`When they get, fished out, what do you do with the bodies?'

Lollius, glared at me. `What do you think we do? We shove in a spike to let the gas out, tow them downstream out of trouble, then sink them if we can.'

'Oh, the humane touch.'

His scorn was justifiable. `We're certainly not daft enough to hand them in to the authorities!'

`Fair enough.' Public spirit is at best a waste of time, at worst positively, asking for ten months rotting in the Lautumiae jail without a trial.

`So what are you suggesting?' Lollius jibed. `That we should dig a dirty great hole in a public garden and bury the lumps when nobody's looking – or when we hope they're not? Or we could all club together and arrange something through our guild's funeral club, maybe? Oh, yes. You try arranging a polite cremation for someone you don't know who has had all their extremities hacked off by a pervert. Anyway, Falco, if I had found one of the fancies, and even if I was prepared to do something about it, can you imagine how I'd explain it to Galla?'

I smiled drily. `I expect you'd tell my wonderful trusting big sister some complicated lies, Lollius just as you normally do!'

EIGHTEEN

Petronius was furious. When he, returned from his trip out of town, the tale I reported from Lollius' brought out his worst side as a member of the vigiles. He wanted to storm down to the Tiber and arrest anyone who carried an oar.

`Back off, Petro. We don't know any names, and we won't be told any, either. I poked around a bit but the boatmen have clammed up. They don't want trouble. Who can blame them? Anyway, without an actual torso what can you do? We now know that the rivermen find these things; it's no real surprise, because if there are dismembered hands floating about then the other body parts` had to be somewhere. I let it be known along the embankments that next time we'll take delivery of what they trawl up. Let's not annoy the bastards. Lollius only coughed to me because he was yearning to play the big prawn.'

He's a rotten old bloater.'

`Don't tell me.'

`I'm sick of messing 'about, Falco.' Petronius seemed tetchy. Maybe when I sent him to Lavinium I had made him miss an assignation with Milvia. `The way you do things is incredible. You tiptoe all around the facts, sidling up to suspects with a silly smile on your face, when what's needed is to handout a few beltings; with a cudgel'

`That's the vigiles' trick for encouraging public trust, eh?' `It's how to run a systematic enquiry.' `I prefer to woo the truth out of them.' 'Don't fib. You just bribe them.' `Wrong. I'm too short of cash.' `So what's your method, Falco?' `Subtlety.'

`Bulls' bollocks! It's time we had some routine around here,' Petro declared.

To impose this fine concept, he rushed off, despite; the hot weather, and took himself to the river where he would try working on the boatmen although I had told him not to. I knew he would get nowhere. Clearly the harsh lessons I had absorbed in seven years as an informer would have to be learned all over again by him before' Lucius Petronius carried weight as my partner. He was used to relying on simple authority to generate something even simpler: fear. Now he would find he lacked that. All he would inspire, in the private sector was scorn and contempt. Anyway, for private citizens putting the boot in was not a legal option. (It was probably illegal for the vigiles too, but that was a theory nobody would ever test,)

While, Petro was exhausting himself among the water bugs, L applied myself to earning some petty cash. First, I cheered myself up extracting payment for various jobs I had done months ago, before Petro joined up with me; the denarii went straight into my bank-box in the forum, minus the price of a couple of shark steaks for Helena and me.

Then, thanks to our recent notoriety, we had a few tasty tasks. A landlord wanted us to investigate one of his female tenants who had been claiming hard luck; he suspected she was harbouring a live-in boyfriend who should be coughing up, a share of the rent. A glance at the lady had already revealed that this was likely; she was a peach and in my carefree youth I would have strung out the job for weeks. The landlord himself had tried unsuccessfully to waylay the boyfriend; my method only took an hour of surveillance. I settled in at midday. As I expected, promptly at lunchtime a runt in a patched- tunic turned up looking furtive. He couldn't bear to miss his snack. A word with the tenement's water-carrier confirmed that he lived there; I marched in, confronted the culprits as they shared their eggs and olives, and clinched the case.

A well-to-do papyrus-seller thought his wife was two-timing him with his best friend. We had been watching the set-up; I decided the friend was innocent, though the dame was almost certainly being screwed on a regular basis by the family steward: The client was overjoyed when I cleared his friend, didn't want to hear about the cheating slave, and paid up on the spot. That went in the honesty dish Petro and' I were sharing, even the large gratuity.

On the way back to Fountain Court I dropped in at the baths, scraped myself down, listened to some unimportant gossip, and bantered with Glaucus. He was working with another client and I didn't stay. Back at base Petronius Longus had failed to reappear. I was in for a hard time worrying over his whereabouts; it was like being in charge of a love-lore adolescent. I hoped his absence meant he had gone to attempt a reconciliation with his wife. I knew it was more likely the dog had sneaked off to see Balbina Milvia.

Pleased with my own efforts I shut up the office, exchanged a few words with Lenia, then strolled across the street. I was the cook here, so long as we lacked a troop of whining slaves. Helena had been marinading the fish steaks in olive oil with a few herbs. I panfried them simply over the embers in our cooking bench and we ate them on a green salad dressed with vinegar, more oil and a dash of fish sauce: We had plenty of oil and sauce after our Spanish adventure, though I applied them sparingly. A good shark steak should stand alone.

`Did you rinse them well?'

`Of course,' retorted Helena. `I could see they had been salted. Mind you, I was wondering what had been in the washing water. `Don't think about it. You'll never know.'

She sighed. `Well, if Lollius was right and people have been murdered, cut up, and dumped over several years, I suppose we're all used to it.'

`The torsos must have been put straight into the river.'

'How reassuring,' muttered Helena. 'I'm worried about the baby's 'health. I'll ask Lenia if we can draw our water from the laundry well.'

She wanted the horror stopped. So did I. She wanted me to stop it; I was not so sure I could.

We left a decent period so it didn't look as if we were hoping to be given dinner, then walked over the Aventine to her parents' house. I thought we were just enjoying a cheap night out, but I soon realised Helena Justina had more precise plans. For one thing she wanted a closer inspection of the situation regarding Claudia Rufina Claudia and both Helena's brothers were there, moping because their parents were holding a dinner party for friends of their own generation, so the house was full of tantalising food scents while the youngsters had to make do with leftovers. We sat around with them until Aelianus grew bored and decided he was off out to hear a concert.

`You could take Claudia,' Helena prompted.

`Of course,' said Aelianus at once, since he came from a sharp-witted family and had been brought up well. But Claudia was frightened of Rome at night and decided to opt out of this invitation from her betrothed.

`Don't worry; we'll look after her,' his brother told the prospective bridegroom. The comment was quiet and nonjudgmental; Justinus had always known how to niggle in an underhand way. There was no love lost between these lads; born barely two years apart they were too close. They had no habit of sharing anything, least of all responsibility.