So who did you get?" I asked him. Who are the stars on your Cilician watch list?"
Cratidas, Lygon, Damagoras."
I thought the old fellow had no record?"
He does now. I put him on the list, after you discussed him."
Oh it's my fault! What about the negotiator, the so-called
Illyrian?"
We still don't know who he is. Rubella has to persuade a prisoner to tell him."
No chance. It would amount to a confession."
Quite." Petronius was so weary, he just stared into space. Maia reached over and took his winecup from him gently, knowing that any moment he would nod off and drop it. He was almost asleep, or he would have stopped her taking the cup. Maia drained what was left. He shook his fist vaguely; my sister captured his hand and held it. The fond couple. So long as one or other of them was too exhausted to fight, they would survive together. I sat for a moment, thinking about the Illyrian. I did not rate that tale he told the kidnap victims, that he was an outsider, a neutral intermediary. He always handled the ransom money; he must have an umbilical cord straight to the gang. Maybe he was the ringleader. He would have heard by now that all of the others had been rounded up. I wondered how he would react. There was nothing he could do, except lie low in whatever lair he frequented. But he must be questioning whether the vigiles had serious evidence or had just made a hopeful pass. He would realise that he himself had never been identified or he would be in a cell now. In this situation, some villains would flee. I reckoned the Illyrian's nerve would hold.
I keep wondering if it's a pseudonym for Florius," said Petro abruptly. He was so keen to capture this gangster of his, he saw Florius everywhere.
No, I reckon it's my long-lost tricky brother Festus, returned from the dead."
Festus!" Petro sat up in pretended horror. Now you're talking serious shit!" He slumped back, and we let him start nodding off again. Helena and I took our leave quietly. Helena, who was fond of Petronius, leaned over him and kissed his cheek; he smiled sleepily, acknowledging that he was too far gone to move. In the hallway, Maia was waiting with a bundle. You left this!" she accused me, drawing in her crimson skirts in distaste. It was Diocles' baggage. I had dumped the dirty laundry days beforehand, hoping that would be the last I saw of it. The house slaves had cleaned up the tunics, on the assumption that the garments belonged to their master; I peered at the results, but there was nothing I would be seen around town in. These looked like the clothes Diocles wore when he was disguising himself as some kind of labourer. There was a particularly vile slug coloured number. I told Maia she could give the lot to the slaves. Pa appeared. It was just like him to delay us at the wrong moment.
What did you think of old Fulvius?" he asked me. I yawned rudely. I thought we went through that."
What is he doing in Ostia?" Helena asked of Pa, as he held her cloak for her while she carried our sleeping daughter Favonia.
He came home. It's allowed, even if you're Fulvius."
And was that story true about him going to Pessinus but catching the wrong boat?"
The way he tells it now, he was just shipwrecked on the way."
So why ever was he going to Pessinus in the first place, Geminus? I looked it up, it's right in the middle of Phrygia!"
Attis syndrome," Pa replied, trying to be mysterious. Helena was unfazed. You mean Fulvius was a follower of the cult ofCybele?"
Well, Fulvius had a bit of a mixed-up personality…" In front of Helena, my father was now curiously shy. She glared until he told her what had always been rumoured about my uncle. Helena, this may shock you, we got used to it, but for a while, poor old Fulvius reckoned he wanted to be a woman."
Being one of my uncles," I said gently, he had to go the whole crazy way." Pa completed the story. He left home to go and see the experts at the shrine ofCybele about removal of a certain body part…"
Castration?" demanded Helena clinically. Pa blinked. I think he joined the navy instead."
That's hardly a solution to his problem!"
You don't know sailors, sweetheart."
No? What happened to the legend that sailors have wives in every port?"
They miss their wives when they are at sea." Helena shook her head at Pa reprovingly. So is Fulvius happy now?"
Happy?" Pa and I looked at each other. Fulvius will never be happy," I told Helena. If he had succeeded in getting to Pessinus and cutting off his implement, for him it would only have been another problem."
