I turned to Precious Light. ‘It was Huitztic who told the captain where I was going when I came back to the city, but he also led me to you in the end. He knew about Star and Red Macaw. There are people born and raised in this parish who don’t know the facts about that, and none who will talk about it to outsiders. He had to have got it from you.’
‘That’s true enough,’ the old woman conceded.
I went on: ‘That wasn’t quite the only thing that pointed to you, of course. There was Red Macaw’s behaviour as well. What was he doing following Star’s funeral procession? Why did he go out to the chinampa plot?’
Spotted Eagle said: ‘He wanted to see my mother. He told you that before he died.’
‘No, he didn’t. “Wanted to see her”: those were the words he used, but we never asked who he meant by “her”. It wasn’t Star he wanted to see at all, was it, Precious Light? It was you. He wanted to stop what you were doing. He used that word too – “Stop”. He knew you were part of the funeral procession for a reason – because you were planning to interfere with the body. And he found out where you’d reburied her, and I guess he wanted to try to talk to you there too. Only the captain got to him first.’ I looked at Handy. ‘He tried to warn you, if you remember, on the afternoon of the funeral. He didn’t want to implicate his mother, so he couldn’t spell it out, but he did tell you there’d be trouble if he was left out of the procession.’
‘But he failed,’ Lion said. ‘They got the body.’ He addressed Precious Light himself. ‘Tell me, why did you rebury the body at all? Why not just chuck it in a canal?’
The woman shuddered. ‘If you knew the Divine Princesses, you wouldn’t ask that! I was risking enough taking her hair and forearm.’
‘You did leave a body in a canal, though. It belonged to lord Feathered in Black’s spy. Why did you do that?’
‘That was the captain’s idea. He knew who this man was, and thought if his body were found, the chief minister would immediately have the place swarming with warriors searching for the killer. If the man just disappeared, his master might assume he’d gone to ground somewhere. It was just to slow the pursuit down. Of course, with the second one – the one he killed outside Handy’s house – there wasn’t time for that.’
I took up the tale again, wondering all the time when the woman’s patience would wear out and her hand move toward that cup. ‘You were with the funeral procession. The otomi followed it: we know that because he was seen. I’m guessing that you bided your time until we’d all fallen asleep, and then he attacked.’
‘What happened to my brother-in-law?’ Handy asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I presume he ran away. We didn’t kill him, if that’s what you mean.’
Handy and I exchanged glances. He was no doubt wondering whether that meant Goose’s husband was still alive after all. I knew the answer to that one, but I was more interested, now, in learning all that the woman had to say.
‘What happened then?’ I answered my own question. ‘The captain followed me. He lost me, luckily, and went back to the plaza. Did he fall in with old Black Feathers’ man on the way?’
‘He did.’
‘And he killed him. And the next day you tried to kill Handy.’
‘I gave Cactus some herbs and urged him to pass them on to Star’s husband, yes.’
Handy growled angrily.
‘I told you,’ she replied, ‘it was for my son. Remember, you were the man who pretended you’d fathered his child.’
That was very nearly the last we heard, as the commoner, incensed, suddenly leaped up from where he had been squatting. However, and to my surprise, it was his eldest son who restrained him. ‘Father, don’t. We need to know. And Yaotl’s right: it’s not for us to end this.’
As his father’s rage subsided into angry muttering, I began again. ‘Everybody thought you were Cactus’s customer...’
‘It was the other way around. I gave him his healing herbs – the ones Huitztic had given me. But everyone needed to believe Cactus had found them for himself.’
Carefully, aware that she might cut short the interrogation at any time she chose, I took her through what had happened after we had buried Handy’s unborn child. She described how Gentle Heart had become suspicious, and how, when Cactus had mentioned this to her, Precious Light had given him the poisoned chocolate, knowing he and the midwife would share it. She told me how she and the captain had attacked Handy’s house, hoping their newly acquired charms would help them, and been driven away by me and Spotted Eagle, though not before killing lord Feathered in Black’s other spy. She recounted the following day’s events in the marshes, when her son had come upon the captain and received his death wound.
‘The otomi was scared,’ I recalled. ‘He was afraid of what you would do when you found out he’d killed your son. That’s why he made me bury him on top of Star’s body.’
‘He still needed me then,
