Page 27 of A Drop of Corruption

There was a beat of silence.

“To me,” muttered Malo, “the conclusion is not obvious at all…”

“I’m afraid I agree,” said Kardas.

“Well, we are now faced with two impossible proposals,” said Ana. “Signum Malo—you say it was impossible for someone to be stolen out of a locked room in the top of a tower, then moved across the city and the jungle and the canals without anyone noticing. Yes?”

“I do,” said Malo.

“And you, Prificto,” said Ana, “you say now that it is impossible for all these witnesses to have seen the man you know to be Sujedo, correct, sir?”

“I…suppose,” said Kardas.

“Then one can only conclude,” she said, “that Sujedo wasnotstolen out of that room and spirited away to the jungle—because he was neverinit to begin with. Because the man who arrived in this city claiming to be Sujedo, and indeed moved into his rooms and slept in his bed, was someoneelse—a complete and utter impostor.”

Chapter 11

“I cannot comprehend this,”said Kardas slowly. “I thought Sujedo’s remains had been found. Are you suggesting he wasnotkidnapped?Notmurdered?”

“Oh, no, sir,” said Ana. “Sujedowaskidnapped and murdered. But not under the circumstances we have thus imagined.”

She leaned forward, her posture akin to a reedwitch telling fortunes at a canton fair. “Listen, sir,” she said. “Imagine now Sujedo’s journey north to this city. He came upriver through the canals, the very last man to join your delegation. But he did not complete that journey! Along the way, he was attacked—snatched up, and kidnapped—and youneverreceived news of it, for his attackers moved too quickly for anyone to notice. They bound him in the jungles—by the wrists, as Malo had noticed—and took a sample of his blood and urine and undressed him. His clothes were then removed and quickly tailored to fit anewman…this impostor who arrived here claiming to be Sujedo. I suspect he likely also applied other alterations—a dye for his hair, perhaps, or powders or graft colorings for his skin. The illusion was likely quite good at a distance. They also doused his belongings with lime and mold, just in case a warden might sniff him out and realize his clothes held the aroma of another man.”

Ana sat back in her chair, luxuriating in the moment. “Thus, he arrived in Yarrowdale, purporting to be Mineti Sujedo, displaying his heralds, carrying his documents, and mimicking the missing man’s bearing. He brought Sujedo’s belongings into his rooms when therest of the delegation was not present, then quickly departed to do business in the city. He returned, invented a reason not to see any of the delegation in person to ensure that his ruse was not detected—he claimed he was very sick—and hid away. He then used Sujedo’s blood and piss to provide false evidence that the true Sujedo had been present, and fabricated a scene of abduction. And then he vanished! But in truth, I suspect, he actuallyescaped,slipping out from underneath everyone’s nose to vanish into the night!”

There was a thunderstruck silence. The tip of Kardas’s thumb remained wedged between his front teeth as he sat there, boggled.

“Why in hell,” said Malo flatly, “would someone do all that, ma’am?”

“I have my ideas about why,” said Ana, “but I would prefer to prove thehowfirst.”

Kardas stopped biting his thumb and shook his head. “All this seems absolutely mad, Immunis! How would no one notice that this man wasn’t Sujedo?”

“Well, Sujedo was expected, and this man had the uniform, the heralds, yes?” said Ana. “He had all of Sujedo’s documents, he was able to wield his blood privileges to get into the Treasury bank, and he knew what to say and how to act. And he took great care—no, perhapsimprobablecare—to avoid being seen by anyone who might actually recognize Sujedo. Though his time here was brief, I think every moment of it was carefully planned.”

“Then how was this not discovered during the investigation of the disappearance?” said Kardas, looking to Malo.

Yet Ana broke in: “Because as you say, it was mad to suggest! Why go about asking if the man in the room reallyhadbeen Sujedo, especially if your primary task was trying to find the fellow? And once you found the body and identified it as the missing man, why ask then?”

“And howdidhe disappear,” demanded Malo, “given that he had vanished from a locked room?”

“That is far simpler! He vanished with this,” said Ana. She produced the lodestone from her pocket. “This piece of iron was found in Sujedo’s chambers. It has been manipulated so it has theproperties of lodestone. It attracts and sticks to iron. I recalled there was a prison break in Medullaria years ago, enabled by a prisoner being snuck a lump of lodestone—for with that, he was able to manipulate the slide locks of his chamber from theother side of the door.”

She said this triumphantly and was met with a bewildered silence.

“Might you elaborate, Dolabra?” said Kardas.

“My proposal is that this impostor had two of these lodestones,” said Ana. “One he placed on the interior lock of the window. He then climbed out the window, clung to the side of the tower, shut the window, and used thesecondpiece of lodestone to guide the lock back into placethroughthe wooden shutter. The piece of iron on the interior eventually lost much of its lodestone properties and dropped to the floor—where it was found, briefly puzzled over, and set aside. Thus, our impostor made his exit and sealed it up behind him, leaving no trace of himself nor his disappearance.”

“And then what,” said Malo, “he climbed down theentiretyof the tower?”

“No,” said Ana. “For Sujedo’s room is next to a vacant room, is it not? Closed due to water damage?”

“Yes,” said Malo. “But the guard was standing just next door to it. He did not see anyone exit through that room.”

“True,” said Ana. “But there is another vacant roomdirectly below that one,yes? One that wasunguarded? All the impostor needed to do was climb one room over anddown,slip throughthosewindows, and vanish, leaving behind a chamber that appeared to have never been violated in any way. Then, days later, after Sujedo had served his purpose, his kidnappers killed him, butchered him, and—as Signum Malo said—did with his body simply as one does on the canals.”

“Found a hungry turtle,” Malo said quietly, “and served him up.”