`I'll stop chasing when I catch the right one,' said Petronius, gazing into his hot drink. Steam, comfortingly infused with honey and watered wine, wreathed around his battered face. He looked tired and still in shock, but his brown hair stood up boyishly.
`Really?' asked Maia, with a light disbelieving inflexion.
`Really.' Petro looked up suddenly with a faint smile that implied – well, maybe nothing at all.
We were all sitting subdued and silent when we were joined by Fusculus. He gazed around as if the atmosphere made him fear the worst, then weighed up his chiefs wounds with routine expertise. As a courtesy, he pulled a face. `Nice ornaments!'
`Pretty effect, eh? It was close. Still, we're not booking a funeral. What's new?' Fusculus tossed a glance towards Maia. Suspicion mingled with masculine interest. Petronius said briefly, `Falco's sister. You can speak.'
Now Fusculus was taking a better look at him, after noticing that Petro's throat was so sore it was limiting his speech. `It's true? The bastard tried to strangle you…?'
`I'm all right.'
`Well, chief, I do have something to report. We know who he is. The description was easy enough to put around. He was a serious heavy, known as Bos. Built like a fighting bull -'
'We know that,' I commented.
Fusculus grinned. `Rumour says you two tossed him over a balcony?'
`Very gently.'
`Accomplished with perfect etiquette? Well, Bos had a huge reputation. Nobody but you two crazymen would have dared tackle him. If you go down to the Forum today, you'll be treated like demigods -'
T
hat was his status?' interrupted Petronius.
`Brute-for-hire. Leaning on people. Squashing those who refused to co-operate. Mostly he just had to arrive on the doorstep and they gave up.'
You surprise me!'
Who used to hire him?' I asked Fusculus intently.
Racketeers, rent-hungry landlords – and you guessed it: defaultedon moneymen.,
`Particular clients?'
`Often a set of debt-collectors called the Ritusii. Harsh and hardhearted. Known for their tough methods and subtle hints of unacceptable violence.'
`Wrong side of the law?'
`No,' said Fusculus dryly. `In their field, they make the law. They are never sued for compensation. Nobody lodges complaints.'
Petronius stretched awkwardly. `I think I might make one.'
`Can we prove Bos was sent here by the Ritusii? Doubtful,' I reminded him. `Neither they nor Lucrio will admit a connection; banks aren't supposed to use enforcers, for one thing. They made a bad mistake, attacking a vigiles officer – but they are unlikely to admit they sent Bos to hurt you.'
`They do know we suspect it,' Fusculus told us. `A report had to go to the Prefect.' Petronius choked with annoyance. He had wanted to settle this in his own way. Still, he did not insist on knowing which over-hasty member of the cohort had made the report in his absence. `The Prefect sent a detachment to pull their place apart.'
`Oh good thinking! Find anything?' I scoffed sarcastically.
`What do you think?'
Petronius said nothing. Maia removed his empty beaker, which he seemed about to drop.
`Do these Ritusii hardmen openly work for Lucrio and the Aurelian Bank?' I demanded.
`Not openly,' said Fusculus. Then an expectant grin stretched across his face. He had something to tell us and wanted to see us react. `Anyway, Falco, less business will be coming their way from that direction now the Aurelian Bank has been inundated with; scared clients wanting to withdraw their funds. Lucrio froze all accounts this morning and called in specialist liquidators. The bank has crashed.'
I helped Petro limp back to the reading couch, where he subsided drowsily.
`Can you look after yourself?'
`I'm in the hands of a lovely nurse,' he whispered with a husky pretence at secrecy. It was the traditional male response to being trapped in a sickbed. You have to play the game.
`Helena will be back any minute,' Maia retorted, whisking out of the room with a vigorous yank at her skirts.
I covered him over. `Stop flirting with my sister. You may be the demigod who disposed of the giant Bos – but there's a queue for Maia. Don't risk your neck with Anacrites. That man is far too dangerous.'
I meant it. It would be bad enough if the Chief Spy made any headway with my sister, but if he did and she ever decided to dump him, it would threaten all our family. He had power. He controlled sinister resources, and he made a spiteful enemy. It was time all of us remembered Anacrites had a darker side.
Of course if he was dumped by my mother at the same time as Maia saw through him, we were probably dead from the moment the letter saying, `Darling, we've had so much fun and I really hate writing this…'
landed on his Palace desk. I felt sick at the thought of anyone calling Anacrites darling. But that was nothing to my fear of his reaction if he ever lost face by rejection as a lover – especially if he then blamed me. He had tried to have me killed once, in Nabataea. It could happen again at any time.
As I brooded, Petronius was making some quiet joke: 'Ah, I won't have any luck with Maia. I'm her brother's horrible crony – tainted goods.'
Just as well. I hated all my brothers-in-law. What a pack of irritating swine. The last thing I could have tolerated was my best friend wanting to join them. Shaking my head to be rid of this thought, I set off to the Forum not to be greeted like a hero, but to try to see Lucrio.
As I walked, I wondered why I had not told Maia the ill-tasting gossip about Anacrites and Ma. Pure cowardice, I admitted it.
Lucrio was nowhere to be found. I was hardly surprised. When any business goes bankrupt, the executives ensure that the night before it becomes open knowledge they ride off to their personal villas a long way from Rome – taking the silverware and petty cash. The Golden Horse change-table stood empty and unstaffed. I walked to Lucrio's home address. A fair-sized crowd had gathered, some just standing with an air of hopelessness, others flinging rocks at shutters in a desolate way. A few were probably debtors who wondered if they might escape repaying their loans now. The door stayed closed and the windows were well barred.
I felt disappointed. As a riot, it was a washout. Sightseers had started arriving just to watch for suicides among the crowd but the crowd, slightly embarrassed, all looked ready to filter off home. Those who had lost most money would stay away. They would resist accepting what had happened, pretending everything was fine. As long as they could, they would fight off despair. When it struck, nobody would see them again.
There was nothing to do here. When a sad tambourine man came to play and sing mournful drinking songs, I left before his grimy assistant reached me with the hat.
Forget Lucrio. Forget these blank loafers drifting about in the street. I did not know them and I did not care too much about their losses. But if the bank had crashed, it affected real people, people I did know. There was something I had to tackle urgently. I had to go and see Ma.
XLVI
M
OTHER'S NEIGHBOUR. Aristagoras, the little old fellow, was sunning himself in the portico. Ma always kept the common areas of her block spick and span. Over the years, she must have saved the landlord hundreds in
