'How was she getting there?'

`Walking. She said she didn't mind.'

`I thought the pair of you hired a litter? Cicurrus thinks that's what happened. You told him you came with Asinia all the way to her own door.'

`We'd spent our cash. Anyway, it was late. The Circus was turning out. All the hired chairs were gone.'

`So you left her alone,' I barked.' 'This good girl who was such an old friend of yours, knowing that she had to find her way through crowds of raucous revellers and walk halfway to the Pincian?'

`She wanted to,' the girl insisted: `Asinia was like that. She would do anything for anyone. She saw I was set up, so she got out of the way.''

`Did she help you chat up your fellow?' asked Petro:' `No.'

`Was she used to talking to men?'

`No. She was useless.' `But pretty?'

`Oh yes! She drew the looks. She never noticed them looking, though.'

`Was she too trusting?'

`She knew enough.'

`Apparently not!' Petro- rasped angrily. He made a disgusted movement and handed the interrogation back to me.

`Who was the man you met, Pia?'

`How should I know? He could have been from anywhere. I'd never seen him before. He was drunk, and he didn't have any money. I'm stupid that way. If I meet him again I'll have his balls.'

`Young love, eh? I'm a sucker for a sentimental story. Would you know him?'

`No.'

`Sure of it?'

`I'd had plenty of wine myself. Believe me, he wasn't worth remembering.'

`So where exactly was the last place you saw Asinia?' `At the Circus Max.'

`Where? Which exit did you use?'

Pia threw back her shoulders and addressed me distinctly as if I was deaf. `I last saw Asinia by the Temple of the Sun and Moon.' That was clear enough! Then she spoilt it with a rethink. `Tell a lie – she was walking down the Street of the Three Altars.'

The Street of the Three' Altars runs from the apsidal end of the Circus, near the Temple of Sol and Luna which Pia had mentioned, up to the Clivus Scaurus. The Clivus Scaurus goes past the Temple of the Divine Claudius as far as the ancient Arch of Dolabella, now used as a reservoir for the Aqua Claudia. That was where Asinia's hand had been found.

I wondered if it was significant, or just some terrible poignant coincidence, that the missing woman was last seen so near where her dismembered hand later ended up. How far had she travelled in between, I wondered drearily if we would ever know.

I gazed,at Pia sourly. `So Asinia turned off on her long trek northwards and you came here. How many people were in the Street of the Three Altars?'

`Hundreds, of course. It, was turning, out time. Well, quite a lot.'

`No litters, you said? Any other vehicles?'

`Only private stuff.'

`Stuff?'

`You know loads of big bullock in their sharp carriages. It was well after curfew.'

`How many carriages?'

`Oh, hardly any.' Self-contradiction was her, speciality. `It's the wrong, end. The nobs like to be picked up at the starting gate or near the Imperial box. You know.'

`Afraid we don't,' Petro commented. `The apsidal end of the Circus, after curfew, is far too rough for us.'

Pia gave him a withering look. It took more than the screwed-up face of a painted girl to diminish Petronius.

`Did you see Asinia speak to anyone?' I asked.

'No I didn't. Asinia wouldn't.'

`Anyone try to speak to her?'

`I just told you!',

`Somebody could have catcalled. doesn't mean, she answered them.'

`No,' said Pia.

'You're not being much help.' Petro decided it was time to be openly rude to her. 'What happened to her could have

happened to you. It still could.'

No chance. I'm not going to the Games again.'

`That's wise. But will you come with us one evening, about the time you left with Asinia, and see if we can spot anyone you recognise?'

`I'm not going near the place again.'

`Not even to help find your friend's killer?' `It won't do any good.'

`How can you be certain?'

`I've lived in the world.'

Petro looked at me. If we let ourselves be as pessimistic as this cheap piece, we would give up, Perhaps we would never have started. Perhaps we never should have done – but we were in it now. Without his saying anything I guessed he intended to have Pia interviewed again by the vigiles in the hope they could put, the frighteners on her. Cyclops Street where she lived must be in the First or Second districts; I wasn't sure offhand, but the boundary ran somewhere near the Porta Metrovia at the end of the street: all this territory belonged to the Fifth Cohort. If they hadn't heard that Petro had been suspended by Rubella he could probably get away with making the request `officially'.

There was no incentive for us to carry on. The girl was painful to deal with.

Only as we were leaving did she become tearful and terrified. `You didn't mean it, what you said about Asinia being dead?'

Petronius leaned in the doorway, thumbs in his belt. `Unfortunately it's true. Want to tell us any more?'

`I don't know nothing else,' Pia retorted defiantly.

We went out, closing the door quietly. Petronius Longus walked steadily down half a flight of the stinking stairs. Then he stopped briefly. I looked at him. He chewed a finger reflectively.

`The silly bitch is lying,' he said.

THIRTY TWO

Outside Pia's tenement Petro and I parted company. As I had expected, he was off for a word with the Fifth Cohort. Their headquarters was right at the end of this street – and also pretty well adjacent to the reservoir in the Arch of Dolabella: I suggested he ask them to be particularly watchful every night after the Games ended, in case our maniac killer was polluting the water supply right under their noses.

`All right, I don't need you to write my speech for me.'

'Just a few rhetorical points, partner.'

`You're an interfering bastard.' He was looking thoughtful again. Then he said, even more defiantly, `Pia's lying about something, Falco, or I'm the Colossus of Rhodes.'

`You're just a colossal bighead,' I grinned, and since we were almost at the Fifth's station house I left him, so he could sustain the myth of representing his own cohort. Turning up with an informer would be a dead giveaway that he was freelancing.

'Cyclops Street is only two away from the Street of Honour and Virtue, another run-down and ineptly named sanctuary for drabs with appalling histories: including Marina, the flaky pastry who had been my late brother's girlfriend and brought my niece Marcia into the world. I took responsibility for Marina, since she had made it clear she had no intention of ever being responsible herself. Since I was so close that it seemed unavoidable, I forced myself to go to see her and the child.

Useless. I should have known it would be while the Games were on. Marina had gone to the Circus. Trust her to home in on a place that contained two hundred thousand men. She must have dumped Marcia somewhere. I could find hardly anyone to ask, and no one I' did roust out could tell me. I left a message to warn Marina there was a, bad character abducting females in her locality. She wouldn't care about that. But if she thought I was prowling about nearby on surveillance it might scare her into looking after my niece more carefully.

Marcia was nearly six now. She seemed a happy, well-adjusted, vibrant child. That was just as well. Helena and I were not in a position to rescue her.

A handful. My brother Festus had died in Judaea without, knowing he had fathered Marcia. For various reasons, a few of them noble, I tried to take his place.

The day had heated up to scorching, but a chill ran over me. I hoped the aqueduct killer was not tempted to turn to paedophilia. Marcia was too friendly with everyone. I dreaded the thought of my favourite little niece scampering around these streets with her innocent gregarious smile while a perverted butcher was roaming the same neighbourhood looking for unprotected female flesh.''