He subsided into a weak heap. I gazed at him, impressed."So, Aulus Camillus Aelianus, son of Decimus, tell me. have you learned any law yet?'
Then Aulus Camillus Aelianus, prospective top-class barrister, looked at me without guile. Before he put his throbbing head back into his trembling hands, he just smiled regretfully.
LV
Helena's foray into the markets produced an excellent Athenian breakfast of steaming hot honey-and-sesame pancakes. Those of us who were without a hangover tucked in, afterwards filling up any crannies with barley bread and olive paste, all topped off with pears.
"What's for lunch?'
"Anything you like, apparently – so long as it's fish.' That would explain why the Panathenian Way was so full of fish-heads, fish guts, crab claws, prawn shells, and cuttlefish.
Aulus asked us to stop talking about food.
We propped him up, made belated introductions where necessary, and shared our various discoveries about the murders. Aulus had nothing to tell us about Marcella Caesia and little to add to the details we had learned for ourselves about Valeria Ventidia. But he could tell us more of Turcianus Opimus, the invalid; he had met the man.
"He was desperately ill. It was horrible. He was being eaten up inside.'
"So you think his death was entirely natural?' Helena asked.
"I know it was.'
"You were with the group when they went to Epidaurus,' I chipped in.
Aulus looked embarrassed."The others were all twittering on about their aches and pains,' he complained."They were booking themselves into dream cells – and when they came out next morning there was a big fuss because Marinus had been bitten by a dog. None of them seemed to realise that their little rheumatics – and even a few septic teeth marks – were nothing to what Turcianus was going through.'
"So?' Helena, who knew her brother well, was watching him closely.
"Well, I just felt so sorry for Turcianus. He was struggling to keep up a facade of jollity. He tried not to be a nuisance. But he must have been regretting that he ever came on that last journey, he was in so
much pain. Keeping it all to himself, he must have been lonely, for one thing.'
"So?'
"When the medics had assessed him, they tipped me the wink he was on his way out. Nobody else volunteered, so I sat by his bedside all that night. No one did anything to harm him. I was with him when he died.'
Aulus fell silent. He was about twenty-seven. As a senator's son, he had led a sheltered life in some respects. He would have lost grandparents and family slaves, maybe one or two men in his command while he was a tribune in the army. In Rome, he had once found a bloody corpse at a religious site. But nobody had ever died right in front of him before.
Helena put her arms around him."Turcianus was dying, alone and far from home. I am sure he knew you were there; you must have reassured the poor man. Aulus, you are good and kind.'
Gaius and Cornelius were shifting about awkwardly at this sentimental moment. I saw even Albia raise her eyebrows in that sceptical way she had. She had a tomboyish relationship with Aulus, which certainly had not involved seeing him as a philanthropist. We all tended to think of him as a cold fish. I for one was shocked to imagine him sitting with a virtual stranger, murmuring supportive words through the small hours, as the man slipped away.
"Did he happen to say anything?'
"No, Falco.'
"Marcus!' Helena rebuked me. I bent my head and looked humble. I had known it was useless. Deathbed revelations do not happen in real life. For one thing, anyone with money makes sure his doctors provide oblivion by giving him a good tincture of poppyseeds.
Still, I was an informer. So I had to ask.
"It was all sad, but perfectly natural,' Aulus assured me. I'll vouch for it; there was nothing untoward.'
"I'm glad. I don't want to find unnatural deaths at every turn.'
"From what you say, you have quite enough with Cleonymus and Statianus.'
"Reckon so.' Mention of Cleonymus made me think of our last venue."Aulus, something bothers me. Before we left Corinth, that quaestor, Aquillius, said he wanted to free the Seven Sights group from house arrest because they had threatened him with a lawyer. Your tutor, apparently!'
"Minas?' Aulus detected my note of disapproval; he was quick to
dissociate himself. He shook his head in disbelief."I cannot imagine Minas has ever even heard of the group. I've never told him about them. I can't face him making me translate it all into some ghastly legal exercise.'
"You sure of that?'
"He wouldn't thank me for discussing a real situation. He may be a master of jurisprudence, but he tries to avoid legal practice nowadays. I am astonished if he has intervened.'
"They just got hold of his name somehow.'
"Phineus used it to back up a threat. How could Phineus get the name Minas of Karystos from you?' asked Helena.
"He didn't.'
"Aquillius was specifically told that Minas was your tutor.'
Aulus considered that carefully."There is only one way. I wrote to Statianus after I left him at Delphi. For something to fill the scroll, I mentioned that Minas would be teaching me. But I only met Minas after I came to Athens, so nobody else could know. I never wrote to any of the others – Hades, they are a terrible lot! Statianus must have told them.'
As far as we knew, Statianus lost contact with his travel companions after he went across to Delphi. I had found no letters when I searched his luggage in that dismal hired room. I would definitely have noticed one from Aulus.
"The news of Minas must have got passed from Statianus to Polystratus. They spent an evening together. We'll have to assume your name came up in conversation.' I did not want to think Polystratus also searched the baggage, after Statianus left, and removed the letter naming Minas.
"It was just a friendly letter.' Aulus shrugged his shoulders."Why does this worry you, Marcus?'
"Phineus and Polystratus are my suspects. Suspects talking about you – that's not healthy.' He and I exchanged a glance. In front of his sister, I played down my concern. Alert now, he saw why I felt uneasy."Don't visit any oracles,' I warned, trying to make a jest of it.
Young Glaucus, who as usual had said nothing at all, caught my eye, looking professional. I nodded, keeping it discreet. But Helena Justina came right out and asked Glaucus to stick at her brother's side wherever he went. Our big young friend gave a sombre nod. This was why I had brought him, after all.
It would cause friction tonight when Aulus joined in yet another procession of party-going scholars, trailing around after Minas. Young
Glaucus was so clean-living, he would loathe the debauchery. And Aulus became fractious if he was nannied.
I suggested we could ask the tutor whether anybody from the travel group had ever contacted him. Aulus, now recovering from his hangover, warned me to time it right. It's no use trying to see Minas in the morning, Falco. Even if you manage to wake him up, you'll get nothing. You have to wait until he comes alive at party time. Don't worry. I'll ask him this myself tonight.'
"Still up for another banquet? Well, you enjoy yourself so I can tell your mother you have thrown yourself into the academic life. the star of the symposium. Forget the case. try to find the travel group.'
"Athens is too big to search for them haphazardly. If they are still here, Phineus and Polystratus will be showing them the sights. Marcus, I suggest you go sightseeing too; you may run into them viewing a temple. Even if you don't,' Aulus urged,"you are in Athens, man – make the most of it. Take my sister to the Acropolis. Go and be tourists!'
LVI
Helena Justina was not one to hanker for leisure pursuits when we had an investigation. She had shared my work ever since I met her, five or six years ago. She was as stubborn as me, hating to be thwarted when the evidence ran out, or when new clues seemed to prove our theories wrong. She claimed she was happy to spend all day searching for the Seven Sights party.