“No, I’m not selling.”
“Booking passage then. We do take occasional passengers on our ships. Where would you like to go?”
“Nowhere, I just want to speak with Telemenes.”
“Then I’m afraid he’s not here and won’t be until you go away.”
“Oh no, that won’t be necessary at all!”
A fat man stood in a doorway beyond the slave. He beckoned me inside. I stepped around the slave as ostentatiously as I could manage.
“Do excuse my slave. It’s his job to keep me from being interrupted by unimportant personages, but that certainly doesn’t apply to you.” He beamed at me like I was his favorite nephew. His face and body were enormous. Telemenes didn’t walk-he waddled from side to side. I wondered how any man could find enough food to get himself into that condition. In body-conscious Athens, which prized physical beauty above all things, Telemenes was unique. If he’d been a citizen, he would have been shunned by his fellows. As a metic he probably didn’t care, especially since he was apparently rich enough to buy any number of citizens. Besides which, Telemenes gave the impression of being almost terminally jolly.
“You…you know me?” I stammered, suddenly unsure of myself.
“But of course! You are Nicolaos, son of Sophroniscus. It would be a poor merchant who didn’t keep up with the latest developments in politics.”
“I’m not a politician.”
Telemenes raised an eyebrow. “Not too many days past, you formed an arrangement with Pericles, a man who, if I read the signs right, will soon be a powerful presence in Athens. You are acquainted with his father Xanthippus, a powerful member of the Areopagus. Indeed, I’m given to understand you helped save his property when the mob became violent. It’s always pleasant to have favors due from the powerful, don’t you think? You were seen to speak convivially with Archestratus at the funeral of Ephialtes. You visited the Polemarch-lovely man-at the time one of his secretaries was forced to retire due to illness. The rumor is you turned down his offer of a post, which bespeaks a man of enormous confidence of greater positions on the horizon. My dear boy, let’s not be unduly modest in this room. I understand it is seemly before the mob, but between men such as us we can dispense with pretense. So, what can a fat old merchant do to assist you?”
And all this time I’d thought I’d been investigating a murder. Was this how other people saw me? Or was this slimy dealer trying to flatter me for his own unspeakable purposes?
“First of all, you can tell me what Rizon wanted.”
“The gentleman who was here a moment ago? Surely that is his business. You should ask him.”
“He’s most unlikely to tell me. You, however, are likely to assist a rising politician. Do you trust your own judgment? Let’s reflect on your words about the joy of having favors owed you.”
“I see.” Telemenes reflected for a moment. “The gentleman in question has occasion to make business trips. Most of our passengers are traveling on business. There is nothing unusual in that.”
“It depends on the destination. Where does he go?”
“Ephesus.”
“Anywhere else?”
“Always Ephesus, there and return. Three trips.”
“So Rizon was here arranging another business trip.”
“Indeed.”
“Why in Hades would a sandal maker need to travel?”
Telemenes raised his eyebrows. “Now it truly would be necessary to ask the gentleman. I don’t inquire of my passengers what they intend when they disembark my boat.”
“I’m sure you don’t. You had an arrangement with Aristodicus of Tanagra. I want to know about it.”
“Who?” He looked bemused. I maintained a steady silence, determined to wait him out. Telemenes finally acquiesced and clapped his hands, and the slave came in. Telemenes whispered something to him and the slave departed, returning a moment later with a thick pile of parchments. He sifted through these before picking out one and handing it to Telemenes, silently departing with the remainder.
Telemenes studied the parchment. “Ah yes, Aristodicus of Tanagra. A minor matter that was taken care of directly by my slaves.”
“Your seal is on the document.”
“Ah yes, I am a busy man, Nicolaos. I have many things to attend to. Sometimes a busy man will allow a slave to affix a seal. It’s a minor peccadillo, I know, but you know how it is. In the world of business, there are many worse things a man could do.”
“Do you have many arrangements like this one?”
“Offering passage? Why, of course.”
“How about passage for three times the going rate in return for anonymity and a fast boat on a moment’s notice?”
“Does it say that here?” Telemenes made a great show of inspecting the note closely.
“I am reading between the lines.”
“My dear Nicolaos, you should not make too much of the loose language you come across in notes such as these.”
I made a stab in the dark on a sudden inspiration. “Was there a similar note when you brought Aristodicus to Athens?”
“There you are, young man! A fine example of loose language yourself! I did not arrange for Aristodicus to come to this lovely city.”
“But he came on one of your boats, didn’t he?”
“We are predominantly an import-export fleet, but we do have numerous passengers.”
Talking with this man was like wrestling with an eel. “I suppose you must be pleased now that you won’t have to deliver on your agreement.”
“What do you mean?” He was either genuinely puzzled or an excellent actor.
“Aristodicus is dead.”
“He is? Why, the poor man! I sorrow. I do hope it was not a painful illness that carried him off.”
“Rest easy. The arrow that took him in the back was quite quick. Forgive me for mentioning it, but for a merchant who likes to keep up on political developments you seem remarkably behind the times about spectacular local deaths.”
“I was speaking of the high politics of one of the world’s most powerful cities, and you, unless I mistake your meaning, are talking about the sordid activities of a criminal underworld.”
“I’m not entirely sure there’s a great deal of difference. But even if there were, I am sure you would still know about it, Telemenes.”
“My dear Nicolaos! I am a legitimate merchant. I have five boats plying the waters between all the Hellene ports, plus Crete, Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Egypt, and sometimes all the way to Massalia if the profit is right. We export ceramics and other manufactured goods, we import corn and some luxuries. I give you my most solemn promise I make more profit from such ventures than I ever could from passengers, no matter how well they pay.”
I decided I could keep asking questions all day, and Telemenes could keep deflecting them as if he had some kind of verbal shield. “Where was Aristodicus planning to go?”
“Syracuse,” he said. “Would you care to consider taking his place? As you pointed out, it is paid for.”
“Thank you for the offer. If things continue for me as they have been, I might need a fast ship out of Athens some time soon, but I’m not that desperate yet.”
Telemenes looked at me with interest. “Ah well.”
“Now tell me where Aristodicus came from, and don’t try and tell me you don’t know.”
Telemenes made another great show of inspecting his notes. “That would be…let me see now…ah yes, Ephesus, the famed city of marble. Beautiful place, Ephesus.”
Beautiful perhaps, but on the coast of Asia Minor under Persian control and, if my memory served, the closest major port to Magnesia, where Themistocles was Governor. So Aristodicus came here from Ephesus, and Rizon travels to Ephesus. What could I make of that?
I said, “Let me take a shot in the dark and ask if Rizon traveled on the boat that brought Aristodicus.”
