“HOW DID YOU find me?”
We were strolling back along the warm, dappled path to the Sanctuary. Helena, my discreet chaperon, walked in silence beside me, holding my hand, and lifting her face to the sun as if absorbed in the beauties of the scenery. Gaius had taken the baby and Nux and rushed off home ahead of us. The young lovers, or whatever they turned out to be, had dawdled behind to tell each other firmly how there was nothing more to be said.
“I traced you eventually through your friend Petronius. Before that I spoke to a man called Anacrites. He said he was your partner. I didn't care for him.” Scilla was forthright, a woman who made her own judgments and acted accordingly.
Letting the prospective client get the measure of me, I explained as we walked slowly, “I used to work with Petronius, whom I trusted absolutely.” Knowing Petro, I did wonder briefly what he had made of my new client when she approached him. His taste ran to more fragile types, however. Scilla was slim, but she had sinewy arms and a firm spring in her step. “Unhappily, Petronius returned to his career with the vigiles. Now, yes; I work with Anacrites, whom I don't trust at all-so one thing is certain: he won't ever let me down.”
Faced with the traditional wit of the informing fraternity, Scilla merely looked irritated. Well, that's traditional too.
“You have come a long way. So why me?” I asked her mildly.
“You have been involved already in what I need you to do. You came to the house.”
“to see Pomponius Urtica?” For a moment I was transported back to the ex-praetor's luxury villa on the Pincian last December, on those two useless occasions when I endeavored to interview him after he had been mauled by Calliopus' lion. Had Scilla been in the house, or was she just told about me afterwards? Either way, I knew she lived there, a close member of the praetor's domestic circle. “I wanted to talk to Pomponius about that accident.”
Her voice grated: “An accident that ought not to have happened.”
“So I deduced. And how is Pomponius?”
“He died.” Scilla stopped walking. Her face was pale. “It took until the end of March. His end was prolonged and horribly painful.” Helena and I had paused too, in the shade of a low pine tree. Some of the story must have been relayed to Helena already, but she had left me to hear it in full for myself. Scilla came to the point briskly: “Falco, you must have worked out that I want you to help me deal with the people responsible.”
I had indeed guessed that.
What I felt unprepared for was this expensive, cultured, educated-sounding woman. According to the gossip in Rome, she was supposed to be a good-time girl. A lowborn fright, a freed slave probably. Even if Pomponius had bequeathed her millions, it would have been impossible for a common piece like that to transform herself in a few weeks into a close match for a Chief Vestal Virgin's niece.
She noticed my stare, which I had made no effort to hide. “Well?”
“I'm trying to make you out. I had heard you had a “wild” reputation.”
“And what does that mean?” she challenged me.
“To be blunt, I expected a slut of tender years, bearing evidence of adventures.”
Scilla remained calm, though clearly gritting her teeth. “I am a marble importer's daughter. A knight; he had also held important posts in the tax service. My brothers run a thriving architectural fittings business; one is a priest of the imperial cult. So my origins are respectable and I was brought up in comfort, with all the accomplishments that go with it.”
“Then where does the reputation come from?”
“I have one unusual hobby, not relevant to your enquiry.”
My mind raced salaciously. The strange hobby had to be sexual.
The woman set off walking again. This time Helena slipped a hand through her arm, so the two of them strolled along close together while I kicked my own path through the dill bushes. Helena took up the conversation, as if it were more proper for a knight's accomplished daughter to be interviewed by a woman. Personally, I felt Scilla needed no such concession.
“So tell us about you and the ex-praetor? Were you in love?”
“We were going to be married.”
Helena smiled and allowed that to answer the question, though she knew it did not. “Your first marriage?”
“Yes.”
“Had you lived with your family until then?”
“Yes, of course.”
Helena's question had been a subtle way of probing whether Scilla had had significant lovers beforehand. Scilla was too canny to say. “And what about the night Pomponius had the lion brought to his house? That was meant as a “treat” for you?”
The expression in Scilla's hazel eyes seemed sad and far away. “men can have a queer idea of what is appropriate.”
“True. Some lack imagination,” Helena sympathized. “Some, of course, know they are being crass and go ahead anyway… And you were present when Pomponius was mauled. That must have been a terrible experience.”
Scilla prowled on for a moment in silence. She had a fine, controlled walk, not like the tripping shuffles of most well-bred dames who only leave their houses carried in a litter. Like Helena, she gave the impression that she could route-march through half a dozen markets, spend with panache, and then carry her own purchases home.
“Pomponius behaved foolishly,” she said, without rancor or blame. “The lion broke free and leapt at him. It surprised the keepers, though we now know why it behaved that way. It had to be put down.”
I frowned. Somebody had told me the girl had reacted hysterically; that would have been understandable, yet she seemed so composed here I could not quite envisage it. Tipping my head to look around Helena, I said, “Pomponius had been maneuvering a straw man, I believe. The lion flew at it, mauled him, and then chaos broke out-what happened next?”
“I shouted-as loudly as I could-and I rushed forwards, to frighten the lion away.”
“That took nerve.”
“Did it work?” asked Helena, taken aback, yet assuming control again.
“The lion stopped and escaped into the garden.”
“Rumex-the gladiator-followed it, and did what was necessary?” I prompted.
I thought a shadow crossed Scilla's face. “Rumex went after the lion,” she agreed quietly.
She seemed to want to end this conversation, understandably. After a moment Helena said, “I nearly met Rumex once, but it was shortly after the accident and he was being kept apart from the public.”
“You didn't miss much,” Scilla told her, with unexpected force. “He was a has-been. All his fights were fixed.”
Still, I thought, feeling obliged to defend the poor fellow; he had speared an agitated lion, single-handedly.
Her opinion was inside information. I wondered how Scilla had acquired the knowledge to judge a gladiator's prowess so scathingly. From Pomponius, perhaps.
We had reached the main sanctuary area. Scilla took us down some steps. I offered a polite hand to Helena, but Scilla seemed well able to keep her balance without assistance.
There was a small enclosure amongst a cluster of temples, including the large Doric shrine to Apollo, with a dramatic open-air altar outside it. Many of the other temples were elderly and small, cramped around the open square in a friendly style. The Hellenistic gods can be less remote than their Roman equivalents.
“So, will you help me, Falco?” Scilla asked.
“To do what?”
“I want Saturninus and Calliopus called to account for causing the death of Pomponius.”
I remained silent. Helena commented, “That may not be easy. Surely you'd have to prove they knew in advance what was likely to happen that night?”
“They are experts with wild animals,” Scilla responded dismissively. “Saturninus should never have organized a private show. Loosing a wild beast in a domestic environment was stupidity. And Calliopus must have known that by switching the lions he had issued Pomponius with a death sentence.”
As a senator's daughter Helena Justina proposed the establishment solution: “You and the ex-praetor's family might do best bringing a civil suit for your loss. Perhaps you need a good lawyer.”
Scilla shook her head impatiently. “Compensation is not enough. It isn't the point either!” She managed to control her voice, then came out with what sounded like a set speech: “Pomponius was good to me. I won't let him die unchampioned. Plenty of men take an interest in a girl who has a reputation-but you can guess what kind of interest that is. Pomponius was prepared to marry me. He was a decent man.”
“Then forgive me,” said Helena softly. “I can understand your anger, but other people may assume you only have low motives. Does his death mean you lost the hope of his fortune, for instance?”
Scilla looked haughty and once more continued like someone who had spent a lot of time brooding over her grievance and practicing how to defend her anger: “He had been married before and his children are his main heirs. What I have lost is the chance of a good marriage to a man of status. Apart from my own great sorrow, it is a disappointment to my family. An ex-praetor is a fine match for any equestrian's daughter. He was generous to offer me that, and I held him in high regard for it.”
“You have to grieve for him-but you are still young.” Scilla was, I guess, twenty-five or so. “Don't let this blight the rest of your life,” Helena warned.
“But,” Scilla returned dryly, “I carry the extra burden of having lost the man I was supposed to marry, in scandalous circumstances. Who will want me now?”
“Yes, I see.” Helena was regarding her thoughtfully. “So what is Falco supposed to do for you?”
“Help me force those men to admit their crime.”
“What have you done about it so far?” I enquired.
“The men responsible fled Rome. After Pomponius died, it was left to me to take the matter up. He had been suffering for so long his family wanted no more of it. I first consulted the vigiles. They seemed sympathetic.”
“The vigiles are known for their kind attitude to wild girls!” Some of the vigiles I knew ate wild girls as a dessert after lunch.
Scilla accepted the joke bravely-by ignoring it. “Unfortunately, with the suspects outside Rome, the case was beyond the vigiles' jurisdiction. Then I appealed to the Emperor.”
“Did he refuse you assistance?” asked Helena, sounding indignant.
“Not exactly. My brothers acted as my advocates, of course, though I know they are both embarrassed by the situation. Nonetheless, they put my case well and the Emperor heard them out. The death of a man of such senior rank had to be taken seriously. But Vespasian's attitude was that Pomponius had been at fault in commissioning a private show.”
Helena looked sympathetic. ‘Vespasian would want to avoid gossip.”
“Quite. Since the two men have absconded, everything was put into abeyance in the hope public interest dies down. The Emperor would only promise that if Saturninus and Calliopus return to Rome he will reexamine my petition.”
“Knowing that, they won't come back,” sneered Helena.
“Exactly. They are holed up in Lepcis and Oea, their home cities. I could grow old and gray waiting for these larvae to reemerge.”
“But within the boundaries of the Empire they cannot escape justice!”
Scilla shook her head. “I could appeal to the governor of Tripolitania, but he won't take stronger action than the Emperor. Saturninus and Calliopus are notable figures, whereas I have no influence. Governors don't respond well to what Falco calls wild girls!”
“So what are you asking Falco to do?”
“I cannot get close to these men. They will not accept representations, or speak to anyone I send. I have to go after them-I have to go to Tripolitania myself. But they are violent people, from a brutal part of society. They are surrounded by trained fighters-”
“Are you frightened, Scilla?” Helena asked.
“I admit I am. They have already threatened my servants. If I go-as I feel I must-I shall feel vulnerable in foreign territory. Having justice on my side would be no consolation if they hurt me-or worse.”
“Marcus-” Helena appealed to me. I had been silent, wondering why I felt so skeptical.
“I can escort you,” I told Scilla. “But what happens then?”
“Find them, please, and bring them to me, so I can confront them with what they did.”
“That seems a reasonable request,” Helena commented.
I felt obliged to warn the woman: “I don't recommend you to plan any big scenes. It has never been proved-let alone proved in court-that either of them has committed a crime.”
“May I not pursue a civil suit as Helena Justina suggested?” asked Scilla meekly. That sounded harmless. Too harmless, from this one.
“Yes; I'm sure we can find lawyers in Lepcis and Oea who will be prepared to argue that Saturninus and Calliopus owe you financial recompense for the loss of your future husband through their negligence.”
“That's all I want,” Scilla agreed.
“All right. I can round them up and subpoena them. The cost should be modest, you'll feel you've taken action, and there may be a chance of winning the case.” Tripolitania was a famously litigious province. Yet I didn't think the issue would necessarily come to court. Both Saturninus and Calliopus could well afford to pay up just to make this woman go away. Her accusations would never hurt them much in my opinion, but they must be an inconvenience. If the lanistae satisfied her complaints and received an indemnity, they would be free to return to Rome. “Just one question, though. There was an unsolved death connected with all this. Pomponius was killed by the lion, who was killed by Rumex. Rumex himself then died and his killer has never been found. I have to ask: were you in any way involved?”
Scilla gave me a cold stare. I felt like a young lady's music teacher who inadvertently played a bum note after she for her part had completed perfect scales. “I could kill a man in the right circumstances,” replied Scilla calmly. “But I have never done it, I can assure you.” Of course not. She was a knight's daughter, and thoroughly respectable.
“Right.” I felt slightly nonplussed.
Obviously I would have to take the job. We made various arrangements-finance, contact points. Then Scilla said she was now going to make an offering at a temple, so Helena and I bade her a polite farewell. I did notice that the temple she went to was entirely appropriate for a woman with her heart set on vengeance, even vengeance in the civil courts: that of the goddess of night and witchcraft, Hecate.
“Identified with Diana,” said Helena, who had also noticed where Scilla went.
“Moonshine?”
“Goddess of hunting was more what I had in mind.”
Helena and I stood beside that lighter haven of culture, the altar of Apollo. There was a faint scent of charred meat which made me hanker for my dinner. “Well? What do you think?”
A frown creased Helena's broad forehead. “Something is not quite right.”
“I'm glad you said it.” I had disliked Scilla intensely: too self-assured.
“It may be straightforward,” Helena suggested in her fair way. “scilla has been thwarted when she approached the vigiles and the Emperor. She feels there has been an injustice-but what remedy exists? People who lose someone in a tragedy become very angry and flail around looking for a way to relieve their helplessness.”
“That's fine-if they come and employ me.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I'm sure.”
When Scilla discussed the night that her lover planned to impress her with the show, I had remembered the dead lion, and later the dead gladiator whose murder was never even halfway solved. It stirred up feelings I had left behind when I came out on this sun-bleached holiday interlude. Devoting myself to Justinus-his wild chase after a fortune and his sad troubles with his love life-had taken me far from those winter days of auditing amongst the menageries. Yet the disturbing problem never left me. Now here we were, in ancient Greek Cyrene, facing the same dark undercurrents.
“So,” Helena said, giving me an odd look. “You are going to Tripolitania.”
“That I am. You need not come.”
“Oh I'll be there!” She spoke rather warmly. “I have not forgotten, Marcus Didius, that when we first met you were renowned for spending time with notoriously flexible Tripolitanian acrobats.”
I laughed. It was the wrong reaction.
What a girl she was. Four years had passed since I first knew Helena Justina, and in all that time I had never given a thought to the sinuous young rope dancer I had dallied with before her. I could not even recall the dancer's name. But Helena, who had never even met the girl, was still harboring jealousies.
I kissed her. That too was the wrong thing to do, but anything else would have been worse. “You had better be there to fight them off,” I said gently. Helena's chin came up in defiance, so then I winked at her. I hadn't done that for a long time. It was one of those cheeky rituals of courtship that get forgotten when you feel sure of someone.
Too sure, perhaps. Helena could still give me the feeling that she was keeping her options open in case she decided I was a bad risk.
I walked with her across the formal temple area to a dramatic feature where water from the Spring of Apollo had been diverted from the upper level down into a formal fountain. A nude male torso-rather small-leaned at an odd angle on the plinth of a slender obelisk; that was set above a layered basin down which sheets of springwater flowed. Helena looked askance at the solitary column, whose significance she seemed to view suspiciously.
“Some sculptor representing his dreams,” she scoffed. “I bet it makes his girlfriend laugh.”
Below the obelisk ran a fine semicircular podium, terminated by two grand stone lions. In-turned and grimacing fiercely, the lions were long in the body if rather solid in the trunk and legs, with broad heads, attractive whiskers, and meticulously carved curly manes.
For some time I stood looking up at the guardian beasts, thinking about Leonidas.
Part Three
Tripolitania: May A.D. 74