Shadows in Bronze Read Online Free PDF

thirty years ago faced into the courtyard or over the street. He had certainly discovered whether I was as simple as I looked.

    'I ask myself;' groaned Momus, 'why anyone with all this loot needed to risk it offending the Emperor?'

    'Is that what he did?' I asked, innocently. We three spent more time watching each other than looking for conspirators. Momus, who was a dedicated eavesdropper, went unconvincingly to sleep. His splaytoed feet turned up at a perfect right angle in his black boots, which were rigid, the better to kick slaves.

    I was aware of Anacrites eyeing me. I let him get on with it. 'Happy day, Falco?'

    'Dead men and eager women all the way!'

    'I suppose,' he probed, 'the secretaries at the Palace are keeping you in the dark?'

    'Seems the general idea,' I replied, none too pleased by the thought.

    Anacrites helped me make up lost time with the Alban nectar. 'I'm trying to place you, Falco. What's your role?'

    'Oh, I was the son of an auctioneer until my happy-go-lucky father skipped from home; so now I'm off-loading this playboy's art and antiques onto the fancy goods stalls in the Saepta Julia...' He still looked curious so I carried on joking. 'It's like kissing a woman - unless I'm sharp, this could lead to something serious!'

    Anacrites was searching the dead man's private documents; I knew that. (It was a job I would have liked myself.) He was tight lipped, an insecure type. Unlike Momus, who could carelessly sell off eight Numidian litter-bearers as two poultry-carvers, a charioteer and a fan dancer from Xanthus, Anacrites was examining the study here with the fine detail of an auditor who expects another auditor to be round later checking him.

    'Falco, Momus is right,' he fretted. 'Why take the risk?'

    'Excitement?' I offered. 'After Nero died, plotting who to make into the next Caesar was a more thrilling game than tossing up knucklebones. Our man enjoyed a gamble. And he was due to inherit a fortune, but while he was waiting for it, one house on the Quirinal may not have seemed too special to a jumped-up junior official who wanted Rome to notice him.'

    Anacrites pursed his mouth. So did I. We looked around. The expensive Pertinax mansion seemed special to us.

    'So,' I prodded, 'what have you discovered from his honour's papyrus rolls?'

    'A pretty dull correspondent!' complained Anacrites. 'His friends were racetrack loudboys, not literary types. But his ledgers are immaculate; his accountant was constantly kept up to scratch. He lived for his cash.'

    'Found any names? Details of the plot? Proof?'

    'Just biography; half a day with the Censor's records could have winkled out most of it. Arius Pertinax came from Tarentum; his natural father had rank, and friends in the south, but neither cash nor influence. At seventeen, Pertinax put that right by attracting an ancient a-consul called Caprenius Marcellus who had plenty of status and oodles of money, but no heir-'

    'So,' I encouraged, 'this elderly moneybags plucked young Gnaeus fully grown from the Heel of Italy and adopted him?

    'In the best tradition. So now Pertinax Caprenius Marcellus had grand ideas and a monthly allowance to pay for them. His new father adored him. He served as a tribune in Macedonia-'

    'A safe, warm province!' I interrupted again, with an edge; I did my own national service in Britain: cold, wet, windy - and at that time (during the Great Rebellion) dismally dangerous.

    'Naturally! A lad with a future has to look after himself! Back in Rome, as his first stepping stone into public life be marries the serious daughter of a rather dull senator, then promptly gets elected to the senate himself - first attempt; the rich boy's privilege.'

    At this point I reached forward and gave myself more wine. Anacrites remained silent, savouring his, so I let myself paint in some colouring I thought he might not know: 'The Senator's safe-looking daughter was a mistake; four years into their marriage she smacked Pertinax with an