Where is he at the moment?"

Gone away on business."

When do you think he will come back?" Zeno shrugged. No surprises there. Petronius stuck his head out of a window on the top storey.

Come up here, Falco." He sounded annoyed, not like a man who had just found a domestic tragedy. You can bring the boy."

Sounds as if your mother is all right, Zeno." We went up. The gatehouse contained a warren of small rooms, all kept cool by its massive construction. Zeno lived in a cheap let, a single airless room with no amenities. The mother was unconscious on what passed for a bed. It was the only one; Zeno must either sleep with her or on the floor. She was from the scrag end of womanhood; we had suspected that. She was dressed, in several layers, a traveller who wore all her wardrobe, as a deterrent to theft. The folds of cloth were richer than I expected, though when sleeping it off she wore them in bedraggled swathes. Sprawled face up on the mattress, she looked sour and middle-aged, but I guessed she was much younger and had fallen pregnant with Zeno in her teens. That was the type of menage it was.

Uncle" Lygon would be her latest lover; we could guess what he was like. some scrounging swine who was now playing the big fellow in a wine shop by the port. Presumably they both liked a tipple. Zeno's mother had imbibed so much she had passed out cold. I guessed that was yesterday.

Drunk as a dog." Petronius [a cat man] closed her drooling mouth with his thumb. This was a gesture to spare her young son. He wiped his thumb on his tunic at thigh level, with an expression of weary distaste. Much of his working life had been spent among this sad level of society, and he despaired of it. Had the child been any older, that would have ended our interest. Instead, since my sister was only around the corner in the loaned house, Petro made me stay at the gatehouse while he fetched Maia to sit with the mother until she came round.