Disappearance of a Scribe by Dana Stabenow

Author:Dana Stabenow [Stabenow, Dana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800249752
Publisher: Head of Zeus

12

Outside, Tetisheri paused on the doorstep, evidently to frown at the rose bush beneath which the black cat was still curled. The cat gave a chirrup and came forward to wind around her legs. She stooped to pet it and was rewarded with shoulder dives and a nonstop purr. She crouched there for a full five minutes, blindly petting the cat, while her mind picked apart everything she had learned that day. Not enough, not nearly enough, but some things she had learned.

Rhakotis sandals had killed two people over the past two years.

Pozzolan was a valuable commodity in short supply.

The two victims were both young men of apprentice age, if not journeymen.

Both had been middle class, as witness the quality of amulets and the condition of their teeth. The broken arm was common enough to lend nothing to the one victim’s story, but she would do well to remember it in case, by some miracle, she managed to discover a possible identity and that man had had a broken arm in his past.

It was likely that both had either been in trades associated with building or had had family members who were.

There was a slight chance that the amulets indicated they were Egyptian, but no certainty. The city teemed with students, scholars, and soldiers from everywhere in the known world, all worshipping their own gods and adopting native ones with abandon, without interference from the authorities, a tolerance enforced by the Ptolemies from the day Alexander had scattered the grain to form its boundaries. A tolerance, it might be said, continually tested by the Egyptian population. Auletes had lost his throne too many times to count and not only because he had had too many children who wanted to take it from him. Cleopatra had an enormous job in front of her, and yes, Matan was right in that the queen used every resource she had to get it done, including her own person, never mind her friends.

It did not necessarily follow that those friends loved the realm any less than their queen, and weren’t prepared to sacrifice for it.

The black cat butted her hand and purred.

Where next? She should take a look at the store of pozzolan to confirm Vitruvius’ information.

Otho, now, there was someone whose activities would bear closer observation, in part because he had forced himself upon her notice, but much more so because of his chosen trade. Builders were by profession practical and ruthless, and Otho wasn’t just a builder, he was the Master of Builders. A man in such a position could with a word turn Rhakotis sandals from myth to reality.

Khadiga. Connected to Otho, if the craftsmen working on his house were to be believed, by more than a professional relationship. And she knew Dixiphanes, but then what contractor would not know the Royal Architect? A woman contractor, moreover, to whom Dixiphanes was willing to speak to with civility, in itself worthy of notice.

Nenwef must be interviewed as well.

It would be difficult to check

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