Alexandria

‘No. Stop fantasising,’ Thalia told me frankly. ‘There is no scam. Traders and hunters acquire rare beasts down south and in the interior. They show good specimens to the zoo first. That’s what they have always done, since the pharaohs. If the zoo turns them down, the hunters move on to sell elsewhere.’

‘And your three lions?’

‘Were kept here as a public attraction while they were cute cubs. Now they are a handful and Philadelphion is glad I’ll take them.’

‘I’d better go and find him,’ I said, concluding our conversation. ‘I have to ask the silver-haired charmer whether one of his colleagues might want to kill him.’

‘Scram then,’ rasped Thalia.

‘I don’t suppose you know anything about the Zoo Keeper’s love life?’

‘Wouldn’t tell you, even if I did!’ replied Thalia, laughing coarsely.

Well, that sounded more like her old self.

XL

I tracked down Philadelphion. ‘I won’t keep you long. I hear your men are at a funeral . . .’ He gave it a nod, but made no other comment. ’What are they - brothers?’

‘Cousins. What do you want, Falco?’ He was terse. Perhaps he felt harassed, having to slop out enclosures and heave around feed buckets. When I found him, he had his sleeves rolled up to the armpits, straw in his hair and was doling out fruit to the baby elephant.

I asked if it was true that he had quarrelled with Roxana the day Heras died. Philadelphion denied it. I said there was supposed to be a feud between him and the lawyer Nicanor, with Nicanor making threats to steal Philadelphion’s mistress. ‘Roxana herself told me. And I know he is determined to defeat you in the race to become Librarian - using any unfair means.’

‘You think that pumped-up dandy let out my crocodile? Sobek would have crunched him up on the enclosure ramp.’

‘That then raises this question, Philadelphion: did you suspect Roxana might be meeting a rival at the zoo - so did you let Sobek out?’ Philadelphion guffawed but I kept at it: ‘You would know how to do it. Did you think Roxana was meeting Nicanor, and was he supposed to die?’

‘Falco, what kind of world do you live in?’

‘Sadly, one where it is necessary for me to insist you tell me where you were the night young Heras was killed.’

‘I told you before. Working in my office.’

‘Yes, that’s what you said.’ I toughened up. ’Now let’s have the truth.’ I was sick of being treated like a dunce. I was sick of traipsing to and fro across this magnificent complex just so one arrogant scholar after another could think he was bamboozling me. ‘I’ve heard false alibis before. Stop prevaricating. A thirty-foot crocodile escaped and savagely killed an innocent young boy. Heras was flirting with your lady love - who had lured him here to annoy you. What do you and Roxana want - the army to arrest you both for perverting the course of justice?

Either you cough up what really happened or you’ll be in custody within the hour. Your affair will be exposed and it will finish your chances of becoming Librarian. The Director will be absolutely thrilled to drop you.’

‘Flirting with Heras?’ Philadelphion interrupted, apparently amazed.

‘My source is impeccable.’

‘I know nothing about that.’

‘So what do you know?’

‘Does Roxana say this happened?’

‘Roxana denies it.’

‘Well -’

‘That clinches it for me. She’s a lying little madam. She and Heras had an assignation; I have an independent witness who knows it was pre-arranged. So Roxana is a liability for you - and a suspect for me. Forget being wounded by her skittish behaviour and confess what went on that day’

Philadelphion straightened up. ‘Roxana and I quarrelled, yes. It was about Nicanor. The minx uses his interest in her to cajole me into spending more time with her, bigger presents, better outings . . .’ ‘Minx’ was too soft. Still, better men had been bewitched by cunning Egyptian temptresses. ’This business with the shortlist has just brought everything to a head over Nicanor. I loathe the man; I make no secret of that. ’The Zoo Keeper shook his head in wonderment. ’But I don’t see, Falco, why Roxana would have been with somebody like Heras -’

I could see it. ‘Because she wanted to make you sorry for something. If she had encouraged Nicanor instead, he would have been very difficult to shed once she finished with him. A woman of Roxana’s perception would know not to use Nicanor as a temporary dupe. With him, it would be all or nothing. Toy with such a man, and the consequences would be grim. Heras, though, poor Heras seemed a safe plaything.’

‘Roxana is not like that.’

‘She is as tough as an army nail,’ I said. ’And trouble. Take my advice - dump her.’

‘Oh but she’s such a pretty little thing!’ wheedled the Zoo Keeper. I nearly decided the Director was right: this man’s judgement was faulty. Still, if candidates were turned down just because they were linked with unsuitable women, no high positions in the Empire would ever be filled.

The baby elephant was not receiving its fruit fast enough. It began to circle us with its tiny trunk in the air, trumpeting petulantly. If Hannibal had used such little creatures in the Carthaginian armies, the Roman legions would have stood their ground going ‘Coo, aren’t they cute?’ - though only until the babies came at them. This one was half my height but he carried enough weight to make us scamper out of his way when he charged.

We took refuge behind a fence. As a way to interview a suspect, it was not ideal.

The Zoo Keeper made a feeble joke about how sweet they were when their ears flapped. Then, crouching out of the little elephant’s sight, he knuckled under and confessed: Roxana had been spiky because she thought he was playing around with another woman.

‘What other woman?’

‘Oh, nobody’

I groaned. As a couple Philadelphion and Roxana seemed made for each other. Both tangled themselves in complications. But according to him, Roxana was ridiculous to doubt him. He maintained his complete innocence and her irrational fears - right up to the point when he decided to admit that after all, he did have an alibi for the night Heras died. I could hardly believe his effrontery; he came out and said it was Thalia.

I went back to see Thalia.

‘Oh you again, Falco!’

‘Routine enquiries . . . Can you confirm for me, please, that two nights ago a certain Philadelphion, Zoo Keeper of this locality was - as he is now claiming - engaged with you for several hours in innocent discussion of an animal he calls a catoblepas?’

Thalia looked vague. ‘Oh yes; now you mention it, we might have been.’

I seethed. ‘Never mind what in Hades is a catoblepas -’

She drew herself up. This was always impressive. ‘A kind of wildebeest, Falco.’

‘Philadelphion called it legendary’

‘Maybe yes, maybe no.’

‘This strange dispute kept you entertained all evening?’

‘He refused to see it my way. He told me what he thinks - and I put him straight. The beast hails from Ethiopia, has the head of a buffalo and the body of a hog - or is it the other way around? The name means it looks downwards, anyway. Rumour says its horrible stare or its breath can either turn people into stone or kill them.’

‘That sounds like rubbish.’

‘In my opinion,’ replied Thalia, ‘with which, when I put it to him properly, the Zoo Keeper agreed, a catoblepas is the same as the bloody big antelope I know as a gnu.’

‘A what?’

‘A g-n-u.’

‘Fabulous . . .’ I controlled my lungs, while wishing my breath could kill people. ‘So you pair were locked in debate about the origins of this suppositions creature for how long?’

‘Suppositions? Don’t come here with your big words, Falco.’