I went upstairs and spoke to Graecina, who was getting ready. I helped arrange her veil, and since someone had to pay for this funeral, I asked how she was placed for money; she told me the family had savings tucked away. She and Polycarpus had been careful to provide for the future. (I noticed she said they had made financial plans together.) They had been an up-and-coming family, but were mindful how easily they and their children could be ruined by fate. It was clear, however, the widow and children would not face immediate hardship after their loss.

What they did need was social support. That was being provided by Galla Simplicia. She had even suggested Graecina might like to work for one her daughters. I did not mention that Polycarpus had told me the daughters were spoiled. Graecina was a free woman and had the right to quit if she found she hated the position.

Since tonight’s event was private, she also had control over who came to her husband’s funeral. Myself, I would have liked the slaves to be brought from the aediles’ office. I wanted to observe reactions. I offered to make overtures to Manlius Faustus, who could certainly have arranged it had there still been time. Graecina refused, I think because they were so closely associated with the deaths of Polycarpus’ master and mistress. She understood that there could be no accusation of them being involved in killing her husband, yet she was obviously prejudiced. If, as I suspected, Graecina started life working in a bar, her own background would be regarded as shameful; it was interesting that she chose to look down on slaves. Everyone needs someone to despise.

Graecina seemed to have made most of the funeral arrangements herself. She was organised. I wondered whether she had learned from Polycarpus, or whether that was always her character and he had liked it in her.

I managed to get some rest before the formalities started. I could have done with more. Informers have to be tireless, and work is unpredictable. You sometimes find nothing to do with yourself for a week, then you have a day that never seems to end. This was to be one of those.

Graecina wanted a ceremony with ‘nice people’, so she did invite Galla Simplicia, plus Galla’s cousin and all three of her children. The pregnant Valeria did not stay to the end, but both she and her husband thought it right to show their faces at the start. Mother’s Boy and the younger sister did stay. They were pleasant; even he behaved to the widow with good manners. Though Galla Simplicia had complained about the difficulties of bringing up children single-handed, she seemed to have done a good job.