Doesn't sound as though Rusticus suspected he was an arsonist. You still think Diocles was up to something?"

Yes, love. But it may have been nothing to do with his aunt." Helena was silent for a moment. Then she said, His aunt was on his mind, Marcus. When Diocles told Holconius and Mutatus he was coming to Ostia, he said he would be staying with her."

True. Maybe subconsciously he forgot her death. Maybe his mind played a trick on him." Now Helena and I were both worried that Diocles might have come here and had a breakdown.

Talking of breakdowns," Helena said, smiling and changing the subject as she tried to cheer me up a little. I had a surprise today, I met your uncle!" I raised an eyebrow, sensing what would come next.

That's right, Marcus. The one nobody ever talks about."

It was a quarter of a century since I had seen Uncle Fulvius. He did have a name; it was just damned to the memory. Had Ma's family been able to commission statues, his would have been broken up and re-used by Fabius andjunius to build a pig sty. I was curious to know how he had weathered.

We hardly exchanged more than a few words," said Helena. He wanted your mother; I told him Junilla Tacita was staying with Maia now, as they have more room than us, and I gave him directions." In the act of re-pinning an enamelled shoulder brooch, she paused for a moment. Mind you, I did gain the impression he was slightly odd."

In what way?" I asked, grinning. Helena merely shrugged, unsure. I just felt happier when he left." Albia looked up from the floor, where she was playing with the children. What has your uncle done, Marcus Didius?" I suspected I had been too young to be told the full story. I supplied the safe part. He ran away to Pessinus, but he got on the wrong boat."

And now he has come back? That took him over twenty years?" exclaimed Helena, amazed. Surely when his brothers are restless, they just disappear for a couple of seasons and then come sidling home?"

Fabius andjunius are normal, compared to him. My uncles quarrel with each other," I explained to Albia. Fabius thinks Junius cheated him over his share of the farm when my grandfather died; Junius is certain that Fabius will ruin everything through his unwise friendship with a neighbour's wife; Junius got depressed when the walnut harvest failed and he hates his brother's plans for intensive chicken-rearing he is a filthy-tempered rat's tail anyway. Fabius knows he could be something big in the world if he could just find the right medium for his so-far-undetermined talents. Junius is looking for love, specifically; he thought he had found it but he had to go to market with the eggs because it was his turn that week, there are a lot of eggs because Fabius really has cracked it with his chickens in baskets, and the girl left town." I ran out of breath.

Auntie Phoebe told me the girl Junius wants is engaged to a sewer contractor anyway," Helena put in.

Great-Auntie Phoebe, my grandfather's freedwoman, keeps the farm together while the brothers are messing about. She stanches the blood when they attempt suicide. She keeps them apart with a pitchfork when they try to kill each other."

I see!" Raising her finely feathered eyebrows, Albia went back to playing with my daughters. I took Helena to Maia's house, hoping Uncle Fulvius might still be there. Since he was the elusive one, Fulvius had been and gone. Instead, I ran into Gaius Baebius. Junia was trying to persuade Ma to take the invalid back to Rome in her cart. Ma very crisply disabused Junia. She seemed low in spirits; whatever she wanted from Fulvius, he must have been difficult about it. Now that she had talked to her brother, Ma was returning home to the Aventine, but there was no chance she would share the journey with my sister and her whining husband. Ma thought one benefit of being elderly was that she no longer had to be polite about Gaius Baebius. This presupposed she had ever been polite in the first place.

Ah, Marcus!" Rebuffed by Ma, Gaius latched on to me. I am thinking I shall go out to the Damagoras villa and place a formal complaint about the way we were treated. I shall never be the same man again An amateurish cough confirmed it. Junia rounded on me too. You will have to go with him! I cannot put myself in danger among a group of violent pirates, and Gaius is no longer fit to drive." I saw my mother pin her sceptical gaze on Gaius. Wickedly, I heard myself promising to go to remonstrate. I had a fair idea what Damagoras and Cratidas would say if asked for money. I had no intention of antagonising them, but thought I might have another look at the Cilicians for my own purposes.

You ought to have a strong word with Uncle Fulvius too," Junia instructed me. You are the head of the family." Since my grandfather died, that ought to be Fulvius himself, but he declined the duties. From what I knew, he would sell off the busts of our ancestors [had we owned any. Here's poor Mother trying to mediate and bring him back into the family, but he just refused to have anything to do with us. He upset Mother very badly."

I am not upset," lied Ma. She liked to choose for herself when to play helpless.

Do Fabius and Junius really want him back?" I queried.

Fulvius is the clever one," Ma retorted as if the farm needed someone with intelligence. It was true, but I saw that as the very reason why his brothers might be happier if Fulvius stayed in exile.

So what is he doing, Ma, and why has he come to Ostia?"

He never said."

What, and you failed to screw it out of him?" My mother must be holding back. Obviously Uncle Fulvius had found yet another wild career that would cause us huge embarrass ment. Ma read my mind. So she quickly muttered, He told me he had taken up shark-fishing." She had a way of making a declaration so you were never intended to believe it to be true. I was none too sure how old my mother was, but Uncle Fulvius was known to be ten years her senior, a bit geriatric to wrestle with deep sea man-eaters. It was typical of my family. Their craziness rarely led to real harm, but they never knew what was appropriate. I could have sat back and seen them only as good entertainment, but nowadays members of the family were always pressuring me to reform other relatives, under that deathly edict, You are the head of the family." Informers who play up their feckless side avoid this. I looked back to my irresponsible days with sudden fondness. Once again next day I hired a donkey and rode out along the coast. The gate to the so-called pirate's villa had a guard this time, but he let me in without trouble. As I rode down the sandy path, I passed a man leaving. He was going at a crazy pace, feet-out on a small mule like desert tribesmen in Syria, who liked to race off from oases in this madcap way. Because of the dust cloud, the rider had a long scarf wrapped around his face, but as I coughed in his wake I glimpsed a coat-shaped robe of Parthian cut, a balding dome, and eyes that looked sideways at me curiously. Damagoras received me. Perhaps his claim was true that he never left home, so he welcomed visitors. Little bronze cups on a matching tray were being removed by a woman in beaded slippers after his previous caller. No replenishments appeared for me. As I expected, Damagoras crushed any suggestion that my brother in-law deserved help with his medical bills and recompense for his time off work. We quickly abandoned that conversation. I pressed him again on the subject of Diocles, but that too hit a dead end. Then I mentioned the kidnaps. The old rogue became a little more attentive, but I could see he reckoned I had very few leads. So what makes you link this to the Cilician community, Falco?" He was right. none of the victims had mentioned any provincial nationality, apart from the Illyrian." I left Illyria out of it. When there is a viable bunch of suspects, why complicate matters? I am making a direct connection between Diocles" interest in the kidnaps and his visits to you." Damagoras gave me his honest-fellow laugh. We never talked about kidnaps. What interest in kidnaps was Diocles supposed to have had?" I noticed the past tense. Perhaps Damagoras knew what had happened to the missing man.