Chapter 19 - What Edward Saw

Miles34 to Heliodromus03   
Place: Britiniacum
Date: 2068-06-25
Time: 10:06

Greetings!

You have requested the account of Edward of Aigrefoin who witnessed the death of Protocorax15 (hereinafter P15).

This is what he reported:

“I received a message from P15 at daybreak on Sunday asking me to be present at the west gate of Deva without delay to accompany a party arriving from Britiniacum, including P15, on a mission to the villa of controller Buonaventura.
“I immediately rode to Deva and joined them at the Deva gate as agreed, approximately one hour later.
“Our party was admitted at the gate and proceeded to the villa.”
[REDACTED]
“I accompanied P15 when he entered the cellars of the villa to recover an android that he claimed was his property.
“I was a few steps behind him. He opened the door to the storeroom containing the android. When he was standing in the doorway, the android stepped forward and struck him. The blow was delivered with the knob of bone on the wrist that projects below the ulnar border of the hand. It struck P15 on the left temple with such force that his skull was shattered. This resulted in his instant death. The android then stepped back and went quiescent. When it was established that the android was no longer dangerous, technician Jake was summoned and switched it off.
“As agreed, later, I took the body of P15, the deactivated android and a drugged impostor back to Aigrefoin with me in a covered cart to quietly dispose of them.”

This very neatly tied up a lot of loose ends.
Life in Deva has now returned to normal.
And no one of consequence is the wiser.

Deo Soli Invicto Mithræ!