Let's go through your problem," I probed, fetching out a note tablet. It made them nervous so I held the waxed pages upon my knee, with the stylus at rest. They told me they had lost contact" with one of their number whose name, they said, was Diocles. I nodded, trying to give the impression I had heard, and of course solved, such mysteries before. How long has he been missing?"

He is not exactly missing," Holconius demurred. I could have scoffed, well why call me in then? But those who work for the Emperor, putting an imperial gloss on events, skewing everything to look good – have a special way with words. Holconius had to send everything he wrote for Palatine approval, even if it was a simple list of market days. He then had every pearly phrase redrafted by some idiot until its impact was killed. So I let him be pedantic, this time. We do know where he went," he murmured.

And that was?"

To stay with a relative in Ostia. An aunt, he said."

That's what he told you?" I assumed aunt" was the new term for fancy woman, but I thought no worse than that. And he never came back?" So the fancy woman was tasty. Is this unusual?"

He is a little unreliable." Since no details were supplied, I embroidered it myself. He is lazy, drunk, feckless, he forgets to be where he should be, and he's always letting people down."

Why, do you know him?" interrupted Mutatus, sounding surprised.

No." I knew plenty like him. Especially scribes. So the job for me is. go to Ostia, find the bonny Diocles, sober him up if he'll let me, then bring him back?" Both of the scribes nodded. They seemed relieved. I had been gazing at my note-tablet; now I looked up. Is he in trouble?"

No." Holconius still hardly raised a sweat.

Any trouble," I repeated quietly. At work, involving work, trouble with women, trouble with money, health worries?"

None that we know of." I considered possibilities. Was he working on a particular story?"

No, Falco." I reckoned Holconius was telling me the big fibs. Well, he was the political hack; Holconius, I knew, took the shorthand notes in the Senate, so untruths were his stock in trade. Mutatus just listed this month's programme for the games. He could do stupid inaccuracy with effortless grace, but he was weaker on pure lies.

And what section of the Gazette would Diocles normally produce?"

Does it matter?" asked Mutatus quickly. I deduced it was relevant, but I said sweetly, Probably not."

We do want to be helpful." Reluctance filled his tone.

I would like to be fully informed." Innocent charm filled mine.

Diocles writes the light-hearted items," stated Holconius. He looked even more sombre than before. As the edict reporter, he disapproved of anything light. I could tell that before I arrived today Holconius and Mutatus had held detailed conversations about how much to confide in me. I worked out what that meant. So your absentee writes the shock-and horror society news?" The two scribes looked resigned. Infamia" is the pseudonym of Diocles," Holconius confirmed. Even before they admitted it, I wanted the job.

V

In my first week of enquiries in Ostia, I made a slow start. I reported my lack of progress to Helena, the morning after she arrived.

If Diocles" landlady is his real aunt, I'm the back legs of a Syrian camel." Helena and I were eating fresh bread and figs, sitting on a bale near a ferry that took workers to and fro between the main town and the new port. We had risen fairly early. We were entertained by a stream of loaders, negotiators, customs men, and sneak thieves going to the port for their morning's work. Eventually a host of newly landed merchants were ferried in, along with other foreigners in multi coloured hues, looking bemused. The merchants, fired with know how, raced straight for the hired mules. Once they realised all the transport had been taken, the general travellers milled around aimlessly; some asked us the way to Rome, which we pretended we had never heard of. If they were persistent we pointed out the road to take, and assured them they could easily walk it.

You are being childish, Marcus."

I've been sent on fifteen-mile hikes by horrible locals in foreign parts." I had been deliberately misdirected by roadsweepers in Rome too. You thought of it first."

Let's hope we never see them again."

Don't fret. I'll explain you are a senator's daughter, brought up in ignorance and luxury, and have no idea of distance, direction or time."

And I'll say you're a swine!"

Oink." Our room nearby came with neither a breakfast menu nor a slave to serve it up. The accommodation had a bucket for the well and a couple of empty lamps, but not so much as a foodbowl. One reason we were out and about was to buy basics for picnics before Albia and the children arrived. My little daughters might be fobbed off with

Let's all go hungry for fun on this holiday!, but Albia was a ravenous teenage girl; she turned nasty unless fed every three hours. At least we were in the commercial hub of the Empire. That helped with the shopping. Imported goods were piled in mounds everywhere and helpful negotiators were only too happy to drag items from the bales and sell them cheaply. Some actually had a connection with that cargo; one or two might even pass the price to the owner. I had already bought some winecups an hour ago, and thus considered my part done. There was no need to order up amphorae; provision had been put in hand by me. Helena pointed out that after a mere week on my own I had reverted to the classic informer. I now reckoned a room was fully furnished if it contained a bed and a drink, with a woman as an optional extra. Food was something to snatch at a street caupona while on watch. So far I had nobody to watch. My case was going nowhere.

You found out where Diocles was living, though?" Helena asked, after finishing a mouthful of fresh bread. I picked olives from a cone of old scroll papyrus. A hired room near the Marine Gate."

So staying with his aunt" was a fiction. He is not with his family?"

No. Commercial landlady of the forbidding kind."

And how did you discover her?"

The scribes knew the street name. Then I knocked on doors. The landlady soon popped out of her hidey-hole, because Diocles had left owing rent and she wanted it. Her story matches what the scribes already told me, Diocles arrived here about two months ago, seemed set to stay for the summer season, but vanished without warning after about four weeks, abandoning all his stuff. It came to light because the Gazette had an arrangement to send a runner once a week to pick up copy. The runner couldn't find Diocles." Helena gurgled happily. A weekly runner? So is there plenty of scandal at Ostia?"

I'd say Diocles just sits at the seaside and giggles as he makes it up. Half the people he libels are away themselves and never hear about it, luckily for him." Helena licked her fingers. You paid the rent he owed and obtained his baggage?"

No chance! I'm not paying some truant's rent, especially for a room he hasn't occupied."

The woman has not re-let the room?"

Oh, she re-let all right. I refused to pay, and I've sent to the Gazette."

For the money? She shouldn't be paid twice." I explained to Helena that port landladies traditionally double-charge, under an edict that dates back to when Aeneas first landed and was put up at a ludicrous rate in a fisherman's spare room. Helena still looked dis approving, but now she disapproved of me. Be sensible. I am trying to take an interest in your work, Marcus." I gazed at her. I loved her very much. I pulled her closer, paused, carefully wiped olive oil from my lips, then kissed her tenderly. I have sent for a very stern docket which will say I am to be allowed to take away Diocles" property as it belongs to the state."

The landlady will already have searched it; she knows it is dirty undertunics," Helena demurred. She was still clasped to my chest. Passing stevedores whistled.