When they arrived at Port Haven, the scene resembled a stirred-up nest of hornets. Uniformed members of the largely volunteer port authority were everywhere, trying to keep things in order. As people began registering Roman's appearance, however, all conversation and argument stopped. Roman led his entourage to where a number of people stood at the entrance to an alleyway. At their feet were laid a pair of fishermen, both dead. Roman dismounted, followed by Santiago, Guiseppe and Anana.
'That is one of them,' Guiseppe said with a frown. 'But the other . . . I have never seen him before.'
Roman raised an eyebrow, then said to one of the port authority soldiers, 'Have you seen either of these men before? Did you notice anyone else they might have had dealings with?'
'They had dealings with us,' the young man said. 'And with two other men on one of the boats. They were going around asking a lot of questions.'
'What sort of questions?'
'Such as "Have we heard of a girl named Kara Savalas?" and "Is she alone?" and "Where is she now?" They offered a reward, not paper money but real gold. They said that her father wanted to attend her wedding, which was strange because at first it seemed that they knew nothing of the coming wedding.
'The two of them were turned away last evening as they tried to take a barrow of netting to their boat-'
'What barrow?' Roman demanded. 'Where is it now?'
'We found it in the back alley, with the two bodies, early this morning,' the young man told him. 'But for some netting, which had been cast aside, there was nothing.'
'Order a house to house search,' Roman told the young man. 'For now we will search the boats. Take me to the one these men had dealings with.'
'These two came from that particular boat,' the young man corrected. 'And,' he added, 'like every vessel in port, they remain just as we left them.'
'Well done!' Roman said as they began walking brusquely towards the docks.
The fishing vessel in question was of a type called a seiner, a large, heavy wooden vessel badly in need of new paint and repair. It seemed deserted. A search of the ship turned up nothing, save a small tin box full of gold pieces in a safe hidden beneath the captain's bed. In each of the crew's quarters, as well, were found stashes of gold.
'Well, well,' Roman muttered as he examined a coin. 'Even twenty years of the most excellent fishing would not have permitted these fellows to amass such comparative wealth. So these men were sent by Kara's father. Two of them were killed, in all probability by Kara's brother . . . but that doesn't make sense! He has, by now, been found out by his father. There is a thing here that I do not understand-'