Holconius and Mutatus were sitting glumly in their hired room. Between them, spread on a carefully laid out cloak, lay an unpacked packed lunch, looking like food they had brought from Rome with them. They had divided it neatly into two portions, but seemed too disheartened to start. I introduced Helena, as if I forgot she had met them that morning. We both assessed them thoughtfully. two lean, middle-aged freedmen with excellent Latin accents and grammar, who must be equally smart at Greek. Two sophisticated, literate men, who seemed ill at ease outside their natural environment.
Marcus had heard you were both on leave," Helena said, settling herself. As she spread her skirts and readjusted her bangles, Mutatus shook his head. It was a rapid, nervous gesture.
With our responsibilities, we are always available in emergencies." I wondered if Diocles had been growing into a similar bald, bewildered-looking misfit. Somehow I thought not. The missing man had regularly covered worldly stories; he travelled; he could offer himself for work in diverse trades. Diocles was feckless and he drank. He owned a sword. The man could have been an informer, had he been able to choose a decent weapon. Holconius and Mutatus did not look like men who had brought swords. I doubted that either owned one. Nor could I easily imagine either with family connections. Both had the narrow, obsessed air of experts. Bachelors, or men with dim wives who were expected to admire their husbands" culture and intelligence from the background. Holconius, the elder, was in a white tunic with cream undertones; Mutatus was in white that had a greyish tinge. Otherwise they matched as well as a pair of table ends.
Do you want to see the ransom note, Falco?" Holconius demanded.
All in good time. It is true that there has been a kidnap racket operating in Ostia, and that Diocles may have stumbled across it. But my first consideration, when a ransom demand is delivered like this, has to be whether it is genuine."
Genuine?" They looked startled. Holconius scoffed, Why should you doubt it?"
It's too long since your man vanished." Even Helena was watching me curiously. This was our first chance to evaluate what was going on. I had been thinking about it as Helena and I walked here. This does not fit the pattern, Holconius. In the abduction cases we know about, there are strict rules. they carry off women, not men; they make their demands for money normally on the same day; they close the deal fast; they choose foreigners who will leave the country if threatened. Basically, they avoid coming to the attention of the authorities." Holconius nodded. His role at the Gazette was to take the notes in the Senate. It must have been a pleasant change to hear a worthwhile argument, with points listed cogently.
What choice do we have?" demanded Mutatus. None. The race is fixed. Somebody's got Diocles; the outcome is a dead cert." Mutatus covered the games. As a sports commentator he made swift assess ments, then perhaps thought about it afterwards while other people were howling that he was a complete idiot.
Kidnappers work by trading on their victims" inexperience," I told him. They want you to be so scared for Diocles, you follow their instructions exactly. You two have never been in this situation before, and it fills you with consternation. But I am thinking it through. For one thing, they claim they have had Diocles ever since he disappeared, having transported him to Sardinia. Is this credible?"
It sounds like a cover-up." Helena reinforced my argument. Some opportunist has seized on the fact that people are looking for Diocles, and is hoping to cash in." I agreed. Someone has just heard that Sardinia is full of bandits, and they decided that would sound good. When people go missing, especially when there is high profile anxiety about their fate, such nonsense happens."
Cranks, maniacs and confidence tricksters are drawn to a tragedy," Helena told the scribes. Families who lose loved ones in unexplained circumstances can be horribly exploited."
That is why I have to advise you whether to take this demand seriously," I said. Frankly, I am doubtful."
You don't want us to pay the money?" asked Mutatus.
I don't."
But we brought the money with us!" This kind of illogical reasoning would be joy to a ransom gang or to any kind of exploiter. I realised that the cash must be sitting in the large chest beneath the cloak upon which the two scribes had laid out their lunch. Perhaps they thought robbers would fail to look under their tablecloth. Most likely, the daft pair had given absolutely no thought to security. I told them to take their loot for safe keeping in the vaults of one of the Forum temples. To be sure, tell them you are depositing imperial funds." I paused. Does the Emperor know about all this?" They looked shifty. Eventually Holconius admitted with a lofty wave of the hand, In view of the circumstances, and the need for secrecy, we were granted funds by the cashier in the Chief Spy's office." I drew breath sharply. I take it Anacrites is still at his holiday villa?" They both looked surprised at the familiarity with which I spoke of him. He will be livid when he knows that you two have siphoned off his petty cash."
It's more than petty cash…" Holconius blushed. We told them you had authorised it."
You told them a lie then," I replied quietly, keeping my temper. Helena covered her eyes with her hand, despairing. Anacrites had always posed a threat against me that frightened her. This was asking for more trouble. You owe the Chief Spy a confession, and me an apology. Your action will gravely damage my relationship with Anacrites Nothing could damage it. We had no relationship. He and I were permanently out to get one another. These two ninnies had just given him the upper hand.
Show me the ransom note now, please."
We left it in Rome." Upset by my attitude, Mutatus tried bluffing.
Holconius offered it to me. Let's be sensible, shall we?" They produced the document. I read it and gave it back to them. They seemed surprised I did so. That was the difference between scribes and informers. Scribes wanted to keep everything for their archives. I was used to learning the crucial parts of correspondence, then ditching the evidence. [Or replacing it exactly as I had found it in the owner's ivory scroll box, so he or she never knew that I had read it..] This was a waxed tablet, written in Latin, legible but not produced by a secretary. It said the usual. we've got him, you want him back; give us the money, or Diocles dies. The arrangements were in the letter. There was no mention of any Illyrian. The scribes were to leave the cash at a drop site. It was in Portus Augusti, an establishment named the Damson Flower. I was able to inform them that their venue was close to a bar called the Dolphin, and that I thought it was probably a brothel. Helena looked impressed by my local knowledge. The scribes simply looked shocked.
This is a confidence trick," I assured them. If you give them the money, you will lose it and never see Diocles."
They will kill him even if we pay?"
They won't kill him, because they don't have him." We had covered this already, but Holconius and Mutatus simply had not heard me. Look, I wish I could say my investigation will lead to me finding him drinking with a maudlin face in some port-side bar. All I have learned so far leads me to dread his fate, though in my opinion, he has not been kidnapped."
You think he is dead already?" Holconius was blunt.
It seems a possibility. Maybe he has ended his own life, suicide for personal reasons after suffering depression. But there are other alternatives, some of which involve people and stories he may have wanted to write in the Gazette. I asked this before, but I will ask you again, was there any particular scandal that Diocles told you he intended to cover?" The scribes shook their heads. I warned them again not to pay the ransom. They thanked me for coming to give them this sound advice. They had not the slightest intention of following it. They forgot, I had had many clients before. I knew the signs.