The Stranger - Max Frei [207]
They almost did you in last night, didn’t they? the chief inquired.
Yes. Last night, and then again this morning—in a manner of speaking. Not more than fifteen minutes ago. But that’s beside the point right now. Talk to me, Juffin. Just tell me how the case of the belts is going, all right?
Silent Speech, as always, required my full concentration, so I couldn’t think about anything else when I was using it. And that was just what I needed.
Of course. When have I ever refused to save time? Listen carefully. First, Melifaro was able to identify the victim yesterday. He was a young man named Apatti Xlen. Ah yes, this name doesn’t say anything to you. It was a celebrated case, Max. It happened about two years ago, in the Moni Mak family home. Yes, Max, it was Sir Ikas Moni Mak, grand nephew of Magician Nuflin himself. He had received a visit from some old friends of his wife, the Xlens, who had settled on their estate in Uruland during the Troubled Times. When it was time for young Apatti to decide what to do with his insignificant life, they sent him to the capital, where the boy lived for half a year in the home of Moni Mak. I think he was going to school. Then he disappeared, taking with him the White Seven-Leaf Clover. We know for certain that not long before this Apatti had bought an elegant, gleaming belt in one of the harbor shops. Sir Ikas remembered this object, so there can be no doubt—
“Good day, Sir Max. You walk almost as quickly as you drive.”
Silent Speech broke off, and live conversation started up, for I was already in the office I shared with Juffin.
“Or I drive as slowly as I walk. But there’s something I don’t understand. What did he swipe from the magician’s grandnephew? I asked, trying to put up a good front, as though nothing at all had happened to me. Juffin should hardly have had to pay for my fatal inability to lead an office romance to a “happily ever after.”
The boss shook his head and thrust a mug of kamra into my hand. His eyes expressed ordinary human compassion. Or was I just imagining it?
“He stole the White Seven-Leaf Clover, Max. That’s just a pretty bauble—only a copy of the Shining Seven-Leaf Clover, the amulet of the Order of the Seven-Leaf Clover. Already during the Epoch of Orders there were rumors about the extraordinary power of this object, but I’ll tell you a terrible state secret: all these rumors were complete hogwash. The only thing the Shining Seven-Leaf Clover is capable of is bringing personal happiness to Sir Nuflin . . .”
“That’s no small thing!”
“Yes, but on the other hand it’s not all that much. And the White Seven-Leaf Clover can’t even do that. It’s just a pretty, useless gewgaw. But the boy snatched it and disappeared for two years. We checked up on it: the Old Maid was anchored in our harbor at that time, so I personally haven’t a single doubt that poor Apatti spent a long vacation in Tashera, and has now come home, only to be killed. Do you know how he died?”
“He decided to foreswear all ornamentation? Took off the belt?”
“You guessed it. Almost. The fellow didn’t do anything so foolish of his own accord. He was robbed. And because the robber was interested in the belt, he removed it right then and there. You can imagine what happened to Apatti. A terrible death.”
I shuddered.
“But why are you so sure that it was a robber? Maybe the fellow decided to challenge the ban on removing it. Maybe he decided to do just what he felt like doing?”
“And experience all the charming consequences firsthand? Don’t you think that hypothesis is a bit too daring? Besides, they already found the robber. Dead. He was being fitted for some new clothes and he took off the belt, poor chap. The police took him to the morgue yesterday evening, soon after you left. Now the two of