Roman Blood by Steven Saylor

There would be nothing suspicious about such a death. It would be easy to blame it on some passing group of anonymous thugs."
    Cicero leaned forward in his chair. The machine was reviving. " S o you wouldn't commit the act yourself, by your own hand?"
    "Certainly not! I wouldn't even be in Rome. I'd be far to the north in my house in Ameria—having nightmares, probably."
    " Y o u ' d hire some assassins to do it for y o u ? "
    " O f course."
    "People you knew and trusted?"
    "Would I be likely to know such people personally? A hardworking Amerian farmer?" I shrugged. " M o r e likely I'd be relying on strangers.
    A gang leader met in a tavern in the Subura. A nameless acquaintance recommended by another acquaintance known to a casual friend . . ."
    "Is that how it's done?" Cicero leaned forward in his chair, genuinely curious. He spoke no longer to the hypothetical parricide, but to Gordianus the Finder. "They told me that you would actually know a thing or two about this sort of business. They said: 'Yes, if you want to get in touch with the kind of men who don't mind getting blood on their hands, Gordianus is one place to start.' "
    "They? Whom do you mean, Cicero? Who says that I drink from the same cup with killers?"
    He bit his lip, not quite certain how much he wanted to tell me yet.
    I answered for him. "I think you mean Hortensius, don't you? Since it was Hortensius who recommended me to y o u ? "
    37

    Cicero shot a sharp glance at Tiro, who was suddenly quite awake.
    " N o , master, I told him nothing. He guessed i t — " For the first time that day, Tiro sounded to me like a slave.
    "Guessed? What do you mean?"
    "Deduced would be a better word. Tiro is telling the truth. I know, more or less anyway, what you've called me for. A murder case involving a father and son, both called Sextus Roscius."
    " Y o u guessed that this was my reason for calling on you? But how?
    I only decided yesterday to take on Roscius as a client."
    I sighed. The curtain sighed. The heat crept up my feet and legs, like water slowly rising in a well. "Perhaps you should have Tiro explain it to you later. I think it's too hot for me to go through it all again step by step. But I know that Hortensius had the case to begin with, and that you have it now. And I presume that all this talk about hypothetical conspiracies has something to do with the actual murder?"
    Cicero looked glum. I think he felt foolish at finding that I had known the true circumstances all along. " Y e s , " he said, "it's hot. Tiro, you'll bring some refreshment. Some wine, mixed with cool water. Perhaps some fruit. Do you like dried apples, Gordianus?"
    Tiro rose from his chair. "I'll tell Athalena."
    " N o , Tiro, fetch it yourself. Take your time." The order was demean-ing, and intentionally so; I could tell by the look of hurt in Tiro's eyes, and by the look in Cicero's as well, heavy-lidded and drooping from something other than the heat. Tiro was unused to being given such menial tasks. And Cicero? One sees it all the time, a master taking out petty frustrations on the slaves around him. The habit becomes so commonplace that they do it without thinking; slaves come to accept it without humiliation or repining, as if it were a god-sent inconvenience, like rainfall on a market day.
    Cicero and Tiro were not nearly so advanced along that path. Before Tiro had disappeared pouting from the room, Cicero relented, as much as he could without losing face. " T i r o ! " he called. He waited for the slave to turn. He looked him in the eye. " B e sure to bring a portion for yourself as well."
    A crueler man would have smiled as he spoke. A lesser man would have cast his eyes to the floor. Cicero did neither, and in that moment I discovered my first glimmering of respect for him.
    Tiro departed. For a moment Cicero toyed with a ring on his finger, then turned his attention back to me.
    38

    " Y o u were about to tell me something of how one goes about arranging a murder in the