Alexandria

XXXV

Flies zoomed, in the way only flies who have been laying eggs in a corpse do.

Pastous, the assistant we had met on our first visit, pushed out through the crowd, one hand covering his mouth. Previously so calm, he stumbled towards us, horrified and agitated. He stopped when he recognised us, his expression a mixture of relief and anxiety.

'Pastous! Smells like you need an undertaker – better let me take a look.'

People were falling over themselves in their haste to retreat. Aulus told the staff to clear the hall completely. We waved away everyone except Pastous, then cautiously approached. We batted at the flies with ham-fisted motions; they were not interested in us, however.

The commotion had centred on the table where I had been told the man called Nibytas worked. It had been moved – in a hurry, scarring the floor marble. Behind it stood a stool and beside that lay the body. We leaned over, but failed to see enough. I nodded to Aulus; we took an end of the table each, heaving the furniture towards us then swinging my end sideways to leave a clear path.

'People tried to pull the table; he must have been propped against it, so he fell.' Gazing at the dead man, Pastous whimpered faintly.

'That is Nibytas?'

'Yes. He was just here as usual, apparently working…'

He must have been 'apparently working' for a long time after he was actually dead.

Pastous stepped back, leaving Aulus and me to investigate. 'Jupiter,' I confided. 'I could have done without this!'

'What do you think, Marcus? Suspicious circumstances?'

'Died of old age, by the looks of it.'

That would be very old age. The dead man looked a hundred and four. 'A hundred and four, plus about three days he's been sitting here, I'd say' Aulus was suddenly the expert.

I held one forearm over my nostrils. 'The last time I smelt decay that bad was -' I stopped. The dead man had been close to Helena and Aelianus, an uncle of theirs; I was not supposed to know his fate. That was nearly seven years ago. I was respectable now; other people could clear up the mess this time… Aulus had looked up, curious. I avoided his gaze, in case he worked out just what it had meant over the past years, being the Emperor's man. My job had its sombre moments. 'Best not remembered.'

Nibytas was shrunken, papery, desiccated with age and self-neglect. His shoulders were hooked in a drab tunic; his skeletal legs were mottled. He must have been a stranger at the refectory, though entitled to eat there. Like many old folk, he probably skimped on baths too. Thin feet dangled in oversized sandals. We could tell that he had barely lived, by our standards, while he was alive. No wonder nobody had noticed for days that he did not move. The corpse lay on its side now; it must have stiffened at right angles, but was flexible again. The slight fall from his low seat had simply left him as he must have been sitting when concerned helpers finally disturbed his last reading session.

When moving the table nudged him off his stool, the usual bodily substances leaked everywhere. That must have been the moment when we saw everyone recoil. Thank the gods the Great Library was cool.

His skin was discoloured but from a brief examination – not too close – I could see no evidence of wounding. A stylus was still clasped in his wizened fingers. Unlike the Librarian, he had left no garland on his table, nor could I detect any vomit. The mass of scrolls and crazy scribbled notes looked exactly the same as when I had inspected his work station only the other day. It gave an impression that this table must have looked the same for thirty years, or even fifty. Now the old man had simply gone to sleep for ever in his accustomed place.

I crooked a finger, calling Pastous. I held him lightly by both shoulders, making him look at me. Even so, his gaze could not help sliding downwards to Nibytas. I let him look. Feeling unsettled might help him open up to questions. Aulus rested his backside on the dead man's table. Both of us managed to look as if we were unmoved by the spectacle and repulsive odours.

'So, Pastous. In this venerable library, a respected old scholar can pass away, poked in an out-of-the-way corner. Nobody notices for several days. He must have been locked in every night. Even your cleaners passed him by uncaringly'

'We cared, Falco. It is deeply unfortunate -'

'It looks bad,' I growled. Aulus put out a hand in protest, playing the kind-hearted one. I half turned and glared at him. 'Looks like a bloody great disaster, Aelianus!'

'Marcus Didius, Pastous is upset -'

'He should be! They all should be.'

Aulus marshalled me aside. He spoke kindly. As a senator's son he had no need for bombast; he had been brought up to be polite to people at all levels. Everyone was his inferior, but sometimes he overcame his snootiness. 'Pastous, this sad ancient character appears to have died from old age. If so, we are not interested in why he remained undiscovered.'

'Pass it off as a consequence of having no Chief Librarian!' I muttered.

Aulus continued to be civil and unthreatemng. 'What we must ask about is that we heard Nibytas was the subject of disciplinary enquiry. What was that about?'

Pastous did not want to tell us.

'Don't worry,' I told Aulus conversationally. 'I can go out and buy a large hammer and drive nine-inch nails into the Director's head until Philetus sings.'

'We could simply hammer nails into Pastous,' replied Aulus, who could be not-so-nice very easily. He was looking at the library assistant in a thoughtful way.

'At one time,' Pastous confessed quickly, 'we thought Nibytas might be abusing his privileges and taking out scrolls.'

'Taking them out?'

'Concealing them. And not returning them.'

'Theft? So you called in the soldiers!' I snapped. The assistant looked flustered, but nodded. 'What happened?'

'The matter was dropped.'

'Why?'

'Only Theon knew.'

'Useful!' I cracked out. I stared at the table where the old scholar had worked. The litter of written material was almost a foot high, all over the surface. 'Why would he need to steal books, when he was allowed to have so many here to work with – and obviously to keep them for a long time?'

Pastous lifted his shoulders in a shrug, raising both hands helplessly. 'Some people cannot help themselves,' he whispered. He addressed the issue sympathetically, however much he deplored it. Then he suggested to us, also in a low voice, 'You might perhaps look at the room where Nibytas lived.'

Aulus and I had both relaxed. 'Know where it is? Can you show us – discreetly?' Pastous willingly agreed to take us.

On the way out we gave instructions that the end of the great hall should be roped off. Anyone who wanted and who was made of stern stuff was free to work in the other area. After listing them, Pastous would return all the borrowed library scrolls to their proper places; I asked him to gather up all the notes Nibytas had made and save this material. Undertakers should be called in to collect the body; if they were asked to bring the necessary equipment, they would clean up. They would know how to do it properly and how to sanitise the area.

I knew ways to get rid of inconvenient corpses, but my ways were crude.

We walked to the dormitory hall in subdued mood. Nobody spoke until we got there. A porter let us in. He did not seem surprised that officialdom had come with heavy steps to Nibytas' quarters.

The main building had splendid communal spaces in the marble-clad pharaonic style. Beyond were pleasant living quarters. Each scholar was assigned an individual cell where he could retreat to read, sleep, write or pass the time thinking of lovers, brooding on enemies or munching raisins. If he chose to munch pistachios instead, a cleaner would remove the shells the next day for him. These rooms were small, but furnished with what looked like comfortable beds, X-form stools, rugs on the floor to step on in the morning when barefoot, simple cupboards and whatever jugs, oil lamps, pictures, cloaks, slippers or sunhats each man chose to import for his personal comfort and identity. In a military camp it would be all weapons and hunting trophies; here, when the porter proudly showed us several of the bedrooms, we were more likely to see a miniature sundial or bust of a bearded poet. Homer was popular. That's because scholars at the Museion were sent their poets' busts as presents from loving little nieces or nephews; statuette-makers always make lots of Homers. Nobody knows what Homer looked like, as Aulus pointed out; he was inclined to be pedantic on Greek matters. I explained that the statuette-makers liked us not knowing, since nobody could criticise their work.

There were scroll boxes and loose scrolls in most scholars' rooms. One or two fancy boxes, or a small mound of assorted documents. As you would expect. They were personal possessions, their prized works.

The room used by Nibytas was different. It had a sour smell and a dusty air; we were told he refused ever to admit the cleaner. He had been there so long, his cantankerous ways were tolerated just because they always had been. The housekeeper could not face an argument, especially since the authorities were bound to cave in. Nibytas had got away with it for too long, and was too old to be taken in hand.

We knew in advance he had been an eccentric. Just how eccentric only became obvious when the porter found the door key. He had to go away and hunt for it, because Nibytas had been so adamant he would never have people in his room to spy on him.

The room was absolutely full of stolen scrolls. It was so full, it was difficult to see the bed; there were more scrolls under that bed. Nibytas had amassed scrolls in papyrus stalagmites. He had lined the walls with shoulder-high ramparts. Scrolls were piled in the window recess. We had to carry those out to the corridor, to let in some light. When I opened the shutters, so fresh air would clear the turgid atmosphere, I put my hand through enough spiders' webs to staunch a deep spear wound.

We must have been the first people into that room, apart from Nibytas, for decades. When Pastous saw the hoard of stolen property, he let out a small, piteous cry. He went on his knees to examine the nearest mound of scrolls, blowing off dust tenderly and lifting them to show me that they all bore end-tags from the Great Library. He clambered upright and darted about, discovering others from the Serapeion, even a small number he thought might have been lifted from scroll shops. The regime under Timosthenes must be stricter than that at the Great Library, while commercial premises are strictly geared to preventing loss of stock.

'Why would he have all these scrolls, Pastous? He cannot have been selling them.'

'He just wanted to possess them. He wanted them close to him. They cover all subjects, Falco – he cannot have been reading them. It seems Nibytas just crazily removed scrolls, as and when he could.'

'Theon suspected he might be doing this?'

'We all feared so, but were never sure. We never caught him at it. We never thought it could be on such a scale…'

'Nibytas had reached the agenda of the Academic Board, though.'

'Is that so?'

'This very week.' For a long time, probably, but Philetus ducked out of discussing the sensitive issue.

'There was always uncertainty about how we could tackle the old man. We never managed to witness him taking a scroll. He must have been very clever.'

'It seems he had years of practice!' chortled Aulus.

'Was he ever confronted at all?' I asked.

'Theon had a word once. He got nowhere. Nibytas denied it and got very upset at being challenged.'

'So who brought it to the attention of the Academic Board?' Pastous thought. 'I think that must have been Theon.' The Academic Board were shrinking from it, under Philetus' strong leadership, but Nibytas would not have known that. If he believed the game was up, he must have been in turmoil. He would have been facing not just the penalty for theft, but public and academic disgrace. I guessed the biggest threat to him would be that of being debarred from the Great Library. Where would he go? How would he survive without the financial support of the Museion and the stimulus he found in his fanatical work? His life's study would have been terminated, doomed to remain unfinished. His future existence would have held little meaning.

One thing was clear. That threat would have provided Nibytas with a motive for killing Theon.