Two For The Lions by Lindsey Davis Read Free Book Online Page A

still stood open, I went straight inside. Using my knife to widen the wound in the lion's ribcage, I managed to withdraw the protruding spearhead. Then I laid it side by side with the one I was carrying: they did not match. The one that killed the lion had a longer, narrower head and was attached to its shaft with a different length of metal. I'm no expert, but it was clearly forged on a different anvil by a smith with a different style.
    Buxus came in.
    "Does Calliopus, use a particular armourer?"
    "Can't afford it."
    "So where does he obtain his spears?"
    "Wherever they're on discount that week."
    Why do I always take on jobs involving cheapskates?
    "Buxus, tell me: did Leonidas have any enemies?"
    The keeper looked at me. He was a slave, with the usual slave's unhealthy pallor, wearing a dirty brown tunic and rough, oversized sandals. Between the thongs his lumpen feet were badly scratched by the straw he spent his days in. Fleas and flies, of which there were all kinds in his working environment, had feasted on his legs and arms. Neither as underweight as he might have been nor as downtrodden either, he had a cautious face with pouchy eyes. His gaze seemed more open than I expected; that probably meant Buxus had been selected by Calliopus to convey whatever rubbish his master hoped to palm off on me.
    "Enemies? I don't expect the men he was due to eat liked him, Falco."
    "But they're in chains. Thurius can hardly have taken a night off from the condemned cell and nipped here to get in first." I wondered whether Buxus himself might be involved in the killing; this death, like most murders, could well have a domestic cause. But his affection for the great creature and his anger when he discovered his lion's murder both seemed genuine. "Were you the last person to see Leonidas alive?"
    "I topped up his water last night. He was a bit peckish but all right then."
    "Still moving about?"
    "Yes, he had a bit of a prowl. Like most big cats he hates--hated--being caged. It makes them pace around restlessly. I don't like seeing them get that way. They go mad, just the same as you or I would do if we were locked up."
    "Did you go inside the cage last night?"
    "No, I couldn't be bothered to fetch the key to open up so I just sloshed his drink through the bars with a pannikin and whispered a sweet goodnight."
    "Did he answer?"
    "Bloody big roar. I told you he was hungry."
    "Why didn't you feed him then?"
    "We keep him short."
    "Why? He's not due for the arena yet. What's the reason for starving him?"
    "Lions don't have to have meat every day. They enjoy it more with an appetite."
    "You sound like my girlfriend! All right; you sloshed in a jug or two, then what? Do you sleep nearby?"
    "Loft next door."
    "What's the nightly routine? How is the menagerie kept secure?"
    "All the cages are locked all the time. We often have members of the public coming to look at the animals."
    "They get up to all sorts?"
    "We don't take chances."
    "Were any strangers around last night?"
    "Not that I saw. People don't usually trek out here after dark."
    I returned to security arrangements. "I gather the keys are kept in the office? What happens when you need to muck out and at feeding time? Are you allowed to use the keys yourself?"
    "Oh yes." I had rightly deduced that the keeper enjoyed a position of some trust here.
    "And at night?"
    "The whole menagerie is locked up. The boss sees to it himself. The keys go into the office and the office is locked when Calliopus goes home. He has a house in town of course--"
    "Yes, I know." Plus several others; that was why Calliopus had been favoured by a visit from Anacrites and me. "I expect you close up fairly early in the evening. Calliopus will want to go to the baths before dinner. A man of his standing is bound to be dining formally most nights, I suppose?"
    "I dare say." The slave had little idea of social life among free citizens apparently.
    "His wife's demanding?"
    "Artemisia has to take him as he