Nemesis

'His feelings need not concern us,' I said. 'The funeral was his downfall. Once they knew who he was, his brothers latched on like parasites. They saw Anacrites as their crock of gold. It looked innocent to start with. The twins asked for a job. How could he say no? He employed them; he may have welcomed them – agents he felt he could control, agents who would be loyal to him.'

Petronius shook his head. 'The twins arrive in Rome. Anacrites quickly grasps his error: he will never shake them off. They start whining about conditions on the marshes. Their background is a reproach, their presence in Rome an embarrassment. They threaten the spy's ambitions.'

'He wants out?' asked Quintus. 'But they refuse to go.'

'Anacrites' unpredictability increases due to his head wound,' Helena said. 'He becomes vulnerable at work, with his position threatened by Laeta and even by Momus. At some ghastly point he learns the kind of crimes Nobilis and the others have committed. By then he cannot escape.'

'And so we come to the Modestus murder.' I screwed my thumbs into my belt and took charge of the final argument. 'Everything went wrong with the fence dispute. Up to that point, I'd say Nobilis probably carried out all his killings in the area around Antium – the bodies Silvius has found. Nobilis and various brothers abducted people for years, usually travellers, often couples. Those cases were concealed, but he lost it with Modestus. By tailing Modestus to Rome, for once Nobilis left a trail. Nobilis – - presumably with Pius or Virtus – - killed Modestus on the Via Appia. They spent several days at the crime site, desecrating the body, then Nobilis went home. Primilla came looking for her husband, so he killed her too, with her overseer, Macer. That meant her nephew alerted the authorities and a posse arrived to shake down the Claudii. From then on, we can assume pressure was put upon Anacrites to protect them. That may well have been when one of them told him about the murders. It made him more insecure and dangerous. Crucially, he inherited the same manipulative traits as the rest of them – - a situation which they may not have foreseen. He turned on them.'

'He may have been appalled by their crimes,' Helena said, always fair.

'He was certainly furious about how it threatened him personally! Perella was sent after Nobilis, but Nobilis got away. Anacrites tried to remove Nobilis from the scene, taking him to Istria. Whose idea that was we can never know. Perhaps they really found their grandmother. One way or another, Nobilis refused to play; he would not stay in exile. Idiotically, he sailed back with Anacrites – - who then must have been as close to hysteria as he ever gets.'

'Not him!' Albia scoffed. 'He thinks himself invincible. In his eyes, everything that happens is manipulated by him. He believes he is a genius. When I was in his house he said, "Falco can't touch me; I run rings around him". He had been drinking, but he meant it.'

With a glance at Petronius, I said slowly, 'He may in fact have been more clever than we think. What Anacrites achieved may not have been entirely crude. The way he grabbed the Modestus case and warned off Petronius and me seems plain stupid. Some of his actions – - house searches, annoying the Vestals – seem worse.'

'Well, they were!'

'Perhaps not, Petro.'

'Oh Titan's turds!' Suddenly, Petronius saw where I was heading. He was tired after last night's shift with the vigiles. Realisation drowned him in self-disgust and frustration. 'He cannot be this clever!'

'Lucius, my old friend, I'm afraid he is.'

'He played us?'

'Tickled us like dim trouts in a mountain stream.'

While Petro cursed and tried to pretend this had not happened, Helena Justina took over from me, to explain the unpleasant truth. 'Anacrites had a dilemma. The Claudii were threatening to expose his background unless he protected them. He had to make them think he was looking after them – - while all the time that busy brain of his, the intelligence even Laeta compliments, was desperately finding ways to eliminate them instead. He had to deal with each in turn – and without the others noticing. He found the perfect solution. Marcus and Lucius, he used you two.'

With a deep sigh I acknowledged it. 'He took away our case -knowing we would refuse to give up. A pattern existed. We had continued on cases secretly before. We hated him. He used our own doggedness against us.'

Petro shared the confession: 'He organised either the twins or Nobilis to kill that courier, so they would think he was cleverly diverting attention from them in the Modestus case – '

'When I asked, he even admitted the diversion idea stank,' I said. 'He made sure we had seen through it. He wanted us to stick to the Claudii.'

Petronius groaned. 'Then he began picking them off- – using us. We did his dirty work; he looked innocent to his brothers. He sent Pius to us deliberately. He'd dispatched Virtus to the marshes, so he could not help his twin. We helpfully took Pius – '

'We fell for it like automata.'

'So whose idea was that, Falco?'

'Be fair – both of us,' I pointed out. Petronius shrugged acknowledgement. 'The spy avoided looking for Pius until he thought we must have finished him off. Even Pius realised he was abandoned.

He gave up. He saw Anacrites was never going to rescue him, because Anacrites had planned it.'

'Pius could have told us,' said Petro.

'If he explained what was happening, it was as good as confessing his involvement in the murders. Afterwards, Anacrites probably told Virtus to stay "out of the way" in the marshes, so he never realised his twin had gone missing. We know he then instructed Nobilis to run for cover – just when Quintus and I were on our way to Latium, and might have run into him.'

Petronius cursed. 'I bet he knew all along we were working with Silvius and the Urbans. Jupiter, you don't think Silvius is some crony of his?'

'No. I think Silvius is straight. Concentrate on Anacrites,' I instructed.

'He jerked our string. We did everything he wanted. It is a compliment, really,' Petronius decided, with grim mirth. 'Marcus, a villain of unbelievable duplicity entrusted us with his schemes. We should feel proud he believes in us so much!'

'I am proud of the work. We put four criminals out of action, after they had preyed on a community for decades. That is what we do with our lives, Lucius, and it is commendable.'

Quintus and Aulus Camillus had been listening with tense expressions. I stood up. I paced the room a few times, before telling them. 'For Petronius and me, the work is not yet finished. I wanted you two to hear all this. Now I want you to go away and leave us to it. Preserve your knowledge of these facts, as curators of the truth. I need you to know, in case the rest goes wrong.'

'The rest?' demanded Quintus quickly.

'Don't do it!' muttered Aulus. 'Going after him is far too dangerous. Leave it, Falco. My father tried, but Titus spoke up for the spy. At the Palace they believe he is good at his job. The official decision has been made: Anacrites is too valuable to remove.'

'I expected that. Hence this council.'

I looked around the room: Helena; her brothers; my sister; our adopted daughter; Petronius; me. A close, closed circle, all of us touched in some way by the spy's past actions, all threatened by his future schemes.

'Helena?'

Helena glanced at Albia, then Maia. 'What do we all think?'

'Leave him – - and it will only grow worse,' prophesied Maia darkly.

'He claimed he can do anything he wants,' added Albia. 'I argued that he is accountable to the Emperor – but he told me emperors will come and go. He stays. He answers only to history.'

'Hubris!' Helena retorted, as if charging Anacrites in person. 'Self-centred aggrandisement – an insult to the gods. What will the gods do about it?' she then wondered. Her dark brown eyes inevitably sought mine.

'Send Nemesis to deal with him,' I answered.