“On the other hand, he’s being completely consistent,” Simon said. “Turning the son of the former head of the Witches Commission into a kind of witch himself-this vengeance is especially perfidious, worse than any other conceivable torture.”
Simon cast a sideways glance at Jeremias, who had seemed so kind and innocent. The sensitive medicus was uneasy sitting in the same room with a man who had probably executed hundreds of people-to say nothing of the young prostitute. But there were also moments when Simon felt something almost like pity for the old cripple.
“I remember young Harsee well,” Jeremias said, after taking a few long sips of the mulled wine. “Sebastian was an ardent student of theology, always carrying around his father’s documents for him. It’s quite possible that he, too, was involved in the intrigue against the Haans. Something smells fishy here.” He put his hand to his nose. “You can’t say that about the other members of the committee.”
Georg, sitting next to him, cleared his throat. He’d returned more than an hour ago from searching the western part of town and, until now, hadn’t said a word. It was clear he was upset by the disappearance of his twin sister.
“Isn’t it about time we told Katharina the truth about her father?” he asked. “After all, it’s quite possible he’s already dead.”
“She’ll learn about it soon enough,” Jakob grumbled. “For now, I’m happy she’s keeping busy caring for my two grandsons who are always looking for something to eat. Let’s all put our heads together now and try to think about who might be the culprit.” He turned to Jeremias. “Did you say all the members of the Haan family died?”
Jeremias nodded. “So far as I know, yes-the chancellor and his wife, their son, two other daughters, and a daughter-in-law. Another son was supposedly poisoned a few years later, and a son-in-law died in an accident. I believe that’s all of them.”
“And the grandchildren?” Simon quickly chimed in. “All that happened almost forty years ago, and if we’re really looking for someone who was alive at that time and is still looking for vengeance, he must have been quite young then.”
“You can forget that-there was no one else. The family died out.” Jeremias took another deep swallow. “Just be happy I could remember anything at all and could lead you to the documents in the archive. I’m just an old cripple now, nothing more.”
“Oh, come now. You’re also the ruthless murderer of a young prostitute, and I’m still uncertain whether to turn you over to Lebrecht’s guards,” Jakob growled. “If your life means anything to you, you’d better use your head, or you won’t have it much longer.”
Jeremias groaned. “You’re asking too much. I’m neither an archivist nor a court clerk. How can I-”
“A court clerk!” Simon interrupted excitedly. “That’s it! Hieronymus was the clerk. Katharina said he often brought documents back home to work on them here. Perhaps there are some notes that will tell us something about the Haans. This family, once so powerful, cannot simply have vanished from the face of the earth.”
“Such documents would have to be decades old,” said Jakob. “Why would Hieronymus keep things like that?”
“He didn’t keep them, he just found them again.” Simon paced back and forth, faster and faster, waving his arms as he spoke. “Until now I thought Hieronymus had perhaps left a note behind. But that’s not the case.” He pointed at all the books on the floor. “Just look around you. Katharina’s father was looking around for something in the old notes-something he’d forgotten. And I think he found it.”
He stopped pacing and turned to the others. “Think about what’s happened here. Two days ago I paid a visit to Hieronymus. Clearly something in our conversation about the witch trial jogged his memory. He probably remembered the Haan trial and noticed the connection between the people who’d disappeared. At the same time he realized that if he was right, he himself belonged in the group of potential victims. But he wasn’t certain, and that’s why he hurried off to the bishop’s archives-”
“Where he found the document,” Jakob broke in, nodding as he chewed on the stem of his pipe. “It was on the very top of the shelf, meaning it had just been taken out recently, probably by Hauser. So far, so good. But how does that help us?”
“Now hear me out,” Simon quickly continued. “Magdalena told me that Katharina was watching her father as he searched through everything up here. That was after he returned from the archive, so it’s clear he wanted to check something, and after that he was very agitated. During the bishop’s reception he kept looking around, as if searching for someone.”
“Probably the suspect,” Georg added, looking at Simon intently. “You think he discovered something here in this room that put him on the right track to the perpetrator?”
Simon nodded. “But evidently the perpetrator found Hieronymus first. Katharina told us she had lost sight of her father in the courtyard, so we can guess that this unknown avenger was among the guests and reached out to strike there. Who could that have been? There must be a clue, something. .” He looked around the cluttered room. “If Hieronymus really found something here, where would he have put it?” He walked through the room, then stopped in front of the bookshelves. “Where?”
Simon closed his eyes and tried to put himself in the place of Hieronymus Hauser. He imagined him running through the room. .
I’m terrified. I’ve learned something terrible, and now I want to be certain, so I’ll start taking books off the shelves at random. No, not at random-I’ll look for something very specific. .
Simon opened his eyes, bent down, and picked up a heavy volume with a sewn binding lying on the floor in front of him. He leafed through it with trembling fingers. It was an old accounts book for the city, showing tax receipts as well as expenditures for a new gallows, building materials, and food for the kaiser’s emissaries.
Two hundred guilders for eight barrels of Rhine wine, plus five pigs at twenty guilders, a cartload of wood. .
Simon reached for the next book, but that, too, only recorded city expenditures-endless columns of figures-and soon his eyes began to swim. Again Simon tried to think about what Hieronymus had told him during their last conversation. Just what were his final words?
The council has ordered me to recopy a huge pile of old, barely legible financial records. .
“He must have found something in these old volumes and receipts,” Simon mumbled to himself. “But what? What, damn it?” He put the book aside, closed his eyes, and tried again to put himself in the place of the clerk. The others watched him-and waited.
I’m grabbing book after book from the shelves, looking, paging through, and finally I find something. I’m in front of the shelves, but the book is too heavy to spend any more time standing here and leafing through it. I can’t hold it any longer, so I go. .
Simon opened his eyes and looked around.
To the lectern.
There in the corner stood the lectern with a pile of books on top. A large book lay open at the bottom of the pile, looking similar to the other books on the floor. Simon hurried over, took the books on top and put them on the floor, and then studied the open page of the book that had been on the bottom. At first he was disappointed, for once again what he saw were lists and columns of income and expenses. But suddenly he noticed a particular name and knew at once he was on the right track.
Confiscation of the property of the Haan family, 4,865 guilders, distributed in equal parts to the commission, the city, and the Prince Bishopric. .
“Did you find something?” Jakob asked, rising from his stool and looming over Simon like a huge shadow.