‘So were you a contemporary of an obnoxious bunch of imperial freedmen called the Claudii? Most live in the Pontine Marshes, though I’m told they have connections with Rome.’

  Momus took a long time rubbing his bleary eyes, then surprisingly he said no.

  I said quietly, ‘I thought you were famous for knowing the entire familia?’

  He pulled a face. He was not intending to help me. That was unusual. Normally our loathing of Anacrites and our distrust of Laeta made us allies.

  ‘Somebody knows them,’ I said. ‘Somebody is rumoured to protect them.’

  ‘Not me, Falco.’

  ‘No, I never saw you as the patron type!’ Even just talking to Momus always made me feel I had let down my own moral standards. I may be an informer but I do have some.

  Momus laughed, but no ice was broken in his reception of my joke.

  ‘Half the towns in Latium are shit-scared of treading on their nasty toes,’ I told him. ‘And you claim you don’t know them? Leaving me no choice, old crony, but to suppose you must be shit-scared of this somebody who watches over them.’

  Momus did not move a muscle.

  I blew out my cheeks slowly, as if impressed by the scale of the problem. That was easy. I was genuinely marvelling. Momus liked to be outspoken. His silence was not part of his routine sea-anemone lolling. If he had had tentacles, he would have stopped waving them as soon as I mentioned the Claudii. Momus was taking a lot of trouble to show no reaction, but his grime-engrained skin acquired extra sheen. I could have wiped his greasy, sweating face and then oiled a wheel-axle with the rag.

  Eventually he growled, ‘Don’t mess with this, Falco. You’re too young and sweet.’

  He was being ironic, but the warning had a note of real concern. I thanked him for the advice and took myself to see Laeta.

  I knew he would be there. In the first place, he enjoyed pretending his burden of work was terrible – and in the second, he really was the most important scroll-bug in the imperial bureaux. At this time in the summer, the betting was that all three of his masters, Vespasian and both his sons, were taking their ease at some family villa, perhaps out in the Sabine hills where they originated. When that happened, Claudius Laeta was left at the Palatine to run the Empire smoothly. Few people ever noticed that power was temporarily in his hands.

  As an informal gesture to the fact that it was after business hours, Laeta had a singer intoning an epode. The musician was heavily emphasising the iambic trimeters and dimeters in a long, slow, lugubrious piece that used the style aficionados call affected archaism. It was music you could never dance to, nor would it lull you to sleep, raise your spirits or encourage a fine-featured woman to sleep with you. Laeta had one finger placed against his brow to indicate subconscious delight. I wondered why men who listen to such torture always think themselves so superior.

  The Dorian dirge subsided. Laeta had made an almost imperceptible gesture, so the singer left. Going voluntarily saved him having me drag him outside and bind him by his tasselled wristbands to a fast-moving cart.

  ‘I’m glad you dropped by, Falco.’ Always a bad start.

  Laeta then told me that Anacrites was back from whatever mission the Emperor had let him loose to ruin. Instead of waiting for more orders, the Chief Spy had taken it upon himself to follow up the Modestus case. ‘I have informed Marcus Rubella he can drop the investigation,’ said Laeta, barely looking up from his deskful of documents.

  ‘That stinks!’

  ‘It’s a done deal, Falco.’

  ‘You think Anacrites is fit for this?’ I demanded.

  ‘Of course not.’ At this point, Laeta did look up and meet my eyes. His were clear, cynical and unlikely to be swayed by protests. ‘Think yourself lucky, Falco. Tell your vigiles friend too. This case may go very mouldy before it’s over. If the spy thinks he wants the job, that’s typical of his misjudgement – but let him go ahead and bungle it. We can all watch Anacrites get nasty black squid ink down one of those barley-coloured tunics he insists on wearing.’

  Laeta always wore white. Classic. Expensive and aristocratic. By implication incorruptible – though I had always assumed he was very corrupt indeed.

  I dropped my voice. ‘What’s going on, Laeta?’

  He laid down his pen and leaned his chin on his hands. ‘Nothing, Falco.’

  I folded my arms. ‘I can spot official lying. You can tell me the truth. I have the Emperor’s confidence. I thought you and I worked from the same order sheet.’

  ‘I am sure we do.’ Claudius Laeta gave me the look some bureaucrats use. It made no denial of a cover-up and seemed to assume I knew everything he did. I felt I could see distaste for whatever game Anacrites was playing.

  ‘I thought this was a confidential enquiry. How did Anacrites even find out about it?’

  ‘Your crony Petronius put in a claim for a replacement ox and cart. An auditor strolled up the corridor and mentioned it to the spy.’

  ‘Oh no! I wonder what that was worth? I do see the Treasury will quibble – but the adjudicators are perfectly capable of turning down expenses without bringing in Anacrites. It’s nothing to do with him.’

  Laeta for once allowed himself to be rude about another official: ‘You know how he works. He spends most of his time spying on his colleagues rather than enemies of the state.’

  ‘Shall I challenge him on this?’ I asked.

  ‘I advise against.’

  ‘Why?’

  Laeta’s eyes were keen and oddly sympathetic. ‘Take a steer from a friend. Anacrites is always dangerous. If he really feels he wants this work, stand back.’

  ‘That’s not my style.’

  Laeta leaned back with the palms of his hands on the edge of his table. ‘I know it’s not, Falco. That’s why I am taking the trouble, out of respect for your qualities, to say, just let this one go.’

  I thanked him for his concern, though I did not understand it. Then I left his office wondering what exactly the Chief Spy could find fascinating in a bunch of belligerent marshfrogs killing a neighbour in a feud about a boundary fence.

  My style was, as Laeta may have realised, to march straight up the corridor to Anacrites’ office, intending to ask him.

  Once again he was absent.

  Two of his men were there this time, eating folded flatbreads. I had seen them before. I reckoned they were brothers, and for no logical reason I had placed them as Melitans. Anacrites had had these idiots watching my house last December. I was looking after a state prisoner temporarily and, in his own tiresome style, he tried muscling in. Just like this, really. If he thought I was being noticed by the Palace, he could never leave me alone.

  The legmen had taken over his room as if this was their base, where they were allowed to eat their supper before they were sent out on their next assignment. One was actually sitting in the seat Anacrites normally used. Even spies have to eat. That included the unfortunates Anacrites employed. Any over-familiarity was his problem.

  When I looked in, the pair straightened up slightly; they rearranged their foreign-looking features so they seemed helpful, though neither bothered to ask what I wanted. They made vague attempts to hide their vegetable turnovers until they saw I didn’t give a damn.

  ‘He’s out?’

  They nodded. One raised his bread two inches as an affirmative. I didn’t ask where he had gone, so they did not need to tell me. They knew who I was. I wondered whether they guessed why I wanted to talk to Anacrites.

  He was obsessively secretive, too close to make a good commander. His men probably had no idea what he was up to. That was the problem with him: half the time he didn’t know what he was doing himself.

  XXIV

  For some reason, when I left the Palace, the night seemed full of threats and unhappiness. Rome had its seamy side. I seemed more aware of it tonight. I noticed caterwauling and unhappy cries, both near and distant; there seemed to be a bad smell everywhere, as if while I was in the Palace some major disaster with the drains had occurred. Darkness insinuated lower areas, creating pools of menace where there ought to be streets. Monuments that stood amidst a few lights looked cold and forbidding instead of familiar.

  Back at my house, however, there was peace. The children were in bed, perhaps even asleep. Albia was in her room, plotting against Aelianus. The lamplight was mellow, there was food and drink on a side table, a sleepy Nux thumped her tail at my appearance then went straight back to snoring in her happy doggy dreams.

  I sat sideways on a reading-couch with a cup of wine in one fist, not even drinking yet. Helena curled up beside me. She was sweet-scented from the baths and now wearing an old, comfortable red gown, no jewellery, with her hair loose. She put a light rug over her bare feet for comfort, wriggling her toes. I looked for signs that her grief for the baby was diminishing; she allowed my scrutiny, though with pinched lips as though she would flare up if I asked the wrong question. But then she took my hand; she was judging my progress back to normality just as I assessed hers. I too concealed my feelings, as I rubbed my thumb over the silver ring on her third finger.

  Once we both relaxed, I told her about being pushed to and fro at the Palace. Sharing news was our habit, always had been. I passed on what Laeta and Momus had said, while Helena at first listened. When I ran out of details and sipped my wine slowly, she spoke up.

  ‘Anacrites has commandeered the job because he is jealous, perennially jealous of you – and of your friendship with Petronius. He thinks you have a better life than him. He is afraid you may jostle him aside and gain favours from the Emperor. He wants what you have.’

  ‘I don’t see it.’ I put down the winecup; Helena reached over and sipped thoughtfully, before replacing the cup. I half smiled but kept talking. ‘Sweetheart, he has status; from what I hear, he has money too. Jupiter knows how he got there, but he’s top man in intelligence. Even that time he took out of action with his head wound never seemed to affect his position. He has a secure career, salaried and pensioned, very close to Vespasian and Titus – whereas I’m a luckless freelance.’

  ‘He envies your freedom,’ Helena disagreed. ‘It may be why he tries to sabotage your cases. He realises your talent, hates how you can choose to accept or refuse work. Most of all, Marcus, he longs for you to be his friend. He loved working with you on the Census –’ He drove me mad on it. ‘But he’s like an angry young brother, jumping up and down to get your attention.’ She had two younger brothers. ‘He has done this before to you and Petro. So, treat him like a tiresome brother; just ignore it.’

  I went with the simile. ‘I don’t want the nasty little menace to have a fit and smash my toys!’

  ‘Well, keep your toys on a high shelf, Marcus.’

  It was late. We were tired, not exhausted but not yet ready to go up to bed. In a family household, this was a rare moment of quiet. We stayed hand in hand, savouring the situation, re-establishing our strong partnership after a period of upset and absence. Helena caressed my cheek with her free hand; I bent and gently kissed her wrist. We were a man and his wife, at home in private, enjoying one another’s presence. Nothing really intimate was occurring – or not yet – but the last thing we wanted was an interruption. So that was when the bastard came, of course.

  I mean, Anacrites.

  I was dimly aware of noises downstairs – not urgent, no cause for us to involve ourselves. Then a slave I did not remember owning knocked and came in. This was what it meant to be wealthy: total strangers were living in my house, knew who I was, addressed me humbly as their master.

  ‘Sir, will you receive a visitor?’

  The visitor must have had a suspicion what my answer would be. He followed the lad and rudely pushed in after him. ‘I do apologise for calling so late – I just heard about your father, Marcus. I came immediately!’

  Helena murmured, ‘Thank you,’ to the young slave, so he would know we saw it was not his fault. He slipped away. She and I remained in position just long enough to let anyone less crass than the spy see he was intruding. He had probably come from the office; he even looked around as if hoping for a titbit tray. Failing a guest went against our idea of hospitality, but like stoics we refused to offer him refreshments.

  I stood up, sighing openly. A mistake, because it allowed Anacrites to bound right up, grasping my hands in his. I wanted to snatch back my paws, apply them round his beautifully barbered neck and strangle him; but we were standing on an attractive rag rug, and I was reluctant to defile it with his corpse.

  ‘Ah, Marcus, I am so sorry for your loss!’ He let go of me and turned to Helena who had stayed on the couch out of his reach. ‘How is this poor fellow doing?’ His voice was doleful with sympathy.

  Helena sighed glumly. ‘He is managing. The money helps.’

  Anacrites took a second to catch on. ‘You two! You joke about absolutely everything.’

  ‘Graveyard humour,’ I assured him, resuming my place beside Helena. ‘A grimace in the teeth of Fate, to hide our desolation. Though as my smart wife says – Geminus left me a stupefying legacy.’ I bet Anacrites had made sure he knew that before he came. ‘Apart from the inconvenience of probate, rummaging through his coffers does assuage the grief.’

  Anacrites took a seat opposite, though we had not invited him to do so. He leaned forwards, elbows on his knees. He was still addressing me with the unbearable earnestness people ladle like sweet sauce over the bereaved. ‘I am afraid I never really knew your father.’

  ‘He kept out of the way of people like you.’ This was not always true. Once, Pa had thought Anacrites was sniffing too closely around my mother like a gigolo – an idea so unbelievable we had all believed it at the time. My outraged father, taking it personally, rushed to the Palace and took a swipe at the spy. I was there and witnessed the crazy fist-swinging. Anacrites seemed to have forgotten. Perhaps the bad head wound a few years ago excused selective memory loss. It did not, however, excuse anything else he did.

  ‘And how is your dear mother?’ He had been Ma’s lodger for a time. Though she was so shrewd in many things, she thought he was wonderful. He in turn spoke of her with veneration. He knew it made me sick.

  ‘Junilla Tacita bears her loss with fortitude,’ Helena interposed gravely. Anacrites looked at her, grateful to encounter a normal platitude. ‘She only gloats in the afternoon; she says in the mornings she’s too busy around the house to taunt his ghost.’

  I smiled gently at the spy’s discomfiture.

  He wore an umber-coloured tunic, his idea of sophisticated camouflage. His skin looked strangely plump and smooth; he must have come from the baths. With that oiled hair and a straight bearing, he could be called personable; well, by a woman of the night, with time on her hands and bills to pay. I doubted that any decent woman ever looked at him, not that I had seen him seeking female company since Maia dumped him. I was convinced he had no friends.

  He was a strange mixture of competence and ineptitude. Undoubtedly intelligent, he was an able public speaker; I had heard him spout excuses like any clerk covering up his failures. There was no need for him to endure a tiny office and low-grade agents; his was a high public position, attached to the Praetorians; he could have conjured up a decent budget if he had applied himself.

  His next foray was to say to Helena, ‘I hear your brother is back from Athens – and married! Wasn’t that unexpected?’

  This was typical. Laeta had said Anacrites only returned to Rome three days ago, yet he had already discovered private facts about my family and me. He pressed too close. If I complained it would sound paranoid, yet I knew Helena saw why I loathed him.

  ‘Who told you that?’ She sat up abruptly.

  ‘Oh it’s my job to know everything,’ Anacrites boasted, giving her a significant smile.

  ‘Surely you should only watch the Emperor’s enemies?’ Helena retaliated.

  ‘Helena Justina, you were pregnant!’ Anacrites exclaimed, wide-eyed, as if it had only just struck him. ‘Has the happy event occurred?’

  ‘Our baby died.’ I bet the bastard knew that too.

  ‘Oh my dears! Again, I am so sorry … Was it a boy?’

  Helena bridled visibly. ‘What does that matter? Any healthy child would have pleased us; any lost child is our tragedy.’

  ‘Such a waste –’

  ‘Don’t upset yourself over our private troubles,’ Helena said coldly. He had pushed her too far. ‘I suppose,’ she jibed, ‘a man in your position does not know what it is to have family? You must always have looked intelligent. When some unknown slave girl bore you, were you taken up as soon as that was spotted, to be regimented in a soulless stylus-school?’

  Anacrites relied on pretending we were all best friends; otherwise, I fancied there might have been real venom in his expression. ‘As you say, they could spot potential. I was indeed favoured with government training from a young age,’ he replied in a quiet voice. Helena refused to show shame. ‘I knew my alphabet at three, Helena – both in Latin and Greek.’

  Though she did not remark on it, Helena had already taught our Julia both alphabets, plus how to write her name in rulered lines. Perhaps she relaxed slightly, however. For one thing, Helena always enjoyed sparring. ‘And what else did they teach you?’

  ‘Self-reliance and perseverance.’

  ‘Is that enough for the work you do now?’

  ‘It goes a long way.’

  ‘Do you have a conscience, Anacrites?’

  ‘Does Falco?’ he countered.

  ‘Oh yes,’ replied Helena Justina sternly. ‘He leaves home with it daily, along with his boots and his notebook. That is why,’ she said, fixing him with a steady gaze, ‘Marcus was so interested in working on the Julius Modestus case.’

  ‘Modestus?’ Anacrites’ bafflement seemed genuine.

  ‘Compulsory letter-writer,’ I put in. ‘Dealer from Antium. Found stone dead in a tomb – hands cut off and hideous rites committed – after a squabble with some marsh-waders known as the Claudii.’