The landlord had been cagey, but must have been warned that I would be coming. I was led to a discreet table in a back garden where a second cup was standing ready. Petro quickly filled it for me.
"Thanks! I need a drink."
"I warn you, Falco, it won't help."
I drained the cup and started on a second one, this time adding water. That was a mess." The baker's pulped flesh kept revisiting my memory. I set my beaker on the table, as nausea threatened. "Familiar?"
"Took me right back to the Balbinus mob."
Petronius let out a grunt. He had a bread roll alongside him. He had managed two bites, automatically. Now it just sat there. He would throw it away.
"Those were the days!" He sounded bitter. "You took your time getting here."
"Busy day. I had to go out and see a bastard lawyer, for one thing. Anyway, I'm staying at the residence. You can send a message which reaches there in a few minutes. Then the slaves spend all morning and afternoon passing it between themselves. Saying it is urgent slows them down."
Petro lost interest in that. "This is grim, Falco." He must have been thinking for some hours. Now he plunged right in: "With your man, the drowned Briton, his fight could have been spur of the moment. There was a flare-up and he copped it. End of story."
"No, it was planned," I broke in. "Tell you in a minute. Go on."
"This death was deliberate slow torture. Its aim was systematic terrorizing of the whole community."
"And the body was meant to be found?"
"Who knows? If they want secrecy they should have weighed it down. They should have dumped it further downriver, away from habitation. No, they intend it to look as though they discarded him like rubbish. They want the next victims they lean on to have heard all about this… Did you talk to the ferryman?"
"He's gone into shock."
"Well, he told me the tide was on the turn. It looked as if the body had been chucked overboard to go downstream a bit, but it washed back unexpectedly."
"Chucked overboard-from what?" I queried.
"A boat went down. The ferry had had to wait for it while he was coming to get me."
"Why didn't you use the bridge?" I asked.
"Same reason as you, Falco. Hilaris warned me they don't maintain it."
I grinned, then became serious again. "When I asked him, the ferryman denied seeing anything."
"Do you blame him? Suppose this was the Balbinus mob, would you pipe up, 'Oh, Officer! I saw the boat they threw this person off'? You'd have your eyes very tightly closed."
"So where were you at the crucial moment, Petro? Did you see this boat dumping him?"
"I was aware of the boat," Petronius admitted angrily. "Classic witness failure, Falco-I was paying no attention. I didn't think it was important at the time."
"Big craft or small?" We had to drag it out of his memory while we could.
Petronius cooperated gloomily He was disgruntled that he, the professional, had failed to take note of a vital scene. "Smallish. Smart, a private river craft-pleasure not trade."
"Sailed or rowed?"
He placed a wide palm on his forehead. "Rowed." He paused. "There was a small sail too."
"Nameboard? Flags? Interesting prow?"
He tried hard. "Nothing that stuck."
"Anyone visible?"
"Couldn't say."
"Hear a suspicious splash?"
He grimaced. "Don't be stupid. If I had, I'd have paid attention, wouldn't I?" Something struck him. "There was somebody standing in the prow!"
"Good-what about him?"
It had gone. "Don't know… nothing."
I frowned. "Why were you aware of the boat? Also, why did the ferry have to wait? The river's wide enough."
Petronius thought. "The boat was stationary for a while. Drifting." He pulled a face. "While they dropped him in, perhaps. They could have slid him over the side, the side away from me."
"Hades… That was stupid-right by the bridge and the ferry crossing!"
"It was at the crack of dawn, but you're on the dot: it was stupid. Anybody could have seen them. These villains don't care."
"Anyone else about?"
"Just me. I start early. I was here, squatting on the jetty."
"Would they have seen you signaling to call the ferry?"
"No. I don't bother. I was just sitting still, listening to the marsh birds and thinking about-" He stopped. His lost daughters. I dropped a hand over his forearm, but he shook me off. "I have a routine arrangement to be fetched at first light. The ferry was still moored opposite. If the people in the drop-boat were preoccupied, they may not have realized I was watching."
"They were damned careless, all the same." I thought about things. Life stank. "I still say, this is a wide enough river. Why did the ferryman wait?"
Petro saw my point. "Wonder if he knows who owns that boat?"
"And wanted to avoid them? Was he scared, then?… All right-so what about the corpse?"
"Bumped up against us as we crossed. The ferryman would have pushed it away and hoped it sank. I made him hook it."
"Did he know beforehand that it was death by violence?"
"I thought he just wanted to avoid trouble. He was horrified when he saw we had landed a corpse in that condition."
"And Firmus? Firmus happened to be there?"
"Yes. He threw up in the drink."
We sat quiet for a time. Dusk was falling; if I wanted to make it back across the river I would have to move. I would have liked to stay and give Petronius solace.
"I feel bad about leaving. I don't like you being alone over here."
"I'm all right. Things to do, lad. Wrongs to right-villains to catch," he assured me, his tone drab. Petronius had never been a pious hero. He was far too decent.
Before I set off, I told him what I had learned today about the circumstances of the Verovolcus death.
"It's clear Splice and Pyro did it-but I wish I knew what Verovolcus was talking to them about at the bar."
"And who was the man giving them orders? What are you going to do?" asked Petro.
"Report it all to the governor, I reckon."
"What will he do?" He managed to avoid sounding skeptical.
"What I tell him, I hope. Now I have to decide what that should be."
"What do you think?" I knew he was dying to make suggestions. When we were lads out here in Britain he would have barged in, taking over if he could. But we were grown-up now. If no wiser, we were both more sad and tired. He held back, leaving me to take the initiative in my aspect of the case.
"I think it's time we arrested Splice and Pyro. Are you happy? Will it cut across you?"
Petro thought quickly, then shook his head. "No. Time to shake things up. So long as I know what's coming. But take care," he warned. "You may be pulling out a support that brings the whole damn edifice crashing down on us."
"I see that."
Petro was trying to prophesy: "If you take out their main collectors, the group then has to reorganize. They'll need to do it fast, or the locals will start enjoying their freedom. Way out here, the gangsters are very far from their normal resources. If they lose a crucial operative, I doubt if they have backup. They may make mistakes, become too visible. Then too, they have the worry of what Splice and Pyro may tell you."