"Only the richest people. How much money did the organizers of this betting scheme take in today, I wonder? And how much will they actually have to pay out?"

"Gordianus, what are you getting at?"

"Lucius, consult your racing card. You've noted all the winners with a chalk mark. Read them off to me-not the color or the driver, just the horses' names."

"Suspicion-that was the first race. Then Lightning… Straight Arrow… Bright Eyes… Golden Dagger… Partridge… Oh! By Hercules! Gordianus, you don't think-that item in the Daily…"

I quoted from memory. " 'The bookworm pokes his head outside tomorrow. Easy prey for the sparrow, but partridges go hungry. Bright-eyed Sappho says: Be suspicious! A dagger strikes faster than lightning. Better yet: an arrow. Let Venus conquer all!' From 'Sappho' to 'Sparrow,' a list of horses-and every one a winner."

"But how could that be?"

"I know this much: Fortune had nothing to do with it."

I left the crowded stadium and hurried through the empty streets. Decimus Brutus would be detained by the closing ceremonies. I had perhaps an hour before he would arrive home.

The slave at the door recognized me. He frowned. "The master-"

"-is still at the Circus Maximus. I'll wait for him. In the meantime… please tell your mistress she has a visitor."

The slave raised an eyebrow but showed me into a reception room off the central garden. Lowering sunlight on the fountain splashing in the courtyard outside sent reflected lozenges of light dancing across the ceiling.

I did not have long to wait. Sempronia stepped into the room alone, without even a handmaiden. She was not smiling.

"The door slave announced you as Gordianus the Finder."

"Yes. We met… briefly… this morning."

"I remember. You're the fellow who went snooping for Deci last night, poking about at the Senian Baths and those awful places around the circus. Oh yes, word got back to me. I have my own informants. What are you doing here?"