David Wishart - The Lydian Baker

'You've said it yourself: you were up front. Eutyches didn't care who sold him the statue, or how things were arranged, so long as he got it. You might be different, you'd ask questions, and he couldn't take the risk.'

Yeah. That fitted. And if Melanthus was Eutyches then it would be an added fillip to have put a Roman out of the running. 'So. After Smaragdus moved the treasure he hid out in his beach hut. Only at that point he wasn't hiding from Eutyches; he was hiding from Argaius.'

'Yes. Until the new deal with Eutyches could be arranged and the money paid over. Then he and I would just disappear.' Harpalus's hand stroked the urn. 'Alexandria. Pergamum. Somewhere big. We'd have enough money to live like kings. Eutyches didn't know about the hut either, of course. Smaragdus wanted it that way, especially after Argaius died. Like I say, as far as Eutyches was concerned I was to be the know-nothing middleman who'd bring the two together when I was satisfied everything was okay.'

'So if you usually dealt with Prince Charming why assume that I'd come in his place?'

'Because I thought we'd gone beyond the cut-off stage. You could even be Eutyches in person, for all I knew.'

'But Smaragdus…' I stopped. I'd been about to say that Smaragdus would know I wasn't Eutyches, but of course the two had never met. So until I'd mentioned my name, Smaragdus wouldn't've known who the hell I was, only that I'd made the approach through Harpalus. Which explained why he'd come out with a piece of two-by-four in his hand: I'd broken the rules; worse, it meant all his careful arrangements were screwed up from there on in. Only then, of course, he'd realised that he'd made a mistake and I didn't come from Eutyches at all.

'Smaragdus what?' Harpalus said.

'Forget it, it doesn't matter. So Eutyches didn't know the statue had been moved?'

'No. There was no reason to tell him. And of course it was Argaius's bad luck that when Eutyches tried to cut corners he only knew the original location. I was sorry about that. So was Smaragdus. He never meant his partner to be hurt. Not physically, anyway.'

Yeah. The sob stuff aside, bad luck was putting it mildly: when he found the cave empty Melanthus must've been fit to be tied, and it had sealed Argaius's death warrant. 'You took a hell of a risk carrying on with Eutyches, didn't you, pal?' I said. 'Especially after Argaius was murdered.'

Harpalus shrugged. 'What could we do? I told you, people like us have to work things out as best we can. Life's a risk; you have to trust someone, even if you don't trust them. If you see what I mean.'

You have to trust someone. Sure. Only the poor boobs had to choose Melanthus, and now one of them was a handful of ashes while the other was running for his life with nothing to show for it but the clothes he stood up in. Well, that was the way things worked, I supposed. I glanced out of the carriage window. We were almost at the square before the shrine of Zeus the Saviour. Not far now to Market Quay and the boats.

'So to recap,' I said. 'Smaragdus was camped out at the beach hut waiting for Eutyches to make contact through you. At which point I turn up and Smaragdus puts on his innocent act by taking me to the original cave.' A thought tugged at me, and I frowned: there was something screwy here… Ah, leave it. 'Only I'd been followed by Prince Charming, or maybe you had earlier, and Eutyches knew where Smaragdus was holed up after all. All he had to do was have his strongarm boy sit tight until Smaragdus got back and then repeat the tactics he'd used with Argaius. Smaragdus was no fool. He started packing; not to go back to his old room like I'd thought, but to get the hell out to another bolthole. Because if I'd managed to find out where he was then Eutyches could as well.'

Harpalus nodded. 'We had a fallback location, a cave on Acte. I'd wanted to use it all along, but Smaragdus said no. He said if he couldn't live like a proper human being at least he wasn't going to live like an animal. The beach hut was bad enough.'

'Right. So knowing his hidey-hole wasn't so safe any more he'd be watching out this time. Or maybe Prince Charming didn't care how much noise he made and Smaragdus heard him coming. Anyway, he spotted him, guessed what he wanted and made a break for it in the only direction possible. The guy chased him, and the rest we know.'

'Yes.' Harpalus was staring out the window at the bulk of the Shrine of Zeus. I could smell the stink now of the mud at the edge of the Grand Harbour, and see the tops of the masts. 'That was probably how it happened. It certainly makes sense. But we were so close. So close!'

Even knowing what I knew, I could still feel sorry for him. Whatever you thought of Smaragdus, Harpalus was no criminal. And I even had some sympathy left over for Smaragdus.

'One thing it doesn't explain,' I said. 'The Ethiopian.'

Harpalus turned in surprise. 'Who?'

I'd been half talking to myself. 'You wouldn't know him. A big black guy who's been tailing me.' I frowned. 'Unless of course Eutyches had two henchmen waiting. One stayed behind to deal with Smaragdus, the other followed Lysias and the carriage round to the Aphrodisian Gate hoping to pick up the trail from that end.' Yeah, it made sense. As far as Melanthus knew, Smaragdus could've taken me to the real cave (there was that itch again! Shit!) and so I'd know where the Baker was stashed. Only that didn't work: by Melanthus's reckoning if Smaragdus had shown me the Baker he wouldn't have left me, however much he trusted me; and by this time the statue might be packed up and on its way to Rome. That had nothing to do with the problem of the Ethiopian, mind, but still…

Ah, all this thinking was giving me a headache. Besides, we were almost at the gate in the precinct wall round Market Quay. I put my head through the window and told Lysias to drive up to the harbourmaster's office.

Harpalus was in luck: winds permitting, there was a boat sailing next day for Rhodes. I didn't have the full passage money on me, but I was able to put down a decent deposit with the captain and promise to send a slave round with the balance as soon as I got home; luckily a Roman purple- striper's word is money in the bank. Not that it cost much: guys like Harpalus don't travel in the deckhouse, and the captain needed a part-time skivvy.

'You want me to take care of that for you?' I indicated the urn.

'No.' Harpalus shook his head. 'He may as well be buried in Rhodes as anywhere else.'

'Yeah. Well.' I held out my hand. 'Good luck, pal. I'm sorry things didn't work out.'

'Not your fault. I'm only sorry Smaragdus didn't stick to the original arrangement with Argaius. Half would've been better than this.' He stroked the urn. 'And I don't believe in curses, Corvinus, but that statue's caused nothing but trouble and death since they found it. I wish it had stayed lost.'

'Uh-huh.' I slipped him the last two tetradrachs in my purse. 'You'll need some food for the trip. Get what you need here. I wouldn't go home again if I were you.'

'Why should I want to go home?'

There was no answer to that. I left him on the quay and went back to where Lysias was waiting with the carriage.

Perilla was out at a public lecture in one of the Porches: on what, I just didn't want to know. I went through to the study and took Harpalus's passage money out of the strongbox.

Bathyllus had followed me in with the obligatory wine jug.

'Hey, little guy, tell Alexis I want to see him right away, okay?' I said.

'Yes, sir.' He poured and handed me the cup. 'With or without the parrot, sir?'

'Without. This is business.' I let the wine trickle past my tonsils. Beautiful. 'Oh, incidentally, tell Meton we'll be eating later than usual, when the mistress gets back.' Best to get these things clear: since the omelette affair relations with Meton had been uncomfortable as a high priest in a strip club.