The Book of the Dead

by Paul Davis

  Kaires agreed. ‘It's almost impossible to think evil of anyone at such a time. The world seems so perfect.’

  ‘And yet somehow I don't think you are able to let go of all your worries so easily. The Prefect has put you in a bit of a spot, hasn't he?’

  ‘Not the Prefect, no. Whoever is behind all this is the one who's put me in a spot. Gallus is just doing his job. Although I sort of wish he'd stayed in Alexandria. I could do without him breathing down my neck.’

  ‘Are you going to question us all? Do you really think you'll get to the bottom of all this? I mean, whoever is responsible is hardly going to tell you. I suppose you must suspect all of us. Me included. But I don't see why it has to be one of us. We all thought we knew Zeno, but did any of us really know what went on in his life outside the Library? I doubt it. It could have been anyone’

  ‘Until this morning that might have been true. But an outsider would hardly follow us to Canopus, sneak on board and kill Mantios as well.’

  ‘You are assuming the two deaths are connected. Mantios could have just been the victim of a chance burglary that went wrong. Perhaps Mantios found the thief from last night still hiding on board, or perhaps the thief was a member of the crew, taking his chance, and Mantios disturbed him.’

  ‘No, that won't wash.’ Kaires was about to say that there were too many similarities - the likely weapon, the ring - but realised no one knew about these things except himself and Gallus. Was Prokles fishing for information? He was right, Kaires was suspecting everybody.

  He changed the subject. ‘We'll be leaving early for Naucratis tomorrow. The captain will want to make up for lost time. I hope there's a good wind, or I pity the rowers.’

  Prokles shifted in his chair and gave a grimace. ‘This wretched leg of mine. Sorry. I get a shooting pain right up the side sometimes. I don't suppose you've got anything for when it's playing up?’

  ‘Well, I could prepare something for you. Rosemary and chamomile will help. You must let me have a look at it in daylight.’

  ‘I don't think there's much you can do. The bones have healed well enough but the doctors say the tendons are severed and unlikely to heal.’ Prokles gave a resigned smile. ‘I can live with it. After all, it might have been my life that was severed.’ They both thought about this for a moment.

  ‘I never heard what really happened, other than what you said yesterday. That you thought it might not have been entirely accidental. What did you mean?’

  ‘Oh, I don't know. It all happened so quickly it's difficult to be sure. I was on my way to the Library, about to cross the Canopic Way. It was a busy time of the morning and a fair few people were about, pushing and shoving as always. I was knocked into the road just as a horse and cart were passing, on their way to some building project, loaded up with stone. The horse got scared and reared up, coming down on my foot. I fell, and the driver lost control. The horse jerked forward, bringing the cart over my leg. It was pretty well crushed. A doctor splinted it for me, and did his best. I couldn't walk at all for a while. Now I can manage well enough with my stick.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘My hopes of entering the Olympics are over.’

  ‘It must have been a terrible shock.’

  ‘It was. But as I say, it could have been worse. Now I keep thinking about it, going over it in my mind, wondering whether or not someone deliberately pushed me. It seemed absurd to think so at the time, these accidents happen all the time, but there's no doubt that I felt a strong shove. After it happened I was in no fit state to look around, but I know I hadn't seen anyone I recognised beforehand. Fortunately Zeno came by soon after, and called for help. So I put it all out of my head. It was only when Zeno himself was murdered that I began to think - and now after Mantios...’

  ‘Can you think of any reason why someone would want to injure you? Maybe even kill you?’

  ‘None at all. At least... No, nothing.’

  ‘Nothing?’

  ‘Well it's silly, really. I'd had a bit of an argument with Dexios. He'd accused me of stealing one of his pupils - nonsense, of course. The boy had sought me out and asked to join my group. It happens all the time. Students often want to try out different classes. But this one's father was very influential, not to mention rich, and Dexios got quite cut up about it. But that would hardly be a reason to go so far. No, all things considered, it must have been an accident.’

  Kaires wasn’t so ready to agree. Even so, even if Dexios hard borne a grudge against Prokles - however badly he had taken it - it was stretching things a bit far to imagine him as a homicidal maniac going after Zeno and Mantios as well. He still hadn't got to the bottom of Zeno's death. The missing manuscript. Caesarion's ring. The talk of great wealth. Other than Assia Alexia, who else had Zeno involved in his plans? And now it seemed he had been nearby at the time of Prokles’s accident. Could he have pushed Prokles in to the path of the horse, and then, when he had failed to kill him, pretended to help?

  ‘What do you remember of the afternoon of Zeno's death?’ he asked.

  Prokles considered for a moment. ‘It was just the same as a hundred other afternoons. I’d been working with the Museum's collection in the morning, as usual. I then took a copy of Herodotus to read - students are always asking questions about him - and went along to the study rooms. Only one was left by the time I got there. I didn't stay too long. My leg was playing up and I couldn't concentrate. I saw Chaeremon leave, and a few minutes later I decided to go as well. As I came out of my room, Haemon came out of his, so we walked together to the front entrance of the Museum. I went home, and I assume he did as well.’

  ‘What about today? Did you see Mantios?’

  ‘Just for a few minutes at breakfast. We didn’t speak; he didn’t seem to be in a talkative mood.’

  ‘Did you go into town?’

  ‘Yes, just to have a look around. I didn't want to hire a litter - I've been to Canopus many times in the past - so I just pottered around the market for a while, then sat in a street bar and had some beer. When I saw Myrine coming back with Thestor and Dexios, I volunteered to help her find some threads. I knew the market pretty well by then, and knew where she could find them. When we saw everyone else going back to the barge, we went too.’

  ‘Straight back to your room?’

  ‘No. By the time we got back we could hear the ructions below. We started to go down but the Prefect’s guard stopped us. So we stayed upstairs until we found out what was going on. I sat with Myrine for a while up here. We chatted for a while, and then you all came up again and told us what had happened.’

  Kaires looked up at the stars and thought about what Mantios had said about the North Star - stationary in the heavens while the others moved around it. Just how he himself felt, going round in circles and not getting any closer. How could he break out and get to the heart of the problem?

  ‘Thanks, Prokles. Time for bed, I think. Goodnight.’

  ‘Goodnight,’ said Prokles. ‘I think I’ll sit here a while longer. Sleep well.’

  If only, thought Kaires.

  -0-

  Kaires slept fitfully that night, drifting in and out of a dream. He was at home, in his house in Alexandria, and he had lost something. He went from room to room, searching, but all the furnishings had been moved around and nothing was in the right place. He couldn't remember what he was looking for, only that it was important. He went into Hotepet's room, to see her standing in its centre, holding a box. She smiled at him as she opened it. ‘It's in here’ she said, but as she looked down to reach into the box she began to struggle, as if something inside had caught hold of her hand and was pulling at her. The more she struggled, the more she was pulled until she started to disappear into the box - writhing, screaming; the box seemed to devour her until she was gone, and it dropped empty to the floor. Kaires approached the box and leant down to look into it himself. As he did so the room shifted, swayed, and he lost his balance, falling towards the open box, into a great black void...

  A knock
at the door announced the presence of Iola, coming in with a bowl of water and a sponge. They were on their way again. Whether it was the sudden movement of the barge as it slipped its mooring or the knock at the door that had awakened him, he was unable to say. Despite Iola's now elevated status she continued to make herself useful, winning back the affection of the crew. She put down the bowl on the table and turned to leave.

  ‘Good morning, Iola,’ said Kaires, relieved to have escaped from his dream.

  ‘Good morning, Dr. Kaires,’ she replied. ‘Did you sleep well?’

  ‘Not really. Bad dreams.’

  ‘We all get those from time to time.’

  ‘Even you, Iola? But of course you're right. Especially when your whole world has been turned upside down.’

  Iola looked away for a moment.

  ‘You were right about the napkins from breakfast. The steward was making a big fuss about there being one missing. I told him what had happened to it; I hope that was all right. He wasn’t so keen to get it back after that.’

  ‘That’s fine, Iola. It shows the murderer was at breakfast with us all.’

  ‘What an awful thought.’

  Kaires paused, and then spoke gently. ‘I was sorry to hear about your brother from Myrine. I never knew.’

  Iola stiffened and sat, as if the energy had suddenly gone out of her.

  ‘I'm sorry...’ Kaires repeated.

  ‘Eukles,’ said Iola, in a small voice. ‘Yes, my brother. What do you know of him?’

  ‘Only what your mother told me. That he died of fever in the Delta. How old was he?’

  ‘He was seventeen. Did she tell you why he died?’

  ‘I'm not sure what you mean. He went to your family's farm and caught malaria. Sad, but no one's to blame. It was the will of the gods.’

  ‘It was the will of my father, you mean.’ For the first time, Kaires detected a note of bitterness in her voice. She must have been very close to her brother. ‘Eukles didn't want to go. He was really happy. Couldn't wait to go to the Museum every day’

  ‘Happy? I thought he wasn't doing well?’

  ‘No, he was never academically brilliant. But at last he had found a tutor who he really admired, and was doing much better than ever before.’

  ‘Then why did Zeno send him away?’

  ‘Because he fell in love. Seriously. Not just a phase that most men go through. Aristeon is only three or four years older than him.’

  Kaires started. ‘Aristeon?’

  ‘His tutor. I thought you knew all this.’

  ‘I had no idea.’

  ‘Eukles was talking about going to live with him. Like man and wife. You know there are men who do that. And women, too. Father wouldn't hear of it, so he sent him away. To his death. He regretted it later, of course. But what was the use of that? He'd gone. None of us really got over his loss. Aristeon, perhaps even more than us.’

  They sat in silence for a while. Iola stood and brushed herself down. ‘I had better be getting on. Almost time for breakfast.’

  ‘No, Iola, wait. I've been foolish. I thought I knew enough to go into this by myself. But I find there is so much that I don't know, so many background pieces of information that I'm simply lacking, because I didn't know Zeno or Mantios or anything about what was going on in their lives, what was important to them. I must find out before it's too late. There's so much you can tell me, but I'm not asking the right questions. How could I not even know you had a brother until Myrine mentioned him in passing?’

  ‘Well, why should you have known? He was gone long before my father was murdered.’

  ‘Iola, I need to take you fully into my confidence. If I tell you everything I know, will you swear to keep it all to yourself, tell no one, no one at all? Something I say that means nothing to me may mean something to you. You may see connections that I can't be aware of, because I'm not really part of this in the way that you are. I know we’ve talked about the broad outline, but we need to concentrate on the details. You need to know everything.’

  Iola said nothing, but nodded her head.

  ‘We won't get anywhere until we find out why Zeno was murdered. I think I know how and why, but not who. What you've just told me shows that Aristeon had a reason for killing your father, if he blamed him for your brother's death. But it doesn't explain the appearance and reappearance of Caesarion's ring, or the missing papyrus, or the theft from the Prefect's suite, or -’

  ‘Caesarion's ring? Is that whose it was? You never said. That's strange. Father was talking about Caesarion not long before he died.’

  Kaires looked up sharply. ‘What did he say?’

  ‘He spent a lot of his time in the archives. He had been working through the Ptolemies' correspondence - he often used to tell us stories about what they used to get up to. Lately he had been going through Cleopatra's final letters. He said she knew that she and Antony had lost, and that there was no hope for them. She sent Caesarion away to India in the hope that one day he would raise an army and return. Augustus - Octavian as he was then - managed to track him down and had him killed.’

  ‘Iola, every schoolboy knows that. What are you saying?’

  ‘Let me finish. As I said, father was often rooting around with the correspondence. No one had looked at it for years; maybe some of it had never even been read before. Anyway, he came across a letter from Cleopatra to Apollodorus the Sicilian, the only man she truly trusted.’

  ‘The one who brought her to Caesar in the carpet. What did this letter say?’

  ‘She was talking about the provision for Caesarion's return. When Octavian took Alexandria, he found the Treasury full of gold and silver. He was astonished at the wealth of Egypt.’

  ‘Which he took to swell the coffers in Rome. It helped to further secure his position and fund his projects. It has helped to make him untouchable’

  ‘Yes - but that's only part of it. Egypt's wealth was far greater than even Octavian could imagine. Cleopatra, with the help of Apollodorus and other faithful servants, planned to remove a large proportion of her Treasury and lay it down in a secret location in the heart of Egypt, far from Alexandria. It was to stay there, unsuspected, awaiting the return of her son. That was the gist of the correspondence.’

  Kaires was speechless. The idea of such a vast store of wealth hidden somewhere in the depths of Egypt staggered him.

  ‘Of course there's no knowing if it ever actually happened. The letters didn't say whether they were successful or not. Or where they planned to hide it. Father was excited about it for a while, but then he stopped talking about it. He moved on to other interests. That was a good while before he died. You don’t think that has anything to do with it, do you? I’d almost forgotten all about it.’

  Kaires certainly did think so. Zeno had stopped talking about it because he had found the key to where it was hidden, and didn’t want to bring any more attention to it. He knew it had really happened. And he planned to get hold of it himself.

  -0-

  Breakfast had been laid out on the top deck, and the passengers sat around in small groups admiring the view as they helped themselves to what was on offer. Kaires put a few olives and some cheese in a bowl, and tore off a chunk of bread. He sat on his own near the bow, hoping for a few minutes quiet reflection. Nearby Chaeremon, who had been discussing irrigation plans for the delta with Strabo and Gallus, excused himself and wandered across.

  ‘I never knew a man for taking so many notes.’ He scowled in the direction of Strabo. ‘We had a slight disagreement over some trifle and he corrected me by referring back to something I myself had said two days ago, which he had written down. Found the note and read it out to me. I told him he must have written it down incorrectly, but he knew I was bluffing. Wretched man.’

  Kaires laughed. ‘If we were all of one opinion and never allowed ourselves to change it, life would be dull indeed. Take a seat. Isn't it wonderful to be moving again?’

  ‘Yes, although it amazes me how quickl
y things have gone back to normal. It's almost as if Mantios was never part of this trip, yet it was only this time yesterday that was helping himself to his last meal.’

  ‘People are still in shock. No one wants to talk about it, but you can be sure everyone is certainly thinking about it. You were good friends, weren't you?’

  ‘He was my best friend. I know people saw us bickering and arguing all the time but that's just how we got on. I shall miss him terribly. I just can't believe he's gone. He would never have hurt anyone.’ His face hardened. ‘You must find out who did this to him, Kaires.’

  ‘I will, Chaeremon, I will. You realise I'll have to ask you a few questions, as well? I can't exclude anyone at this stage.’

  ‘Can't exclude - what do you mean? You think I might have done it? Killed my friend?’

  ‘No one is above suspicion. But if you are innocent, try to work with me, not against me. I'll get to the truth eventually, come what may.’

  Chaeremon looked long and hard into his eyes. ‘You know, Kaires, I really think you will. But I don't think I can be much help. I'm at a complete loss myself.’

  ‘You might start by telling me about your conversation with Haemon the other day, at the Temple. He came up with some nonsense about street gamblers but that wasn't it at all, was it?’

  Chaeremon hesitated before replying. ‘It's a bit embarrassing. I don't know if I should say. If it has nothing to do with these deaths, can we depend on your confidence? I mean, it involves me as well...’

  ‘I can't promise anything. But you can trust me, Chaeremon.’

  ‘Well it's all over and done with now, but Haemon was a bit worried it all might be raked up again after Zeno was killed. Um... you're aware of Adonis the Bookseller's little trade on the side? I think you had something to do with bringing it to an end.’ Chaeremon reddened, looking very guilty.

  Kaires looked surprised. Although he had indeed put a stop to it, he had never found out who Adonis's contacts had been inside the Library. ‘You mean you were behind it?’