Chapter 2 Two Heirs To One Key #3
Lucetta answered carefully. "Because knowledge and testimony are not the same.
I can tell another person that I saw a letter.
If challenged, I can swear to what I remember.
But if you permit me to make an abstract, I can compare exact dates and language.
If you refuse, I must respect the conditions under which you showed it to me unless necessity or law gives stronger cause. "
Agnese studied her for so long that the room seemed to contract around the old woman's gaze.
"Make your abstract. No copy of the whole letter.
Dates, names, the two phrases you have read aloud.
Nothing about the other accounts. If Giacomo's daughters want more, let them show you theirs first." She turned to Adelasia.
"And when they accuse me of helping you, tell them I helped myself.
I would rather know which lie my sons inherited than defend it merely because it is ours. "
They left near sunset. Bertran was not visible in the lane behind the house.
Naldo was not visible at the front. That was how Lucetta knew they were there.
She and Adelasia walked toward the agreed church at an ordinary pace.
Only when they had turned twice did Naldo materialize beside a vegetable cart, carrying a basket as if he had bought it.
"Three men watched the house," he said without greeting. "One came before you. Two after. The first has the brown hood from Ferrara. He is beginning to offend me by owning only one cloak."
"Did any enter?" Adelasia asked.
"No. One spoke to a servant from the neighboring house. Bertran followed the servant."
Lucetta stopped. "Bertran followed him himself?"
"You may complain when he returns. I have already told him he is old and slow."
They found Bertran waiting inside the church porch, expression flat. "The servant carried word to an inn near the southern gate. Two mounted men there. One left when he received it. He took the road north-east, not toward Comacchio."
"Then they do not know about Rinaldo," Lucetta said.
"Or they already know and are sending somewhere else. Do not make absence into ignorance." Bertran looked from her to Adelasia. "What did you learn?"
Lucetta gave him the sequence. He listened, then said, "So we have moved the casket from Tomaso to Rinaldo to perhaps Giacomo, and it remains missing."
"That is an unnecessarily miserable description of three hours' work."
"It is a soldier's description. How much closer are we to putting a hand on the thing?"
"Closer enough to ask better questions."
"Which means not close."
Adelasia cut across them. "We see the younger branch tomorrow. If Giacomo's clerk received the old iron, his daughters must have records of what happened next."
"If they show us."
"They will," Adelasia said. "Agnese has just allowed a partial abstract. Nothing will make Giacomo's daughters more generous than the fear that the elder branch has shown us something they have not."
The prediction proved exact. Ser Baldo Malatesta, procurator for Giacomo's two surviving daughters, sent a message before they finished supper.
He would receive Adelasia and Mistress Verani the next morning at a countinghouse near the canal.
He added a sentence declaring that his clients possessed complete proof that the elder branch had concealed property belonging to Giacomo.
Adelasia read it, smiled, and passed it to Lucetta.
"Complete proof," she said. "We should eat well. Tomorrow we shall be disappointed."
Morning brought clearer weather and more people watching them.
Bertran did not attempt to hide his presence this time.
He escorted Lucetta and Adelasia to the countinghouse but stopped outside, where he could plausibly be taken for hired protection rather than an armed participant in the negotiation.
Ysoria stationed herself farther down the canal with a packet of blank letters and the appearance of a courier waiting for instructions.
Orsino remained with the keys. Odelin went to inquire at two religious houses about Enrico the former shipmaster.
Naldo vanished toward the market after announcing that respectable people had made the investigation needlessly expensive.
Ser Baldo was thin, perfumed, and offended by the existence of dust. He wore his robe carefully, his beard more carefully, and introduced the two sons-in-law of Giacomo Roncaglia's daughters as if presenting men whose virtue should itself constitute evidence.
One, Messer Lapo, spoke too quickly. The other, Ser Giuliano, barely spoke at all.
Lucetta marked the contrast and refused to decide which was more dangerous.
"We understand," Baldo began, "that Madonna Agnese has shown you selected papers.
I will say at once that anything in her possession touching the disputed goods has been withheld from my clients unlawfully.
If you intend to use such private display to support her claim, we shall require a written declaration of what you saw and under what conditions. "
Adelasia did not even sit until he finished.
"Then we are fortunate that Mistress Verani intends no such thing.
We came because your messenger declared that you possess complete proof.
I have discovered in commerce that men who advertise complete proof usually mean they possess one paper and much confidence.
We would be pleased to find you the exception. "
Lapo bristled. Baldo's eyes narrowed, but Giuliano gave a small cough that might have concealed laughter. They sat.
The younger branch did possess one crucial paper.
It was a warehouse receipt in Giacomo's clerk's hand confirming receipt of "the old iron casket, sealed, from Rinaldo's estate.
" The date matched the memorandum Lucetta had seen at Agnese's house.
More importantly, the receipt included a marginal note added six months later: "Removed by order of T.R.
to the house of salt account, because strangers have again inquired. "
"T.R.," Lucetta said. "Tomaso Roncaglia?"
Baldo spread his hands. "Who else?"
"Rinaldo was dead. Giacomo was alive. Tomaso was alive. Yes, Tomaso is possible. But the note does not say 'Master Tomaso,' only initials. Who wrote the marginal note?"
"Giacomo's clerk."
"At the time of removal or later?"
"Does it matter?"
"If the note was contemporary, it records an instruction. If added years later, it may record memory, hearsay, or an attempt to explain a missing object. The ink differs from the receipt."
Lapo leaned forward. "Are you accusing our clerk of forgery?"
"No. I am refusing to accuse him of accuracy without examining the conditions under which he wrote.
" Lucetta kept her tone calm. "A later note can be perfectly honest and still wrong.
If you want me to call it complete proof, show me the ledger in which the removal expense was entered.
A casket heavy enough to require carriage from Rinaldo's estate did not fly to a second house.
Someone paid a cart, boatman, porter or muleteer. "
Baldo's expression shifted. Not defeat—calculation. "The relevant ledger is missing."
Adelasia murmured, "Of course it is."
"Lost in a warehouse fire twenty years ago."
"Even better."
Baldo ignored her. "But there is a letter from Giacomo to his father referring to the removal."
That letter changed the problem again. Giacomo complained that Tomaso had ordered "the brother's casket" moved without telling him where, because men from across the sea were asking after it.
Giacomo wrote that if the object belonged to the family, it should not be hidden from the family; if it belonged to another, they should return it and be rid of danger. Tomaso's reply did not survive.
Lucetta read the sentence until the words blurred, then set the sheet down. "This is the first paper we have seen in which someone inside the family openly questions whether the casket belongs to them."
Baldo nodded eagerly. "Exactly. Giacomo acted honestly."
"It proves he objected. It does not prove what he later did."
"Must every line disappoint you?"
"Only the lines that are asked to carry more weight than the parchment can bear."
Giuliano spoke for the first time. "Then what weight will you allow it?"
His voice was low and educated, more measured than Lapo's.
Lucetta turned toward him. "It establishes that by this date the casket had attracted inquiries from men described as coming from across the sea.
It establishes that Tomaso controlled its location closely enough that his own son did not know where it was.
It establishes that Giacomo distinguished between family property and property held for another.
And it strongly suggests the concealment was deliberate, not an accidental loss in an estate division.
That is considerable weight. It is simply not the weight of ownership. "
Giuliano nodded once. "Fair."
Lapo looked betrayed by his moderation.
Adelasia asked the question Lucetta had been circling. "What is the house of salt account?"
Baldo hesitated. Giuliano answered. "Rinaldo maintained a counting room near the pans north of the lower marsh roads. After his death, Tomaso continued using it through a factor. It was not a house in the sense of a dwelling. More a warehouse office and store."
"Standing?"
"Some of it. The old timber stores were rebuilt. The counting room may survive inside later work."
"Who holds it?"
This time both sons-in-law looked uncomfortable.
Adelasia smiled. "Ah. Now we have reached the part of the truth that costs money."
Baldo clasped his hands. "The rights are disputed."
"Between whom?"
"Several parties."
"Name them."
"Your manner, Madonna, suggests you believe yourself entitled to command answers."