"Why was she here?" I urged him a second time.
"Our novice fighter is being armed in the stadium."
"Why the stadium?"
"For secrecy."
Justinus touched my arm and went to take a look.
"Who's your fighter?" The frightened nephew had gone limp on me. "Who, Iddibal?"
"Just a slave."
"Whose slave?"
"One of her own that Aunt Myrrha had taken a dislike to. Nobody. Just a nobody."
I pulled Iddibal more upright and rammed him back against the wall. Then I loosened my hold on him, to seem more friendly. He was dressed in holiday style, even more colorful than the last time I saw him. A long tunic in shades of green and saffron. A wide belt around it. A couple of finger rings and a gold chain.
"That's a nice chain, Iddibal." Its workmanship looked familiar. "Any others at home?"
Bemused and troubled, he answered numbly, "It's not my favorite. I lost that when all this began…"
"When and how?"
"In Rome."
"Where, Iddibal?"
"I left my best clothes with my aunt when I signed on with Calliopus-" He was still straining to look past me to where a doctor was crouched over his aunt. "After I was manumitted, I found the chain was gone."
"What did your aunt say?"
"She had to assume somebody had stolen it. In fact, the slave we're putting up today was the only suspect; Aunt Myrrha told that to father and me last night when she suggested him for the bout-"
"Theft sounds a good reason to get rid of him, yes." I bet Myrrha had had another motive. I had a filthy feeling about this so-called thief, and what Myrrha really knew about her nephew's chain. I tugged at the one Iddibal was now wearing. "Same style as this, was it? The one you lost in Rome?"
"Similar."
"I may have seen it once."
At that Iddibal roused himself. He must have interpreted my ominous tone. "Who had it?"
"Somebody gave it to Rumex, the night he was killed."
He seemed astonished. "How can that be?"
The doctor attending Myrrha stood up. "she's gone," he called. Iddibal abandoned me and rushed over to the corpse. The doctor was holding out an object he had found among Myrrha's clothing; since the nephew was grief-stricken the man gave it to me. It was a small knife, with a bone handle and straight blade, such as a domestic slave might use for sharpening styli.
"Seen this before, Iddibal?"
"I don't know. I don't care-for heaven's sake, Falco-leave me alone!"
Justinus came back.
"Marcus." He stepped close to talk privately. "They have an area where their novice is being hidden from the public. I insisted they let me see him; he's nothing much. Sitting quietly in his armor, inside a small tent."
"Alone?"
"Yes. But Myrrha went in to speak to him a short time ago. The attendants are outside, playing dice, and took no notice-he was her slave, apparently. They saw Myrrha leave, heading fast towards the tunnel with her head wrapped up. They thought no more about it."
"Did you mention that she had been hurt?"
"No."
"What's the name of their gladiator?"
"Fidelis, they say."
"I thought it might be!"
Iddibal looked up. Tearstained and haggard yet no longer so distraught, he rose from his knees beside the sticken figure of his aunt. "That's his knife," he told me, rediscovering himself. "Fidelis was her interpreter."
My voice must have been grim: "A man of that name ran errands as a messenger in Rome. I have an idea your aunt then used him for something very serious. Iddibal, you aren't going to like this but you'll have to face up to it: I don't believe Myrrha ever paid over any money for your release from Calliopus."
"What?"
"When she heard from you that Calliopus wanted Rumex dead, she offered to do the job you had refused. I think she used Fidelis. He took your lost chain to the Saturninus barracks, to offer as a supposed gift. Rumex let him bring it close, then as he put it on he was stabbed in the throat. Unlike Myrrha who must have been wary today, Rumex was caught off guard. On that occasion the slave was able to kill neatly and take his weapon home."
"I don't believe it," said Iddibal. People never do. Then they think things through.
"Myrrha must have decided Fidelis knew too much," Justinus followed up gently. "So she planned to have him killed in the arena today to silence him."
"Perhaps once he killed Rumex, Fidelis became too cocky," I suggested, remembering his attitude when we met them at Sabratha.
"For some stupid reason, she visited him-perhaps to apologize." Justinus was a nice lad. I thought it more likely that Myrrha had been taunting the condemned slave. "He stabbed her, and she must have been too shocked to call for help-"
"Impossible to do so," I said. "She had set him up to kill Rumex; she was guilty too. She needed to keep that secret."
So, fatally wounded, though perhaps unaware of just how grave her condition was, Myrrha had proudly walked away. She collapsed. Now she was dead.
I was all set to visit Fidelis myself and interrogate the bastard. But Fidelis would keep. He had nothing to tell me, really; I was now sure I knew exactly what he had done, and how he was now being made to pay for his faithful service to Myrrha. From the way Justinus described him sitting quietly, it sounded as though Fidelis himself understood that discovery had come and was resigned to his fate. He was a slave. If he died in the arena, that was only where a trial judge would send him anyway.
I had something else to think about. Somebody walked out towards us and stopped on seeing the body. A female voice exclaimed in cultured but callous tones, "What-Myrrha dead? My word, it looks as if we're set to have a bloody day. What fun!"
Then, Scilla, my ex-client, deigned to recognize me.
"I want a word with you, Falco! What have you done to my agent?"
"I thought I was your agent."
Scilla shrugged her shoulders under a full-length purple cloak. "You failed to put in an appearance so I found someone else to do my work."
"Romanus?"
"That's just an alias."
"I thought so. So who is he?"
She blinked, and avoided telling me. "The point is-where is he, Falco? I sent him to see Calliopus last night and he's vanished."
I had little sympathy. "Better ask Calliopus then."
She smiled, far too coyly for my liking. "I might do that later!"
Then Scilla turned on her heel and loped off towards the amphitheater. Her mass of brown hair was today tightly plaited. The cloak she was clutching around her covered the rest of the outfit, but as she walked away from us she released her hold and let it billow out dramatically. When the garment swung loose, I noticed she was bare-legged and wearing boots.
LXI
I told the arena staff to move Myrrha's body out of sight as discreetly as they could. Justinus and I started to walk slowly back to the arena, taking Iddibal with us.
"Iddibal, who set up the special mystery bout your father's holding with the others later? Was it Scilla?"
"Yes. She had met Papa when he was hunting in Cyrenaica. He was interested in her feud with the other lanistae."
"I bet he was! Does Scilla realize that Hanno has been actively involved in stirring up trouble between Saturninus and Calliopus in Rome?"
"How could she?"
"Your father keeps his machinations quiet, but she has an enquiry agent working for her."
"You?"
"No. I don't know who he is." Well, that was my official line.
Scilla was up to no good here, planning new mischief. Iddibal thought so too, and perhaps troubled by his father's involvement with her, he decided to warn me: "scilla has convinced Saturninus and Calliopus that this bout is a way to settle her legal claim-but Papa is certain it's a blind. She's hoping to use the occasion to get back at them in some more dramatic way."