‘Cosmus? Isn’t he that odd boy I spoke to? – Bloody hell!’ swore Titianus. ‘For the record, why is he raging?’

‘Nasty personality … I am not certain. I have a theory, but I need to check it.’

‘Theories, eh? We don’t generally bother with those.’

‘It’s like a new position in sex, Titianus. Give yourself a treat and try it.’

While he blushed, I asked how long the vigiles might take to complete a search for the missing slave, but Titianus had no idea. According to him, his team was fully stretched because everywhere from the Temple of Minerva Medica to the Viminal Gate was full of wounded and dying criminals, with their savage wives and mothers screaming for vengeance and pulling knives to carve up people. This was ever since I and my cronies made such deeply unnecessary attempts to stir up excitement in the gangster community.

‘Gallo’s on crutches, for leaving that man in the cells. It’s a bloodbath!’

‘Just up your street then, hard man.’

Titianus stared at me as if he thought I was being satirical at his expense. He was slow, but like everyone else around me on this case, he was learning.

As he showed me out, he darted off into a side room and came out with an iron collar. ‘This will secure him.’

‘So much easier if every slave who is liable to wander has an I-have-run-away dog-collar riveted on, with a return address!’ I said.

There was nothing else I could do about looking for Cosmus, so I walked Dromo back through the Esquiline Gate to pick up our things at the apartment.

There we found Sextus Simplicius, the overweight executor, dithering in the courtyard. He had brought me a reward for finding the lost silver. I thanked him sweetly for this unexpected bonus, though from the weight of the purse, it was a somewhat small reward.

The mint-scented mooner would have to do better than that, if he wanted his next ploy to succeed. He invited me to take a glass of borage tea at some place he knew, which he said was very close nearby and had an extremely nice vine-covered pergola. Clearly this was one of those moments at the end of a case when a man thinks that now he won’t be seeing you again he can risk a seduction scene.

Why do they never realise we women already know the ‘nice place nearby’ routine?

I declined. In this I was aided by Dromo standing at my side, glaring. I would miss him.

So Dromo and I said goodbye to that tragic apartment, and departed from the Esquiline. I still did not know fully what had gone on there, but by the end of the day I would have found out.