The Lydian Baker

34

The first thing I saw as I left the building was Memnon lounging on the back steps of the Town Hall and looking about as inconspicuous as a tap- dancing rhino. Jupiter knew how he'd picked me up again, but personally at that moment I couldn't have cared a penny toss. I gave him the big wave just to show him he'd been spotted, then headed up the Panathenaia towards the Rock. Let the guy get blisters, I thought sourly. They'd be about all he did get from me today. Whether Demetriacus's tame pill-pusher was bent or not, all I wanted now was to go home and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening getting quietly stewed.

'Bent or not.' Yeah, well, if Corpse-face was telling the truth then maybe I should think a little more deeply about Felix. Sure, if you took the current theory he didn't fit. He had no connection with Melanthus, as far as I knew, and Melanthus was crucial. The same went for Demetriacus…

Or did it?

I stopped. A bald-head behind me in a sharp mantle gave me a glare as he pushed past; judging from the hurry he was in he was headed for the public latrine at the corner of Attalus Porch and doubted if he'd make it.

Okay. Maybe I'd been guilty of too many assumptions here. Stripped of its incidentals, the plot was pretty straightforward. Argaius had done a deal with Priscus to sell him the statue. His partner Smaragdus had done his own deal, unbeknownst to Argaius, and tried to con him. Then Argaius had been murdered and his body dumped by the Founders' Statue of Ptolemy on Market Way…

Hold on. Stop there. Sure, Perilla had thought dumping Argaius at the Ptolemy statue was a chichi egghead clue, but maybe she was wrong. Or rather she'd been clever in the wrong direction, which was par for the course. The Scallop was near Ptolemy's Gym, and if Felix had wanted to point a finger at Demetriacus that was just the cryptic way of doing it that might appeal to the cerebral little bastard.

This needed thinking about.

I was level with Phoenix's wineshop now, opposite the temple of the Two Goddesses. There were a couple of empty tables — rare for Phoenix's — and I was tempted to go in and order up a jug. Being just round the corner from the Roman Market, Phoenix's catered more for western taste than most City wineshops; which meant they served Falernian. Real Falernian, too, not the fake stuff you saw sometimes masquerading under a whacky label. It cost an arm and a leg, though, and after my contribution to the carriage drivers' benevolent fund my purse was pretty light. Too light. I sighed, and went on past.

So. If we were thinking laterally then what about Felix's own theory of the Argaius murder? That Smaragdus had done it himself to take the heat off? That fitted, too, if for Smaragdus you read Felix. More, handing me the real solution on a plate — letting me think it was a throwaway idea when it was the truth all along — was just the sort of twisted intellectual game the devious bugger enjoyed. Felix could've set Argaius's death up with Smaragdus as easy as Demetriacus could. And a double bluff would be just his style.

Right, so let's follow that through with a scenario. Felix and Smaragdus acting together have got rid of Argaius. Smaragdus stays in hiding while keeping in touch with Felix. So far, so good: the sale's finalised, Felix is just waiting until the dust settles and it's safe to move the statue, or maybe he's arranging a transfer of funds from Rome and generally fixing things up for Smaragdus and his boyfriend to split for quieter climes. Trouble is, at that point Valerius Corvinus sticks his nose in. He traces Harpalus who in all good faith reports back to Smaragdus that one of Felix's agents wants to get in touch. Before Smaragdus can check if the guy's legit or not the Roman's knocking on the door of his shack. Smaragdus realises there's been a mistake, only it's too late to remedy. So he takes the nosey Roman to the original cave — now empty — and fobs the sucker off with a sob story of theft and grim deception.

Then Smaragdus dies…

Smaragdus dies. I frowned. This was the tricky bit, the part that didn't fit. Smaragdus's death had been an accident, sure, but the guy had been running scared at the time, I'd bet my last obol on that. With Demetriacus out of the picture what reason would he have? Who was there to run from? Not Memnon: if Felix knew where the guy was hiding already he wouldn't have needed me to lead him to the beach hut, and besides why should Smaragdus be afraid of Felix's agent? Besides, I knew already who'd chased Smaragdus because he'd admitted it himself, as well as to killing Argaius. The visitor must have been Prince Charming; and Prince Charming didn't fit into this setup at all. Not nowhere, not never…

Unless he was Felix's second-string.

The back of my neck prickled. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The idea had come, but I didn't know why yet. I'd have to work this one out.

Okay. PC is working for Felix, along with Memnon, and both of them are tailing Corvinus. As such, they witness the meeting on the beach and suspect that Smaragdus might be throwing another wobbler by showing me the real cave. That would fit; the guys couldn't be sure where we went, because we took the Alcyone and they couldn't follow. I'd know PC from Argaius's place, sure, but the first time I'd seen Memnon was at the Aphrodisian Gate, when he must have tailed Lysias with the coach. So the pair come to an agreement. As the unknown tail Memnon goes after me while PC waits for Smaragdus to get back. He doesn't make his move straight away; he stays hidden and watches to see what Smaragdus will do next. And what the guy does is pack. Misunderstanding on both sides. As far as Smaragdus is concerned, he's moving to the second hideout up in Acte to avoid future contact with the nosey Roman, but PC doesn't know that. He thinks the bastard is staging yet another double-cross, and he moves in fast. Smaragdus has never seen PC before, his nerves are shot to hell, and he runs. PC makes the reasonable assumption that he's suffering from a bad case of conscience and gives chase to ask him why. Misunderstanding perpetuated, Smaragdus zeroed…

Yeah. That would work. Sure it would. Maybe I was on to something here.

The crowd had begun to thin a little when I turned left at the Eleusinion onto the main drag round the north face of the Rock. I glanced back. Memnon was still with me. Just for the hell of it I waited to see if he'd catch up, but he didn't. Suit yourself, pal, I thought, and carried on walking.

So. With Smaragdus dead Felix is stymied. He has to work on two contradictory assumptions at the same time; one — less likely, but still a possibility — that the sneaky Roman bastard knows where the Baker is, two that he doesn't, but being a sneaky Roman bastard he'll move heaven and earth to find out. So he has PC slug me outside the Scallop and cart me down to a handy cellar where he endeavours to scare the wollocks off me in the hopes that I'll spill any beans I've got just to avoid ending up like Argaius. In the process — for the sake of future security, because killing me is not an option — PC encourages any half-arsed theories I might have as to who's behind the scam. That part was true, at least: if I'd misjudged anyone in the course of this business, it'd been PC. Whatever else he was, PC was no dumbo, that was sure: he'd told me just what he wanted me to know, or think I knew, no more and no less. Okay. So when the strong-arm approach doesn't work and I insist on meeting his boss PC takes the second option. He leaves the cellar and his mate Memnon takes over. Memnon stages a phoney rescue and I'm restored to the bosom of my caring family, full of gratitude and with an idea of the setup as valid as a radish's views on cosmic order.

Yeah. It held together, and it might even be true. The problem was, there were loose ends. I couldn't just dismiss Melanthus and Demetriacus as irrelevant because that would involve more coincidences than even one of Perilla's favourite dramatists allowed: Melanthus was my professional contact over the Baker, he was definitely involved with Demetriacus, and for him to get himself killed just at the most convenient moment was too pat by half.

Unless, of course, Felix had lifted him himself to provide his own authentification of the Baker. And the only reason Demetriacus fitted into all this was his connection with Melanthus. But then if Felix didn't have the statue he'd still need Melanthus; so why get rid of the guy before he'd had a chance to use him? Unless he already had used him. But then why should Felix..?

Ah, hell, there were problems whichever way you played it, and I was giving myself a headache here. Theorising isn't easy when you're sober; maybe I should've stopped at Phoenix's and got expensively smashed after all. Now it was too late to turn back, and home and a jug of my own Setinian was still a long way away.

Time for a change of plan. Up ahead of me a chubby guy was paying off his litter. I broke into a run and grabbed it a yard in front of an Egyptian tourist who'd evidently decided his gilded papyrus sandals wouldn't last out the trip back into town. I was grinning as I settled down among the cushions: Egyptian curses are pretty hot stuff, and this guy was clearly an expert. I'd have to remember that one if Perilla and I ever did the pyramid tour.

Memnon wasn't too pleased either. Especially when I waved goodbye.