They Were Divided - Miklos Banffy [142]
Balint had then found a lawyer in Kolozsvar who was willing to handle the matter, had the power of attorney vested in him, and arranged for Simo to be denounced for embezzlement and false pretences at the appropriate office of the Ministry of Finance. And so the matter took an official turn.
However, wheels grind slowly and the enquiry by the tax inspectors became more and more strung out. The ball was thrown from court to court – but each time only after another long delay. Five weeks would pass before a letter received any reply. Then the men in the Ministry wrote to the county tax office which passed the letter on to the Sheriff. The Sheriff eventually returned the papers to the tax office saying that it was their responsibility, not his. The tax authorities wrote once more to the provincial county office stating that this matter came under their jurisdiction, not that of the tax office, since there was nothing on Simo’s receipt to say that it concerned anything to do with taxes. The finance office therefore disclaimed all responsibility in its turn, as in their opinion this was either a disciplinary matter for the county’s administrators or else a case to be heard in the criminal courts. The papers were then sent once more to the County Sheriff to determine whose responsibility it all was. In the meantime Gaszton Simo offered himself for a disciplinary inspection, but cunningly sent this offer to the wrong office. He did not approach the Under-Sheriff as he should have, but instead approached the association of local notaries of which he himself was president.
The notaries’ association refused Simo’s request to be investigated saying that it had authority only in internal disciplinary matters, not in anything that concerned members of the public. At the same time they held a special meeting and unanimously passed a vote of confidence in Simo’s probity: thereby making it clear to Balint that Simo had somehow manipulated the whole cadre of county notaries into taking his side.
This had been the situation at the beginning of March. Until then, though nothing definite had transpired, it had seemed as if Damocles’s sword was suspended over Simo’s head. But then matters took a very different turn.
Gaszton Simo himself filed a complaint for false accusation, denouncing in his turn old Juon’s grandson, Kula, and accusing Honey Zutor not only of complicity but also of having instigated a plot against him.
For proof he offered a declaration from old Juon that his grandson had deceived him, that being unable to read or write he had had no idea that the paper on which Kula had forced him to put his mark had been a Power of Attorney, that he had only recently learned this and wished at once to disclaim any such intention, that the receipt from Simo that the boy had taken from him did not apply to anything to do with tax payments but only to an old debt that he had repaid and furthermore that he had never said anything against the notary Simo whom he held in the greatest esteem and respect. He ended by begging forgiveness, saying that his grandson had abused his trust, and that he was nothing but a simple helpless old man who had known nothing of what was happening.
It was a good document, well-written, clear and wonderfully precise. And not only precise but also very much to the point, for every accusation against the notary had been logically disposed of and refuted in advance. The declaration had been countersigned by two witnesses, Timbus, the parish priest of Gyurkuca, and one of the