During breakfast, I received another message from Calpurnia.
Come at once! I am desperately fearful! My wise counselor assures me the danger increases as the time grows shorter. Have you discovered nothing? Rub the words from this wax as soon as you have read them and report to me in person.
Now there, I thought, is a woman who knows how to fret over her husband. Taking Rupa with me, I went to her house at once.
Porsenna the haruspex was with her, looking as self-important as ever. Uncle Gnaeus sat with his arms crossed, shaking his head from time to time to express his opinion that all this fuss was for no good reason. Calpurnia was in a highly agitated state.
"You realize there is only one more triumph remaining?" she said.
"Yes, tomorrow's African Triumph," I said, "ostensibly to celebrate the defeat and death of King Juba but also to mark Caesar's triumph over his Roman opponents who fled to Africa after the battle of Pharsalus. No Roman has ever before celebrated a triumph for killing other Romans-"
"Which makes this occasion all the more dangerous for Caesar," said Calpurnia. "How his enemies would love to pull him down even as he reaches the pinnacle of his glory!"
"Is that what your haruspex tells you?"
"Porsenna's warnings are dire. But it's also common sense."
"Then surely your husband will take every precaution. No man has more common sense than Caesar. Why, only yesterday, someone was telling me what a good judge of character Caesar must be-"
"Enough prattling!" said Calpurnia. "Have you discovered anything that might be useful? Anything at all?"
I sighed. "I'm no closer to being able to tell you who killed Hieronymus, and why. As I told you from the outset, that is my real purpose for pursuing this matter."
"When will you know something?"
"It's impossible to say. And yet…"
All three of them leaned toward me.
"Go on!" said Porsenna.
"Over the years, I seem to have developed a certain instinct. As others can smell rain before it comes, so I can smell the truth approaching."
"And?"
"My nose has begun to twitch."
"What is that supposed to mean?" snapped Uncle Gnaeus.
"I sense that I'm drawing closer to the truth, though I don't yet have an inkling of what that truth is or where or how the revelation will come. It's like the first whiff of a scent. You know you recognize it, even though you can't put a name to it. At least, not yet… but soon…"
"You sound as mystical as Porsenna!" said Calpurnia. "I thought you relied on logic and deduction, like a Greek philosopher."
"I do. But sometimes I seem to skip a step or two in the chain of reasoning. I arrive at the truth by a kind of shortcut. Does it matter how I get there?"
"It matters when you get there," she said. "In time to save Caesar!"
I took a deep breath. "I'll do what I can."
I returned home. Once again I set to studying Hieronymus's reports and his personal journal. Though the hour was early, the day was already hot. No breeze stirred the baking heat of the garden.
I found nothing new to pique my interest, but I did come across a passage I had not read before, concerning the doorkeeper at Hieronymus's building, the slave called Agapios. In passing, Hieronymus noted, "What a flirt the boy is! Today he actually winked at me. To be sure, Cytheris served wine of Chios last night, and that vintage is said to restore the allure of the drinker's lost youth."
"Hieronymus, Hieronymus!" I muttered. "What a vain old fellow you were, and how easily you were flattered." In fact, I felt a bit put out by the passage. Agapios had flirted with me as well, but obviously the young man did so promiscuously and without the least sincerity. Some slaves acquire a habit of flirting with their superiors; they ingratiate themselves by reflex.
Diana brought me a cup of water. She surveyed the scrolls and scattered bits of parchment all around me. She seemed to hesitate, then spoke.
"Papa, do you think you've given sufficient weight to the note Hieronymus left for whomever might find his private writings? I mean the part where he says, 'Look all around! The truth is not found in the words-' "
"Daughter! Have you been looking through these documents behind my back?"
"You never forbade me to read them, Papa."
"But I never asked you to do so." I scowled at her. The heat was making me irritable.
"Hieronymus was my friend, too," she said quietly.
"Yes. Of course he was." I sipped the water.
"I want to know what happened to him, just as you do," she added. "And since you think it unseemly that I should go about asking questions of strangers, as you do, what else can I do but read his reports and try to imagine which of those people wanted to kill him?"
"I'll grant that you have the advantage of younger, stronger eyes. How much have you read?"
"Only bits and pieces. Some of his Greek I can't follow, and sometimes his handwriting is very hard to make out."
"As I know only too well! But what were you saying earlier, about something I've overlooked?"
"I don't know that you've overlooked it, Papa. But it strikes me that it might be significant. It's this part here." She reached for a scrap of parchment and read aloud. " 'I dare not write my supposition even here; what if this journal were to be discovered? Must keep it hidden. But what if I am silenced? To any seeker who finds these words and would unlock the truth, I shall leave a key. Look all around! The truth is not found in the words, but the words may be found in the truth.' "
I nodded. "Yes, yes, I noticed that passage at once when I discovered his private writings. There was no literal key, or at least none that I could find. As for looking all around, I did so. I scoured every corner of his rooms."
"Was Rupa with you?"
"No, this was before your mother issued her proclamation that I should never venture out alone. Why do you ask?"
"Another pair of eyes might have seen something you overlooked."
"Do you think I should go back and look again, and take Rupa with me?"
"No, I think you should take me with you."
"Diana, you know how I feel about your interest in this sort of-"
"But, Papa, you just admitted that my eyes are younger and stronger. Might I not see something that you overlooked? Four eyes are better than two."
"An aphorism worthy of Publilius Syrus!"
"So you will take me with you to Hieronymus's apartment?"
"I never said that!"
But that was what I did.
An hour later, three of us arrived at the building in the Subura: Rupa, Diana, and myself. Agapios the door slave was nowhere to be seen, but we did not need him; I had the key to Hieronymus's rooms. As we made our way up the stairs, Diana bounded ahead of me. I could see she was very excited to be accompanying her father in the performance of his work.
But her excitement gradually faded as we conducted our examination of the rooms. Together, we searched the furniture, looked for hidden compartments in the walls and the floor, and sorted though Hieronymus's few possessions. We looked through the various scrolls that remained in the bookcase, searching for any scraps of parchment with Hieronymus's handwriting. We circled the rooftop terrace, searching for hidden compartments in the exterior walls.