A courier carried six sealed parcels when he left the northern district office.
Lucian saw each one entered into the chain record.
He stood across the street beneath the awning of a public notice house, reading the same posted work orders for the third time. The courier's leather case rested open on the counter inside the office. A clerk checked six seal numbers, wrote them into the route book, and closed the case with a brass lock.
The route crossed three districts of Caldris.
The first office gathered parcels from courts, trade houses, and municipal departments. The second sorted them by destination. The third transferred outgoing deliveries to neighborhood couriers. Three sealed packets had disappeared somewhere between the first record and the final handoff during the previous month.
The courier had carried all three.
That made him the easiest person to blame. It did not make him responsible.
Lucian followed when the man entered the street.
