"You know that for sure?'
"Nobody knows anything for sure. My people found her cluttering
up the skamma I had her thrown out into the porch. I don't allow women – alive or dead!'
I quashed an indignant retort." Someone must have brought her in behind your back?'
"If it was up to me, I would bar women for a twenty-mile radius.'
"Plenty of people feel the same way?' If his attitude was common among competitors and male spectators, it could make life very uncomfortable for women visitors.
"We ought to go back to the old days – women were hurled from the Typaean cliffs!'
"Bit drastic?'
"Not drastic enough.'
"And now?'
"They get refused entry to the events. But the silly whores come wandering all over the place. If I catch the bastard who sneaked one in here, I'll break every bone in his body.' He meant it.
As for the woman, if this tyrant had caught her in his precious palaestra, would he go as far as killing her? I reckoned if he had done, he would be boasting more.
"I take it your palaestra stays open after normal hours?'
"We never lock up. The porter knocks off but we leave out a few lamps, in case competitors are desperate for a last practice.'
"Why should anyone be desperate this year?'
"What's your point, Falco?'
"No Games, no competitors. No competition, no need for late-night practice. The aficionados aren't coming till next year. I bet this place was deserted. Anyone could slip in a girlfriend and hope for his fun undisturbed.'
The superintendent glowered. His bad eye watered." Athletes who come here are dedicated They practise full time.'
"You can't have it all ways. If athletes were in here, I want to know who they were, and I'll question them…' The superintendent was not going to tell me. I guessed they weren't around that night, so I left it." Had the woman been bothering your members, all doe-eyed?'
"I'd like to see her try! My members have only one thing on their minds.'
"Really?'
"You haven't got the first idea. Dedication They go in front of the statue of Zeus Horkios to swear they have been in training for ten months. That's just the start. The judges have to confirm that accredited contenders have practised, at Elis or here, for a whole
month, under Olympic supervision. They are got in shape by coaches and doctors, they have diet and exercise regimens laid down for every minute of the day – bugger it, they even have their sleep regulated.'
There was no mileage in restating that this was not an Olympic year; I went along with him." So the last thing those boys want is some skirt messing with their brains?'
The superintendent was still giving me the" looks can kill' glare he had developed for the start of his fights, when each man paces around trying to make his opponent concede from sheer terror." Let me tell you – they tie a tight piece of string around their prick and even if they have any energy to spare for screwing, they can't get it up!'
I winced. Anyone who has ever entered a gymnasium has heard that story. Nobody I ever knew had really seen it done. Even so, I knew the slang. "Putting the dog on the lead?
"Get you!' The superintendent had a punch-drunk brain. There was so little undamaged sweetbread in his skull, only one idea could feature." The brazen bride must have been meeting a lover, but it was not one of my members. Some bastard outsider slipped her in after hours, then she played him up and he cracked her one.
"Several, as I heard. Can I see the weight that killed her?'
"It's not here.' I did not believe him. I bet he had snaffled it to gloat over. However, he was too big to argue with." She deserved a bashing,' he reckoned.
Helene Justina would protest that no woman" deserves' murder. Until I knew just how Valeria was lured here, I would reserve judgement. If she flaunted herself, she was stupid." Tell me about afterwards, then. Wasn't there a magistrate dabbling with the investigation?'
"Aquillius. From Corinth. Thank the gods he's taken himself back there.'
"On the governor's staff?'
"Bloody quaestor.' Some youngster in his first ever senatorial post, then. In fact, not even ensconced in the Senate; just serving in a minor finance post in order to show he was fit for election. Bound to know nothing. Bound to have messed up. Bound to get uppity if I ever told him so.
"Anybody here on the site I ought to report to?' I asked." Don't want to step on toes. Who took the most interest here?'
"Lacheses. In the Altis. At the Priests' House.'
"Chief priest?'
"Zeus, no, Chief priest has better things to worry about.'
I thanked him, though it hurt to do so, and he swore at me again. I got out of there, with cold sweat running down my back
I went to see the priest. This was about as useful as scratching a gnat-bite with a feather Still, it had to be done.
The Priests' House was on the north side of the Altis, in the shadow of the Hill of Cronus, near the Prytaneion where victory feats took place. It was not the main administrative centre for the Games, but it contained council rooms where meetings could be held. Presumably the shrine attendants could use it as a secular drop-in when they were off duty. I was so secular I was kept in the porch. It took nearly an hour for Lacheses to deign to appear.
He was lean and louche Few priests are as venerable as you imagine; this one was about thirty – some winner in the social lottery who could as easily have ended up with a tax-farming concession instead of a religious post. He wore a long tuft of beard, twirled up at the end, and he really thought he looked good with it.
I had told him, in Latin, that I represented Vespasian. He replied in Greek." I am here to help.' He had a special slimy tone for dismissing intruders who came asking awkward questions. "The death of the young woman was deeply regrettable. Everybody grieved for her. Please transmit our assurances to the Emperor. it was properly investigated at the time. A senior official from Corinth concluded there was no evidence to bring charges. Nothing more could be done Nothing more can be said.' He said it anyway." We would prefer that the sanctity of this holy place should now be allowed to resume undisturbed.'
"So would I. I had given up and agreed to use Greek. There was grit in my throat." I mean, / would prefer that young females from Rome should stop dropping dead at your sanctuary.'
He gave me the chin-up look with his tufty beard again, as if he were an Olympic judge on one of Pa's red-figure vases. If he had had a judge's long stick in his hand, he would have jabbed me with it.
"Are you responsible, Lacheses, for clearing the site where the party had pitched camp?' He looked indignant; I just managed to restrain myself from grabbing him by the priestly robes and squeezing his windpipe until he wet himself." Settle down. I realise the ground had been polluted.' I bet nobody had ever said the far more polluted palaestra porch and skamma needed to be kept out of bounds to members until they had been sprinkled with holy water and an olive
branch. Nothing would interfere with sport" Were any clues found at the campsite?'
"Nothing significant'
"What was learned about the young woman?'
"She had quarrelled with her husband.'
It was the first I had heard of it, though I was not surprised." That's definite?
"Several of her companions had heard them. He did not deny it.'
"What were they fighting about?'
The priest looked astonished." I have no idea.'
"Nice respect for the confidences of the marriage bed! Don't you think it might be relevant? Might this quarrel not explain why, if he did kill her, the husband was moved to do it?'
"Nobody is accusing the husband,' the priest assured me suddenly. He had smelt the danger of a libel or maladministration charge." Everything was investigated. Nothing pointed to any particular suspect. There are people coming and going all the time at Olympia. It was obvious that the killer was probably a stranger, and that in the melee after the death was discovered, he must have slipped away"