Poseidon_s Gold

'I'm hoping to cadge a free ride home in official transport if we tag along with him.'

'Oh smart boy! Gaius Baebius! Just the man we were hoping to see…'

My brother-in-law was full of something-something and nothing, needless to say. He was reticent in front of strangers-and even before Helena, since a customs-clerks supervisor's attitude to women tends to be traditional, and Gaius Baebius had had seventeen years of living with my sister Junia to teach him to keep his mouth shut. Junia had the strong-willed woman's traditional attitude to men: she thought we were there to be told we were idiots and made to keep quiet.

Leaving Helena disconsolately guarding the baggage (which was our idea of what women were for), Father and I got Gaius on his own in a wine bar and set about grilling him. Freed from female supervision, out it poured: 'Listen, listen, I've had some luck!'

'Won at the races, Gaius?' Pa chivvied. 'Don't tell the wife then! Junia will whip it out of your hand before you can take breath.'

'Olympus, Marcus, he's worse than you for looking on the dark side… No. I've found something you were looking for-'

'Not a trace of the Hypericon?'

'No, not that. I'm sure she really sank.'

'Don't you keep a list of lost vessels?' Pa demanded.

'Why should we?' Gaius Baebius gave him a scornful look. 'There's no money for the state in seaweed and silt.'

'That's a pity,' Father carried on. 'I'd like to know for certain that the Pride of Perga really hit bottom-'

'So what have you discovered, Gaius?' I insisted, as patiently as I could while I was tossed between this squabbling pair.

'Festus!'

I felt a sickly qualm. I was not yet ready to talk to any member of the family on that subject. Even Pa fell silent.

Gaius Baebius noticed I had lost my appetite; he lunged eagerly to grab my bowl.

'Give!' urged my father, trying not to sound subdued. 'What about Festus?' His eyes had fallen on a second spoon, with which he fought Gaius Baebius for what was left of my food.

'I found-' Gaius had his damned mouth too full of my snack to talk. We waited for him to masticate with the ponderous thoroughness that characterised his life. I could have kicked him. Rather than have to endure his pained reproach if I attacked him, I restrained myself, though the restraint was precarious. 'I found,' he let out meticulously after a long wait, 'the note of what Festus paid in excise dues when he came ashore.'

'When? On his last leave?'

'Exactly!'

My father's eyebrows, which had retained more blackness than his rampant hair, shot up his brow. He looked down that long, straight nose of his. 'Festus came home on a stretcher in a military supply ship!'

'Yes, he came home on a stretcher, but he damned soon hopped off it!' Gaius Baebius risked a slightly critical note. All my sisters' husbands had looked askance at my brother, as in fact they still did at me. Gaius Baebius would be full of himself if he ever found out that Festus had thrown himself into his heroic death in order to escape some bullying creditors-not to mention the messy detail that unknown to my brother the creditors were criminally fraudulent.

Having to face people like my brothers-in-law with this depressing tale was the main trial ahead.

'So Festus, despite being wounded, managed to bring something home with him on which duty was payable?' I sounded as pedantic as Gaius himself; it was the only way to squeeze sense from him.

'You're with me!' cried Gaius triumphantly. 'You're not so dumb!' The man was unbearable.

Father rescued me before I exploded. 'Come on, Gaius! Don't keep us in suspense. What was he importing?'

'Ballast,' said Gaius Baebius.

He sat back, satisfied that he had baffled us.

'Hardly seems to rate paying duty,' I commented.

'No. The tax was a small debit.'

'Sounds to me as if Festus may have made a payment to somebody at the customs post in order to get his item described as valueless!'

'That's a slur on the service!' said Gaius.

'But it makes sense,' answered Pa.

My father had a way of sounding sure of himself that could be intensely irritating. I only endured it because I thought he must be holding out on Gaius Baebius, who annoyed me even more. 'Father, we can't even guess what this import was-'

'I think we know.'

I assumed Geminus was bluffing, but he looked too calm. 'Pa, you've lost me-and Gaius Baebius is a thousand miles behind!'

'If this "ballast" is what I reckon it might be, then you've seen the stuff, Marcus.'

'I take it we don't mean a load of fancy gravel for rich people's garden paths?'

'Bigger,' said Father.

Another mystery that had long been lying at the back of my memory found its moment to rush to the fore. 'Not those blocks of stone I was shown in the store by drippy Uncle Junius?'

'I guess so.'

'Have you seen old Junius? How is he?' flapped Gaius Baebius, with his normal fine grasp of priorities.

'So what are these blocks?' I asked my father, ignoring the interruption.

'I have some ideas.'

That was all he would say, so I sprang the thrill for him: 'I'm not short of ideas myself. I bet the ship that Festus came home in discovered a sudden need to call at Paros, the Marble Isle.'

Pa chortled. He agreed with me. 'I wonder how our canny lad persuaded the captain to stop off for him?'

Gaius Baebius was squirming like a child left out of adult secrets. 'Are you talking about Festus? What would he want marble for?'

'Having something made, no doubt,' I replied offhandedly.

'Could have been anything,' Father murmured, smiling to himself. 'Copies of statues, for instance…'

My own thoughts exactly. Festus would reason, Why sell only one half-million Phidias, when a sculptor like Orontes could be making you quadruplets?

'Oh that reminds me!' uttered my sister's bright spark. 'The ballast was not all he had to pay duty on. I nearly forgot to mention-there was some sort of statue as well.'

LVI

We came up from Ostia by river. It was a cold, slow trip. We made a silent party, all lost in contemplating the mystery that Gaius Baebius had handed us.

It had stopped raining, but when we reached Rome the sky was full of unshed showers. The roads were glistening. Pools of water lapped over the pavements where careless stall-holders and frontagers had let cabbage leaves and old brick-ends block gullies. Roofs dripped occasionally. The air was damp with Tiber fog, through which our breath wreathed extra moisture trails.

As we disembarked, one of Petro's men who had been keeping an eye on the river barges came up. 'Falco!' he coughed. 'Petronius has us all looking for you.'

'I haven't skipped bail. I was with my surety-' My laughter died. 'Problem?'

'He wants a word. Says it's urgent.'

'Mars Ultor! What's up?'

'That other centurion who's connected with the stabbed legionary made himself known. The boss interviewed him once, but he deferred a final judgement while we checked the man's story.'

'Am I cleared, or did he come up with an alibi?'

'Don't they always? Better hear it from Petro. I'll run up to the guardhouse and say you're back.'

'Thanks. I'll be at Fountain Court. Any time Petronius wants me, I'll make myself available.'

'You sound like one of his women!' remarked the trooper mysteriously.

We met at Flora's. I found Petronius Longus sitting over his lunch while he talked to the waiter and one of his own men, Martinus. Martinus stepped outside when I turned up. Another meal, previously ordered by my courteous friend, appeared at once in front of me. Epimandos served us with great diffidence, a mark of respect for Petronius, presumably.

I noticed that alongside Petro his thick brown cloak lay folded neatly on a pile of gear that I recognised as the dead soldier's kit. I ignored it politely for the time being. Epimandos, who may also have recognised the stuff, walked around that part of our bench as if the watch captain had brought a witch's cauldron into the bar.