See Delphi and Die

XXXV

The women were shrieking with laughter when Helena and I walked into the inn courtyard. Most of the group were there at the Helios. Everyone seemed tipsy. To me the day seemed to have been endless, yet it was just after lunch. Helena squeezed my hand in encouragement. Nux was now being cared for by Albia; the dog had not wanted us to leave her.

Within a few minutes my task was done and nobody was laughing.

The atmosphere changed to funereal. Cleonyma sat motionless, trying to take in what I had said. Helena and her friend Minucia waited to console her, but so far the new widow's reaction was straight disbelief. There were questions that I needed to ask her urgently, but not now. She could not speak. After a while she tilted her head back slightly. A short rush of involuntary tears ran down her tinted cheeks, but she ignored them. Soon she recovered her composure.

"We had a hard life, then a good one," she pronounced, to nobody in particular. "He and I were true friends and lovers. You cannot ask for more."

She could have asked to enjoy it for longer.

She was flamboyant and loud yet, like her husband, underneath she had unusual modesty. The couple had been humane and decent. Helena and I respected them. We had decided that since there was so little evidence I would not mention my fears about what had happened – but to myself I made a vow that if those fears proved to be well founded, I would track down whoever had pushed Cleonymus down the crag.

Cleonyma had closed her eyes. Grief was starting to overcome her. Minucia moved closer and took her friend's hand. As she did so, Minucia shot me one quick, hard look, as if challenging me about the freedman's abrupt and unexpected extinction. I shook my head slightly, warning her off the subject. Then she devoted herself to

Cleonyma, signalling for the rest of us to leave them alone in the courtyard while the long process of mourning began.

Most of us went out on the street side, emerging into bright sunlight like stunned sheep after a hillside scare with a wolf. Helena sat me on a sunny bench, one arm around my shoulders protectively.

"You look as if you need a drink," Marinus offered, but I shook my head. He and Indus seemed to need to give someone hospitality to ameliorate their shock; they went off, leading Amaranthus instead. Helvia had been swallowed up by the Sertorius family. That left Volcasius. He came and plonked himself right in front of us.

"This is a new twist, Falco!" I just nodded. "So was it an accident?"

"Apparently." I did not want him upsetting Cleonyma with some blunt revelation that could not be proved.

"Doesn't sound like it!"

I forced myself to answer. "Nobody saw anything, so we cannot be sure what happened." I glared at Volcasius as he stood there, shambly and lop-sided in his irritating sunhat. "Unless you have any particular reason to suppose someone was out to get the freedman?"

Volcasius made no reply, but continued to stand there. He was a man with fixations and seemed fascinated by disasters. He would hang around unwanted, where those of us who understood the etiquette of crisis would leave the bereaved alone.

Helena shared my thoughts. She too must be wondering if Volcasius had clung to the bridegroom in the aftermath of the earlier tragedy. "Cleonyma will have a lot to go through now. You saw all this with Statianus at Olympia, Volcasius?"

"He was hysterical," Volcasius said. "Nobody he knew had ever died before. He had never seen a dead body, or had to arrange a funeral."

"You talked to him? Did anything come out of it?" Helena spoke unexcitedly. She seemed to give her attention to me, stroking my hair. I let myself go limp, soothed by her long fingers.

"Did I think he was the killer?" Volcasius demanded. "No. He didn't have the willpower, or the necessary strength." Volcasius had previously denied any opinion on this.

"But he and Valeria argued all the time, didn't they?" Helena probed.

"That was just their way. They would have gone on arguing, even if they stayed married for the next thirty years."

"Their domestic routine? – Yes, I have seen couples who are locked in endless disharmony," said Helena. "If one of them dies, the other is

devastated. They miss the wrangling… Statianus has gone to consult the oracle at Delphi. My brother wrote and told me."

"Is Aelianus with him?" Volcasius looked eager to be on that trip himself.

Helena avoided answering. "Statianus has now shouldered responsibility for finding out who slaughtered his wife."

"He should have stuck around here then!" scoffed the loner.

"Why – do you know something about it, Volcasius?"

"I know he won't find whoever did it from the Sibylline Leaves at Delphi."

"The Sibylline Leaves are in Rome now." Delighted to catch out the pedant in an error, I bestirred myself. "The prophetess at Delphi mutters and growls her riddles orally."

As I expected, being put in the wrong made Volcasius vicious. "You think you're very clever, Falco!"

"No, I think I'm being treated like a fool," I snapped.

"Not by me." He was so self-righteous I could have leaned forward and chopped him off at the knees.

"By most of the people in your travel group. You are all accepting what happens far too casually. If you know something, do your duty and report it!"

"Three of the tour group are dead. Valeria, Turcianus, Cleonymus…" Volcasius counted them off. "Someone is picking us off like cornfield rats. Should the rest of us be scared, I wonder?"

"You should all be very careful." It was Helena who growled that at him. Like me, she was churning with anger after the freedman's death. Volcasius tossed his head and without any farewell or warning, suddenly stomped off.

Typically, he threw back a confusing remark over his shoulder. Did' you see our wonderful organiser, when you were with Cleonymus?" He did not wait for me to answer – nor, of course, did he explain. But it sounded as though he was aiming accusations against Phineus.

I sat on the bench for a while longer, sharing my deep melancholy with my wife.

In the end, curiosity got the better of me. I hated to feel manipulated by Volcasius, but his fingering of the tour escort fitted my suspicions and action was my style. I kissed Helena, rose, and said I was going in search of Phineus. Helena was on her feet as well. She kissed me again, holding me for an extra moment.

You too be careful, Marcus.'"Trust me.'

I found Phineus in a bar, near the one where I first saw him yesterday. He was alone, though there were two empty winecups in front of him; one of his many cronies had recently left. For some reason, I remembered the man I had seen talking with Phineus that morning, just before I met Cleonymus. He had seemed vaguely familiar. Still, Phineus would seek out a certain type. The one I saw earlier had been similar in dress and manner to Phineus himself, lighter built but also bearded.

"Have you heard the news?'

"What's up, Falco?' He seemed sincere. He was standing at a counter, on the verge of paying his bill from a very fat purse. The size of the purse riled me.

A man in his position, always alert for some new problem with customers, habitually stays calm. He was already halfway to his"nothing to worry about; let me handle it' expression and I had not told him anything. Being what he was, he was preparing to do nothing and hope the crisis would just go away.

"You have lost another of your clients.'

"What?' He groaned. If he was faking, he must be a good actor. As an informer I had met plenty of them, mostly not on a stage."What's happened now? Which one is it?'

"The freedman.'

"Cleonymus? He's a character!'

"Not any more. He fell off the acropolis.'

Phineus steadied."Is he dead?'

"Unfortunately.'

Now Phineus sighed deeply, standing still to take it in. He signalled the waiter to refill his wine beaker. I had a good look at his tunic, the same he wore yesterday. full nap, dyed to a gemstone hue of gorgeous dark ruby. Heavy belt, sharp boots, bulging pouch, hardstone signet ring with a thick laced strapwork setting. all his accessories were good. You could describe him as a well-dressed man. But was he the same well-dressed man who went up the acropolis? This prosperous city was crammed with businessmen who looked equally high-priced in style.

I put it to him straight out."Someone thought they saw you going up to Acrocorinth today.'

Phineus hardly registered that this was a dangerous question."Not

me. I've been at the port all morning.' He quaffed the whole new cupful in one go. Now he came out with whatever had preoccupied him."Oh pig's piss. This is a blow.' He looked to me for consolation; I had none to give."Travel is never safe. I've had a mule fall on someone and crush them, and a man struck on the head by a full amphora of Cretan red. We try to take precautions, but you cannot cover everything. Accidents will happen.'

I gave him a bleak stare."That presupposes this was an accident.' Without another word, I left him and went back to find Helena.

I had no evidence against Phineus. I was not yet ready to accuse him. I dared not even ask such pointed questions that he guessed what I was thinking. I could not risk frightening him off.

I would continue to watch the others. But he was in my sights now.