oath.'
He nodded. 'I thought it must be something like that. Even so, I don't suppose you could let me know, simply yes or no, whether Lucius Gellius and Palla really-Gordianus, you look as if the pheasant suddenly turned on you! Well, let no one say that I ever gave a dinner guest indigestion by pressing an improper question. I shall simply have to live not knowing. Though in that case, why I should tell you the latest news from the Forum, I'm sure I don't know.'
He pouted and fussed over Momo. I sipped my wine. Lucius began to fidget. Eventually his urge to share the latest gossip got the better of him. I tried not to smile.
'Very well, since you must know: Poppy, acting in his capacity as censor, has convoked a special Senate committee to investigate his own son on a charge of gross immorality-namely this rumor about adultery and attempted parricide. The committee will take up the investigation at once, and Poppy himself will preside over it.'
'But how will this affect the upcoming trial?'
'There won't be a trial. The investigation supersedes it. It's rather clever of Poppy, I suppose, and rather brave. This way he heads off his enemies who would have made a public trial into a spectacle. In-stead, he'll see to the question of his son's guilt or innocence himself, behind closed doors. The Senate committee will make the final vote, but Poppy will oversee the proceedings. Of course, the whole thing could spin out of his control. If the investigating committee finds Lucius Gellius guilty, the scandal will still be the ruin of Poppy.' He shook his head. 'Surely that won't happen. For Poppy to take charge of the matter himself, that must mean that his son is innocent, and Poppy knows it-doesn't it?' Lucius raised an eyebrow and peered at me expectantly.
'I'm not sure what it means,' I said, and meant it.
The investigation into the moral conduct of Lucius Gellius lasted two days, and took place behind the closed doors of the Senate House, where none but scribes and witnesses and the senators themselves were allowed. Fortunately for me, Lucius Claudius was among the senators on the investigating committee, and when the investigation was done he invited me once again to dine with him.
He greeted me at the door himself, and even before he spoke, I could tell from his round, beaming face that he was pleased with the outcome.
'The committee reached a conclusion?' I said. 'Yes, and what a relief!'
'Lucius Gellius was cleared of the charges?' I tried not to sound skeptical.
'Completely! The whole business was an absurd fabrication! Nothing to it but vicious rumors and unfounded suspicions.'
I thought of the dead slave, Chrestus. 'There was no evidence at all of Lucius Gellius's guilt?'
'No such evidence was presented. Oh, so-and-so once saw Palla and Lucius Gellius sitting with their legs pressed together at the Cir-cus Maximus, and another so-and-so saw them holding hands in a marketplace one day, and someone else claims to have seen them kiss beneath some trees on the Palatine Hill. Nothing but hearsay and rubbish. Palla and Lucius Gellius were called upon to defend themselves, and they both swore they had done nothing improper. Poplicola himself vouched for them.'
'No slaves were called to testify?'
'This was an investigation, Gordianus, not a trial. We had no authority to extract testimony under torture.'
'And were there no other witnesses? No depositions? Nothing regarding the poisoned cake that was rumored?'
'No. If there had been anyone capable of producing truly damning evidence, they'd have been found, surely; there were plenty of senators on the committee hostile to Poppy, and believe me, since the rumors first began, they've been scouring the city looking for evidence. It simply wasn't there.'
I thought of the poison dealer, and of the blond girl who had waited on me at the bakery shop. I had tracked them down with little enough trouble; Poplicola's enemies would have started out with less to go on, but surely they had dispatched their own finders to search out the truth. Why had the girl not been called to testify, at least? Had no one made even the simple connection between the rumor of the poisoned cake and the bakery shop which produced Poplicola's favorite treat? Could the forces against the censor have been so inept?
Lucius laughed. 'And to think of the meals I left untouched, fretting over Poppy! Well, now that he and his household have been vindicated, he can get on with his work as censor. Tomorrow Poppy will post his list of senators who've earned a black mark for immoral conduct. Good riddance, I say. More elbow room for the rest of us in the Senate chambers!' He sighed and shook his head. 'Really, all that grief, and the whole thing was a farce.'
Yes, I thought warily, so it had ended up-a farce. But what role had I played in it?
The next day I went to the street of the bakers, thinking to finally taste for myself one of the famous almond sweet cakes baked by the Baebius family-and also to find out if, indeed, no one from the Senate committee had called upon the blond girl.
I strolled up the narrow, winding little street and arrived at the corner with a shock. Instead of the blond girl's smiling face behind the serving counter, I saw a boarded-up storefront. The sign bearing the family name, there for three generations, had been obliterated with crude daubs of paint.
A shopkeeper down the street saw me gaping and called to me from behind his counter.
'Looking for the Baebii?'
'Yes.'
'Gone.' 'Where?'
'No idea.'
'When?'
He shrugged. 'A while back. Just up and left overnight, the whole lot of them. Baebius, his wife and daughter, the slaves-here one day, all gone the next. Poof! Like actors falling through a trap-door on a stage.'
'But why?'
He gestured that I should step closer, and lowered his voice. 'I suspect that Baebius must have gotten himself into serious trouble with the authorities.'
'What authorities?' 'The Senate itself!' 'Why do you say that?'
'Just a day or two after he vanished, some pretty rough-looking strangers came snooping up and down the block, asking for Baebius and wanting to know where he'd gone. They even offered money, but nobody could tell them. And then, a few days after that, here come more strangers asking questions, only these were better dressed and carried fancy-looking scrolls; claimed they were conducing some sort of official investigation, and had 'senatorial authority.' Not that it mattered; people around here still didn't know what had become of Baebius. It's a mystery, isn't it?'
'Yes…'
'I figure Baebius must have done something pretty bad, to get out
of town that sudden and not leave a trace behind.' He shook his head. 'Sad, though; his family had been in that shop a long time. And you'd think he might have given me his recipe for those almond cakes before he disappeared! People come by here day and night, asking for those cakes. Say, could I interest you in something sweet? These honey-glazed buns are fresh out of the oven. Just smell that aroma…'
Is it better to visit a poison dealer on a full stomach or an empty one? Empty, I decided, and so I declined the baker's bun and made my way across the Forum and the cattle market to the riverfront, and thence to the seedy little tavern frequented by Quintus Fugax.
The interior seemed pitch-dark after the bright sunshine. I had to squint as I stumbled from bench to bench, searching among the derelicts. Only the most hardened drinkers were in such a place at that time of day. The place stank of spilled wine and river rot.
'Looking for someone?' asked the tavern keeper.
'A fellow called Fugax.'
'The scarecrow with the rheumy eye and the bad breath?' 'That's him.'
'You're out of luck, then, but not as out of luck as your friend.'
'What do you mean?'
'They dragged him out of the river a couple of days ago.' 'What?'
'Drowned. Poor sod must have fallen in; not my fault if a man leaves here too drunk to walk straight. Or
