So here, if we are to persist in regarding Marcus straightforwardly as a suspect, we must imagine him, alone and weaponless, somehow subduing the young soldier without a fight, then stripping him and murdering him, cutting the corpse in segments with his bare hands and yet getting no blood on his skin or clothes, nor on the floor of the Chamber, and then likewise with remarkable skill re-dressing him, all within the briefest time and all in silence. Suppose the victim dead at the start, the task is no less impossible. If they were all in it together, perhaps—but for that they must all be consummate actors, as well as murderers—and why bother to bring me in at all? Am I so disposable, so unthreatening? Hardly. They’d do better with one of the drunkards for that, or the bought-and-paid-for liars of the alchemical trade. They’re not difficult to come by.