she had been pleasantly surprised by Conn’s visit to thank her for her help. “He’s not nasty, really,” she explained while marveling at his change of heart. “It’s just that nobody understands him.”

“I have to say,” Valens observed, leaning back on the sill of the window, “that it’s lucky I was over at the baths with about forty people when the boy went. I’m not sure how well I could account for my movements most of the time. Could you?”

Ruso, his mouth full of apple, was chewing his way through to stating, “I’m never alone!” when it occurred to him that this was not true. Most of the time he felt besieged by patients and staff and rarely escaped except to fall asleep or spend time with his wife—often both at the same time. But he frequently traveled alone from one place of work to another. Although his time, like that of everyone else, was marked by the trumpet calls, anything between them was guesswork. How could he prove that he had gone straight from one location to another? Conversely, if he chose to “lose” some time in between two of them, who would notice?

“It’s a messy business,” he observed. “And all the time we’re looking, the boy could be getting further away.”

“Do you remember playing that game with the blindfold?” Valens asked. “You know, the one where you blindfold someone and tell him to find certain people in the room, but everybody keeps tiptoeing about from place to place, so that no matter how hard he tries, he never finds them unless they want him to?”

“No,” said Ruso, trying to picture Valens as a child.

“Really?” His friend sounded genuinely surprised. “Of course, it was much more fun when there were girls playing.”

“I can imagine.”

“And plenty of wine.”

“Is this happy memory supposed to help?”

“I thought it might help to express the situation you find yourself in.”

“Not just me,” Ruso pointed out. “All of us. Except that one of us is only pretending to wear the blindfold.”



Ruso stood in the street outside the hospital and realized he had done everything he could think of. There had been no new messages at the bar to follow up on. No wife, either, but waiting for him instead was a very large bill that he promised to deal with later. Deal with. Not pay. Ria could make of that what she would.

He had spoken briefly with Senecio and told him that there was no news, which was at least better than bad news, but not by much. It was surprising how easily everyone seemed to have grown used to the sight of the old man sitting there. He had noticed the guard twitching the toes of one foot at regular intervals, as if he were singing a song in his head to relieve the boredom. Beside him, Senecio might as well have been a broken-down vehicle awaiting repair or removal.

Ruso had filled a whole morning with activities that were supposed to help rescue Branan, and none of them seemed to have achieved anything. Valens was right: This one-at-a-time thing was hopeless. He straightened his belt and his tunic, checked his bootlaces, ran both hands through his hair, and went to see if Accius had any better ideas. Or any ideas at all.