I kept playing my part, looking innocent. ‘When the slashing is fast and routine, while nobody in the audience is paying too much attention to the pieces of meat getting killed? Do you think the Rabirius gang will go to watch?’

‘Bound to. They will show proper respect to their own,’ Titianus surmised. ‘After that, we may have some crap to deal with. Maybe the fellow’s mother will start harbouring horrible bitterness because Gallo abandoned him. One of their family feuds may blow up. Blood at the barber’s. Some senior Rabirius stiffed over his lobster stew at lunch, while gang members look the other way and hope they won’t be next.’

‘A lot of plotting at funerals,’ I agreed.

‘Even the great Gallo may wind up thrown into a stinking alley with a knife between his shoulder-blades – for dumping the fellow.’

‘All very colourful, Titianus.’

We sat in silence for a while. Then I pointed out that − thinking of gangsters – in order to be absolutely thorough, we ought to investigate whether it was the Rabirii who had now strangled the steward.

‘We’ being Titianus and me. And ‘investigate’ requiring a visit to the gang.

33

Lunch is a wonderful mechanism. Some chunks of bread, a few scraps of ham, a bowl of cherries. Washed down with mediocre bar-room wine, this was enough to woo Titianus. It probably helped that he rarely shared investigations with anybody. He may have had a deputy he didn’t trust, or a low-level bunch of door-knockers who took orders from him if he could think of any orders to give, but normally he worked on his own. Now he believed I was his friend. If I suggested a jape, he had to fall in with it.

He was too nervous to approach the grandee, Rabirius, in person. Instead, I managed to persuade him to tackle young Roscius. Titianus would have to find out the nephew’s haunts, which he would do that afternoon. He went back to the barracks, planning to oil up Juventus, the gangster liaison officer. Titianus believed he could squeeze him without arousing suspicion. According to him, Juventus was not very bright.

I sympathised with him, for having to deal with idiots at work.

We agreed to meet up early next morning when Titianus said Roscius would be out and about and accessible, collecting cash for the old man. I spent the rest of the afternoon double-checking the neighbourhood for people who could have seen anything in connection with the steward’s death. No luck, needless to say. Although Polycarpus had made himself friendly with everyone, no one would cause inconvenience to themselves by coming forward as a witness.