When I end up at strange houses I try to fit in. Although exhausted, I sat tight. After a while, Aelia Camilla excused herself and left the room, taking both the baby and her little girl. I saw my host follow his wife with his eyes, then soon he went out too. Helena Justina and I stayed there alone.

To say our eyes met would imply too much. What happened was that I looked at her, because when a man is left alone with a woman in a quiet room it is the natural thing for him to do. She stared back at me. I had no idea why she was doing that.

I refused to speak; the senator’s termagant daughter taunted me. “Didius Falco! Isn’t this journey a pointless exercise?”

Still on my stool, I leaned my elbows on my knees and waited for her to explain. My obstinate interrogator ignored my curiosity.

“It may be,” I said finally. I stared at the floor. Then added, as the confrontation continued in silence, “Look, ladyship, I shall not ask whatever is the matter with you because frankly I don’t care. Unpleasant females are a hazard of my work. I have come to a place I hate on a dangerous errand because it is the only throw your father or I can attempt—”

“That would be a good speech if it came from an honest man!”

“Then it’s a good speech.”

“Lies, Falco!”

“You’ll have to elaborate. You think me useless. I can’t help that; I am doing my best.”

“I should like to know,” sneered the senator’s daughter in her unlovely way, “whether you are dragging out your contract for mere profit, or whether this is deliberate sabotage. Are you a traitor, Falco, or only wasting time?”

Either I was dense, or she was crazy.

“Just explain, will you?” I instructed her.

“Sosia Camillina saw one of the men who abducted her go into a house she knew. She wrote and told me—though not whose house it was. She said she had told you.”

“No!” I said.

“Yes.”

“No!” I was horrified. “She may have intended to tell me—”

“No, she said she had.”

We both stopped talking.

Something must have gone wrong. Sosia was skittish and excitable, but despite her inexperience she was bright as Scythian gold. She would not overlook anything so important; she was too proud of her discoveries, too eager for me to know.

My mind raced. She could have written another note; but if so where was it? Two unused tablets of her pocket-book were with her when she was found, she had left another one in my room, and we had no reason to suppose the fourth had been used for anything more serious than a shopping list at home.

Something had gone wrong.

“No. Lady, you will have to take my word.”

“Why should I take your word?” Helena Justina scoffed.