David Wishart - The Lydian Baker

No, that wouldn't do. For a start it only avoided Felix being involved in one of the murders, Argaius's, and I was still left with the problem of the doctor. Anyway, why should Felix 'pretend' anything?

Unless he was staging his own double-cross. Of Demetriacus this time. Only Demetriacus was wise to it and sent his agent Prince Charming to cut the corner. But then…

'Good morning, Marcus. Are you intending to eat that olive or just stare it to death?'

'Uh…morning, Perilla.' I put the olive down guiltily. 'Sorry, I was thinking. Neither. Maybe I'll just let it live.'

'Fine.' She kissed me. 'I take it you slept well.'

'Like a log.'

'So I noticed.' She sat down and reached for the rolls and honey. 'If logs snore. How's the investigation proceeding?'

'It isn't.'

'Nonsense.'

'Believe it. I've got two suspects and they're going round each other like a pair of kids' tops. That's to say if they aren't both part of the same top to begin with.'

'Now that really is nonsense.'

I helped myself to a roll. 'The killer has to be Demetriacus. Only it can't be if you believe his doctor Lysimachus because he wasn't at the Scallop to talk to Melanthus who's his only link with the Baker and who ends up that same evening with his throat slit by Prince Charming.'

'Pardon?'

'Or alternatively the villain's our old pal Felix aka Eutyches, working for Gaius in Rome. Only it can't be him either, because when push comes to shove twisted as the little bastard is I can't believe he'd stoop to murder. Not the Argaius kind, anyway. Nor Harpalus's. Let alone cutting that poor bastard Melanthus's throat, which makes no fucking sense at all.'

'Don't swear. There's no excuse for it even if you do feel frustrated.'

'I'll swear if I like, lady. And that was mild.'

'I'm also not particularly taken with snarling at breakfast.' Perilla dipped her roll in the honey. 'If there are difficulties with both then why need it be either? It could be someone else entirely.'

Oh, great! Marvellous! Just the help I needed! 'Jupiter, Perilla, there is no one else! Unless you think old Alciphron up at the Academy killed them all because their library books were overdue. Or maybe Melanthus didn't talk to Demetriacus after all. Maybe he popped out for a chat with Tiny and they fell out over a definition of beauty and the nature of the fucking soul.' I sat back and balled up my napkin ready to throw it into the rose bed…

I didn't do it. I didn't do it because suddenly everything shifted sideways, the sun came out and I knew beyond a doubt who the killer was. Somewhere, somebody coughed. I looked up.

'I'm sorry to disturb you, sir.' Bathyllus. And he had on his peeved prude look.

'Uh, yeah. Yeah, little guy,' I murmured. Gods! What an idiot! The answer was obvious! 'What is it?'

'You have a visitor.'

'A visitor?' I tried to get my brain back into kilter. What passed for my brain. 'At this hour of the morning?'

'Yes, sir. He sends his apologies, but he says it's important and he must see you.'

'Okay. So are you going to divulge the guy's name or do we get three guesses?'

'That won't be necessary, sir.' A sniff. 'The gentleman's name is Demetriacus.'

Perilla said something, but it didn't register. Demetriacus. Sure it was, it couldn't be anyone else. And if I was right then his business was important as hell; though why he'd decided to come now, and to me rather than Callippus, I didn't know…

'Marcus?'

'Hmm?'

'I asked if you were all right.' Perilla was staring at me, and she looked worried.

'Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. More than fine. Excuse me a minute, will you?'

I got up and followed Bathyllus inside. Demetriacus was sitting in the guest chair. He wasn't alone. Behind him stood Antaeus, glaring at me like Megaera the Fury watching Orestes put on his running shoes. Uh-oh. This might be tricky.

'Corvinus.' Demetriacus was looking grey. 'I'm sorry to disturb you so early, but since our talk I've been doing a lot of thinking.'

I nodded. 'And you've decided to come clean after all.'

He gave me a sharp look. Antaeus rippled.

'I told no lies.'

'I never said you did, friend.' I took the chair opposite. Slowly, and with both eyes on Antaeus. Shit, I wished I had my knife in its wrist sheath, but you don't expect to need that kind of insurance in your own home, especially over the breakfast porridge. 'All you're guilty of is being economical with the truth and trusting your staff too much.'

Antaeus shifted again. He was the bastard I had to watch: one word from his boss and, own home or not, I'd be dead meat before I could whistle.

Demetriacus was silent for a long time. Then he said quietly: 'You know what I came to say already, don't you?'

'Yeah, I know.'

'But not quite everything, I think. Hermippe isn't "staff".. She's my sister. Stepsister, rather. We had different mothers.'

I sat back as the last piece slid into place. Sister. That explained a lot. Come to that, it explained the whole bag. 'I didn't get that impression when we talked at the Scallop.'

'And I didn't intend that you should. I told you before, I don't like needless complications. Our relationship isn't common knowledge outwith the family; not even the girls know. Nor is it relevant to anything.' He paused. 'Or hasn't been, up to now. Which is why I am giving you the information.'

Bathyllus was hovering. I sent him for a jug of wine. 'You're partners? In the Scallop?'

'Yes. We always have been, since Melanthus sold it to us. And equal partners in all other respects as far as business is concerned.' Demetriacus paused again. 'Unofficially, of course. Hermippe's name doesn't appear on any deeds. It's unfortunate that our society won't tolerate a woman in business. Not in the higher reaches, that is; which was another reason for not making the relationship widely known.'

'You mean she's the brains and you're the front?'

'I wouldn't put it quite so crudely. We have our different strengths and weaknesses, and they balance each other. Hence our success. But Hermippe is certainly the driving force. The ruthless one, the risk-taker. My role is to implement her recommendations and follow them through. To be her public persona, if you like to call it that.'

'Uh-huh.' Check. That fitted in with what Callippus had told me. 'She certainly struck me as…full-blooded, shall we say.'

'Why not? It's a good phrase.' Demetriacus looked down at his carefully-manicured fingernails. 'Hermippe has always had greater appetites than I. In every way. Also she's much more intelligent.'

Yeah, well, maybe. Or it could be her intelligence just took a different slant. Certainly she had a high opinion of her own cleverness: one got you ten Perilla had been right about the Ptolemy statue.

'Don't put yourself down too much, friend,' I said. 'It's bad for the male image.'

He smiled. 'I'm a realist, Corvinus. If a thing is obvious I state it. That is one of my strengths.'

I thought of the Scallop's decor, and the way Hermippe had picked me up when I looked at the painting in the hall. 'She's interested in art, too, isn't she?'

'Very. It's one of her passions. And Hermippe has passions rather than interests. That was what first attracted Melanthus.'

I nodded: there had to be something like that going on. 'They were lovers?'

'Yes. From the first days of the Scallop. Before, even. Until my sister tired of him.'

Bathyllus tiptoed in with the wine. I didn't take my eyes off Demetriacus while he poured. 'Not the other way round?'

'No. They stayed friends afterwards, but Melanthus was by far the more constant of the two. He continued to use the Scallop because it was congenial and satisfied him physically, but I suspect he always hankered after a re-establishment of the old footing.'