Shadows in Bronze

LXXIII

Now I was thinking fast.

'Bassin, I can appreciate your loyalty to Crispus. As a matter of fact I had a good opinion of him myself. But he's gone. And unless we do something, Atius Pertinax – who is a different kind of leech on the Empire altogether – will be hijacking the grain ships and threatening Rome.'

The bosun was listening in his normal, impervious way. Desperate not to sound overhasty I confessed to him, 'I can't do this alone. I need your help, Bassus, or the game's over. You've lost the man you sailed for, and you've lost your ship. Now I'm offering you a chance to gain a heroic reputation and earn yourself an honorarium…

Through the drink he thought about it. Drink apparently made Bassus a mellow, amenable type. 'All right. I can live with being a hero. So we need to think up a plan-'

I had no time to waste being diffident. I had been mulling over this problem since I first came to Campania. I already had a plan. Without making a fuss about my forethought and ingenuity, I explained to Bassus what I thought we ought to do.

I left him in Positanum to make contact with the grain ships as they arrived. Once most of the pack had gathered in the Bay of Saleroom, still out of sight of the feet at Miscoum, he would let me know.

When the magistrate took his borrowed trireme back again round the headland, I asked him to drop my small party at Oplontis – though I did not tell him why. Gordianus knew. He had set himself the task of escorting the body of Aufidius Crispus to Neapolis, so now it was just Larius, Milo and me. Larius had done his bit for the Empire that day; I left him at the inn.

Milo and I went to the farm.

As we approached tentatively through the trellised arch we found the same smell and the same air of sour negleet. At first I was pleased to see that the dog was missing from his chain; then I realized it might mean he was roaming loose. When we got there it was dusk; after a long hot day the waft of ill-tended animals and old dung was stomach curling. Milo hung back.

'You're useless,' I told him cheerily. 'Trust me to lumber myself with you. Milo, big dogs, are like bodybuilders – perfect cowards until they smell fear.' There was heavy perspiration on the steward's objectionable face, and I could smell his fear myself. 'Anyway, he hasn't found us yet…'

We tackled the pungent outbuildings before we broached the house. In the split-boarded midden that passed for a stable we discovered a sturdy skewbald horse I recognized.

'Pertinax had this gypsy as his packhorse when he was following me down to Croton! I wonder if the bastard's ridden off somewhere on the roan?'

I led the way, biffing at blue flies, and we were nearing the house when we both stopped dead: intercepted by the guard dog.

'Don't worry, Milo; I like dogs-'

I did, but not this one. He was growling. He would be. I deduced this was not a mutt who would scamper off if someone looked him in the eye and shouted boo.

He was as tall as a man if he stood on his hind legs, one of those browny-black creatures they breed for aggression, with a neck like an ox and small, mean eats. Milo gave him a few pounds but both the dog and I were aware Fido weighed as much as me. I was the kind of bite-sixed titbit this bully liked for a target; the bound was staring cold-bloodedly straight at me.

‘Good boy, Cerberus!' I encouraged him steadily. Behind me I heard Milo gurgle. What I needed was a poisoned chicken; but since Milo had watched Petronius have his skull split I was perfectly willing to let him be the bait instead.

I murmured to Milo, ‘If you've got a bit of rope on you, I'll put him on a lead.' The dog had other plans. The rumble in the canine's throat assumed a more ominous note. I applied myself to calming him.

I was still talking when he sprang.

I rammed one elbow in his chest and braced both feet while I tried to hold his head and fend him off. I could smell dead meat on his breath, and his dentistry was unbelievable. I should have shouted at him fiercely; you have to dominate a mobster like that. I never had the chance.

‘Stand back, Milo-'

Same old Milo: give him an order and he did the opposite. Luckily for both of us, Milo's idea of taming a dog was to grab him from behind, then jerk up his snout, twist it sharply, and break his neck.

We stood in the yard, frankly quaking. I admitted to Milo that I reckoned we were quits.

We found Laesus hiding. We dragged him outside, backwards.

Milo pushed him on the ground. The sad side of his face splashed down in a cowpat; the happy half could see what Milo had done to the mountainous dog.

'Falco!' he gasped, trying to grin in his old friendly manner. At first I went along with it.

'I've been hoping to meet up with you again, old friend. I wanted to warn you, next time you drink saffron pottage at your favourite eating house, watch out for the belladonna they add to the broth!'

Grinning at the thought of someone poisoning my pottage, Milo pushed the sea captain's face deeper into the dung.

'I lost my ship!' Laesus complained. As a sailor he could cope with fishiness, but close contact with the joys of agriculture was making poor old Laesus lose his nerve.

'That's a tragedy. You can either blame my nephew – or put it down to having gobbled up my sacred goat!' He groaned and tried to speak again but Milo was enjoying himself the way he liked best: showing off how powerful he was, punishing someone unpleasantly. 'Where's Pertinax, Laesus?' I demanded.

‘I don't know -' Milo demonstrated to Laesus the points on his body where pressure is unbearable. I winced, and looked away.

I told Laesus what I had worked out about Tarentum loyalties. 'I should have remembered Calabrians stick together like this farmyard muck! I suppose you rescued me in Croton market because even in Bruttium an Imperial agent dead in the Forum might attract attention. You preferred to polish me off privately – and it's lucky for me you failed! I wondered why you pressed me so hard to sail with you to Rhegium afterwards; no doubt I would have jumped overboard with fishing weights in my boots. Gordianus was lucky he had Milo in attendance while he was on your ship. Now where's Pertinax? Tell me, or you'll do worse than eat manure; Milo will be spreading the fields with what's left of you!'

Milo lifted the sea captain by his neck and his heels, far enough for him to gasp the words: 'He found a message here that his father has been taken ill. But-'

'But what?' I snarled.

'He said he might be visiting his ex-wife on the way!'