‘Hold the spice.’ I steered Phileros on his way as if the rest of us needed to get on. The clerk left, and Petronius made a point of closing the door.

It was a small room, and now there were three of us filling it. Petro and I took over. He was a large character, with substantial thighs and shoulders; Anacrites began to feel cramped. If he looked directly at one of us, the other went out of eyeshot, probably making rude hand gestures. I seized the clerk’s stool, shoving all his work aside, none too gently.

Then we sat still, with our hands clasped, like ten-year-old girls waiting for a story. ‘You first!’ ordered Petronius.

Anacrites was beaten. He abandoned any attempt to follow his own agenda. We were all supposed to be colleagues; he could not force us to play straight with him.

‘I have read the scrolls—’ he started. Petro and I glanced at each other, grimacing as if only a maniac ever read the case papers, let alone relied on them. ‘Now I need you to sum up your findings.’

‘Findings!’ said Petronius to me. ‘That’s a sophisticated new concept.’

Anacrites was almost pleading with us to settle down.

Abruptly, we became fully professional. We had agreed in advance we would give him no excuse to say we had been uncooperative. I briskly set out that I had encountered Modestus’ disappearance through his business deal with my father. I did not mention his nephew, Silanus. Why should I? He was neither a victim nor a suspect.

Petro described the discovery of the corpse and its identification from the letter Modestus was carrying. He spoke in a crisp voice, using vigiles vocabulary. He gave an account of our visit to the Claudii; how we had interviewed Probus; searched the area; found nothing.

‘What were you planning next?’ asked Anacrites.

‘Since the next move is all yours, what do you think?’ snapped Petro tetchily.

Anacrites ignored the question. ‘Do you have any other leads?’

Petronius shrugged. ‘No. We have to sit back and wait until another corpse turns up.’

Anacrites applied a sombre expression, which we dutifully mirrored.

‘Look, you can leave this all to me now. I can handle it.’ Time would show if that was right. He closed the meeting. ‘I hope you two stalwarts don’t feel I took your case away.’ We refused to look sore.

‘Oh, I have plenty to do chasing tunic-thieves at the baths,’ sneered Petronius.

‘Well, this isn’t quite on that level . . .’

‘Isn’t it?’