'Strong motives,' says Makri.
'Maybe.'
'You think he's innocent?'
'Of course he's innocent. He's my client.'
Makri says there's some backwards logic going on here. I ignore this. Logic is for her philosophy classes. When it comes to a client, I go on my intuition.
And my intuition is telling me Lodius is innocent.'
Makri looks me in the eyes.
'You're lying.'
I'm shocked. Makri isn't sophisticated enough to know when I'm lying.
'I am not lying.'
'You are. After careful observation I can read the signs.'
'Rubbish. You've a lot to learn about lying in the civilised world. My intuition tells me that Lodius is innocent.'
Makri shrugs.
'Okay.'
My intuition isn't telling me a thing. For all I know, Lodius could have packed the pastry with carasin and fed it to Galwinius with a smile on his face. I hope he didn't. I hate it when my clients turn out to be murderers. It makes things awkward.
On the journey home the air is noticeably colder. I shiver and draw my cloak around me. As I climb the stairs to my office, the first flake of snow settles gently on my sleeve. Winter is here. Tomorrow I'll have to put a warming spell on my cloak before I visit Senator Lodius.
In deference to his rank, the Senator will not be held in jail while he awaits trial. He's been placed under house arrest. Humiliating for a man of his class, but not as bad as languishing for months in a cell with common criminals. Justice in Turai can move painfully slowly and there's little prospect of Lodius coming in front of a judge before the winter is over. The preliminary hearings normally wouldn't start till the weather improved. It's possible, I suppose, that the Consul might call a special session earlier in an attempt to get the matter over with quickly. Lodius has a lot of support in Turai and his party aren't going to take kindly to these events. The Consul will be hoping that the oncoming bad weather and the impending attack by the Ores will keep the lid on any civil unrest, but he can't be sure of it.
Reflecting that, in the circumstances, an early trial isn't that unlikely, I drag myself out of bed the next morning a good deal earlier than I'd like to. I set about placing the warming spell on my cloak. This is one of the few sorcerous acts I'm still able to perform, and with the Turanian winter being so grim, it's proved to be a life-saver in recent years. Then I head out into the first day of winter to clear the name of Senator Lodius, archenemy of the Consul.
At such an early hour there's no sign of a landus and I have to walk a long way up Moon and Stars Boulevard before I can find anyone to take me to Thamlin. The streets are busy with early activity as the city's traders try to make the best of the last few weeks in which they can trade. When winter really sets in, little business can be done. Ships are already hurrying into the docks, their captains relieved to have made it home safely before the storms arrive. The last wagons carrying goods from the south will soon be rolling in through the city gates. Both land and sea around Turai will soon be impassable. If the weather is particularly severe, the city itself is difficult to move around in. It's my ambition every winter to have enough money saved to enable me to avoid work completely, spending my time in front of the roaring fire at the Avenging Axe with a beer in one hand and a tray of food in the other. It rarely works out that way.
For someone facing a charge of murder, Senator Lodius doesn't seem particularly pleased to see the man who's about to investigate on his behalf. He's far less hospitable than his wife, and informs me that he's not certain I'm the right man for the job.
'This matter is obviously part of some plot by the Traditionals to discredit me and you don't have the right connections among the senatorial classes to investigate it properly. Furthermore, I do not approve of you bringing a woman with Orcish blood into this house. My shrine is at this moment being purified as a result of her presence.'
Like many of Turai's democratic politicians, Lodius is a terrible snob. With his short grey hair and perfectly folded toga he's every inch the Senator, and his manner strongly suggests that he'd rather not be spending his time in my company.
'I didn't approve of you blackmailing me last winter. So we're even. Maybe you want to tell me some facts about the case?'
'I understand you were recommended to my wife by Deputy Consul Cicerius? Hardly a recommendation she should have taken, one would have thought, given the man's antipathy towards me. Are you in his pay?'
I'm rapidly becoming annoyed by his attitude. I don't expect my clients to love me, but no Investigator likes being branded a spy. Remembering that his wife was very polite to me, I persevere.
'No.'
'So you say.'
'What are you insinuating?'
'That the Deputy Consul would be pleased to have an informer in my household as he prepares his case against me.'
'Senator Lodius, no amount of money would induce me to spy on a client.'
'You are claiming to be an honest man?' The Senator chuckles. And yet when I needed your services last winter, it did not seem so difficult to make you do as I wished.'
I'm now struggling to avoid abusing Lodius. I've taken his wife's money. He's my client. I make a final attempt.
'Perhaps you could tell me some details of the matter of the will? The one which Galwinius was about to prosecute you for?'
Lodius's face hardens.
'You will not investigate that matter.'
I'll have to. It's part of the case.' 'I repeat. You will not investigate it.' 'I have to. You're facing a murder charge, Senator Lodius. If I'm going to get to the bottom of it I can't miss out on parts of the story.'
'No doubt the Deputy Consul will be pleased to hear all the details of my affairs you may learn from me,' sneers Lodius.
I'm grossly insulted by the notion that I might be secretly working for the Deputy Consul.
'Lodius, you're a fool. You're going to hang and I'm the one person in the city who might prevent it.'
'What you are,' says Senator Lodius, 'is a man who's facing a charge of throwing away his shield and deserting the battlefield.' 'What?'
'Which would be an excellent reason for you to work for Cicerius. No doubt he has promised to drop the charges in return for spying on me.'
I take three steps towards Lodius then push him, using all my weight. The Senator flies into the far wall and slumps to the ground. He's on his feet quickly, an expression of fury on his face. 'How dare you lay a hand on me!' 'Consider yourself lucky. If you weren't my client I'd have punched your head off.'
I march out of the room and head for home. I'm madder than a mad dragon. When I find myself in dispute with a wool merchant over a landus in Moon and Stars Boulevard I bounce him out of the way without mercy. I can't believe I've just been accused of such a vile piece of treachery. Lodius is fortunate I didn't run him through. I pull my warm cloak around me and stare through the window of the landus. Snow is falling lightly. The wind's blowing in from the east. For the first time I can almost sense the Orcish troops massing. My sorcerous powers were never great, but the training left me with my intuition enhanced, or so I like to think. I can feel the Ores marshalling their armies.
I wonder if there's any equivalent to an Investigator in Prince Amrag's kingdom, maybe tramping the streets trying to clear some Orcish aristocrat of murder. I doubt it. Makri, one of the only people in Turai with any real experience of Orcish society, claims their level of civilisation is not so primitive as we Humans like to think. Maybe she's right. Even so, I've never heard of an Orcish Investigator. If such a creature does exist, he has my sympathy.
'How were things with the Senator?' enquires Gurd, as I reach the bar and hold my hand out for a refreshing tankard of ale.
'I knocked him over.'