Prefect’s construction.”
The Rabban exhaled rather louder than decorum dictated, picked up the knife, secured it in his belt, and bid his host farewell. If he hurried, he would still have time to see Agon before confronting Menahem.
Chapter XIV
Chuzas sat by himself in the courtyard where he and Gamaliel had last spoken the previous evening. In point of fact, he had not yet informed Menahem of the Rabban’s request for an interview as he’d been requested. First, he needed to grapple with the problem of the knife. Anyone who knew the various personalities in the court would easily recognize it. Like no other of its kind, it stood out whenever Menahem wore it, which he always did on State occasions and frequently at other, less notable times. There could be no doubt that the knife Gamaliel found in the bath with the other trinkets belonged to Menahem. Therefore, that knowledge would soon be made known to Gamaliel.
Chuzas rubbed his eyes. He had difficulty sleeping since this murder business. It made his mind as muddy as the stream at the bottom of the Kidron Valley after a rain. He forced his mind back into focus. The knife was in the pool. The girl’s body was in the pool. The girl’s throat was slit. The Greeks would say a logical connection existed between those three facts. He scratched his ear and squinted at the sun which had just cleared the wall to the east. Chuzas had studied the Rabban enough over the past few days to conclude that he did not manage information as others might. Rabbis, or more accurately, Pharisees, it seemed, were not trained in the finer points of Aristotle’s disciplines, not that he, Chuzas, had made an exhaustive study of the Greek either. But the question he struggled with came to just this: Would the Rabban make the connection between the facts or would he, Chuzas, find it necessary to point Gamaliel in that direction?
But first he needed to make a decision about Menahem. What would the old man say to Gamaliel? He knew the girl better than anyone in the court. Why he had taken time to befriend this particular servant girl was anyone’s guess. If Menahem were younger, Chuzas could easily understand it. After all servant girls, particularly young pretty ones like this one, were always sought out by the men in the palace for their pleasure. Age rarely slowed them down. Many outside the palace argued that the girls were brought to court specifically for pleasure. But Menahem must be near his seventh decade. Usually, that many years would put him beyond suspicion. Only a very few lived that long—well, since Genesis anyway. Even fewer could contemplate undertaking a liaison of that sort. Of course, there were old men like Menahem who still lusted after young girls. Herod, the old king that would be, had been known to pursue young women almost until the day he died. Men’s desires did not always wane as their faculties did. He’d heard the girls sent to their rooms laughing at them after they returned from such encounters.
But Menahem, if not by virtue of his advanced age, then by his devotion to the Galilean’s teaching certainly would have dismissed any thought of such a tryst. The Galilean! One way or the other, Chuzas thought, he must pry Joanna from that man and his dangerous ideas. Her insistence the rabbi cured her of her delusions and erratic behavior could not be true. Other very fine, indeed notable rabbis had tried and failed. What could this carpenter rabbi have done that they could not? No, it was a trick. As Menahem must have planted these absurd ideas in her head, Menahem must be made to root them out.
He could no longer put it off. He would arrange for Menahem and Gamaliel to meet and he would watch through the lattice and hear everything. Gamaliel could not miss discovering the owner of the knife.
***
Agon had raised the shutters at his shop signaling the beginning of his work day when Gamaliel arrived. He greeted the Rabban and invited him in. It was barely
The Rabban exhaled rather louder than decorum dictated, picked up the knife, secured it in his belt, and bid his host farewell. If he hurried, he would still have time to see Agon before confronting Menahem.
Chapter XIV
Chuzas sat by himself in the courtyard where he and Gamaliel had last spoken the previous evening. In point of fact, he had not yet informed Menahem of the Rabban’s request for an interview as he’d been requested. First, he needed to grapple with the problem of the knife. Anyone who knew the various personalities in the court would easily recognize it. Like no other of its kind, it stood out whenever Menahem wore it, which he always did on State occasions and frequently at other, less notable times. There could be no doubt that the knife Gamaliel found in the bath with the other trinkets belonged to Menahem. Therefore, that knowledge would soon be made known to Gamaliel.
Chuzas rubbed his eyes. He had difficulty sleeping since this murder business. It made his mind as muddy as the stream at the bottom of the Kidron Valley after a rain. He forced his mind back into focus. The knife was in the pool. The girl’s body was in the pool. The girl’s throat was slit. The Greeks would say a logical connection existed between those three facts. He scratched his ear and squinted at the sun which had just cleared the wall to the east. Chuzas had studied the Rabban enough over the past few days to conclude that he did not manage information as others might. Rabbis, or more accurately, Pharisees, it seemed, were not trained in the finer points of Aristotle’s disciplines, not that he, Chuzas, had made an exhaustive study of the Greek either. But the question he struggled with came to just this: Would the Rabban make the connection between the facts or would he, Chuzas, find it necessary to point Gamaliel in that direction?
But first he needed to make a decision about Menahem. What would the old man say to Gamaliel? He knew the girl better than anyone in the court. Why he had taken time to befriend this particular servant girl was anyone’s guess. If Menahem were younger, Chuzas could easily understand it. After all servant girls, particularly young pretty ones like this one, were always sought out by the men in the palace for their pleasure. Age rarely slowed them down. Many outside the palace argued that the girls were brought to court specifically for pleasure. But Menahem must be near his seventh decade. Usually, that many years would put him beyond suspicion. Only a very few lived that long—well, since Genesis anyway. Even fewer could contemplate undertaking a liaison of that sort. Of course, there were old men like Menahem who still lusted after young girls. Herod, the old king that would be, had been known to pursue young women almost until the day he died. Men’s desires did not always wane as their faculties did. He’d heard the girls sent to their rooms laughing at them after they returned from such encounters.
But Menahem, if not by virtue of his advanced age, then by his devotion to the Galilean’s teaching certainly would have dismissed any thought of such a tryst. The Galilean! One way or the other, Chuzas thought, he must pry Joanna from that man and his dangerous ideas. Her insistence the rabbi cured her of her delusions and erratic behavior could not be true. Other very fine, indeed notable rabbis had tried and failed. What could this carpenter rabbi have done that they could not? No, it was a trick. As Menahem must have planted these absurd ideas in her head, Menahem must be made to root them out.
He could no longer put it off. He would arrange for Menahem and Gamaliel to meet and he would watch through the lattice and hear everything. Gamaliel could not miss discovering the owner of the knife.
***
Agon had raised the shutters at his shop signaling the beginning of his work day when Gamaliel arrived. He greeted the Rabban and invited him in. It was barely
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