"Pachrates?!" both Clarus and Suetonius exclaimed. "But why? What was he doing on the river at that time, Centurion?"
"Well," the Praetorian offered as an information coup-de-grace, "the slave told us he'd heard gossip how Panchrates had ritually sacrificed the youth Antinous in a magical rite to invoke health, and was delivering the corpse upstream to be discovered in the river at dawn. Perhaps this is why the youth's left wrist had been slashed when he was found by the fishermen, and why he was attired in his formal parade armors."
The group of four was astonished. At last a breakthrough!.
"But why would the priest Pachrates slay the Bithynian? What profit is there in this to an Egyptian priest? Especially a Bithynian who was Caesar's Favorite?" Clarus demanded. He was entering his legalist's temper of cui bono?
Urbicus replied carefully.
"The temple slave did not know these things, my lords, he was a lowly laborer, but he'd heard it said it was to allay Pharaoh's concerns about correcting the low flooding of the Nile," the Praetorian stated. "It was a public gesture for this year's Festival of Isis."
"Where is this slave informant now, Urbicus?" Suetonius demanded. "We must keep him isolated and protected until we can authenticate this story. These are sensitive claims you make, and this workman is our only witness to such charges."
"This is not possible, sir," Urbicus offered with a lowered voice. "The slave expired under our exactions. We may have overdone the persuasion a little, sir. He bled liberally under the duress. So we tossed his carcass into the river to appear to be a drowning accident too. It seems Osiris will have two claimants to resurrection this Isia." Urbicus was engaging in droll Praetorian wit.
"Separately, Special Inspector," he continued, "we've been searching for your interviewees Lysias of Bithynia and the freedwoman Thais of Cyrene. They too have gone missing, despite your demands they attend your interview today. We searched for them last night at their tents. They could not be found anywhere.
However, we did find the mutilated corpse of their senior steward, a Judaean freedman from Bithynia. He'd been decapitated in a similar manner to the fisherman from Besa. But we couldn't locate either the offenders or the two young people in the vicinity."
It was Suetonius's turn to feel discomfort at these revelations.
"You didn't mention this incident earlier this morning when you delivered the head of the fisherman Ani to our breakfast table?" he enquired. "Nor mention another decapitation. Had you forgotten such a grisly discovery?"
Urbicus shuffled momentarily with unease but did not lose his verbal stride.
"No, my lord, I had not forgotten. It was simply that the fisherman Ani's murder and return of his head to his family, as well as the search for the river craft, had a higher priority in your instruction. Were we being negligent, sir?" the officer offered with an air of impervious innocence.
Suetonius was now beginning to feel even greater discomfort. Looking to Clarus for confirmation, the biographer was coming to appreciate how the death of the Bithynian youth seemed to provoke increasingly violent, yet inexplicable, responses from unknown forces.
He recollected the lad's drowning had induced two beheadings, one death by over-zealous torture, three disappearances, plus a glut of conspiracy theories to complicate the basic search for a motive. As the hours towards the appointment with Hadrian raced by, the number of issues multiplied, not declined. A further query arose in his mind.
"Tell me Centurion, how did you manage to find us here at The Alexandros jetty?"
Urbicus expressed surprise at the question. He hesitated before responding.
"Why, my lord," he uttered with obvious sincerity, "we had been searching for your party in the vicinity of Senator Arrian's chambers to make our report, but then spied you and your colleagues at this river landing from a distance. It was accidental. But having reported, we request we receive your further instructions."
The guardsman from Alexandria was collectedly cool in his response. Suetonius wondered if he was perhaps too cool, and his eyes turned to Surisca for a shared opinion. Clarus interrupted.
"Yes, Praetorian," Clarus declaimed, "this is our instruction. We must urgently locate the two friends of Antinous, Lysias and the girl Thais, before anyone else apprehends them and does them harm. Continue your search for the couple. Assign further troops to the search if necessary through Tribune Macedo. Do whatever is necessary to secure their safety! Certainly let there be no accidents with the couple, we don't wish to lose further sources of testimony."
"It will be done, sir," Urbicus confirmed. He snapped to attention as his troop swept their helmets to their heads in unison, saluted in military style, and marched off.
"Strabon, did you record the past few minute's conversation?" Suetonius enquired.
"Indeed I have, Special Inspector," the scribe responded.
"Good. Keep those tablets close in a safe place. Something is amiss here, gentlemen," Suetonius confided insecurely, "and I'm not at all sure what it is. Any thoughts, anybody?"
He cast his eyes over his trio of companions. Surisca cautiously raised a finger.
"Speak, my dear," the biographer prompted. Surisca spoke hesitantly.
"Master, forgive my impertinence, but when the centurion and his soldiers were approaching I had the definite feeling it was not My Masters they were coming to visit. To my eye, it was this jetty to the barque they were approaching," she offered, "not the enjoyment of your company."
"To this jetty?" Clarus enquired with a hint of exasperation. "Meaning what especially, woman?"
"I sensed, sir, they were at this wharf to travel to where you yourselves are travelling, not to report to your lordships, as they claim. They were on their way to that mighty vessel offshore."
"I felt the same, my lords," Strabon added to Surisca's comments. "I sensed they were surprised to come across us at this place. The centurion had not really expected to meet us here."
"You mean they were on their way to visit the Prefect Governor aboard The Alexandros, not talk with us as they claimed?" Clarus rationalized.
"Except, my good Clarus," Suetonius intruded, "the centurion pointedly told us it was our company he was seeking, not the governor's. We have another contradiction to contend with. Yet instead of such mere speculation, my friends, let's pay the good governor a visit ourselves to find out."
The main deck of The Alexandros was an open area shaded under a filmy canopy emblazoned with the Alexandrine starburst. It provided space for entertainments, feasts, ceremonies, or juridical occasions.
The barque's decoration was an elaborate fantasy of carved timbers inset with honey-hued porthole windows of thin alabaster. A riot of sculpted figures depicting the victories of Alexander over his enemies graced its exterior. Similar to its larger companion The Dionysus, the governor's barque was a visible demonstration of the opulence and power of Rome to her provincial Egyptian subjects.
The Prefect Governor was seated upon his chair-of-state on a rostrum under the midday glare diffused by the canopy. Flavius Titianus was attended by several staff, guards, a scribe at a lectern desk, and young pages. They were engaged in business when Titianus spied his visitors awaiting his attention. He rose from his seat and dismissed all his attendants except one.
"Come forward, gentlemen!" he called aloud to his visitors. "Make yourself known!"
Suetonius, Clarus, Strabon, and a hesitant Surisca approached the throne. Suetonius coaxed the Syri to follow close behind him despite her non-status as a non-person.