Poseidon_s Gold

'Why did he not run away afterwards?' Apollonius asked thoughtfully.

'Nowhere to run,' I answered. 'No one to help him this time. He tried to discuss it with me.' Remembering Epimandos's pathetic attempts to get my attention I was furious with myself. 'I dismissed him as just curious-the usual sensation-seeker who hangs around after a murder. All I did was brush him aside and threaten vengeance on whoever had committed the crime.'

'You were in a difficult position personally,' Apollonius consoled me.

'Not as bad as his. I should have noticed his hysteria. After he killed the soldier he must have frozen. I've seen it before. He just acted as if it had never happened, trying to blot the event right out of his mind. But he was almost begging to be discovered. I should have recognised that he was appealing for my help.'

'There was nothing to be done!' Petro pointed out harshly. 'He was a runaway slave, and he had murdered a legionary: nobody could have saved him, Marcus. If he hadn't taken this action today, he would have been crucified or sent to the arena. No judge could have done otherwise.'

'It was very nearly me who ended up in the dock!' I answered hollowly.

'Never! He would have stopped it,' Apollonius broke in. 'His loyalty to your family was too strong to let you suffer. What your brother had done for him meant everything. He was desperate when he heard they had arrested you. He must have been in anguish, hoping you would clear yourself and yet not discover his own guilt. But from the start his position was hopeless.'

'He seems a very sad character,' Helena sighed.

'After what he had suffered in Alexandria, his quiet life here was a revelation. That was why he exploded at the thought of losing it.'

'Yet to kill someone!' protested Helena.

Again it was Apollonius who answered her: 'The caupona looks dreadful to you, maybe. But nobody beat or whipped him, or subjected him to worse abuse. He had food and drink. The work was easy and people talked to him like a human being. He had a cat to fondle-even me at the door to look down on. Within this small world at the crossroads, Epimandos had status, dignity and peace.' From a man in beggar's rags himself the speech was heartbreaking.

We all fell silent. Then I had to ask Petronius. 'What's your theory about that knife?'

Helena Justina glanced at me quickly. Petro had an unfathomable expression as he said, 'Epimandos lied when he claimed he had never seen it. He must have used it often. I have just managed to trace the knife to the caupona,' he admitted, surprising me.

'How?'

'Leave it alone.' He sounded embarrassed. He could see I wanted to argue. 'I am satisfied, Falco!'

I said quietly, 'No, we ought to get this sorted out. I think the knife left my mother's house with my father-'

Petro cursed under his breath. 'Exactly!' he told me. 'I know it did. I didn't want to mention it; you're such a touchy beggar on some subjects-'

'What are you saying, Petro?'

'Nothing.' He was trying to hide something; that was obvious. It was ridiculous. We had solved the murder-yet we seemed to be plunging deeper into mystery. 'Look, Falco, the knife was always part of the caupona's equipment. It's been there ever since the place first opened ten years ago.' He looked shiftier than ever.

'How do you know?'

'I asked the owner.'

'Flora?'

'Flora,' said Petronius, as if that ended everything.

'I didn't think Flora existed.'

'Flora exists.' Petronius stood up. He was leaving the Valerian.

'How,' I demanded emphatically, 'did this Flora acquire the knife if Pa had it?'

'Don't worry about it,' said Petro. 'I'm the investigating officer, and I know all about the knife.'

'I have a right to know how it got there.'

'Not if I'm happy.'

'Blow you, Petro! I was damned nearly sent to trial because of that implement.'

'Tough,' he said.

Petronius Longus could be an absolute bastard when he chose. Official posts go to people's heads. I told him what I thought of him, but he simply ignored my rage.

'I must go, Falco. I'll have to advise the owner that the waiter's dead and the caupona's empty. That crowd outside is looking for an excuse to break in and smash up the furniture while they help themselves to free wine.'

'We'll stay there,' Helena volunteered quietly. 'Marcus will keep the thieves and looters out until a watchman can be sent.'

Petro glanced at me for confirmation. 'I'll do it,' I said. 'I owe Epimandos something.'

Petronius shrugged and smiled. I did not know the reason, and I was so annoyed with him I did not care.

LXI

I told Helena to go home; rebelliously she came with me.

'I don't need supervision.'

'I disagree!' she snapped.

The waiter's body still lay where we had left it in the main part of the building so we hovered about in the back. Helena marched into the little cubicle Epimandos had slept in, and sat on his bed. I stood in the doorway. I could see she was furious.

'Why do you hate your father so much, Falco?'

'What's all this about?'

'You can't hide from me. I do know!' she rampaged. 'I understand you, Marcus. I can see what perverted suspicions you were harbouring about who had used your mother's knife!'

'Petronius was right. Forget the knife.'

'Yes, he's right-but it took a long argument to convince you. You and your stubborn prejudices-you're hopeless! I really did think that after Capua and your meetings with Geminus in Rome these past few weeks, you and he had at last reached an accommodation. I wanted to believe you two were friends again,' she wailed.

'Some things don't change.'

'Well you don't, obviously!' I had not seen Helena so angry for a long time. 'Marcus, your father loves you!'

'Settle down. He doesn't want me, or any of the rest of us. Festus was his boy, but that was different. Festus could win anybody over.'

'You are so wrong,' Helena disagreed miserably. 'You just won't see the truth, Marcus. Marriages do fail.' She knew that; she had been married. 'If things had been different between your parents, your father would have had just as strong a grip on you and all the others as your mother has today. He stands back-but that doesn't mean he wants to. He still worries and watches over what you all do-'

'Believe that if it pleases you. But don't ask me to alter. I learned to live without him when I had to-and that suits me now.'

'Oh you're so stubborn! Marcus, this could have been your chance to put things right between you, maybe your only chance…' Helena rounded on me pleadingly: 'Listen, do you know why he gave me that bronze table as a gift?'

'Because he likes your spirit and you're a pretty girl.'

'Oh Marcus! Don't always be so sour! He took me to see it. He said, "Look at this. I had my eye on it for Marcus, but he'll never accept it from me".'

I still saw no reason to change my own attitude because these two had palled up. 'Helena, if you have come to an arrangement, that's charming and I'm delighted you get on so well-but it's between you and him.' I did not even object to Helena and Pa manipulating me, if that thrilled them. 'I don't want to hear any more.'

I left her sitting on the waiter's bed, below the amulet Festus had once given Epimandos. It had not done the waiter much good.

I stalked away. The main bar, with its sad contents, still repelled me, so I lit another lamp and stomped upstairs.

I looked in the two small rooms that lay above the kitchen area. They were furnished for thin dwarves with no luggage who might be prepared to spend their free time at Flora's sitting on rickety beds staring at spiders' webs.

Gruesome fascination drew me to the other room again.