Last Act In Palmyra Part 9

I let her probe. 'I'm trying to find a young musician called Sophrona.'

'Oh! We thought you must be political.'

I pretended to be amazed by that idea. Sticking with Sophrona, I went on, 'It's worth a parcel if I track her down. All I know is she can play the water organ as if she had lessons direct from Apollo, and she'll be with a man from the Decapolis, probably called Habib.'

'The name should help.'

'Yes, I'm relying on it. The Decapolis region sounds ill-defined, too large for wandering about clueless like a prophet in the wilderness.'

'Who wants you to find the girl?'

'Who do you think? The manager who paid the fee for training her.'

Phrygia nodded; she knew that a trained musician was a valuable commodity. 'What happens if you don't?'

'I go home poor.'

'We can help you look.'

'That seems a fair bargain. It's why I took this job. You help me when we get to the Decapolis, and even if my scribing is crude, in return I'll do my best to identify your murderer.'

The actress s.h.i.+vered. It was probably real. 'Someone here... Someone we know...'

'Yes, Phrygia. Someone you eat with; a man somebody probably sleeps with. Someone who may be late for rehearsals yet turns in a good performance. Someone who has done you kindnesses, made you laugh, sometimes irritated you to Hades for no reason in particular. Someone, in short, just like all the rest in the company.'

'It's horrible!' Phrygia cried.

'It's murder,' I said.

'We have to find him!' It sounded as if she would help if she could. (In my long experience that meant I should be prepared for the woman to try to jeopardise my search at every turn.) 'So who hated him, Phrygia? I'm looking for a motive. Just knowing who he had dealings with would be a start.'

'Dealings? He used to try out his luck with Byrria, but she kept away from him. He hung around the musicians sometimes - though most of them would tell him where to put his little implement - but he was too wound up in his own black personality to have been involved in any special affairs.'

'A man who bore grudges?'

'Yes. He was bitter against Byrria. But you know she didn't go up the mountain. Chremes told me you heard the killer talking, and it was a man.'

'Could have been a man defending Byrria.' When I see an attractive woman, I'm seeing motives for all kinds of stupid behaviour. 'Who else hankers after her?'

'All of them!' said Phrygia, at her most dry. She pursed her lips thoughtfully. 'Byrria has no followers, I'll say that for her.'

'There were plenty of oglers waiting here for her tonight.'

'And was she visible?'

'No,' I conceded.

'That surprised you! You thought Byrria was young enough to listen to them and only I was old enough to see through their flattery!'

'I think you have plenty of admirers - but you're right about the girl. So what's with Byrria if she turned down Heliodorus and she can live without cheap popularity?'

'She's ambitious. She doesn't want one short night of pa.s.sion in return for the long disillusionment; she wants to work.' I was reaching the conclusion that Phrygia hated the beauty less than we had supposed. Clearly she approved of intense dramatic ambition; perhaps she wished the younger woman well. It could be for that cla.s.sic reason: Byrria reminded Phrygia of her younger self.

'So she studies her art, and keeps to herself.' That could easily drive men mad. 'Is anyone particularly soft on her? Who loves the dedicated Byrria from afar?'

'I told you: all of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!' Phrygia said.

I sighed gently. 'Well, tell me if you decide there was somebody who might have been prepared to kick Heliodorus out of her path.'

'I'll tell you,' she agreed calmly. 'On the whole, Falco, taking action - especially for a woman - is alien to men.'

Since she still seemed prepared to talk to me, although I was one of those feeble specimens, I went through the list of suspects in a businesslike way: 'It has to be someone who came with you to Petra. Apart from your husband--' No flicker of emotion crossed her face. 'That leaves the two clowns, the wonderfully handsome Philocrates, Congrio the bill-poster, and Davos. Davos looks an interesting case - '

'Not him!' Phrygia was crisp. 'Davos wouldn't do anything stupid. He's an old friend. I won't have you insulting Davos. He's too sensible - and he's much too quiet.' People always believe their personal cronies should be above suspicion; in fact the chances are high that anyone in the Empire who dies unnaturally has been set on by their oldest friend.

'Did he get on with the playwright?'

'He thought he was mule dung. But he thinks that about most playwrights,' she informed me conversationally.

'I'll bear it in mind when I talk to him.'

'Don't strain yourself. Davos will tell you quite freely himself.'

'I can't wait.'

By now I had heard one put-down too many about the creative craft. It was late, I had had a miserable day, Helena would be fretting and the thought of soothing her anxieties grew more appealing every minute.

I said I thought the rain had stopped. Then I bade the Mother of the Company a gruffly filial goodnight.

Hardly had I entered my tent when I knew that I should have been somewhere else tonight.

Chapter XX.

Something had happened to our Nabataean priest.

Davos was holding Musa up as if he was going to collapse. They were in our section of the tent, with Helena in attendance. Musa was soaking wet and shuddering, either with cold or terror. He was deathly pale and looked in shock.

I glanced at Helena and could tell she had only just started extracting the story. She turned aside discreetly, attending to the fire while Davos and I stripped the priest of his wet clothes and wrapped him in a blanket. He was less st.u.r.dily built than either of us, but his physique was strong enough; years of climbing the high mountains of his native city had toughened him. He kept his eyes downcast.

'Not much to say for himself!' muttered Davos. With Musa, that was hardly unusual.

'What happened?' I demanded. 'It's peeing down outside like customers in a cold bathhouse privy, but he shouldn't be this wet.'

'Fell in a reservoir.'

'Do me a favour, Davos!'

'No, it's right!' he explained, with an endearingly sheepish air. 'After the play a group of us went looking for some wineshop that the clowns thought they knew about - '

'I don't believe it! In a storm like this?'

'Performers need to unwind. They persuaded your man to come along.'

'I don't believe that either. I've never seen him drink.'

'He seemed interested,' Davos insisted stolidly. Musa himself remained clammed up, s.h.i.+vering in his blanket and looking even more strained than usual. I knew I couldn't trust Musa, since he was representing The Brother; I scrutinised the actor, wondering whether I trusted him.

Davos had a square face with quiet, regretful eyes. Short, no-nonsense black hair topped his head. He was built like a cairn of Celtic rocks, basic, long-lasting, dependable, broadly based; not much would topple him. His view of life was dry. He looked as if he had seen the whole spectacle - and wouldn't waste his money on a second entrance fee. For my purposes, he seemed too bitter to waste effort on pretence. Though if he did want to delude me, I knew he was a good enough actor to do it.

Yet I could not see Davos as a killer.

'So what exactly happened?' I asked.

Davos continued his story. In his voice, which was a magnificent baritone, it seemed like a public performance. That's the trouble with actors; everything they say sounds completely believable. 'The Twins' fabulous entertainment spot was supposed to be outside the rampart wall, on the eastern side of the city -'

'Spare me the tourists' itinerary.' I was kicking myself for not having stayed close. If I had gone on this crazy tour myself I might at least have seen what had happened - maybe have prevented it. And I might even have got a drink out of the trip. 'Where does a reservoir come into this?'

'There are a couple of great water cisterns to conserve rain.' They must be full enough this evening. Fortune was now dumping a whole year's rainfall on Bostra. 'We had to go around one. It's built within a huge embankment. There was a narrow elevated path, people were larking about a bit, and somehow Musa slipped into the water.'

It would have been beneath him to trail off; Davos paused portentously. I gave him a long stare. Its meaning would have been obvious, on stage or off. 'Who exactly was larking? And how did Musa come to "slip"?'

The priest lifted his head for the first time. He still said nothing, but he watched Davos answer me. 'Who do you think was larking? The Twins for two, and several of the stagehands. They were pretending to push one another about on the edge of the walkway. But I don't know how he slipped.' Musa made no attempt to inform us. For the moment I left him alone.

Helena brought a warm drink for Musa. She fussed over him protectively, giving me a chance to talk to the actor apart. 'You are sure you didn't see who pushed our friend?'

Like me, Davos had lowered his voice. 'I wasn't aware I needed to look. I was watching my step. It was pitch-dark and slippery enough without fools playing up.'

'Was the accident on the way to the wineshop, or on the way back?'

'The way there.' So no one had been drunk. Davos understood what I was thinking. If somebody had tripped up the Nabataean, whoever it was had fully intended him to fall.

'What's your opinion of Tranio and Grumio?' I asked thoughtfully.

'A mad pair. But that's traditional. Being witty all night on-stage makes clowns unpredictable. Who can blame them when you listen to the standard of playwrights' jokes?' Shrugging, I accepted the professional insult, as I was supposed to. 'Most clowns have fallen off a ladder once too often anyway.' A stage trick, presumably. I must have looked bemused; Davos interpreted: 'Dented heads; not all there.'

'Our two seem bright enough,' I grunted.

'Bright enough to cause trouble,' he agreed.

'Would they go as far as killing?'

'You're the investigator, Falco. You tell me.'

'Who said I was an investigator?'

'Phrygia mentioned it.'

'Well do me a favour, don't pa.s.s on the news any further! Blabbing isn't going to help my task.' There was no chance of making discreet enquiries in this company. No one had any idea of how to hold their tongue and let you get on with it. 'Are you and Phrygia close?'

'I've known the gorgeous old stick for twenty years, if that's what you mean.'

Beyond the fire I could sense that Helena Justina was watching him curiously. Later, after observing him here, the intuitive girl would tell me whether Davos had been Phrygia's lover in the past, or was now, or merely wished to be. He had spoken with the a.s.surance of an old acquaintance, a troupe member who had earned himself the right to be consulted about a newcomer.

'She told me about being asked to play Medea at Epidaurus.'

'Ah that!' he commented quietly, with a soft smile.

'Did you know her then?' In reply to my question he nodded. It was a reply of sorts - the kind of simple answer that leads down a dead end. I tackled him directly: 'And what about Heliodorus, Davos? How long had you known him?'

'Too long!' I waited, so he added more temperately: 'Five or six seasons. Chremes picked him up in southern Italy. He knew an alphabet or two; seemed ideal for the job.' This time I ignored the arrow.

'You didn't get on?'

'Is that right?' He was not truculent, merely secretive. Truculence, being based on simple motives such as guilt and fear, is easier to fathom. Secrecy could have any number of explanations - including the straightforward one that Davos had a polite personality. However, I did not ascribe his reserved manner to mere tact.

'Was he just an awful writer, or was it personal?'

'He was a b.l.o.o.d.y awful writer - and I b.l.o.o.d.y loathed the creep.'

'Any reason?'

'Plenty!' Suddenly Davos lost patience. He stood up, leaving us. But the habit of making an exit speech overtook him: 'Somebody will no doubt whisper to you, if they haven't yet: I had just told Chremes the man was a troublemaker and that he ought to be dropped from the company.' Davos carried weight; it would matter. There was more, however. 'At Petra I gave Chremes an ultimatum: either he dumped Heliodorus, or he lost me.'

Surprised, I managed to fetch out, 'And what was his decision?'

'He hadn't made any decision.' The contempt in his tone revealed that if Davos had hated the playwright, his opinion of the manager was nearly as low. 'The only time in his life Chremes ever made a choice was when he married Phrygia, and she organised that herself, due to pressing circ.u.mstances.'

Afraid I would ask, Helena kicked me. She was a tall girl, with an impressive length of leg. A glimpse of her fine ankle gave me a frisson a frisson I could not enjoy properly at that moment. I could not enjoy properly at that moment.

The warning was unnecessary. I had been an informer long enough; I recognised the allusion, but I asked the question anyway: 'That, I take it, is a dark reference to an unwelcome pregnancy? Chremes and Phrygia have no children with them now, so I a.s.sume the baby died?' Davos screwed up his mouth in silence, as if reluctantly acknowledging the story. 'Leaving Phrygia shackled to Chremes, apparently pointlessly? Did Heliodorus know this?'

'He knew.' Full of his own anger, Davos had recognised mine. He kept his answer short and left me to deduce for myself the unpleasant follow-on.

'I suppose he used it to taunt the people involved in his normal friendly manner?'

'Yes. He stuck the knife in both of them at every opportunity.'

I didn't need to elaborate, but tried it to put pressure on Davos: 'He ragged Chremes about the marriage he regrets - 'Chremes knows it was the best thing he ever did.'

'And tormented Phrygia over the bad marriage, her lost chance at Epidaurus, and, probably, over her lost child?'

'Over all those things,' Davos answered, perhaps more guardedly.