Afranius bowed, moved a chair closer to the bed and sat down, his sword clanking.

" I intend to look for him near the olive press in the garden of Gethsemane."

" I see. And why there, precisely? "

" Hegemon, by my reasoning, Judas was killed neither in Yershalaim itself, nor very far away from it. He was killed on the outskirts of Yershalaim."

" I consider you one of the leading experts in your field. I cannot speak of Rome, of course, but in the colonies you are without equal. Explain to me, why? "

" It is inconceivable to me, " said Afranius, speaking softly, " that Judas would have fallen into suspicious hands within the city limits. You don't stab someone clandestinely on the street. That means he must have been lured into some cellar somewhere. But the secret service has already looked for him in the Lower City, and if he were there, they would surely have found him. I can assure you that he is nowhere in die city. And if he had been killed far away from the city, they wouldn't have been able to throw back the packet of money so soon. He was murdered not far from the city. They managed to lure him out of the city."

" I don't see how they could have accomplished that."

" Yes, Procurator, that is the most difficult question of all, and I don't even know if 111 be able to solve it."

" A mystery indeed! On the evening of a holiday a believer forsakes the Passover meal and goes out of the city for some unknown reason, and there he perishes. Who could have lured him and how? Could it have been a woman? " asked the procurator with sudden inspiration.

Afranius answered calmly and gravely, " Absolutely not, Procurator. That possibility is ruled out entirely. One must reason logically. Who would have an interest in Judas's death? Vagrant dreamers, a group of them, a group, first of all, that doesn't include any women. One needs money to get married, Procurator, money is also necessary to bring someone into the world, but to murder someone with a woman's help, one needs a great deal of money, and vagrants don't have money. No woman was involved in this affair, Procurator. What's more, I would argue such a hypothesis can only serve to throw us off track, impede the investigation, and complicate things for me."

" I see your point completely, Afranius, " said Pilate, " and I was only taking the liberty of offering my supposition."

" It is, alas, a mistaken one, Procurator."

" But, then, what other possibilities are there? " exclaimed the procurator staring at Afranius with avid curiosity.

" I think it was still the money."