What, and you failed to screw it out of him?" My mother must be holding back. Obviously Uncle Fulvius had found yet another wild career that would cause us huge embarrass ment. Ma read my mind. So she quickly muttered, He told me he had taken up shark-fishing." She had a way of making a declaration so you were never intended to believe it to be true. I was none too sure how old my mother was, but Uncle Fulvius was known to be ten years her senior, a bit geriatric to wrestle with deep sea man-eaters. It was typical of my family. Their craziness rarely led to real harm, but they never knew what was appropriate. I could have sat back and seen them only as good entertainment, but nowadays members of the family were always pressuring me to reform other relatives, under that deathly edict, You are the head of the family." Informers who play up their feckless side avoid this. I looked back to my irresponsible days with sudden fondness. Once again next day I hired a donkey and rode out along the coast. The gate to the so-called pirate's villa had a guard this time, but he let me in without trouble. As I rode down the sandy path, I passed a man leaving. He was going at a crazy pace, feet-out on a small mule like desert tribesmen in Syria, who liked to race off from oases in this madcap way. Because of the dust cloud, the rider had a long scarf wrapped around his face, but as I coughed in his wake I glimpsed a coat-shaped robe of Parthian cut, a balding dome, and eyes that looked sideways at me curiously. Damagoras received me. Perhaps his claim was true that he never left home, so he welcomed visitors. Little bronze cups on a matching tray were being removed by a woman in beaded slippers after his previous caller. No replenishments appeared for me. As I expected, Damagoras crushed any suggestion that my brother in-law deserved help with his medical bills and recompense for his time off work. We quickly abandoned that conversation. I pressed him again on the subject of Diocles, but that too hit a dead end. Then I mentioned the kidnaps. The old rogue became a little more attentive, but I could see he reckoned I had very few leads. So what makes you link this to the Cilician community, Falco?" He was right. none of the victims had mentioned any provincial nationality, apart from the Illyrian." I left Illyria out of it. When there is a viable bunch of suspects, why complicate matters? I am making a direct connection between Diocles" interest in the kidnaps and his visits to you." Damagoras gave me his honest-fellow laugh. We never talked about kidnaps. What interest in kidnaps was Diocles supposed to have had?" I noticed the past tense. Perhaps Damagoras knew what had happened to the missing man.
The longer he is missing, the more closely all his interests will come under scrutiny," I warned.
This is bad, Falco! Trying to frighten an old man who has done nothing wrong."
You don't scare that easily. But don't let's quarrel about it, or not yet! Now I'd like you to give me a contact address, please, for your pugilistic crony Cratidas." Damagoras went vague on me. Better to let me discuss what that angry swine did to my brother-in-law, Damagoras, than for Cratidas to find his name is on a surveillance-of aliens list, being monitored by the vigiles." I was a Roman, so Damagoras took the threat as real. Coming to the notice of officials is the last thing a provincial in temporary residence ever wants. Any seafarer has quite enough to do, dodging import taxes and protection rackets, and haggling with the negotiators who try to dun him out of all his profits in an unfriendly market. To be marked for constant investigation and harassment is deadly. Unable to risk it, the old man reluctantly told me a bar where Cratidas could be found in Ostia. I noted the name.
And would you happen to know an adventurer called Theopompus?" Nothing changed in Damagoras" expression. A common name among sailors," he said. What has this Theopompus done? Is he one of your kidnappers?" I felt I had made a mistake. At least I had not mentioned the girl, Rhodope. There was no particular menace in the so-called pirate's tone, but if he knew anything about the ransom racket, I had just fingered a gang member who must have broken the anonymity code. Word of this stupidity by Theopompus would get back. Mind you, if the young girl's seducer was thrashed as a result, I had no qualms.
I suppose one of the female victims says she slept with him?" Damagoras read my thoughts as cunningly as my mother. Falco, I'll tell you, the woman will be lying. It was always a rule with the old pirates never to touch their guests." Calling them guests" was a glossy euphemism. And of course he was still pretending piracy had died out.
The whole point was to convince friends and relatives to pay up, knowing that they could be sure the…"
Victim," I supplied, as he paused. Damagoras smiled, but still left the word unsaid. Would be returned to them, alive and unharmed."
