See Delphi And Die Read Free

steadied his breath. 'I was told,' he stressed, that while they stayed at Olympia, she disappeared. After extensive searching - that was how they described it anyway - the rest of the group continued on their way.' His voice was cold. 'Like me, you may find that surprising.'
    'Who informed you?'
    'One of the Seven Sights staff came to my house here.'
    'Name?'
    'Polystratus.' I wrote it down. 'He was sympathetic, told a good story, said Caesia had suddenly left the party, no one knew why. I was too shocked to interrogate him closely; in any case, he was just a messenger. He seemed to be saying Caesia had caused them inconvenience, by flighty behaviour. Apparently the other travellers just woke up one morning, when they were preparing to embark for their next venue, and she was not to be found.' Caesius became indignant. 'It was almost as if Seven Sights were claiming financial compensation for the delay.'
    'Have they softened up now?'
    Given that she is dead.
    'Now they are frightened that you may sue them.'
    Caesius looked blank. He had not thought of it. His one motivation was finding the truth, to help him in his grief. 'The tour had a travelling manager called Phineus. Falco, it took me some time to find out that Phineus had left the group when Caesia disappeared; he returned at once to Rome. I find his behaviour deeply suspicious.' Now we were getting to his angry theories.
    'Let me identify suspects for myself, please,' I instructed. 'Was there any information from the girl's aunt?'
    'She stayed in Olympia until there seemed nothing else she could do. Then she abandoned the tour and returned home. She was devastated when I finally discovered my daughter's fate.'
    'Can you put us in touch with the lady?'
    'Unfortunately no. She is abroad again.' My eyebrows shot up. 'She enjoys travel. I believe she has gone to Alexandria.' Well, that's the trouble with holidays; every time you take one, you need another to recover. Still, it was three years since her niece died; Marcella Naevia was entitled to resume her life. People must have said Caesius should do the same; he looked tetchy.
    While I noted down the aunt's movements, Helena took over. 'So, Caesius. You were so dissatisfied with the official version of events, you went out to Olympia to see for yourself?'
    'At first I wasted a lot of time. I assumed the authorities would investigate and send me word.'
    'No news came?'
    Silence. 'So it was almost a year later that I travelled there myself. I owed it to my child to discover what had happened to her.'
    'Of course. Especially if you have doubts.'
    'I have no doubt!' Caesius burst out. 'Someone killed her! Then somebody - the killer, the tour arrangers, some other tour member, or the local people - covered up the crime. They all hoped to forget the incident. But I shall never let them forget!'
    'You went to Greece,' I intervened, calming him. 'You spent a long time haranguing the authorities in Olympia. In the end, you yourself discovered human remains outside the town, with evidence that confirmed it was your daughter?'
    'The jewellery she wore every day.'
    'Where was the body?'
    'On a hillside. The Hill of Cronus, which overlooks the sanctuary of Zeus.' Now Caesius was struggling to sound reasonable, so I would believe him. 'The locals claimed she must have wandered off, maybe on some romantic whim to watch the sunset - or sunrise - or listen for the gods in the night. When they were being most offensive, they said she was meeting a lover.'
    'You don't believe that.' I passed no judgement on his belief in his daughter. Other people would give us the unbiased view of Caesia.
    'This is a very hard question,' Helena enquired gently, 'but could you deduce anything from your daughter's body?'
    'No.'
    We waited. The father remained silent.
    'She had been exposed on a hillside.' I kept it neutral. 'There was no sign of how she died?'
    Caesius forced himself to relive his grim discovery. 'She had been there a year when I found her.