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.