“Oh, it’s been quite dull around here. Must you go back soon?”
“Who knows?” He reached up and drew her down to him. “I love you.”
She purred, “Are you sure you’re not too tired?”
“Not a bit.”
She took his mentula in her hand. “Has it missed me?”
“Terribly.”
“It hasn’t been anywhere else, has it?”
“Promise.”
She pulled her tunica up over her head and tossed it across the room. She straddled his hips as he lay on his back and he rose up to meet her.
***
“’Purnia, I’ve missed you terribly,” Pliny said. They had shared a light meal together in their chambers and were now undressing for bed, though it was still early. “I brought you a present. Here, unwrap it.”
“Oh, Gaius, it’s beautiful!” It was a necklace strung with pearls and little gold oak leaves. “I’ll wear it tomorrow.”
He lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, stretched, and sighed. She lay down beside him. “Have you been keeping busy, my dear?” he asked. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.”
And she might have said, I’ve met a charming young Greek, a local landowner’s son. And guess what, he knows about painting, he’s actually taught me a few things. Of course, he thinks he’s in love with me—an old matron like me! You must ask him to dinner one night soon, you’ll like him.
But the words would not come.
Tomorrow, she thought, I’ll tell him tomorrow. In fourteen years of marriage she had never kept a secret from her husband. Her dear husband, so good, so loving—although, she thought, he had never really been a boy, not an impertinent, winking, charming boy like Agathon. No, don’t think of Agathon. That was over, a brief fantasy, like a waking dream, and now her life would flow again in its accustomed channel. As she wanted it to. Truly she did.
Pliny’s eyes were closed and he snored softly. She suddenly felt a great tenderness for him. She pressed her body against his and slid her hand between his legs. He stirred but did not wake. The poor man, let him sleep.
But there was no sleep for her.
Chapter Ten
The 13th day before the Kalends of November
The first hour of the day
The next morning Caelianus was ushered into the dining room just as Pliny was finishing his breakfast. The clerk looked worried.
“I’ve just been to the treasury, sir, to start the counting. Silvanus isn’t there. No one’s seem him since yesterday.”
Pliny was gripped by a sudden premonition. He threw down his napkin, called for his bearers, and the two men set off at once.
“Where are the chief clerk’s living quarters?” he demanded of the door slave who admitted them.
It was a bare, cold room—almost a cell—that Silvanus called home: the furnishings Spartan, the floor bare stone, the walls unadorned save for a threadbare tapestry that covered the wall behind his narrow cot.
“Look over here, sir,” said Caelianus. “Scuff marks on the floor, like something might have been dragged over it.”
“Leading to or from his bed, no, more likely from the wall behind it. Here, help me move the bed.”
Pliny tore aside the tapestry and ran his fingers over the plastered wall. “Look here, there’s a crack. He thumped the wall, producing a hollow sound. In an instant he and Caelianus, on hands and knees, had pulled away a low door cut into the false wall and exposed Silvanus’ secret. The compartment was just large enough to hold three or four of the regulation treasury chests. Only two were still there.
“He got away with as much as he could carry, Caelianus. It must have hurt to leave the rest. Damn the man! How did he get out of the building without being seen? How did he carry it at all? The strength of desperation, I suppose.”
Pliny confronted the clerks, the door slaves, the sentries, every last inhabitant of the building, all herded together in the big counting room.
“None of you saw anything, heard anything last night?”
They looked at one another and shook their heads.
“The chief accountant has been stealing, probably for a long time. Did any of you suspect? Speak up, I promise you won’t be punished.”
Now there were knowing looks on a few faces and muttered words quickly exchanged. Then one of the junior clerks, a fat-bellied youth, stepped forward. “We knew, your honor. He let us get away with a bit too.”
“Thank you,” said Pliny. “And now I will ask you a very important question and I want a careful answer. Did Vibius Balbus know that Silvanus was stealing?”
The fat young man looked around at his comrades; two or three of them nodded encouragement. “He asked some of us if we thought so. Not long ago. Said there was a new governor now, meaning yourself, sir. That you were going to poke your nose in where it didn’t belong and things had better smell like roses, or else. Well, I didn’t like to snitch on Silvanus but the procurator was that angry I was afraid not to tell the truth in case it came out some other way and I was caught lying. So I told him ‘yes.’ He turned so red in the face I feared he’d have an apoplexy then and there.”
“And what happened after that?”
“Don’t know, sir. If he had it out with Silvanus it wasn’t in our hearing. And that man always looks so sorrowful you don’t rightly know what he’s thinking.”
Within the hour, Pliny had men at the harbor and at every stable in the city that rented coaches. But no one answering Silvanus’ description had been seen. The man might be anywhere.
And so might Balbus—if he was still alive.
***
That night Pancrates, as always, toiled with his assistants over the day’s haul of queries.
“Have a look at this one, Master.”
He took the tablet from his oracle writer, held it near the lamp, and squinted at it: Will I be punished for slaying the lion? Glaucon, son of Phormio.
“A lion? Is the man a venator?”
“Hardly. We know who Glaucon is. Comes from a wealthy family, big local landowner. What do you think he means?”
Pancrates chewed on the end of his moustache. “Let’s put a scare into him and see what happens. Tell him he’s angered Hercules, who slew the Nemean lion and resents competition, something like that, you know what to say. We will keep an eye on this Glaucon.”
Chapter Eleven
Nothing was said publicly about Silvanus’ disappearance. Pliny put Caelianus in charge of the treasury with orders to carry on counting the money. The clerks were confined to the building day and night. But Balbus’ disappearance was the only topic of conversation in the Roman community. According to Calpurnia, the wives were in a state of near panic, and it wasn’t long before word spread among the Greeks as well. Wild rumors circulated, and reported sightings of the procurator came in daily. He was seen in a harborside tavern, or lurking around the temple of Zeus, or on the road to Prusa, or in a dozen other places, all equally improbable. Nevertheless, Pliny sent his men to investigate each report. Meanwhile, Fabia kept to herself.
With a confidence he did not feel, Pliny sought to reassure the local grandees. Diocles, whose network of connections reached everywhere, was the obvious choice to receive this message. Pliny had asked him to come in the morning, unobtrusively, for a private meeting with himself and his staff. Instead, he had arrived with a small army of his cronies, including most of the city magistrates and his colleagues on the council, and trailed by a crowd of idle and curious citizens, who milled outside the palace gates. Typical of this little man with his outthrust chest and swept back hair and booming voice, who seemed never to overlook an opportunity to tweak their Roman noses. Pliny was forced to move the proceedings from his office to the audience hall and scare up refreshments for forty people.
“Of course, Governor, we loyal citizens of Nicomedia will do everything in our power to assist you in this crisis.” Diocles seemed to linger over the word crisis. And his voice, Pliny feared, could proba
bly be heard out in the street—the man never merely spoke, he orated. “And you have no idea where he might be? With your permission, my people will begin a thorough search for the procurator. It is, after all, our city, you will grant that we know it better than you do.”
Pliny murmured his thanks. The last thing he wanted was for the Greeks to find Balbus before he did. “Diocles, you can help me best,” he said, “by telling me everything you know about the procurator. You’ve known him, I gather, since he took up his post here some two years ago.”
“Indeed I have, Governor, and found him an excellent man, too. Fair and honest, which, I may say, has not always been the case with our Roman masters.” The arms spread wide in a gesture of confiding frankness, the voice so well-modulated that just the merest note of resentment fell on Pliny’s sensitive ear. Did the man think he was living in Pericles’ Athens? The Bithynians had had one master or another for three centuries.
“But how well did you know him personally,” Suetonius asked, “his habits, his foibles, weaknesses?”
“I’m afraid I can be of no help to you there.” The bland expression never wavered. “We did not socialize.”
“Really,” said Pliny. “I would have thought he was a man worth your while to cultivate.”
“And why would you think that?”
There were more questions to Diocles and his friends, all of them artfully evaded. Finally, Pliny stood up. “Thank you all for coming.” There was no point in prolonging this charade. If they knew anything, they were not going to share it with him, and Diocles was too powerful a man to be pushed. “Whatever has happened to Vibius Balbus,” Pliny assured them, “the administration of the province is unaffected. I am in full control here. It would be unfortunate if this were a cause for civic unrest.” Just a little emphasis on unfortunate, which Diocles surely did not miss.
“Oh, to be sure,” the orator agreed. “But you will—keep us apprised?”
“Of course.”
As the delegation filed out of the audience hall, Diocles turned back. “And your lovely wife, Governor, how is she progressing in the mastery of our language? I hope Timotheus has proved a satisfactory tutor?”
“What? Oh, yes, quite. I think she told me they’ve just started book two of the Odyssey.” He had no idea where she was in the poem or if she was reading it at all. He must remember to ask her.
“Ah, Homer, the fountainhead of our civilization. Emos d’erigeneia phane rhododaktylos Eos, orunt’ ar’ ex eunephin Odysseos philos uios heimata essamenos…”
Pliny held up his hands. He was sure that Diocles was capable of reciting the entire book from memory given half a chance. Homer was always in the man’s mouth.
***
Once Diocles and his band had departed the hours passed slowly. Pliny paced and fretted. Arranged and rearranged the objects on his desk. Bathed. Took his midday meal with Calpurnia, who looked pinched and pale and barely touched her food, although she laughed when he questioned her and said it was nothing. After lunch, he called yet another meeting of his staff.
“You think Silvanus killed Balbus?” Suetonius asked.
“Or maybe they’re in it together,” Nymphidius offered, “Balbus slipping away first, Silvanus afterwards, and all the rest of it just play-acting.”
“Either way I simply can’t imagine how it was done” said Pliny. “Two men vanished without a trace.”
They looked at each other in glum silence and he was about to send them all away when they heard voices raised in the corridor outside his office. He went out to investigate.
The doorkeepers—who considered it a part of their job to prevent him from ever talking to anyone who did not have an appointment—were struggling with a man, red in the face and clearly angry, who was demanding to see the governor. Another crank probably, but the man’s clothes were expensive and his accent not the worst. Pliny had nothing but time on his hands, he could spare this fellow a little of it. He ushered him into the office.
The man straightened his clothes, took a breath to calm himself, and introduced himself as Isidorus, a dealer in fine silks and brocades. He had gone yesterday to the Street of the Leather Workers, he explained, to shop for a saddle and bridle, not your ordinary stuff but something expensive, a birthday present for his son-in-law, who was quite a gentleman and owned a horse. And he was in one shop, examining what was on offer, and quite a respectable place, the owner was known to him and not a dealer in stolen goods either, no certainly not. But there was a very handsome saddle for sale with matching bridle, all ornamented with turquoises and onyxes, and an embroidered saddle cloth with it, top quality, make no mistake, he knew quality when he saw it, and the thing of it was, you see, that it looked familiar, he knew he had seen that saddle somewhere before, and then it came to him—just like that!—perhaps some god whispered it in his ear, who could say? But he was dead certain that it was the procurator’s saddle, no question about it, that gentleman rode down his street every day on his way to the treasury, which is just past the Street of the Cloth Merchants, don’t you see?
Isidorus stopped and looked around him in alarm. They were all on their feet, Nymphidius’ fingers dug into his shoulder.
“Here now,” he squeaked, “no call for that!”
“Where,” Pliny brought his face close and spoke softly, “did this merchant get the saddle?”
“Well, that’s what I’m trying to tell your honors. A couple of peasants sold him the stuff. His wife is from their village, don’t you see, so they thought he’d give ’em a good price.”
“And where is this village?”
“He can tell you. He’s just outside. He doesn’t want any trouble.”
Chapter Twelve
The mounted column, with Pliny at its head, left the city at the ninth hour of the day, taking the road, at a walking pace, north-east up into the foothills. According to the leather merchant, who now guided them, the village lay about eighty stades—ten Roman miles—away. With luck they should reach it by nightfall. Suetonius and Zosimus had urged him to wait until tomorrow before setting out, but Pliny would not be delayed any longer than it took to gather supplies for an overnight journey and bid a hasty farewell to Calpurnia. A dozen cavalry troopers, commanded by Aquila, and a lumbering wagon for their tents went with them.
The sky had been overcast all day and now the wind rose, thunder rumbled in the mountains, and a slanting rain drove in their faces. Shrunk inside their traveling cloaks, they urged their horses on. The ground rose steadily. Soon the paved, poplar-lined road dwindled to a dirt track and then to a barely visible forest path, dark with the shade of overhanging trees. In these dense woods of fir and oak and beech, branches shuddered in the wind and whipped at their faces, dripping ferns and bracken soaked their knees. The horses’ hooves sank fetlock deep in a wet carpet of fallen leaves. Their nostrils steamed in the watery air.
The temperature dropped steadily as the day waned. Pliny shivered and felt the breath congeal in his lungs. His uncle had died from a weakness of the lungs. It was a deadly family infirmity that he had inherited. Maybe he should listen to the others and turn back, the weather might clear tomorrow. But then the leather merchant’s wife might have time to warn her kinsmen. No. Press on.
***
Calpurnia stood in the middle of the dining room, supervising the fresco painters who were reproducing her sketches on the wall panels. The shutters shook as gusts of wind hurled the rain against them. Ione, at her side as always, studied her with an appraising eye.
“’Purnia, this is your chance.”
Calpurnia pushed back a tendril of hair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Add more cinnabar, Lysias, I want a deeper red there.”
“It’s been nearly two weeks since you’ve seen Agathon. Four days since his slave brought you the letter begging to see you. Have pity on the boy. You could go to him today.”
Calpurnia turned on her savagely. “Stop this! I should have you whipped for talking like this.
”
Ione regarded her steadily. “If it makes you feel better.”
“I threw the letter away and that’s the end of it.”
“If you say so.”
“Ione, please. I can’t. I can’t. Lysias, go away, take the others with you, we’ll start again tomorrow. Ione, you’re like Nemesis luring me to my doom.”
“I don’t know about that, I’m not an educated woman, but I know something about love.”
“Love! Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I see you pining away before my eyes. My husband notices. So does yours.”
“By the gods, what would you have me do?”
“Only what you did before. Drink wine, laugh together, draw your pictures, maybe a small philema or two.” The Greek word for ‘kiss’ sounded somehow more innocent. “Nothing wrong in that.”
Calpurnia groped for a chair and sank into it with her face in her hands. She drew in a long breath through her nostrils and let it out slowly. “Could I? Could I, really?”
Ione pulled her mistress’ hands away and looked in her eyes, luminous with tears. “Poor ’Purnia. How long will you punish yourself like this? Come with me, now. I’ll bathe you and fix your hair and dress you—your saffron gown and the silver sandals, your amethyst earrings. I’ll make you so beautiful for him.”
The palace in which they lived was an ancient pile that sprawled over half an acre and much of it was empty and unguarded. At dusk they slipped out a door in an unused wing. Wrapped in their cloaks, the two women ran through the dark, rain-lashed streets. Calpurnia felt herself moving as in a dream, helpless as though some other will than her own were animating her.
“Hey, you there, stop!” A figure lurched out from the shadow of a doorway and blocked their path. “Come on, ladies, I pay you good. I like two at a time.” Dressed in dripping rags, the figure staggered toward them. They rushed past him, spilling him into the gutter. “Filthy whores!” he shouted after them. “Filthy whores!” They hurried on, missing a turn in the dark, groping their way back, coming at last to the steps that led up the hillside to the town house, treacherous in the dark and wet. Calpurnia slipped, bruising her knee. But the pain was nothing, she was at his door now. His door! Moments passed while she pounded on it. At last the housekeeper answered her knock and recognized her.
The Bull Slayer: A Plinius Secundus Mystery Page 7