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Chuzas’ staff, plus that devious little man himself once again.
    The task of interviewing the king’s entourage took the entire morning through the sixth hour. Gamaliel managed to refresh himself with a crust of bread and some broiled fish that he washed down with a cup of passable wine at midday. He resumed his interrogations on into the afternoon, ending them toward the tenth hour as the sun began its long descent to the west and his voice began to fail. The steward had outdone himself in ordering the interviews. He’d organized them by groups sharing the same or similar functions, dancers, servers, players of music and singers, cup bearers, table clearers, and some whose occupation he could not remember. The most difficult interviews were the concubines. Gamaliel thought of himself as moderately current in the ways of a world regrettably driven by a Greek culture and tempered by Roman proclivities, but the frankness, dress, and demeanor of this last group left him deeply disturbed. How could anyone sift through this household for the presence of a single evildoer, when it seems it lurked in every corridor and during every night in the persons of these women and the men or man who kept them?
    “But what of Solomon and his thousand?” his students would have asked him, to which he would reply “And what of David and Uriah the Hittite’s wife? ‘It is a matter of intent. Unfortunately the Law does not spell that out, so we must.’” He knew, as everyone did, that there were political necessities that gathered wives to a king, and then there were the strictly lust-driven liaisons that kings also enjoyed. No one, he thought with some annoyance, should ever confuse the two.
    Before he made his weary way back to his quarters west of the Temple he called Chuzas to him.
    “Steward, aside from the royals, have I seen and interviewed all of the people I need to see?” Chuzas hesitated. Gamaliel knew in that moment that the steward would soon tell him a lie. He had not developed this ability to smell out mendacity just to vet potential students. “Again, Steward, what are you so reluctant to tell me? I must get to the bottom of this matter and I do not wish to waste any more time at it than absolutely necessary.”
    “On my—”
    “Do not swear an oath to me, Chuzas. You have enough to answer for without adding that to your list.”
    “I…” Chuzas obviously wrestled with the desire to deceive on the one hand and the realization he could not fool the Rabban. “There may be one or two others who were not available. He…that is to say, they were not available, they were away temporarily.”
    “He has a name, Chuzas?”
    The steward rolled his eyes in desperate search for a way out of his predicament. Finally he swallowed and blurted, “He is called, Graecus.”
    “The Greek? He is Greek.”
    “Yes. At least it is what he claims.”
    “But you are not sure?”
    “It is not my place, Excellency.”
    “Not your place? This man alone escapes your notice and responsibility? You are the king’s steward and you say ‘It is not my place?’ Very well. Then hear this, I will interview this man immediately on his return. See to it, Steward.”
    Gamaliel turned on his heel and stalked home. He arrived just as the third star appeared in the east. He signaled for his servant not to speak until he’d made his ritual cleansing in the mikvah and had some time to pray. After this day and the company he’d been forced to keep, he would need to spend more time in the living water than usual.

Chapter VI
    The next morning he sent a simple message to Pilate informing him that he had nothing to report and that there was no sighting of the phantom, Archelaus. Furthermore, as he was convinced the man did not exist, at least not in Jerusalem, he had no intention in pursuing that line anymore. Finally, he guessed he would need much more time than either had supposed necessary to track down the girl’s killer.
    He also assumed