'There is supposed to be a new fort coming.'
'Who knows when! How do you make a living? Who uses your baths?'
'Soldiers mainly. They like the bar next door. They were in earlier. They all got called out on an exercise.' That would be the governor, ordering the troops to search for Splice.
A thought struck me. The barkeeper who had helped me entertain the centurion, Silvanus-it felt about six weeks ago-had talked about fetching his water from a bathhouse. 'Does a military drinking den use your water?'
The owner nodded. 'We have a well with a treadmill and a water-wheel,' he informed me proudly. 'There is nothing like our system anywhere north of Gaul-'
'Indoors?'
He gestured in the direction I had come from. 'We had to build the well where the water is.'
'Oh, I saw your wellhead premises.' That was behind me in the storm; I lost interest. 'So which way is the bar?' I demanded.
'Right next door,' replied the bathkeeper, as if surprised I did not know. 'Caesar's. Same as us.' Well, that saved the drunks having to remember two names.
I left Caesar's Baths and hurried a few strides through a large, spreading puddle, to Caesar's Bar. When I walked in, who should I see gloomily supping a flagon but my dear pal Lucius Petronius.
He half rose, looking anxious. Immediately all my pain over Chloris resurfaced. 'You all right, Falco?'
'No.'
He called for another beaker and pushed me onto a bench. 'Grieve. Do it now.' He meant while I was here with him, not with Helena. Bad enough that she had seen me distraught, red to the elbows with the blood and intestines of a past lover. I glanced down at my clothing. At least the rain had washed away some of the mess. As for grief, that decides its own timing.
Petronius had his elbows on a table, his boots off on the floor to dry, and his big bare feet in a towel. He looked depressed, yet oddly comfortable. He had lost his quarry in the teeming wet, and he had bunked off. I couldn't argue, because so had I.
'You found him, of course?' I challenged, shaking water from my hair.
'I will,' Petro croaked: he was obsessive.
I drank, then wiped my mouth. 'He looked a bit different! That was a shock. I remember him as a soggy lump with hangnails and lanky hair, dreaming he would open his own racing stable-which he never would have done.'
'Power sharpened him up,' growled Petro. 'Now he goes for snappy clothes.'
'Those bloody Parthian trousers!'
Petronius allowed himself a wry smile. If anything, he had more conservative taste than me. 'The leg casings had a raffish style. They'd look quite good on a smelly muleteer in Bruttium.'
'So would a goatbell around his neck… I noticed his equestrian ring was three times the size of mine.' I spread my hand and looked at the slim gold band that signified I had been dragged into the middle class. Florius had worn a bar that covered a whole finger joint.
'The difference is,' said Petro, 'you wouldn't even wear one, from choice. Helena bought yours. She wants the world to know you are entitled to the honor, and you go along with her out of guilt.'
'Guilt?'
'Being a scruff when she deserves better. But Florius-' Petro stopped; he did not bother to express his full contempt. I had seen Petronius once take the ring owned by Florius' gangster father-in-law and flatten it under the heel of his boot.
Glumly he poured more wine.
'Is Florius the brothel pimp?' I asked suddenly.
Petro leaned back. I could see this was no new proposition. 'You mean 'the Collector'? Yes, that's him. The old gang always ran whores in Rome, don't forget. They had brothels both for their own sake, and for the crime that goes on in them. Not just manicure girls who talk to their friends all day and fortune-tellers who can't tell Cancer from Capricorn. I mean theft. Hustling. Illegal gambling. Contract killing. All on top of the usual depravity.'
'And Florius rounds up new talent himself?'
'Then he gets first go,' stated Petronius. We had both stopped drinking. 'Every filly in the Florius stable has been personally deflowered by him.'
'Raped?'
'Repeatedly, if needs be. To terrorize them, so they do as they are told.'
'That girl of ours he grabbed is about fourteen.'
'Some are younger.'
'You've been watching and not doing anything to stop it?' I glared at him. 'Did you realize you were directly watching Florius?'
'Not at first. As you say, he looks quite different.'
'Your customs pal told me he uses the brothel as an office when he comes into town. So he hangs his boots up properly somewhere else?'
'I assumed the Old Neighbour rented out space to him,' Petro confirmed. 'He came and went right in front of me a few times, before I even realized that it was him. Then I soon worked out that he owned the place, that he was closely bound up in its activities.'
'So where else does he hang out?'
'Downriver. He has a boat,' Petro told me. 'It was the boat that alerted me. Remember I saw someone standing in the prow that morning when the baker's corpse was being dumped?'
'You said something was bothering you.'
'I couldn't work out what. I yelled out loud when I realized it was him. The way he was stationed there, doing not a lot…' Petro scowled. 'He must have been watching his men dump the body over the side. Typical Florius. He enjoys observing. All the family are like that. They gloat over suffering, knowing they've caused it.'
'The sense of power and the secrecy. I bet Florius spies on customers when they are with the brothel girls.'
'Bound to.'
We fell silent. We had lost Florius and the weather was too grim to endure. It would do no harm to sit quietly to reflect.
We were still considering things when the door blew in. After the newcomers managed to slam it shut again on the blast, the barkeeper told them helpfully, 'No women.'
Since it was Helena and Albia who had stumbled inside, Petronius grinned and told him these bedraggled mites were with us. The barman assumed they were drabs and we were buying their services, but we treated them courteously anyway. As soon as she saw me, Helena came over with the same concern that Petronius had shown. 'Oh, Marcus!'
'I'm fine,' I lied. Still standing, Helena put her arms around me; that nearly did it for me. I choked back tears.
'Her friends have taken her. There was nothing anyone could do. You know that.'
When she released me, I steadied myself. She sat alongside. Albia had calmed down from her hysteria, and was now completely silent. Helena wrung out her hair, then her skirts. The girl just sat. Helena tucked Albia's straggling hair behind her ears and dried her face as best she could on Petro's towel.
'Florius?' asked Helena quietly.
Petronius topped up his beaker, looking bad-tempered. 'We lost him. But this is a dead-end province at the end of the world. He has nowhere to go.'
That was optimistic, in my opinion.
We all sat lethargically, wearied in our bones by the weather. If we stayed too long, we would all be chilled. Our soaked clothes were not drying, only becoming heavier and colder on us.
We did stay, because Helena Justina had an urgent project. She put her arm around Albia and spoke gently. 'You were very upset when you recognized that man. I want you to tell me-now would be best, my dear- what you know about him.'
'We know he runs that brothel called the Old Neighbour,' Petronius supplied in a quiet tone, to get the girl
