If Gaius has been really hurt, this is not funny."

I am not laughing." Whatever I thought of my sister Junia, no Roman woman wants a husband who can no longer work. If Gaius was ever laid off from tax collecting, the family would have only their savings, and they had always been spenders, plus a token income from the unpleasant snackshop on the Aventine which Junia ran as a hobby. Only part of the profits ever reached her. Apollonius, her put-upon general waiter, fiddled the figures; in better times he had been a geometry teacher and he could easily persuade my sister that an obtuse angle was acute. He had been my teacher, so I would never snitch on him. I forced my bleary brain back to the original subject. So what's this ship, Aulus?"

Well come and have a look, Falco. I want you to ask the captain about what was going on when I took him my payment."

You paid your fare before going aboard?" The lad knew nothing. Even I had failed to teach him common sense. Aulus Camillus Aelianus, son of Decimus, heir to a life of luxury, had been an army tribune somewhere or other and worked on the staff of the provincial governor in Baetica. Who knows how he managed to reach those overseas postings? When I took him to Britain, he had me to make all the arrangements.

I am a senator's son," he retorted. The master won't cheat me not if he wants to return to this port. He makes a fortune from passengers; he has to keep his good name."

It's your money!" It was his father's money. Still, Aulus was probably right about the captain. So what's the story?"

Are you up to taking the ferry?"

Only to pursue a really good story."

The best!" he assured me. I was too hungover to quibble. He clinched it, however. That blusterer Caninus who got you sozzled had his nose right in it. It sounded to me as if there had been a run-in with some pirates." I agreed to go to Portus. The vessel selected by our traveller to carry him in search of his legal education was a large transporter in which he had been promised speed, stability, the next best thing to a cabin and food prepared by the captain's own cook. If the weather blew up rough, there would be no food and little shelter, but Aelianus was his usual over-confident self. Well, he was going to Greece for education. Let him learn, I thought. I had assured Helena I would check over this transport and ensure that her brother would be as safe as it was ever possible to be, riding the route to Greece amidst the summer storms that thunder out of nowhere in the Tyrrhenian and the Aegean. The ship, called the Spes, was indeed solid. These days Rome was using the biggest traders ever known. This one had just brought a cargo of fish, olives and luxury goods from Antiochus via the Peloponnese, and was apparently awaiting wine and pottery to take out again. The captain, Antemon, was a calm Syrian with big feet. He had three warts on his left cheek and a birthmark on the right. While he found time to see us, Aulus briefed me on what he saw that morning, so I went straight into the attack. Antemon, my name's Falco. I hear one of your passengers has had a wife go missing. Has she run away with your first officer, or is she getting her leaks plugged by the ship's carpenter?"

Nothing to do with you," the captain told me, looking grim.

It is now. Please be honest. While Camillus Aelianus was waiting to book his passage, he heard your blow-up with a distressed passenger. When Aelianus came back to pay you his money It would do no harm to establish that Aulus had a witness, a naval attache was asking you more questions."

He was making a huge fuss," Aulus backed me up. And you hated it, Antemon."

The navy nark is called Caninus," I said. We know which rockpool he swims in. He told me himself, only yesterday. So, captain, were you troubled by pirates on your voyage to Rome?"

No!" Of course Antemon was anxious to avoid deterring passengers. I have never been bothered by a pirate ship in all my career. I told Caninus that, before I told him which gangplank to jump off."

Caninus endorses the myth that before Pompey lost his head in Alexandria, he turned all the Cilician pirates into farmers," I said.

Caninus says ex-pirates are lovely men, who now feed goats and adore their mothers. But if so, why was Caninus on board your ship? And why were you so keen to give him the fast fly-swat?"

I was only looking after my passenger."

With whom you had been arguing?"

No, I was trying to calm him down so he was fit to deal with the situation."

Your passenger is in trouble?" The captain looked stubborn, so I added lightly, Of course he is. We know the man has lost his wife. Well, he may be new to Ostia and careless in giving her directions to their shore lodgings… Or what happened, Antemon? I'm still supposing the woman had a dirty fling."

Mind your language. He is my owner!" growled Antemon.

This is his ship, you mean?"

He's a highly respectable charterer. His wife, poor woman, is chaste, dutiful and probably scared witless. He'll get her back. He needs to be left alone with it. He doesn't want a crowd of uninvited advisers."

Advisers on what?" demanded Aelianus. Last night's conversation helped me work it out. You're talking kidnap!" The captain was silent. I pressed him again angrily. Your owner's wife was taken from your ship on the voyage." That finally riled Antemon. No, she was not! No one boarded my ship. No one interfered with my passengers," he protested hotly. I brought them here perfectly safely. They left the ship. The only reason Banno came back here to consult me was that he reckoned they were set up when we first landed and he wanted to know if any of the crew saw anything. He and his wife only went ashore yesterday. He reckoned someone watched the ship on arrival, sized them up and decided they were wealthy, then followed them and snatched her."

He thought you were in on it!" Aulus rashly accused him.

No, no. Settle down, Aulus." I trusted the captain. He was annoyed at his own bad position in this, not least because he could lose his job if the vessel's owner blamed him. If he really had been passing information about his passengers to kidnappers on shore, he would have had a rebuttal ready and a more brazen manner. But it would be madness to finger the ship's owner. Antemon, I take it you have sold your cargo and your owner has the money?" He nodded. Banno will be able to satisfy the people who have his wife."

And they know it!"

Of course they do. Keep out of it. Don't mess things up for him."

Answer this, then. Ever come across an old Cilician called Damagoras?" No. A younger one called Cratidas?" No. Has Banno any names for whoever took his wife?" No again. That was to be expected. Kidnappers use anonymity to build fear. And when Caninus poked his nose in, how come he knew something had happened?" Antemon was terse. This is a port."

You mean everyone in Portus knows that Banno's wife has been grabbed for ransom?"

Only navy spies, with narks sitting in the taverns, men who have been hanging around on the docks for months, waiting for a whisper that it has happened again." I picked up on again." So it has happened before." I remembered how Diocles had inserted that taster in the Daily Gazette. Rumours of piracy reviving are said to be false." Not false enough for Banno.

I am a private informer," I told the captain. I can be discreet. My trade relies on it." Antemon still hesitated. You can trust Falco," said Aulus quietly. A senator's son has influence, and Antemon may have weakened. I twisted the awl. Look, I was already working on a case which may connect with this. Let me know where I can find Banno. This is for his own sake and the wife's safety. Somebody does need to help this couple," I said. If you don't want to co-operate with Caninus and the navy, maybe I can do something for Banno unofficially." The captain was still unhappy, but muttered to us where Aulus and I could find his ship's owner ashore.