back in order.'
'You make much over the death of a nobody,' he almost whispered.
'He was somebody,' I assured him. 'He was a resident alien under my protection. His death and your daughter's were connected and I will have the truth. Should I decide that you are that connection, my lictors will be calling on you.'
'Surely you cannot think that I was involved in my own daughter's murder?' His indignation sounded genuine, but some people are experts at faking such things.
'Should I decide so, you will be in need of an inordinately sympathetic jury.'
Leto appeared, trembling and almost faint with apprehension. She stared at poor, bloodied Gaia with huge eyes and would have collapsed had Hermes not caught her.
Julia took her hand. 'Be calm, girl. You are coming to our house and no one will harm you.'
By this time I was beginning to wonder about my ability to protect anyone from harm.
8
It didn't look like much of a weapon, lying on the table in the impluvium. A messenger had delivered it while we were occupied at the temple. Julia had taken the German girl and Leto to quarters where they could be cared for. I wasn't going to be questioning Gaia for a while, but I hoped to get something coherent from Leto, if she could just overcome her terror.
Antonia picked up the sticker and examined it. The Egyptians had cleaned it before it was sent to me. It was made of a single piece of steel, the handle shaped like that of a miniature dagger. The blade part was triangular in cross section, tapering to a needle point and no more than five inches long. It resembled a writing stylus more than a weapon.
'He was killed with this little thing?' she said.
'It was sufficient,' I told her. 'It's all in the placement. As any legionary sword master will tell you, a puncture an inch deep in a man's
jugular will kill him just as dead as hacking him clean in two. Same thing with this. Put it in the right place, and death is all but instantaneous.'
She twirled it in her fingers, fascinated. 'I could use something like this. Most often, I strap a dagger inside my thigh when I go out, but it chafes after a while.'
'You do?' Circe said. 'I usually carry mine down here.' She poked a finger into her own ample cleavage. As usual, every new thing I learned about Roman women alarmed me.
'It weighs practically nothing,' Antonia observed, tossing it high, end over end, catching it adroitly by the handle on the fall. 'You could hide it in your hair. That way, it would still be handy when you're wearing nothing at all.'
'Enough of that, ladies,' Julia said, entering the room.
'Actually,' I pointed out, 'little daggers similar to this are sometimes earned by prostitutes, hidden in their hair, as Antonia suggests. They carry them to protect themselves from cruel or violent customers. Assassination is not the point. Such women know how to, ah, distract a man by stabbing him in an intimate spot.'
'You two are having a bad influence on my husband,' Julia said. 'But if it's a prostitute's trick, doubtless Gaeto had a number of them in his slave barracks.'
'The murderer came from outside-we've established that,' I told
her.
'If you can rely on the word of an old cavalryman,' she said. 'If he made up some details to make himself seem more important, he wouldn't be the first.'
'I trust him,' I said. 'Now what have you learned from the girls?'
'Leto is shattered and not a hand has been laid on her. Gaia is made of stronger stuff and that girl Charmian must have been made of iron to escape after the beating she took. I've dosed both the girls in our custody with poppy juice. I hope they can talk for a few minutes before they pass out.'
'They'd better,'' I said. 'I have to find Charmian. Surely she must have had someplace to run to.'
'You should send out word that she is to be brought to you when she's found,' Circe advised. 'Otherwise she'll be turned over to Diocles for the reward and he'll probably kill her. That old man is entirely too fond of the whip.'
'And he has something to hide,' Julia said.
'Everyone does,' I mused, 'but I don't want people combing the whole countryside for her. I need her alive and talking, and it's best if she comes to me freely.'
'How is she to know?' Antonia asked.
'Hermes will put out word on the slave grapevine,' I said. 'He knows how to do it.'
'You have a romantic conception of slaves' concern for one another,' Julia said. 'Her fellow slaves are as likely to sell her to Diocles as guide her to you.'
'Nonetheless, that is my decision.'
Shortly after this, Hermes came to inform us that the girls were able to talk. I told Antonia and Circe to rein in their unhealthy curiosity and stay where they were. They yielded with poor grace. Julia and I went to the room that had been prepared for our unexpected guests. Gaia lay on her stomach. The cushions beneath her were arranged for the greatest degree of comfort. Her stripes were cleaned and anointed with soothing oil, and she was covered with the lightest, gauziest sheet to be found in the villa. Leto sat beside her, holding her hand. She swayed in her chair, calm but almost numbed by the drug. Julia and I took other chairs, while Hermes and Marcus stood behind us.
'Girls,' I said, 'I need some information from you. I know you both need sleep but this will not wait. I am not going to threaten you with punishment, but I must have your fullest cooperation. You will be much safer that way. Do you understand?'
Leto nodded dumbly. Gaia managed to say 'yes' in a weak voice.
'We won't turn you back over to Diocles,' Julia told them firmly. 'You have been seized as evidence. My husband will have you remanded to the state, and I can then buy you and give you easy work in our own household. My husband can do this. He is a Roman magistrate. But you must answer him honestly.'
This seemed to reassure them. 'What do you want to know?' Gaia asked, her voice a little stronger. She must have been captured young or else born in captivity. Her Latin was without discernible accent.
'First off,' I said, 'what was Charmian's offense?'
'She was helping Mistress Gorgo,' Leto said, speaking for the first time, although somewhat listlessly. 'When the mistress went out at night, Charmian spied the way for her. Sometimes, I would sleep in Gorgo's bed, so it would look like she was there.'
'Charmian would hide the gifts the mistress returned with,' Gaia said. 'When Gorgo could not get away, Charmian would sneak out and tell the-the visitor.'
'Gorgo was seeing a lover?' Julia asked. Both girls nodded. 'How often?'
'Almost every night,' said Gaia.
'Was there just one lover?' I asked. 'Two? Many?'
'They never told us,' Gaia said. 'She confided fully only in Charmian. They were almost like sisters.'
'I think there was more than one,' Leto said in a tiny voice.
'Why do you say that?' I asked her.
Even in her benumbed state, the girl's face flushed. 'Some nights, when I slept in Gorgo's bed, she would just climb in and tell me to go back to our chamber. On some nights she-she smelled different than others.' Her head nodded and in seconds she was asleep, still sitting, holding Gaia's hand.
'She never told me that,' Gaia said.
'A few words more and you can sleep, too,' I told her. 'How did you help Charmian escape?'
'I was caring for her. She begged me to help her. She said one more beating would kill her and I knew it was true. She hadn't told Diocles everything and she swore she would die first. He knew she was withholding something and was just waiting for her to recover enough for the torture to resume.
