Venus in copper mdf-3

by Lindsey Davis

  'It was nothing! Persuasiveness and charm. Meanwhile Pollia and Atilia are terrified that if they put a foot wrong I'll send them to the arena for their attempts to poison Novus. In return for my silence they are taking up noble deeds-in their own lavish style of course. I persuaded them to apply their energy to an establishment for orphaned girls. You're an orphan, aren't you; I could get you a place if you want-'

  'How much liquor have they given you?'

  'Not enough; it was a highly acceptable vintage!'

  Severina laughed at me. I beamed at her. Suddenly she realised the merriment was a ploy and I was sober after all.

  'My house fell down today,' I said. I let the smile go out of my eyes. 'But of course, you know all about that.'

  Chapter LXV

  I watched Severina's uncertainty gnawing.

  'How ironic it would be, Zotica, if I brought you to court not for any of your husbands-or even for killing Novus -but charged with murdering the people who died today! An old lady I only heard banging on walls, and a family I had never even realised were living there.'

  We both sat motionless.

  'Why don't you ask?' I sneered.

  She forced out the words: 'Is your friend all right?'

  'What is it to you?' The danger of her situation had long informed those still blue eyes, but whatever she thought lay too deep to penetrate. 'You knew her didn't you?' I asked. There was enough steel in my voice for her to think Helena might be dead. 'She used the same baths as you.'

  'I thought you sent her-'

  'Yes, I realise that. You were wrong. It was her own idea. She must have wanted to know what I was dealing with. She never told me, or I would have forbidden it – tried to, anyway. Helena's resistance to domineering was one of the things I first fell for.'

  'What happened to her?' Severina managed to ask.

  'The apartment collapsed. Everyone who was inside was killed.' I paused. 'Oh there's no need to sit there wondering whether you should confess, Zotica! I know who to blame. Cossus told me. You knew. You gave the order, in effect. Then the nearest you came to warning me was a pathetic attempt to lure me here today-never mind anyone else who might be there!'

  There was a change in Severina's face, but so imperceptible I could not define it. Not that I wanted to. Even if she felt regret I was hardened against her.

  'I hold out no hopes of indicting you. I've lost my witness; Cossus is dead. He let himself be recognised, and the locals dealt with him. In any case, the Hortensii were the landlords. Their agent should never have taken instructions from you. Why did you do it? To dispose of me, because I became a threat to you? What made you change your mind? A hope of using me after all?'

  She spoke at last. 'You should be grateful I tried to keep you away!'

  'While you eliminated Helena?' She was sharp; she realised I would not have been able to discuss it at all if that were true. 'Helena was out of the building, or you'd be dead. You had a reason for what you did today. Don't pretend you wanted me. Even if you did, do you really believe I would have turned to you-or any woman-if I lost her in that way? But your motive was much more complicated. I knew you were jealous – yet you were jealous of us both. You hated the thought of other people possessing what you had lost…' I leaned forwards so I came closer, down to her level as she crouched on her stool. 'Tell me about Gaius Cerinthus, Zotica.'

  It was the first time I was ever certain I surprised her. Even now she refused to give anything away: 'You obviously know!'

  'I know you and he both came from the Moscus household. I know Cerinthus killed Grittius Fronto. I could prove it; there was a witness. But the Fates decided for me that Cerinthus would not come to trial. I know Cerinthus was then crushed by a falling wall. I know Hortensius Novus owned the wall.'

  She closed her eyes, a bare acknowledgement.

  I could guess the rest: 'Cerinthus was a slave with you. What happened-you grew fond of him? After you were married to Severus Moscus, or before?'

  'Afterwards,' she said calmly.

  'Once Moscus died, you were a free woman with a handy legacy. You and Cerinthus could have been married and led pleasant lives. Why so much greed? Was amassing a huge dowry his idea or yours?'

  'Both.'

  'Very businesslike! How long were you intending to carry on?'

  'Not after Fronto.'

  'So first there was Moscus-was it Cerinthus who chose his master's seat in the hot amphitheatre?'

  'Cerinthus bought the ticket; you cannot blame him for the sun!'

  'I can blame him for not keeping old man Moscus out of it! Then the apothecary, Eprius; you managed that yourself somehow. And finally the wild-beast man. Two mistakes there-Fronto never told you he had a nephew who was expecting to inherit, and he also battered you. Cerinthus must have been able to cope with you going to bed with other men, but he took against brutality. His solution was as vicious as he could make it. But Cerinthus soon walked under some typically unstable Novus masonry. You ended up with a sticky reputation, a dead lover, money you had probably lost the taste for-and nothing to occupy you but revenge.'

  Her skin had a yellowy papyrus look, yet her spirit was unchanged. 'You can say what you like, Falco.'

  'And you won't budge? I'm not so sure. You must have worked your way close to Novus with real passion in your heart, but the night I told you he was dead it shook you, Zotica. Don't pretend otherwise! I think you realised the truth: hate was an empty motive. Novus was dead, but so was your lover. Cerinthus would never know you had avenged him. This time there was no one to share your triumph. This time you were alone. What, as you said to me, was the purpose of it all? Killing Novus was nothing like the joy of planning a future with someone you loved, was it, Zotica?' Severina was shaking her head, refusing to accept my arguments. 'I know, Zotica! I know just how you felt when you lost him, and I know how you still feel now. Once you have shared yourself like that, the other person becomes part of you for ever.' This time she let out a small exclamation of protest. It was too late; forcing her to admit the kind of emotion I felt for Helena only sickened me. 'What I cannot understand is how a person who had experienced real loss herself could deliberately inflict the same on anybody else!

  At least, dear gods, when Cerinthus died you did not have to stand in the street and watch the falling wall!' There was a tremor in her face; I no longer wanted to see it. 'I know you killed Novus.'

  'You don't know how.'

  'I have some pointers.'

  'Not enough, Falco.'

  'I know you nudged Priscillus into thinking of poison, and probably the Hortensius women too-'

  'They never needed pushing!'

  'I know you prevented the women's feeble effort, and would probably have stopped Priscillus, but you had left the house before the meal. Nerve failed, did it-without Cerinthus to support you? But why set the others up as suspects, then keep them all out of it? Why risk destroying your alibis by hiring me? Oh you do love flirting with danger, but you did chance it, Zotica. I'm not completely useless; I've cleared them, even if I can't convict you. And why not let them take things to their conclusion, and carry out the deed for you?' She said nothing. I realised the answer; it lay in her obsessiveness. 'You hated Novus so deeply, you had to finish him yourself.'

  'No proof, Falco!'

  'No proof,' I agreed gently. No point pretending otherwise. 'Not yet. But evidence is bound to exist, and I'll find it. You condemned yourself by what you tried to do to Helena today. She's safe-but I'll never forgive you. I can be just as patient as you were with Novus, and equally devious. You may never rest now, Zotica. One false move, and I'll be on to you-'

  She stood up. She was fighting back. 'Helena will never stay with you, Falco! She was brought up in too much comfort and she knows she can do better. Besides, she's too intelligent!'

  I gazed up at her benignly. 'Oh she'll stay.'

  'Stick with your own kind, Falco.'

  'I'm doing that!' I swung myself upright. 'I'm leaving now.'<
br />
  'I'll thank you and pay you then.'

  'I want neither from you.'

  Severina laughed ruefully. 'You're a fool then! If you want to live with a senator's daughter, you need money even more than Cerinthus and I did.'

  Her jibe failed to rouse me. 'I need money all right. I need four hundred thousand sesterces; let's be precise.'

  'To qualify as a middle ranker? You'll never manage it!'

  'I will. And I'll keep my integrity.'

  My ludicrous social position seemed to fire her with a desperate hope of suborning me after all. 'You should stay with me, Falco. You and I could do good work in this city. We think alike; we both have ambitions; we never give up. You and I could make a useful partnership in any area we chose-'

  'We have nothing in common; I told you before.'

  She gave me her hand, with a strange, grave formality. I knew I must have nearly broken her. I knew I never would achieve it now.

  I pressed my thumb against the copper ring, her love token from Cerinthus. 'So all this was a clever vengeance campaign, eh? All for Venus? All for love?'

  Sudden laughter lit her face. 'You never stop trying, do you?'

  'No.'

  'Or failing, Falco!'

  It was her familiar vindictive farewell.

  As I left the house, someone else was just arriving. A figure as smart as a bookmaker's uncle: bright tunic, bronzed skin, buffed boots, plenty of hair tonic-but not all swank. He was as sharp as pepper. Although it was a long time since I had seen him, I recognised him immediately: 'Lusius!' It was the Esquiline Praetor's clerk.

  Chapter LXVI

  As soon as I realised who it was, my heart bumped: I guessed that there had been a new development.

  We danced round one another on the doorstep. 'I'm just leaving,' I smiled.

  'Corvinus heard there was another case to answer-' We carried on dodging, and squinting like rivals. 'How have you got on?' Lusius asked.

  'She's clear again. I did manage to work out who arranged to do in the animal importer-but the perpetrator's dead. He was her lover, but without him there's not enough to take her to court alone. I made her admit she had a partner until recently, but that's all.'

  'No other evidence?' asked Lusius.

  'Zilch.' I gained the impression he was holding something back. I gripped his elbow and drew him into the pool of light from a bronze lantern which hung on Severina's porch. He made no resistance. 'What's the idea, Lusius? You look pretty pleased with yourself!'

  The clerk grinned. 'This is mine, Falco!'

  I raised both hands, backing off. 'If you found something… It's a bargain, Lusius.'

  He told me in a quiet voice, 'I've got her on the apothecary.'

  I had thought we had both run the apothecary angle into the ground. 'How? Will that doctor who examined him make a report at last?'

  'No. But did he tell you that he never attended Eprius normally?'

  I nodded. 'Apparently he was called in after the choking because he lived across the street.'

  'And probably because Severina knew he was a fool… What I've found out,' Lusius continued, 'is that Eprius did have a physician of his own.'

  'For the famous cough that killed him?'

  'Eprius never had a cough.'

  'I gather you spoke to his regular quack?'

  'I did. And I discovered that for years his own doctor had been treating him for piles. The medicine man reckoned Eprius was very vain-and so embarrassed about his problem that Severina may not have known.'

  'Does this have a bearing on our enquiry?'

  'Ah well!' Lusius was really enjoying himself. 'I showed the normal doctor the remnants of the cough lozenge that allegedly choked Eprius-though I didn't tell him what it was supposed to be. It was rather mutilated, and partly dissolved, but he was fairly sure the thing was his own handiwork.'

  'Then what?'

  'When I did tell him which end of his patient the lozenge had been recovered from, he was extremely surprised!' I was beginning to guess. 'That's right,' said Lusius cheerfully. 'She must have known Eprius possessed a little box of magic gumdrops – but he lied to her about their purpose. The "cough lozenge" which Severina says choked him was actually one of his suppositories for piles!'

  I said, trying not to laugh too hard, 'This will make a sensation in court!'

  A narrow expression crossed the clerk's face. 'I told you this was mine, Falco.'

  'So what?' He said nothing. I remembered he liked redheads. 'You're mad, Lusius!'

  'I haven't made up my mind yet.'

  'If you go in mere to see her, she will make your mind up for you

  … Whatever do you see in her?'

  'Apart from quiet habits, interesting looks-and the fact I would be living on the verge of danger every minute I was with her?' the clerk asked, with a rueful lack of delusion.

  'Well you know exactly what you're in for – which is more than most people do! She says she has no intention of remarrying-which means she's actively looking for her next husband. Step right up, my boy-but don't fool yourself you'll be the one who can control her-'

  'Don't worry. What's left of the lozenge will do that.'

  'Where is the disgusting evidence?'

  'It's safe.'

  'Where, Lusius?'

  'I'm not an idiot. Nobody can get at it.'

  'If you ever tell her where it is, you're a dead man!'

  Lusius patted my shoulder. He had a quiet confidence that almost frightened me. 'I've arranged perfect protection, Falco: If I'm a dead man before I'm ready to go, my executors will find the evidence together with the doctor's sworn statement, and an explanatory note.'

  A true lawyer's clerk!

  'Now I'm going in,' he said. 'Wish me luck!'

  'I don't believe in luck.'

  'Neither do I really,' admitted Lusius.

  'Then I'll tell you this: I met a fortune-teller, who told me the next husband Severina fastens on will live to a ripe old age… it depends if you believe in fortune-tellers, I suppose. Have you got a nest egg?'

  'I might have,' answered Lusius warily.

  'Don't tell her.'

  Lusius laughed. 'I was not intending to!'

  I stepped away from the porch; he lined up to bang the bell.

  'I still think you ought to tell me where you have put the fatal jujube.'

  He decided it might be useful for someone else to know: 'Corvinus deposited his will in the House of the Vestals recently.' Standard procedure for a senator. 'He let me put mine in with it. if anything happens to me, Falco, my executors will find that my testament has a rather intriguing seal…'

  He was right: he was no idiot. No one, not even the Emperor, could get hold of a will without proper sanction, once it had been given for safekeeping into the Vestal Virgins' charge.

  'Satisfied?' he asked me, smiling.

  It was brilliant. I loved it. If he hadn't had such a ghastly taste in women, Lusius and I could have been real friends.

  I even thought, with just the slightest tinge of jealousy, that it was possible Severina Zotica might at last have met her match.

  Chapter XLVII

  The Senator was sitting in his courtyard garden, talking to his wife. In fact they looked as if they had been wandering round and round some subject until they were both tired of it: probably me. But Camillus Verus had a cluster of grapes in his hand and continued pulling off the fruit in an easy manner even after he saw me, while Julia Justa-whose dark hair in the dusk made her startlingly like Helena -made no move to breach the peace.

  'Good evening, sir-Julia Justa! I hoped I might find your daughter here.'

  'She comes,' grumbled her father. 'Borrows my books; uses up the hot water; raids the wine cellar! Her mother usually manages some snatch of conversation; 1 count myself lucky if I glimpse her heel disappearing round a doorframe.' I started to grin. He was a man, sitting in his garden among the moths and flower scents, allowing himself the privilege of sounding off against his yo
ung. '… I brought her up; I blame myself-she's mine…'

  'True!' said his wife.

  'She has been here tonight?' I butted in to ask her mother, with a smile.

  'Oh yes!' her father burst out rowdily. 'I hear your house fell down?'

  'One of those things, sir! Lucky we were out…' He waved me to a stone bench with a flourish. 'Your house fell down; so Helena Justina had to ask me how to replace the deeds for her Aunt Valeria's legacy; Helena came to raid her old room for dresses; Helena wanted me to tell you that she would see you later-'

  'Is she all right?' I managed to squeeze in, turning again to her mama in hope of sense.

  'Oh, she seemed her usual self,' Julia Justa commented.

  The Senator had run out of jokes; a silence fell.

  I braced myself. 'I should have come before.'

  Helena's parents exchanged a glance. 'Why bother?' shrugged Camillus. 'It's pretty clear what's going on-'

  'I should have explained.'

  'Is that an apology?'

  'I love her. I won't apologise for that.' Julia Justa must have moved abruptly for I heard her ear-rings shivering and the flounce on her stole swished against the stonework with a scratch of embroidery.

  The silence stretched again. I stood up. 'I'd better go and find her.'

  Camillus laughed. 'Can I assume you know where to look, or should we get up a search party?'

  'I think I know where she is.'

  Tired as I was, I walked. I approached my old lair over the high crest of the Aventine; I came to it with dragging feet, thinking about the handsome houses rich people own, and the awful holes where they then expect the poor to live.

  I entered the Twelfth district. Home smells assaulted my nose. A wolf whistle, without violence, followed me in the darkness as I took the lane.

  Fountain Court.

  Of all the groaning tenements in all the sordid city alleyways, the most degrading must be Fountain Court…

  Outside the barber's, Rodan and Asiacus lifted their gladiatorial frames from a bench where they were chatting; then they sank down again. They could find another day to batter me. At the laundry I heard convivial strains from where Lenia must be entertaining her sordid betrothed. Rome was full of women planning how to fleece their men; grinning, I wondered if she had managed to persuade him yet to name a day.