The Palatine Hill

Professor Jason, a character in the Miriam bat Isaac Mystery Series, grew up among the wealthy on the Palatine Hill. He spends his life as the leper-white, thin-lipped physician at Alexandria’s illustrious medical school, investigating the deaths that baffle the magistrates.

In “The Bodyguard”, the first story in The Deadliest Returns, he mourns the death of his best friend Quintus Valens Cinnus, found floating in Lake Mareotis. The professor uncrosses his legs like the blades of a scissors and leans forward to tell Miriam the news:

When a maid noticed yesterday that my friend hadn’t appeared for his noon meal, she sent the bearers to look for him, first on the estate and then along the lake. That’s where Quintus lives. I mean lived. Where he took his morning swim. When the bearers saw his body floating in the lake, one of them went to the magistrate, who sent a soldier to fish him out and then notified me. He was the best friend I ever had.

His lips tightened into a long white scar as he shook his head in disbelief.

We grew up with all the other privileged kids on the Palatine Hill, right around the corner from the Domus Augusti. His family was richer than mine, but he willingly shared his opportunities with me, as long, of course, as I shared my homework with him.

A little chuckle escaped from his lips before turning into a sob.

Still, justice triumphs in “The Bodyguard.” To find out how Quintus died and how Miriam uncovers the murderer, just click here.