‘Buzz off and let us get on then.’ Petro’s tone was affectionate. My sister put up with it.

I chomped a vine leaf. Home made. Wheatgrain and pine nut filling in a slightly tart dressing. Mint. Good, but I stayed gloomy. ‘Spill, sunshine.’

Petro took a snack between one thumb and finger, but merely waved it as he talked. ‘Marcus, here is my personal list of anomalies. First, why did the Modestus killers cut off his hands? I still think for revenge: those hands had repeatedly written angry letters to complain about the Claudii. Someone must have heard about Cicero—murdered for railing against Mark Antony. Cicero’s hands, which wrote his polemics, were removed and stuck on spikes either side of the head up on the rostrum where he had made his speeches.’

‘One hand.’

‘Pedant.’

‘The allusion seems too literary.’

‘No, it’s not. Everyone knows what happened to Cicero. Even I know!’ boasted Petro. He had been to school, but whereas my adult hobbies were drinking and reading, his were drinking and drinking some more. ‘Besides, what do you think Nobilis and Probus do all day at their miserable shacks? They sit down with a learned scroll to improve their minds, don’t they?’

‘Show me proof! But I go with revenge against the petitioner’s hands. Next anomaly?’

‘I had had our doctor, Scythax, take a look at the remains before we got Modestus cremated. Scythax thought he was probably still alive when his hands were removed. Nobilis may know about the death of Cicero; he intended Modestus would appreciate his fate.’

‘Meanwhile, the courier’s boy never wrote poison pen letters.’

‘No, he couldn’t read or write.’ Trust Petro to have asked the question. ‘His body may have been stretched out like Modestus, but his slashed belly is different. Scythax tends to be cautious forensically, but he reckons the Modestus killer cut open the corpse after death. I mean, he probably came back and did it several days later.’

I cringed. ‘What was that for?’

‘Who knows why? Reinforcing his power, maybe.’ Petro munched his snack now, thinking about perversion and frowning. ‘Anyway, the courier was opened up the same day he died. We can be sure, because he set off in the afternoon and was found at first light next day. He was practically warm.’

‘The murder sounds hurried—that’s untypical of repeat killers.’ I could tell from the way Petronius had paced his narrative, there must be at least one more discrepancy. ‘What else?’

‘Whoever killed Modestus, from the detritus left nearby, I suspect more than one man was there. And they stayed around the crime scene for several days. After the killing, I mean. Possibly someone came back to slash Modestus open—but I say, the bastards never went away.’

‘Jupiter! This happens?’