The Alchemist's Pursuit Read Online Free PDF

island. It would have taken me an hour and an extortionate bribe to have learned as much as Delilah had discovered already.
    She stifled a sob. “Amen! So you kept her jewelry to identify her?”
    The captain shook his head regretfully. “His Excellency took them and gave us a receipt. You will have to ask him for them.”
    â€œThey have already been returned to the lady’s estate,” I said. “Could your comrades tell how she had died?”
    He looked at me as if he had forgotten I was there, his pupils contracting sharply. In his opinion, I was exceedingly redundant. “It was very gruesome, because the crabs and the fish had been busy. But, just between us, Captain di Comin is a very clever man, and he noticed that the gristle of the dead woman’s windpipe had been crushed. Some of the remaining flesh around her throat—”
    Violetta cried out and faked a dizzy spell, so I could whisk her out into the fresh sea breeze. I had assumed she was pretending, but even out on the fondamenta she was unusually subdued. That was Niobe showing; as Medea she could have torn the captain apart with a smile on her face.
    â€œYou want to know any more?” I asked.
    She shivered. “No. It’s too horrible to think about. You?”
    â€œNo. Now we know how her jewels survived, and that’s progress. Let’s go and call on the noble gentleman.”
    â€œWhere to?” Giorgio asked as we boarded.
    â€œWe need to locate a Senator Marco Avonal.”
    â€œRio di San Nicolò,” Violetta said. “I’ll direct you when we get there.”
    Aha! When we had made ourselves comfortable in the felze , I said, “You are acquainted with His Excellency?”
    She bit her lip and nodded.
    If Avonal was rich enough to be a friend of Violetta’s he might also have known an ex-courtesan who had been worth 1,470 ducats. I decided to wait a while before asking questions. We were passing through the Basino di San Marco, but I lowered the curtains, sacrificing the view of the fleet at anchor in the hope of a cuddle with Helen. Alas, my companion was currently Minerva.
    â€œDiscovering a body is easier if you know where you left it?”
    Minerva is the clever one, but even I had seen that much.
    I said, “I always find it so.”
    â€œBut why would a murderer turn in the body himself, whether he found it by chance or simply fetched it from where he put it?”
    â€œI don’t know.” I was fairly sure I could think of a reason or two when I did not have to meet the withering gaze of those brilliant gray eyes. “Will you come in with me to see Avonal, if he’s home?”
    â€œNo.”
    Chilly silence.
    â€œDearest, if you want the Maestro’s help, or even mine, you will have to be open with us.”
    She pouted. Aspasia or Medea would still have refused, but Minerva could understand. “Very well. We met when a patron took me to a musical soirée at Avonal’s house. I was asked to play the lute, and did. Evidently I impressed him, because a couple of days later he sent a note, asking me for an evening . . . oh, it must be about two years ago. He was not a senator then, just an official in the Salt Office. He took me to a dance in the Palazzo Corner Spinelli. He left early and took me home.”
    â€œAnd stayed the night.”
    â€œOf course. He was a skilled and considerate lover. He asked me again, about a month later . . . That time he just wanted sex. I agreed, although lovemaking should be the crowning episode of an enchanting evening, not a scheduled commercial transaction like a haircut. There are plenty of prostitutes for that. He was quite different!”
    â€œDifferent how?” I asked. I was finding the conversation stressful. The woman I love was telling me about other men in her bed.
    â€œWeird! He was rough and aggressive, almost a different person.” She, who is all women by turns, did not seem