Part 25 (1/2)

'Was he?'

'Famous for it.'

I whistled quietly. 'I'd not heard. Was he a big player?'

'All the time. That was how he gathered his pile.'

'A pile? That wasn't part of your hand-out. I take it?'

'Hah! No. Chremes said he would take care of any cash.'

'A nice gesture!' We grinned wryly together. 'Did Heliodorus play dice against the other members of the company?'

'Not normally. Chremes had told him it caused trouble. He liked to go off and fleece the locals the night we left a place. Chremes was always nagging him about that as well, afraid one day we'd be followed by an angry mob and set upon.'

'Did Chremes know why Heliodorus had such permanent good luck?' I asked, shaking the dice tellingly.

'Oh no! He never looked like a bent player.' He must have been a subtle one. From what I had already heard about his ability to judge people, cleverly finding their weak points, it made sense that he could also pull the old weighted-dice trick without being detected. A clever, highly unlikeable man.

'So Heliodorus knew better than to upset the party by cheating his own? Yet if Chremes issued a warning, does that mean it happened once?'

'There were a few rows,' offered Congrio, his pale face crinkling up slyly.

'Going to tell me who else was involved?'

'Gambling debts are private,' he replied. He had a cheek. I was not prepared to give him a bribe.

'Fair enough.' Now I had a clue to work with, I would simply ask someone else. 'Davos told me Heliodorus went through a phase of being friendly with the Twins.'

'Oh you know then?' It had been a lucky connection on my part; the bill-poster looked irritated by my guessing correctly.

'About them all drinking together at one time? Yes. Did they dice too? May as well tell it, Congrio. I can always ask Davos. So was there gambling going on among those three?'

'I reckon so,' Congrio agreed. 'n.o.body tells me things, but I got the idea Heliodorus won too much off them, and that was when they stopped drinking with him.'

'Was this once? Was it a long time ago?'

'Oh no,' sneered Congrio. 'It was always happening. They'd pal up for a few weeks, then next thing they weren't speaking. After a bit they'd forget they had quarrelled, and start over again. I used to notice because the times they were friendly with Heliodorus was when the Twins caught his nasty habits. He always shoved me around, and while they were in league with him, I copped for it from them too.'

'What phase of this happy cycle were they all in when you went to Petra?'

'Ignoring each other. Had been for months, I was happy to know.'

I applied my innocent face. 'So who apart from me,' I enquired suddenly, 'has been wanting a perusal of your wonderful inheritance?'

'Oh just those clowns again,' scoffed Congrio.

'You don't like them?' I commented quietly.

'Too clever.' Cleverness was not an offence in Roman law, though I had often shared Congrio's view that it ought to be. 'Every time I see them, I get knotted up and start feeling annoyed.'

'Why's that?'

He kicked at his baggage roll impatiently. 'They look down on you. There's nothing so special about telling a few jokes. They don't make them up, you know. All they do is say what some other old clown thought up and wrote down a hundred years ago. I could do it if I had a script.'

'If you could read it.'

'Helena's teaching me.' I might have known. He continued boasting recklessly: 'All I need is a joke collection and I'll be a clown myself.'

It seemed to me it would take him a long time to put together enough funny stories to be a stand-up comic of Grumio's calibre. Besides, I couldn't see him managing the right timing and tone. 'Where are you going to get the collection, Congrio?' I tried not to sound patronising -without much success.

For some reason it didn't bother him. 'Oh, they do exist, Falco!'

I changed the subject to avoid an argument. 'Tell me, did the clowns come together to look at your property?' The billposter nodded. 'Any idea what they were looking for?'

'No.'

'Something particular?'

'They never said so.'

'Trying to get back some I-owe-yous, maybe?'

'No, Falco.'

'Did they want these dice? After all, the Twins do magic tricks -'

'They saw the dice were here. They never asked for them.' Presumably they did not realise the dice were crooked. 'Look, they just strolled up, laughing and asking what I had got. I thought they were going to pinch my stuff, or ruin it. You know what they're like when they're feeling mischievous.'

'The Twins? I know they can be a menace, but not outright delinquents, surely?'

'No,' Congrio admitted, though rather reluctantly. 'Just a pair of nosy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds then.'

Somehow I wondered about that.

Chapter IL.

He was right. The two clowns mere mere clever. It would take more than a bland expression and a quick change of subject to trip them up. I was aware before I started that the minute they had any idea I was trying to squeeze particular information from them, fending me off would become a joyous game. They were seditious. I would need to watch for exactly the right opportunity to tackle them. And when I did, I would need all my skill. clever. It would take more than a bland expression and a quick change of subject to trip them up. I was aware before I started that the minute they had any idea I was trying to squeeze particular information from them, fending me off would become a joyous game. They were seditious. I would need to watch for exactly the right opportunity to tackle them. And when I did, I would need all my skill.

Wondering how I could choose the moment, I came back to my own tent.

Helena was alone. She told me that as I had predicted, Chremes had bungled acquiring a booking here.

'When he was waiting to see the town councillor who runs the theatre, he overheard the fellow scoff to a servant, ”Oh, not the ghastly tribe who did that terrible piece about the pirates?” When Chremes finally got in to see the big man, relations failed to improve. So we're moving off straight away - '