See Delphi And Die Read Free Page A

I made myself look for signs of a struggle. I wanted to know what had happened to her, remember. But all I found were bones, some scattered by animals. If she had been harmed, I could no longer tell how. That was the problem,' he raged. 'That was why the authorities were able to maintain that Caesia had died naturally.'
    'Clothing?' I asked.
    'It looked as if she was... clothed.' Her father stared at me, seeking reassurance that this was not a sex crime. The second-hand evidence was insufficient to judge.
    Helena then asked quietly, 'You gave her a funeral?'
    The father's voice was clipped. 'I want to send her to the gods, but I must find answers first. I gathered her up, intending to hold a ceremony, there in Olympia. Then I decided against it. I had a lead coffin made for her and brought her home.'
    'Oh!' Helena had not been expecting the reply. 'Where is she now?'
    'She is here,' answered Caesius matter-of-factly. Helena and I glanced involuntarily around the reception room. Caesius did not elucidate; elsewhere in his house there must be the coffin with the three-year-old relics. A macabre chill settled on this previously domestic salon. 'She is waiting for a chance to tell somebody something of importance.'
    Me. Dear gods, that was going to be my role.
    'So...' Chilled, I ran slowly through the remainder of the story. 'Even your sad discovery on the hillside failed to persuade the locals to take the matter seriously. Then you nagged at the governor's staff in the capital at Corinth; they stonewalled like true diplomats. You even tracked down the travel group and demanded answers. Eventually you ran out of resources and were forced to return home?' 
    'I would have stayed there. But I had upset the governor with my constant appeals.' Caesius now looked abashed. 'I was ordered to leave Greece.'
    'Oh joy!' I gave him a wry smile. 'I love being invited to participate in an enquiry where the administration has just blacklisted my client!'
    'Do you have a client?' Helena asked me, though her glance told me she had guessed the answer.
    'Not at this stage,' I responded, without blinking.
    'What exactly brought you here?' Caesius asked narrowly.
    'A possible development. Another young woman has recently died in bad circumstances at Olympia. My assistant, Camillus Aelianus, was asked to make enquiries.' That was pushing it. He was just nosy. 'I am interviewing you because your daughter's fate may be linked to the new death; I want to make a neutral reassessment.'
    'I asked all the right questions in Greece!' Obsessed by his own plight, Caesius was showing just how desperate he was. He had hardly taken in what I said about the latest death. He just wanted to believe he had done everything for his daughter. 'You think that if the questions are asked by a different person, there may be different answers?'
    In fact I thought that by now everybody under suspicion would have thoroughly honed their stories. The dice were thunderously loaded against me. This was a cold case, where the nagging father might be quite wrong in his wild theories. Even if there really had been crimes, the first perpetrators had had three years to destroy any evidence and the second ones knew all the questions I would ask.
    It was hopeless. Just like most of the dud investigations I accepted.
    Belatedly, Caesius was taking in the fact that another girl had been killed and another family was suffering. 'I must see them.'
    'Please don't!' I urged. 'Please let me handle it.'
    I could see he would not heed me. Caesius Secundus was fired by the hope that a new killing - if that was really what had happened - would provide more clues, more mistakes or muddled stories, and maybe a new chance.

III

    The coffin of Marcella Caesia stood in a dark side room. Its lid was painstakingly forced open with a crowbar. The surly slave who forced the curled lead edges apart plainly reckoned I was yet another callous fraud preying on his master.
    Do not expect me to dwell on the