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Tuesday night beca Thirteen steps down, Matthew stood in the griers

The cold room, reached by a door behind the City Hall&039;s central staircase, was lined with gray stone and had a floor of hard-packed brown clay Originally an area to store foodstuffs in case of eh, even in the heat of midsummer, to delay the deterioration of a hu a corpse ht lie here on the wooden slab of a table before it broke down into the primordial ooze

The table itself, at the center of the twenty-two-foot-wide chamber, had been prepared to host the body of Pennford Deverick by being covered with a sheet of burlap and then a layer of crushed chestnut hulls and flax and millet seeds so as to soak up the fluids Matthew and the others co Effrem and Benjamin Owles, a still-woozy Phillip Covey, Felix Sudbury, and the onerous first-constable-on-the-scene Dippen Nack-had stood under a wrought-iron chandelier that held eight candles and watched as the corpse had slid down aThen McCaggers&039; slave, the formidable bald-headed and silent man known only as Zed, had co the body-cart along Smith Street and had proceeded to lift the dead man onto another wheeled table after this, Zed then prepared the examination table, pushed the body over, and lifted Deverick-still fully clothed so that the ht see the corpse as it was discovered-onto the bed of hulls and seeds Zed worked diligently and without even glancing at his audience His physical strength esoue

To say the least, it was disturbing to all to see Pennford Deverick in such condition His body was stiffening, and beneath the yellow candlelight he looked to be no longer truly huy whose facial features hadto heave again, Matthew," Covey croaked "I swear I aht his ar with Zed&039;s ears, but he paid the visitors no heed all his attention was directed to the dead He went about lighting four candles with tin reflectors behind them, and these he placed on the table one on either side of the corpse and one above the head and below the feet He next opened the lid of a barrel, scooped two buckets into it, and placed the buckets-full of ordinary water, Matthe-on top of the wheeled table a third bucket, eht several pieces of folded white linen and placed these also beside the three buckets

Next, he brought an artist&039;s easel froside the corpse, as well as a pad of white document sheets and a clay jar that held black and red wax crayons after this was done, he see up, his thick arht, the strange upraised tribal scars that covered his face were deep purple against the ebony flesh, and sos were the stylized Z, E, and D shapes for which McCaggers had naer to wait Lillehorne cafroh forehead and ore an unreers, as only three years Matthew&039;s senior, carried a brown leather case with tortoise-shell clasps He wore spectacles, had deep-set dark eyes, and was in need of a shave as he descended the stairs he was the picture of cool and poised professionalism, but Matthe-as they all kneould happen when he reached the floor

"He&039;s ato the corpse and not to McCaggers, though he well could be "The blade alers didn&039;t reply, but as he came off the bottom step and his eyes found the body the sweat beads leaped from the pores of his face and in a matter of seconds he was as wet as if he&039;d been dowsed His entire forun to shiver and quake, and when he put his toolcase up onto the table beside the buckets he had so much trouble with the clasps that Zed quickly and with practised grace opened it for hilinted calipers, forceps, little saws, knives of various shapes and sizes, tweezers, probes, and things that reseers chose, with a tre hand, was a silver bottle He uncapped it, drank down a good chug, and waved it under his nose

He gave a quick glance at the corpse and then away "We are absolutely certain the deceased"-his frail voice cracked on that word, which he repeated-"deceased individual is Mr Pennford Devericki Does anyone wish to verifyi"

"I&039;ll verify," said the high constable

"Witnessesi" asked McCaggers

"I&039;ll verify," Matthew said

"ThenI pronounce Mr Deverick dead" He cleared his throat "Dead Verifyi"

"Yes, I verify," said Lillehorne

"Witnessesi"

"Dead as a fish in a frypan," said Felix Sudbury "But listen, shouldn&039;t ait for his wife and boyi I er&039;s been sent," Lillehorne said "In any case, I wouldn&039;t want Mrs Deverick to see him as he is, would youi"

"She may wish to see him"

"Robert can make that decision, after he"-Lillehorne wasinto the eed ahead-"views the body"

"I&039; to sag

"Just hold up" Mattheas still supporting him He watched as Zed dipped one of the linen cloths into a water bucket and ers took another snort and sniff of his stiood or otherwise-to have a man as so skilled in anatogers could speak to you on Monday and on Saturday recite to you the exact time of day you&039;d spoken and virtually every line of your speech He had been a pro art student, thathaving to do with blood or dead flesh, and then he was a carriage wreck

Still, his skills outweighed his deficiencies in the position the town had given hih he was no physician-and never would be, until blood became rum and flesh cinnamon cake-he would do his best, no ht, looked like a four-bucket job

Zed was staring soleers nodded, and Zed went to work cleaning the clotted blood away from the dead man&039;s face with another cloth dipped into the second water bucket Matthe the point of the bucket trio now: one for the water to clean the body, one for water to revive McCaggers, and one forthe other

"We are all in accord, then, as to the cause of deathi" McCaggers asked Lillehorne, the sweat bright on his face once again

"a blade to the throat Say youi" The high constable regarded his jurists

"Blade to the th&039;oat," croaked Dippen Nack, and the others gave either a nod or a vocal agreeers said He watched the cloth Zed used becoave a lurch and turned once more to the bucket of other

"This one picked Mr Deverick&039;s pockets, sir!" Nack put his billyclub up against Matthew&039;s chin "Caught hiave this tothe body"

"Therefore, what becaood reverend and doctori" Lillehorne lifted his thin black eyebrows "Did anyone else see theroup

"I saw someone," Sudbury offered "Two men, over the body"

"The reverend and the doctori"

"I couldn&039;t really tell who they were Then of a sudden, with all that crowd around, I didn&039;t see them anymore"

"Corbetti" Lillehorne peered into Matthew&039;s eyes "Why did they not stay on the scenei Don&039;t you think it odd that both of those illustrious men shouldshall we sayslip away into the crowd as they&039;ve supposedly donei"

"You&039;ll have to ask theo"

"Somewhere roundi I should like to hear that story" Lillehorne took the wallet and gold watch from Matthew&039;s hand

"May I point out that this wasn&039;t a robberyi" Matthew asked

"You ht have been an interrupted robbery, yes Covey!"

Phillip Covey almost shot out of his shoes "Yes siri"

"You say you were drunk and you almost tripped over the body, is that correcti"

"Yes sir Correct, sir"

"You were co from which taverni"

"TheuhtheI&039;m sorry, sir, I&039; fromtheuhthe Gold Co Cat, sir Yessir, the Laughing Cat"

"The Laughing Cat is on Bridge Street You live on Mill Street, don&039;t youi Hoas it that you&039;d gone co up Smith Street in the opposite direction of your housei"

"I don&039;t know, sir I suppose I was on my way to another tavern"

"There are e Street and where you supposedly alo into one of thosei"

"II guess I was-"

"How did you find the body restingi" McCaggers suddenly asked

"Resting, siri Wellon its back, sir I ot the blood on your hands howi"

"I tried to wake hiht it wasyou knowanother drunk, lying there asleep So I got doith hiuess I took hold of his shirtand then I sahat I&039;d gotten into"

McCaggers paused to dip a hand into the water bucket and cool his forehead "Did you search this youngwas found, but he could easily have tossed it"

"Did you find anything else on himi"

"Some coins, that&039;s all" Lillehorne frowned "Should I have found anything elsei"

McCaggers , for he hurriedly leaned over the bucket Heto the end of the second tasting of his supper "Gloves to guide a slippery knife handle," McCaggers said, when he couldto the victi man didn&039;t kill Mr Deverick Nor did he kill Dr Godwin"

"Dr Godwini What are-"

"No need to play at denial The same person who did thiswhich Lillehorne watched Zed as the cleaning progressed, cloth to blood, to bucket, wrung out, back to blood once more Now Deverick&039;s face was almost scrubbed

Lillehorne&039;s voice was hollohen he finally spoke "Go home, all of you"

Dippen Nack was first up the stairs, followed by Covey as Matthew started to go up after Mr Sudbury, Effrem, and Mr Owles, Lillehorne said, "all except you, clerk"

Matthew stopped He&039;d known he wasn&039;t going to get out of here that easily

"Helloi Helloi May I come downi"

The voice was unsby appeared at the top of the stairs, his shirtsleeves rolled up to say he was ready for work

"You&039;re not needed here, Grigsby Go hohtful rabble of people out frontabout I did h the crowd Shall I bring them downi"

"Just the boy I h constable wishes to see your son first, if you please, sby say to the fa shocked and wan, his eyes puffed from sleep and his curly dark brown hair in disarray-casby followed like a bulldog "Shut that door!" Lillehorne commanded "From the other side!"

"Oh yes sir, how disrespectful of sby closed the door with a solid thunk but he remained on the cold room side He came down, his face resolute

Matthe that now Zed was cleaning the throat wound McCaggers, as still beset by fits of treained so on a sheet of paper a precise outline of the body as it lay on the table

Robert Deverick, wearing a dark blue cloak studded with gold buttons over a blue-striped nightshirt, stopped at the foot of the stairs His eyes ain, and his lips moved but made no sound

"Your father was murdered on Smith Street," Lillehorne said quietly but with force "It happened"-he opened the watch, having the same idea as Matthew-"between ten o&039;clock and ten-thirty, it appears Can you tell hti"

"Father" Robert&039;s voice faltered His eyes glittered, but if there were tears it was hard to tell "Fatherwho could&039;ve murderedman continued to stare at the corpse, transfixed perhaps by the violence that had been inflicted upon huht how much difference twelve hours couldPenn Deverick had been vibrant, boastful, and arrogant-his usual self, or so Matthew had heard-and noas as cold and insensate as the clay underfoot Mattheatched Robert trying to gain control of himself Veins in the throat twitched, a muscle in the jaw jumped, the eyes narrowed and swa in London were an elder brother and two sisters Deverick had been a goods broker there, as well, and Robert&039;s brother now ran that business

"Taverns," RobertLillehorne&039;s look of absolute scorn, and sidled up next to the corpse "He went out Before eight o&039;clock To make the rounds of the taverns"

"For what reasoni"