Lindsey Davis - Two For The Lions

"You owe me a finder's fee." It was a joke.

"Better send me a bill then." Even more frivolous.

"And you're also still importing exotic beasts?"

Thalia said nothing, eyeing me. If she thought the question was official, this could be where our friendship ended. Only what was good for her business would ever really count. Her life had been too hard. She had no room to lower her standards; she would never grow some.

"Thalia, I've no quarrel with you. I'll ensure the Census takes no interest in your outfit, if you'll tell me about the men on my enquiry list."

"Better be quick," Thalia then agreed quite readily. She relaxed, fixing the lid back on her pot of salve and then wiping her finger clean on her few inches of tassled skirt.

"You don't want Saturninus to walk in while we're dissecting him."

"Will he come? He didn't look too keen when you mentioned salvage money."

"Oh he'll be here. He knows what's good for him. How's your burn?"

I waggled my arm. "Cooling Thanks.' Saturninus had already seen me with Thalia but if I could leave before he showed up here, he might not remember that. I was undecided how I intended to tackle him, and preferred not to let him see I had Circus friends.

Enquiry soon ascertained that Thalia's own purchasing contacts were still mainly in the East. That let me exclude her from my audit on geographical grounds. "Don't worry. Falco amp; Partner are heroes with an abacus but we can't do everything. We're working on Tripolitania."

"Good. You hammer those bastards so they leave some room for me!"

"Rivalry? I thought your field was speciality acts, not the venatio?"

"Why should I stand back when there are good times coming?" So here was yet another entrepreneur who saw the opening of the new Flavian Amphitheatre as a date with destiny. Well, I would rather Thalia made her fortune out of it than anyone else. She had a heart and she was a lively character. Whatever she offered the crowds would be good quality.

I grinned at her. "I take it you don't stoop to any funny business to annoy the other managers?" Thalia gave me a hilarious round-eyed stare. If she trifled with them, she was not saying. I did not expect her to. In fact, I preferred not to know. "But is there serious trouble among the lanistae?"

"Plenty. Look at today, Falco."

"Today?"

"Why, I could have sworn I met you entertaining a leopardess in the Agrippan Baths earlier, Marcus Didius is that an everyday occurrence?"

"I assumed she had just escaped."

"Maybe she did." Thalia screwed up her mouth. "Maybe she had help. Nobody will ever prove it-but I saw a whole bunch of Calliopus' bestiarii up by the Portico of Octavia, all leaning on statues laughing their little heads off while Saturninus ran rings around himself looking for his lost animal."

"Bestiarii? Weren't they training back at the barracks? How could they have known there was a rumpus here? Calliopus has his place way out past the Transtiberina-"

Thalia shrugged. "It looked peculiar. That doesn't mean I was surprised. Saturninus saw them too-so that's bad news. If he thinks Calliopus freed the leopardess to stir up trouble, he'll do something really evil in return."

"A dirty tricks war? Has this been going on long?"

"Never quite so serious."

"There's bad feeling, though? Can you tell me about it?"

"They're vying for the same contracts all the time," Thalia commented matter-of-factly. "Both for gladiatorial combats and for the hunts. Then they are men. You can't expect them to be civilised. Oh, and I heard once that they come from rival towns that have some frightful feud."

"In Tripolitania?"

"Wherever."

"Calliopus is from Oea. What about Saturninus?"

"Is there a town called Lepcis?"

"Believe so."

"Right. You know what these potty little neighbourhoods are like in the provinces, Falco. Any excuse for an annual punch-up, if possible with one or two killed. That gives them all a reason to keep the fight going. If they can tie it to a festival, they can drag religion into it and blame the gods-"

"Is this real?"

"The principle's right."

I asked her if she had heard about the time when, according to the records that I'd seen, Calliopus and Saturninus briefly went into partnership. "Yes, they were trying to gang up and squeeze out anyone else from Tripolitania. Not that it worked-the other main player's Hannobalus; he's far too big to take on." She was of my opinion that when two men shared a business it was doomed to end in a squabble. "Well, you should know, Falco-I heard you've been playing a disastrous game of soldiers with that mate of yours."

I tried to make light of it. "Lucius Petronius was merely going through a bad patch in his personal life-"

"So you two old pals were struck by the thought you would love to work together. I suppose that turned out to be a nasty surprise when it failed?"

"Close."

Thalia roared with raucous laughter. "Grow up, Falco. More friendships have died that way than I've had fools in bed. You're lucky Petronius didn't seduce your best clients and embezzle all your funds. You'd stand more chance working with a sworn enemy!"

I smiled bravely. "I'm trying that now."

She calmed down. "You never know when to give up."

"Doggedness is part of my charm."

"Helena may think that."

"Helena just thinks I'm wonderful."

"Olympus! How'd you swing that? She can't be after your money. You must be a nippy performer-at something, eh, Jason?"

I drew myself up sternly and decided it was time to leave. It meant stepping over the python, unfortunately. Jason liked to curl up right in the exit to the tent where he could look up people's tunic skirts. He wasn't even pretending to be asleep. He was staring right at me, daring me to approach "Helena Justina is a fine judge. I'm a sensitive poet, a dedicated father, and I cook a mean chicken wing."

"Oh that explains it," simpered Thalia.

I took a big step, nervously. Astride Jason, I remembered something. "this feud between Saturninus and Calliopus-it's already well warmed-up. Calliopus had a lion-"

"Big new Libyan called Draco," Thalia reported unperturbedly. "I was after him myself; Calliopus beat me by going to Puteoli and nabbing him straight off the boat. And I heard he also owns a trained executioner."

"He did. Leonidas. Saturninus had sold it to him under false colours."

"Cheeky sod."

"Worse than that. Leonidas has just been found dead, in very suspicious circumstances."

"Jupiter!" The lion's murder aroused her fiercest feelings. Other wild beasts were brought to Rome purely to be hunted in the arena, but Leonidas had had work to do in the Circus. He ranked with her own animals and reptiles: a professional. "That's terrible. Who would do that? And why, Falco?"

"I presume he had enemies-though everyone claims he was the sweetest lion you could meet. A benefactor even to the convicts he tore to pieces and ate, apparently. I'm working on the usual theories for a murder case: that the corpse probably slept around, amassed huge debts, caused fights when drunk, owned a slave with a grudge, was rude to his mother, and had been heard insulting the Emperor. One of those always turns out right-" I finally plucked up the nerve to finish stepping over the python.

"Anyway," said Thalia, "Calliopus and bloody Saturninus may make all the noise, but they aren't the only people chasing after the beast contracts."

"You mentioned one other big supplier? Also from Tripolitania?"

"Hannobalus. He thinks he'll clean up."

"Any other names?"

"Oh go on, Falco! Don't tell me you haven't got a list on a nice official scroll."

"I can make my own list. What about this other Tripolitanian gilthead, Hannobalus?"

"You don't miss much, Falco."