"Possibly, sir. I understood it to be a squabble over a guest of mine. A man named Raven. Krage wanted to kill him. He hired Asa to spy on him. Asa told me that himself. Krage decided he wasn't doing his job. He never did anything right. Anyway, he never did anything very well. But that doesn't invalidate your theory. Asa could have been lying. Probably was. He lied a lot."

"What was the relationship between Asa and Raven?"

"There wasn't any."

"Where is Raven now?"

"He left Juniper right after the ice broke up in the harbor.''

The Inquisitor seemed both startled and pleased. "What became of Krage?"

"Nobody knows, Reverend Sir. It's one of the great mysteries of the Buskin. One day he was there; the next he wasn't. There were all kinds of rumors."

"Could he have left Juniper, too?"

"Maybe. Some people think so. Whatever, he didn't tell anybody. The people who worked for him don't know anything, either."

"Or so they say. Could he have looted enough from the Catacombs to make it worthwhile to leave Juniper?"

Shed puzzled that question. It sounded treacherous. "I don't. ... I don't understand what you're asking, sir."

"Uhm. Shed, thousands of the dead were violated. Most were put away at a time when the wealthy were very generous. We suspect a sum of gold may have been involved."

Shed gaped. He hadn't seen any gold. The man was lying. Why? Laying traps?

"It was a major plundering operation. We'd very much like to ask Asa some questions."

"I can imagine." Shed bit his lip. He thought hard. "Sir, I can't tell you what became of Krage. But I think Asa took ship for the south." He went into a long song-and-dance about how Asa had come to him after falling out with Krage, begging to be hidden. One day he had gone out, returned later badly wounded, had hidden upstairs for a while, then had vanished. Shed claimed to have seen him from a distance only, on the docks, the day the first ships sailed for the South. "I never got close enough to talk, but he looked like he was going somewhere. He had a couple bundles with him." "Do you recall what ship?"

"Sir?"

"What ship did he take?"

"I didn't actually see him board a ship, sir. I just assumed he did. He might still be around. Only I figure he would have gotten in touch if he was. He always came to me when he was in trouble. I guess he's in trouble now,eh?"

"Maybe. The evidence isn't conclusive. But I'm morally convinced he was in on the looting. You didn't see Krage on the dock, did you?"

"No, sir. It was crowded. Everybody always goes down to see the first ships off. It's like a holiday." Was the Inquisitor buying it? Damn. He had to. An Inquisitor wasn't somebody you got off your back by selling him into the black castle.