Oracle of the Dead(24)

“Oh, enough of this dreary political blather!” Antonia cried. “Let’s have the real gossip! What’s Fulvia been up to?” This Fulvia was one of those scandalous women who livened Roman discourse of the day. She had been briefly involved with some ill-fated political rogues and had been a center of attention ever since.

“Well,” Marcus began, “she has been linked with the aedile Caelius Rufus, who has been prosecuting those who illegally divert water from the aqueducts. And, since her own family are notorious for just that crime—” and so on. I was eager for the political news, but petty gossip about who was sleeping with whom, who was bribing whom for financial gain, who had murdered whom for banal motives, left me utterly unconcerned.

Still, I was grateful for the way Marcus had turned the conversation to lighter subjects. It was well that we ended the evening on a cheerful note, because the next morning brought us yet another murder at the temple.





4





WHAT?” I SHOUTED. “WHO’S LEFT TO kill? The whole staff of priests are gamboling happily amid the Elysian Fields already!”

“Calm down, dear,” Julia admonished. “With all you ate and drank last night you’re liable to bring on a seizure.”

It was early morning, never the best hour for me. Hermes had come in to wake me more than an hour before my accustomed time. It was still dark enough to need lamps. I threw on a toga, ignoring Julia’s demands to wait for her. I knew she would take far too long to get dressed and made up. Preceded by torchbearers, we made our way up to the temple. In what had become the market area, I could see the embers of some campfires still burning, though most of the visitors were fast asleep. A steward met us at the entrance to the temple grounds. He looked distressed, and understandably so. Temples of Apollo were supposed to be serene places and this one was anything but.

He led us to the stable area, where horses and asses shifted quietly in the cool morning. There on the straw lay the body, and the torchbearers lowered their flames so that we could see, but it was scarcely necessary in the growing dawn light.

It was the slave girl, Hypatia. I closed my eyes for a moment. Such a beautiful child.

“Well,” Hermes said, “at least this time there’s no mystery about how she died.”

Indeed, she had been stabbed just beneath the sternum. It was an expert’s blow, sure to kill quickly with one thrust slanting upward into the heart. Hermes parted her gown to view the wound.

“It was done with a broad-bladed dagger or a short sword, maybe a soldier’s pugio.”

“I wish Asklepiodes were here,” I said, not for the first time.

“He probably couldn’t tell you much. This looks pretty straightforward.”

I spoke to the steward. “When was she found?”

“Less than an hour ago, Praetor. The boy who cares for the animals is always here before first light. I am afraid he tripped over her. He came running to me and I sent word to you at once.”

“Commendable. Besides the boy, how many people have been trampling around here since she was found?”

“Just ourselves, sir.”

“Hermes, go get my lictors and have them guard this area. We’ll make a thorough search at full light.”

He was back in a few minutes, and Julia arrived as well, looking grim when she saw the body. “That poor girl,” she said. “She was afraid to speak out and she had reason to be, it seems.”

“I blame myself for this,” I told her. “I should have taken her into custody. I said right in front of everybody that I might be questioning her further. Clearly somebody did not want her to talk.”

“Do you think she saw more than she told you?”

“Probably not, but sometimes it is best not to take chances. Whoever is behind this decided to eliminate a possible problem. They didn’t see fit to employ arcane murder methods this time.”

“Why at the stables?” Julia mused. “What was she doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“I’ve been pondering that myself. Perhaps she was frightened enough to try to escape and she came down here to steal a mount. But it can be no coincidence that the murderer was here waiting for her.”

“She must have been summoned here by someone she thought she had reason to trust.”

“If so, she was mistaken in that belief. In fact, it causes me to wonder about her depth of involvement in this matter.”

“You think she might have been an accomplice?” Julia said.

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone suborned a slave to spy on a master. Nor would it be the first time an accomplice was eliminated in just this fashion.”