I murmured to Milo, 'If you've got a bit of rope on you, I'll put him on a lead.' The dog had other plans. The rumble in the canine's throat assumed a more ominous note. I applied myself to calming him.
I was still talking when he sprang.
I rammed one elbow in his chest and braced both feet while I tried to hold his head and fend him off. I could smell dead meat on his breath, and his dentistry was unbelievable. I should have shouted at him fiercely; you have to dominate a mobster like that. I never had the chance.
'Stand back, Milo-'
Same old Milo: give him an order and he did the opposite. Luckily for both of us, Milo's idea of taming a dog was to grab him from behind, then jerk up his snout, twist it sharply, and break his neck.
We stood in the yard, frankly quaking. I admitted to Milo that I reckoned we were quits.
•
Laesus was in the house. I found him; Milo disarmed him of his seaman's knife.
We dragged him outside, backwards. The sad side of his face splashed down in a cowpat; the happy half could see what Milo had done to the mountainous dog.
'Falco!' he gasped, trying to grin in his old friendly manner. At first I went along with it.
'Laesus! I've been hoping to meet up with you again, old friend. I wanted to warn you, next time you drink saffron pottage at your favourite eating house, watch out for the belladonna they add to the broth!'
Grinning at the thought of someone poisoning my pottage, Milo pushed the sea captain's face deeper into the dung.
'I lost my ship!' Laesus complained. As a sailor he could cope with fishiness, but close contact with the joys of agriculture was making poor old Laesus lose his nerve.
'That's a tragedy. You can either blame my nephew-or put it down to having gobbled up my sacred goat!' He groaned and tried to speak again but Milo was enjoying himself the way he liked best: showing off how powerful he was, punishing someone unpleasantly. 'Where's Pertinax, Laesus?' I demanded.
'I don't know-' Milo demonstrated to Laesus the points on his body where pressure is unbearable. I winced, and looked away.
I told Laesus what I had worked out about Tarentum loyalties. 'I should have remembered Calabrians stick together like this farmyard muck! I suppose you rescued me in Croton market because even in Bruttium an Imperial agent dead in the Forum might attract attention. You preferred to polish me off privately-and it's lucky for me you failed! I wondered why you pressed me so hard to sail with you to Rhegium afterwards; no doubt I would have jumped overboard with fishing weights in my boots. Gordianus was lucky he had Milo in attendance while he was on your ship. Now where's Pertinax? Tell me, or you'll do worse than eat manure; Milo will be spreading the fields with what's left of you!'
Milo lifted the sea captain by his neck and his heels, far enough for him to gasp the words: 'He found a message here that his father has been taken ill. But-'
'But what?' I snarled.
'He said he might be visiting his ex-wife on the way!'
LXXIV
We had a quick scout round the farm, but the occupants must have scarpered. All we found were more evil odours, ants in the cheese press, and busy flies. Then, as we picked our way out along the rutted track, we ran into the black-chinned villain who had chased me that first day.
Milo was encumbered with Laesus, who saw this as his chance to escape and began struggling furiously. I took on the farmer. He was fresh, and I had made the mistake of letting myself relax. We circled ominously. He was missing the cudgel this time but I could tell from his stance that violent country wrestling was his speciality; I preferred games of skill. We grappled briefly, and the next moment I was lying on my back with all the breath knocked out of me. But I was fit after my holiday; so I scrambled up for the next throw, more wary this time.
It never came. There was a flash of white, an unexpected scurry, and before I could tackle him the farmer had collapsed headlong. A goat had knocked him flying-a goat whose wild eye and eager expression looked somehow familiar… I said, 'Your stock's well trained!' Then I gave the floored yokel a tap on the forehead that left him cold. He would wake up with a furious headache to find us long gone.
The animal that flattened him let out an impassioned bleat, then launched at me. I struggled to stay upright, fending off the attentions of yet another old friend from Croton I had never expected to encounter again.
Laesus looked self-conscious. 'Every time we got the fire lit she ran off. She's nothing but trouble, Falco; you can have her back-'
And so we left that filthy hideaway: Milo dragging Laesus on one piece of rope, and me holding another string to lead my sacred goat.
When we arrived in Oplontis I put Milo in charge of escorting the sea captain to a berth in the Herculaneum jail. My personal grudge dictated I go for Pertinax myself. Milo understood that; pursuing grudges was a hobby of his own.
Although Helena Justina was still at the inn, Larius assured me in an undertone there had been no sign of Pertinax. I reckoned I knew why. That snob would never expect a senator's daughter to stay in such deplorable surroundings solely to help stricken friends; he would assume she still lived at the villa. Yet even if he did know we had her, we could frighten him off now. Aemilia Fausta had been as good as her word. She had already sent transport for our invalid and his family-plus an armed guard from Herculaneum who were so excited at the prospect of action they intended to stab first and ask questions afterwards.
I drew Larius to one side.
'I'm going up to the villa rustica. I don't know what I'll find. I need you to look after the people I'm responsible for. I want them all to leave Campania. I don't like the way Pertinax is preoccupied with Helena; it's not safe. If I tell her the truth, she'll argue. So we'll say that Petronius Longus is being whisked back to Rome under armed guard because he is a material witness, and I'll ask Helena Justina to go too-'
'To supervise?' grinned Larius; I chortled back abstractedly.
'Yes; she'll like that…' Then I looked at him properly. 'You were a good lieutenant on this trip. I could use you, Larius. Drawing the Battle of Actium three times a month is soul-destroying. You ought to be using your grit and initiative-and be showing off to girls! Want a job as my assistant back in Rome?'
My nephew laughed. He told me frankly that he had more sense.
•
I got them away that night. The cavalcade left in a resinous tang of torches: a rapidly convened train of baggage and querulous children, led by Larius and Ollia's fisherboy driving Nero with Petro's culleus of wine. We had certainly assembled a quaint batch of souvenirs. Milo's shrimp took charge of my goat, who was being sent with Nero to live on Petro's cousins' farm.
When it came to the point, my plans crumbled: face to face with Helena I told her the truth.
'Yes, I see.' She always had a quiet response to a genuine emergency, though obedience to my instructions had never featured much in our relationship. 'Marcus, is it still your intention to put Pertinax under arrest?'
'He has two deaths now to answer for, plus the attack on Petronius. Whatever his old father thinks, Pertinax is
