Ruso and the River of Darkness

by R. S. Downie

  Ruso pulled the old doors away from the wall to check, but found only a mummified mouse. There was nothing else in the room.

  Albanus looked like a boy who had just found out he had been up half the night doing the wrong homework. It was plain from Firmus’ expression that even he could see they had reached a dead end.

  For reasons he did not understand, Ruso felt it was his job to soften the blow. As if there were some point in asking, he tried, ‘Who’s in charge of this room?’

  Predictably, the guard did not know. He suggested another name, but Ruso knew it was hopeless. The next man would be unlikely to know either. Room Twenty-Seven had obviously lain undisturbed for years while the workmen who had stored their junk in here had moved on and forgotten all about it.

  Asper’s unknown correspondent remained as elusive as ever.

  23

  By the time Ruso, Firmus and Albanus returned from their unsuccessful visit to Room Twenty-Seven, the Procurator had gone into another meeting and would not be free for at least half an hour. Albanus settled down outside the gates to deal with more sightings of missing men. Firmus was accosted by a waiting Pyramus with messages about wheat tallies and milestone surveys, and by a clerk bearing a pile of ingot ledgers for checking.

  Ruso, seeing Firmus about to turn Pyramus and the ledgers away, declared that he needed some time to think, and he was going to take a lone stroll along the wharf. Firmus looked disappointed. Ruso decided not to tell him it was for his own good.

  Unable to serve as an Army officer like most young men of his class, Firmus would have to work his way up through the less glamorous back door of the tax office. He would need to make a good impression. Good impressions were made by obeying orders, not by hanging around with investigators. Especially investigators whose every discovery seemed to leave them more baffled than before.

  Ruso emerged on to the wharf and turned left, passing a glassblower’s workshop and the secure warehouses that were another part of the Procurator’s jurisdiction. If he was going to meet one of the most powerful men in the province, he needed a plan of action. It might be the wrong plan, but Ruso suspected that this was one of those rare occasions when a subordinate was expected to come up with ideas of his own.

  Perhaps it was the business of the hooded man that was making him more cautious than usual, but, as he was mulling over how Caratius could be connected with the mystery of Room Twenty-Seven and the man who had stolen his name, Ruso realized he was being followed along the wharf.

  From a distance the suspect seemed an ordinary-looking man. Medium height. Nondescript hair. Sheep-brown tunic. Even features that broke into a smile just as Ruso recognized him and realized it was too late to get away.

  ‘Good morning, doctor.’

  He paused by a stack of crates. ‘Metellus.’

  ‘I haven’t seen you in – how long is it?’

  Not long enough. ‘Two years.’

  ‘I heard you went home to Gaul. I must say I was amazed when you came back here.’

  There was no point in asking how Metellus knew he was back. Metellus knew all sorts of things, largely because people who understood what he was capable of were too frightened to lie to him.

  ‘And now you’re heading up an investigation for the Procurator.’

  ‘Just until I can get work as a medic,’ said Ruso, wondering where this was leading.

  ‘Very interesting,’ said Metellus. ‘Shall we go further down and talk on the bridge? It’s a little more private.’

  Ruso did not want to talk to Metellus anywhere, especially about anything private, but neither did he want to annoy him.

  They were leaning over the rail and watching the grey Tamesis slither towards the sea as the security man said, ‘I take it the Procurator doesn’t know why you hurried out of the province last summer?’

  ‘I was on sick leave,’ said Ruso, trying to look and sound like a man having a casual chat with an old acquaintance. ‘And then my contract with the Legion ran out.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Metellus. ‘I must have been mistaken, then. I’d assumed it was because of your young lady having money that could only have come from the missing Army pay chest.’

  Ruso felt something cold clamp itself around his ribs. ‘Money from the pay chest?’ he repeated, while his mind scrambled to separate what he was supposed to know from what he really did know. ‘Tilla?’

  ‘Obviously, had you known at the time, you would have reported it.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Good. I’m glad we understand each other.’ Metellus’ voice was smooth as glass. ‘I’ve had Tilla’s name on my list of people to talk to for some months. So when it popped up on a travel warrant …’

  Ruso gripped the rail to stop his hand trembling. Metellus was still talking, but he was not listening. He had thought they were safe. How had anyone found out? Last summer, Tilla had unwittingly accepted stolen coins a couple of days after native bandits had ambushed the pay wagon. She had refused to tell him the name of the family who had passed them on to her. If he had done his duty and reported her to the Army, she would have been arrested and tortured until she revealed it. Instead, he had told her to get rid of the money and they had left for Gaul the next day.

  ‘So,’ Metellus was saying, ‘I thought I’d come and renew our acquaintance. How’s your inquiry going?’

  Ruso straightened up. ‘Ask the man you had following me yesterday.’

  ‘Has somebody been following you?’ Metellus seemed genuinely surprised. ‘It’s nothing to do with me. If I’d wanted to talk to you urgently I would have asked. As I now am.’

  ‘And the break-in at Valens’ house? And the man using my name this morning? That wasn’t your man either, I suppose?’

  ‘Ruso, I know nothing about any of this. I’m merely interested to know who’s been murdering tax-collectors.’

  ‘The Procurator’s interested in the money, not the murderer.’

  A faintly patronizing expression flitted across Metellus’ normally inscrutable face. ‘I’d imagine they’re together, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘Personally I’d imagine the money’s already melted down and will never be seen again,’ said Ruso. ‘But if I’m ordered to look for it, then I’ll look.’

  ‘Very good,’ said Metellus. ‘If you find anything out, I’d be grateful if you’d let me know straight away.’

  ‘I’m not working for you,’ said Ruso, wondering why Metellus was interested. ‘I’m working for the Procurator.’

  ‘I’m not asking for myself, Ruso. The Governor needs to be kept informed.’

  ‘I’m sure the Procurator will tell him whatever he needs to know.’

  Metellus sighed. ‘That’s very disappointing. I was hoping we could help each other. I haven’t said a word to anyone about Tilla and the stolen coins, you know.’

  In the silence that followed, Ruso tried to find ways of extricating himself from Metellus’ grip. He said, ‘I heard you’d already caught the pay thieves and had them executed.’

  ‘Some natives were rounded up and executed, certainly,’ Metellus agreed. ‘It was necessary to reassure our men.’

  ‘You mean you just rounded up a few random locals and –’

  ‘No, no. Of course not. What do you think we are? They were all on the list already for something or other.’

  As, it seemed, was Tilla. Ruso doubted that Metellus was interested in catching whoever had ambushed the wagon. It was quite possible that he was lying about the nature of the executions. There was no way of knowing.

  Ruso suppressed an urge to tell the man to get lost and take his filthy devious threats with him. Antagonizing him would only put Tilla’s name higher up the list. Something, however, had begun to make sense at last. ‘Will you be wanting me to send reports to you in Room Twenty-Seven, then?’

  A slight smile played around Metellus’ lips. ‘Well done, Ruso. That won’t be necessary. When I need to know, I’ll find you.’

  ‘Tell me somethi
ng. What was Asper investigating for you?’

  Metellus shook his head. ‘You’re making this far too complicated. If I wanted an investigator, I’d have used somebody properly trained. Asper was just one of a number of loyal Britons recruited to keep their eyes and ears open and alert us to anything interesting. Frankly, there was never much of great use in his reports. It was hardly worth paying him, except that the Catuvellauni are allowed to have their own town guards, so we like to make sure they’re as loyal as they claim to be. Since I’ll need to recruit a new informer, it would help to know what happened to the last one.’

  Ruso said, ‘His last letter said he’d found incriminating evidence of something, and he needed help.’

  ‘You’ve seen his last letter?’

  Either Metellus was a very good liar or whoever had been spying for him was not very well informed himself.

  ‘If you know what he was up to,’ said Ruso, ‘then tell me. We’re on the same side.’

  ‘Of course,’ Metellus agreed. ‘I don’t know at all, but I’d like to. Have you got the letter with you?’

  ‘So it really wasn’t your man who stole it from Valens’ house?’

  The slight crease between the eyebrows was probably the nearest Metellus ever came to looking disconcerted. ‘I told you. I know nothing about that. One of my men has been murdered, Ruso. A decent, law-abiding man not unlike yourself. I think we owe it to him to find out what’s been going on up there, don’t you?’

  Metellus had once taken Tilla in for questioning over the death of a soldier on the northern border. Ruso had never been entirely sure what had passed between them in that room, but she was still waking with nightmares weeks later. He said, ‘If we do business, I want Tilla kept out of it. And I want your word that, if I find out what happened to your man, you’ll take her name off that list.’

  ‘I knew you would be a good choice,’ Metellus said, ignoring the request. ‘You’ve been a great help already. I had no idea there was a final letter.’

  Ruso did not want to be a great help to Metellus. He wanted Metellus to think he was completely useless. He wanted to be overlooked and ignored. How he longed for the straightforward problems of surgery and sprained ankles and fevers.

  ‘You may want to be careful what you say to the Procurator,’ Metellus continued. ‘It seems that when he was in trouble Asper felt he couldn’t trust his employers in Verulamium, or the Procurator’s office either.’

  ‘Maybe they’d found out he was working for you.’

  ‘Don’t be petulant, Ruso.’

  ‘Room Twenty-Seven isn’t a very good system when your men need to contact you urgently.’

  ‘I told you, he was merely paid to send reports. Background intelligence. The sort that needs to be sifted and assessed before it’s passed on.’

  ‘This didn’t need sifting. He was in trouble and he needed help. He must have been afraid of the message being intercepted, because he wrote it in shorthand.’

  ‘It should have been in code. Are you sure it was genuine?’

  ‘It was found under the bed he died in. He was probably just doing his best: he wouldn’t have been well enough to work out a code. And whatever evidence he’d found may have been the real reason he was murdered, so if you know anything you’re not telling me …’

  Metellus shook his head. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I really have no idea. Do let me know when you find out.’ He stepped away from the rail, waited for a couple of porters to pass carrying bales of cloth on their heads and then turned to follow them at a safe distance back towards the north bank. ‘I’m glad we’ve been able to renew our acquaintance,’ he said. ‘I’m sure you know better than to upset the Procurator by mentioning this little chat.’

  ‘You think my talking to the Governor’s security man would upset the Procurator?’

  Metellus sighed. ‘Don’t be naive, Ruso. Hadrian appoints two men to run a province. Obviously there are going to be tensions. People like you and I are here to –’

  ‘To spy on the one for the other.’

  ‘I was going to say, to smooth the path between them. And by the way, if it sets your mind at rest, your wife probably wasn’t part of the forward planning for the ambush on the pay wagon.’

  Ruso raised his voice to be heard over the rumble of approaching wheels. ‘Of course she wasn’t!’

  ‘Even though she would have been in a good position to find out when it was coming.’

  Did Metellus really think that would frighten him? Ruso waited until the cart had passed before saying, ‘Everybody knows when the pay wagon’s coming. The Army gets paid on the same dates every year.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ agreed Metellus, untroubled. ‘So it’s quite possible that she was innocent of any involvement. She may not even have known the money was stolen until you told her.’

  Ruso saw the real trap just in time. ‘Are you sure she had stolen money?’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ said Metellus. ‘And she must know who gave it to her.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t look so worried, doctor. As long as you and I have an understanding, nobody else needs to be told.’

  It was like being locked up with a tiger who promised not to eat you – as long as he wasn’t hungry.

  24

  The room smelled of liniment. The Procurator’s portly middle-aged form was propped up on a couch instead of sitting at the desk, but the crisp white tunic suggested he was of the no-nonsense school that believed it was necessary to dress properly even when in pain.

  ‘So,’ the man said, ‘you’re my nephew’s investigator.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ But not, if he could find an escape route, for much longer.

  The man’s breathing was shallow and quick, as if he did not dare take a full-size breath for fear of splitting open his cracked ribs. Ruso guessed that he too had been awake for much of the night.

  The Procurator’s grey eyes moved to his nephew. ‘Thank you, Firmus. I’ll have you called if I need you.’

  ‘But sir, I –’

  ‘Have you finished looking through the ingot ledgers?’

  Firmus had not.

  The man shifted slightly and gasped. Ruso guessed he was waiting for the pain to subside before continuing. ‘I understand the local Magistrate’s blaming the dead man for everything.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘And what do you make of that?’

  ‘The Magistrate has a personal grudge against Asper,’ said Ruso, realizing that in all the excitement over Room Twenty-Seven he had failed to tell Firmus about Caratius’ broken marriage. ‘So it’s hard to say. He claims Asper left town with only his brother for security. The brother’s still missing and so is the money. Perhaps they were both robbed, or the brother turned on him. The woman says he never had the money in the first place, but if he was planning to leave her and run off with it, he’d hardly tell her beforehand.’

  ‘It’s an odd business altogether,’ said the Procurator. ‘We’ve never had any trouble with Verulamium before. They usually pay up straight away. They’re more enthusiastic about being Roman than most of Rome is. Firmus tells me you have a codes man tackling a mystery letter?’

  Ruso explained. To his relief, the Procurator was not impressed. ‘Sounds like his mind was going. Don’t waste any more time on it. I want you to concentrate on helping the Magistrate track down the money.’

  Ruso realized he had also failed to tell Firmus that someone thought the letter worth stealing. With luck, it would be quietly forgotten. Metellus’ name would never need to be mentioned.

  The Procurator extended one arm at an awkward angle, then winced as he lifted the drink off the table. ‘Tastes disgusting,’ he observed after a long draught. ‘Wretched medic says I’ll be like this for weeks. Not much he can do except strapping up and doping, he says. When I asked how much I was paying him for doing nothing, he said he was saving me from all the other quacks who’d make it worse.’

  Ruso could imagine that conversation. ‘There’s not much else can be
done for ribs, sir.’

  ‘Ah. Yes. Young Firmus tells me you were working undercover as a medic.’

  There it was. The escape route. If he were dismissed by the Procurator, he would be of no use to Metellus. The security man would lose interest in him, and in Tilla. Ruso took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on a point on the far wall just above the Procurator’s head. ‘I think there’s something you should know, sir,’ he said. ‘I’m not really an investigator. I’m just a medic who happens to have got involved in a few things by mistake. This whole thing has been a misunderstanding.’

  To his surprise, the Procurator did not react. Ruso was baffled. Had he not made it plain enough? The combination of pain and medicine must be slowing the man’s brain. He stood to attention and tried again. ‘I’m not an investigator at all, sir,’ he repeated. ‘I never have been. I accepted the job under false pretences.’

  The Procurator downed the last of the drink, then put both hands on the edge of the couch and gasped as he lifted himself into a slightly different position. ‘So have you worked for Metellus, or not?’

  Ruso cleared his throat. ‘Only as a medical officer when he was dealing with an incident up on the border, sir.’ It was near enough to the truth. ‘I’m sorry to have wasted your time.’

  ‘So you should be.’ There was a pause while the Procurator seemed to be considering what to do next. Finally he said, ‘Strictly speaking, none of this is our problem. We could insist that the Catuvellauni pay up. The Magistrate knows that as well as I do, but he’s pretending he doesn’t. And frankly, I’d rather pretend I don’t too. We have enough trouble with the difficult tribes, without upsetting the ones who are supposed to like us.’

  Ruso waited. He had expected to be punished, or dismissed in disgrace. He had not expected to be offered the Procurator’s views on fiscal politics.

  ‘I hear you did a good enough job with the body. Just go up there, look helpful, and try not to annoy them or make me look a fool.’