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for all those functions not fitting to be discussed or of an impure nature.”
    “Precisely. Whoever killed this young girl was sinistromanual , an unusual state in this day.”
    “My murderer was left-handed? That is most unusual, I agree. How do you come to that finding?”
    “Observe the cut. It has been made from the right to the left. A right-handed assassin would have slashed left to right.”
    “That is most interesting. You can tell this from the cut?”
    “I believe so, yes, from the depth and direction. Here is another question for you. If the killer felt what he was doing or touching qualified as impure or dirty—your words—would he not use his left hand to do it?”
    “That is very possible, and suggests other possibilities for our murderer. He is a low person who does not quibble about which hand is used for what and is naturally left-handed. He is scrupulous and deigns not to use his right hand in this dirty work. Or…”
    “Or?”
    “He wishes to leave us with a message.”
    “A message?”
    “Yes. It is most interesting, is it not? There is another possibility, of course, but I can hardly accept it.”
    “That being?”
    “Our killer is an Ehud.”
    “A what?”
    “Ehud, the son of Gara, and a left-handed man sent by the Lord to deliver the children of Israel from the Moabites. He killed Eglon, their king, by stabbing him with his left hand. One expects to see a weapon in a warrior’s right hand, not his left, you see? The king was taken unawares. So, an Ehud.”
    “You might wish to add one more. Your killer is an outsider, a barbarian who does not value or care about your laws or your traditions.”
    “A barbarian? I think not, Physician. Not in the king’s court and unknown to us,” He paused and thought a moment. “There was mention of a man called Graecus. Perhaps…This speculation assumes our killer faced the girl, but could he not have stood behind her when he drew the knife?”
    “No, I don’t think so. There are bruises on her right shoulder that suggest he held her facing him when he drew the knife. You see,” he pointed to a bluish mark on the girl’s upper arm, “this could very well be the mark made by his thumb. There are four similar, but smaller marks on the back of her arm that would be from his fingers. But more importantly, note the direction. If he faces her and slashes, the knife moves across and down. If he stands behind her, the knife moves across and up. Here is the next piece of your puzzle. Your victim was murdered in the pool.”
    “We know that. The water is discolored with her blood, you see.”
    “Yes, but that is not what I meant. She was held under the water, then had her throat slit. The cut is deep enough so that she would have died anyway, but she drowned because of it.”
    “Had our villain removed her from the bath and not cut her, she might have lived?”
    “Possibly.”
    “She drowned because she was slashed, or instead?”
    “Who can say whether the drowning was cause or effect? But it is another reason I think he did not stand behind her. He would need to hold her head underwater. One last thing for now, more detail can only come after I take her away and inspect her more closely in the privacy I require.” Gamaliel raised his eyebrows at that. He guessed, but did not wish to have confirmed what he would do to the girl’s body. He’d heard rumors about dissection and assumed this man knew them too.
    “That is?”
    “She was only just recently relieved of her virginity.”
    “She was still a maiden, forced, and then killed?”
    “So it would seem.”
    “Interesting.”
    “No, Rabban, sinister.”
    ***
    Gamaliel left the humidity of the bath and seated himself outside on a bench in the atrium. He wanted some time to think through what he’d learned thus far while he waited for the first of what would be a long string of servants, cup bearers, dancers, and slaves of indeterminate occupations, age, and race. Then there would be