In fright Igullius made a sudden break. I grabbed- him and wrapped his arms around his back, holding him fast. Martinus was stuck with the flavoursome breath, but carried on bravely. `You stink and you steal. Give me one good reason to go easy on you, Igullius!'

The pickpocket had been in the streets long enough to know what was required. `Oh Jupiter! Well what have I got to do?'

'Co-operate. But you'll like it,' we told him. `We're going to give you the money to go with a prostitute!' We turned the pickpocket round, took an arm each, lifted him over a screever who was begging on the pavement with a piteous message, then marched him down the Sacred Way.

As we crossed the Via Nova into the shadow of the Palatine I noticed Tibullinus, the centurion of the Sixth. We had seen him at Ostia, and he had turned up when we were looking at the corpse of Nonnius. Tibullinus was too closely involved in events to let him notice us here. I gave Martinus the nod. Alert, he took the point. But Tibullinus was patrolling the Palatine in a style that seemed to suit him – laughing and joking with fellows he recognised. He did not see us..

We took our new acquaintance back to the Oily jug. This time we were more brisk with the woman. She had two choices – either to spend the next couple of days with a friend somewhere, or to pass them in a cell. Once again this threat worked miracles. She decided she had a sister who was longing to see her, and fled from our watching post.

Training Igullius was tiresome. We used the kind method, only thumping him when his eyes glazed. `That building over there is called the Bower of Venus -'

`That's Plato's.'

`Have you been there?'

`Of course.' He was possibly bluffing, but he wanted to appear a smart man about town.

`Well Plato's may be under new management, but we're not interested in the brothel itself. There's a phoenix in Rome. A person who is supposed to be banished has come home again.' Maybe Igullius knew. He was already pale. `His name is Balbinus Pius. Some of his men are hanging out in Plato's. Maybe he's there too. Maybe he's just hiring rooms for them. But if he visits his troops, we want to know. You see how it is, Igullius. You're going in, you're going to recognise a friend, or make a new one if you have to, but however you do it you're going to sit in a corner keeping quiet until you can come out and tell us a date and time when Balbinus will be available for interview.'

`Oh give me a chance, Falco! I'm dead if I try that.'

`You're dead if you don't,' smiled Martinus. He enjoyed playing the cruel executioner.

I took a hand again. `Now settle down, Igullius. We know you're not entirely bad, so we're giving you this fine job opportunity. You're going to be our undercover man. And to compensate your loss of earnings from your regular work, we'll find you a big ex gratia at the end of the day.'

`How about paying some in advance?'

`Don't be stupid,' said Martinus. `We're in the vigiles. We have to remember public accountability.'.

Igullius tried one last desperate wriggle. `That place is full of hard men. They'll spot a weed' in the garden straight away.'

`You've been there before, according to you. You'll have to make sure you blend 1n,' I said callously. `You're perfectly capable.

Anyone who can slide up and sneak purses even though he has breath that can be smelled at twenty paces can merge into a nest of mostly stupid criminals.'

We gave him the price of a whore to start him off convincingly, then pushed him on his way.

Success came fast. Igullius was back in a couple of hours, nipping across the street like a startled cat. Whatever he learnt had left him panic-stricken. He fell into the thermopolium, then threw himself behind the counter with his head in his hands.

`Oh you bastards! Don't make me go back again.'

`That depends,' sneered Martinus. `What have you got for us?'

`I've got what you asked for, and I'm not getting any more!'

I found him a drink to calm his hysteria. He gulped down the wine, which I knew was disgusting, as if he had just crawled out of a six-day sandstorm in an arid zone. `Control yourself. You're safe now. What was your girl like?'

`All right…' Easily sidetracked! Martinus and I leaned on the counter watching him. Crouching at our feet, he managed to slow his breath.

`I think he's there! I'm sure he is!'

`Not visible, presumably?' Martinus asked.

`I didn't see him. I mean, I didn't see anyone who looked that big a character.'

`Big? Don't believe it,' I snarled. `Balbinus is just a flea.'

Igullius continued, talking fast as if he wanted to get this over. `The place is, humming. I've never been in a barn with such a live atmosphere. 'I saw half a dozen faces, I mean serious faces. There's one big room – 'He shook, unable to spit it out. That sounded like the cavernous hall Petro and I had glimpsed. It had been full of small-timers then, but when I pressed the trembling Igullius for details he described a real thieves' kitchen with mobsters nesting openly.

I stared at Martinus. `Something's changed. It sounds as though Balbinus has taken over and made the place his own. Igullius, was there any mention of Lalage?' He shook his head. `Well if you've been there before, is the brothel business being run the same as usual?' This time he nodded.

While I was pondering, Martinus tried screwing more useful facts from our eavesdropper, though to little effect. I sat in silence. – We certainly could not send him straight back into Plato's this afternoon or it would arouse the suspicions of the girl on the door. Martinus decided that Igullius could be let off and dismissed. -

'I want my money then.'

Martinus was looking at me unhappily. I realised he lacked the authority to pay over the kind of reward we had promised, and he was even too straight to hand back the purses Igullius had stolen in the Forum (which is what I would have done, given this was a crisis). Instead, Martinus was forced to remove the back block from his note tablet and write out a chit. `Take this to the patrol house – tomorrow!' he said sternly. That would give him some grace before Petronius found out.

The pickpocket snatched the warrant, then found his feet and scurried off.

I continued thinking. It looked as if Lalage had lied to me – no surprise at all.

I did not believe she was running the crime empire from Plato's herself. Lalage was not so stupid as to do that openly.

They were still working for the old regime. After all Lalage's claims about seizing her independence, it was hard to accept that she had caved in and allowed Balbinus Pius to take over her premises. That he might even be hiding up there seemed incredible.

She would not do it. Either he had removed her – in which case I doubted that the brothel would be running as smoothly as usual – or Lalage had some ploy in hand. That boded ill for Balbinus. But it might help us.

As Martinus and I continued our vigil we abandoned casual chat – and draughts. That suited me. It also stopped his overblown raving about men who played board games being suitable to pit their wits against major criminals. Removing Balbinus from Rome called for a sudden rush with a sharp weapon, not cerebral guile.

It already felt like a long day and I reckoned we were heading for a big night exercise. We found some stale bread to gnaw on. We had a drink. Indigestion set in cruelly.

Towards the evening we started feeling tense. Something was going on. Men, singly or in twos or threes, walked up to the brothel. They appeared in the street as quietly as bats. Making

their way inside, they might have been bound for a party with their workplace dining club. If so, they were dressed less smartly than most colleages going out for a bash. Also, they were being asked to pay a hefty ticket price: `That's boodle, or I'm a baby!' Martinus had identified our first definite sack of swag – a bedcover knotted at the corners, from within which came the charming chink of stolen silverware.