Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis

Author:Lindsey Davis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Fiction, Rome, Mystery & Detective, Historical, General
ISBN: 9780099515159
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2009-02-05T01:32:37+00:00

XXXIII

Petronius and I planned to spend every evening of the remaining Ludi Romani outside the Circus Maximus. We might have been near the killer all the time. He could have passed so close his clothes brushed ours, and we would not have known.

We needed to find out more. We were working with too little information. It was beginning to look as though only when another woman was murdered would we stand any chance of uncovering more clues. We could not wish that on anyone. It remained unspoken, but both Petro and I wanted Asinia - whose name and sweet nature we had learned - to be the last to suffer.

The day after we started the surveillance, the young Camilli were all struck down with the after-effects of an underdone grilled chicken; unable to visit the Circus they sent a slave to offer their tickets to Helena and me. Somehow, even at short notice, she fixed up young Gaius to sit with the baby for a few hours. It was a welcome chance to go out together on our own. Well, on our own apart from a quarter of a million noisy companions.

Helena Justina was not the world's keenest chariot race follower. I was happy, because the Blues were doing well that day. While I squirmed in my seat, yelled at their drivers' incompetence or screamed at their successes, and munched too many figs during the tense moments, Helena sat patiently letting her mind roam elsewhere. When I leapt to my feet cheering, she picked up my cushion and placed it ready for when my backside hit the bench again. Nice girl. You could take her anywhere. She knew how to let you know that only an idiot would be enjoying this, but she did not openly complain.

While I relaxed, she attempted to solve the case for me. Helena understood that we were looking for somebody about whom we could only put together the sketchiest of details. During a quiet interval she produced a summary:

'The nature of the crime, especially what Lollius told you about the mutilations that are carried out, indicates you are looking for a man.

'The killer could be anyone, senator or slave. The one thing about him that you can safely deduce is that he does not look suspicious. If he did, the dead women would never have gone with him.

'You know something about his age: these deaths go back years. Unless he started in his cradle, he must be middle-aged or older.

'You and Petro both think he's a loner. If he was working with someone else, then after all this time one or other would either have made a mistake or let slip part of the story. That's human nature. The more people involved, the greater the chance of one getting drunk, or being spied on by his wife, or attracting notice from the vigiles on an unrelated charge. Shared knowledge spills out more easily. So you reckon it's one person.

'You think he finds it hard to make social contact.

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