Solid Citizens

by David Wishart

  ‘I’ll do that,’ I said. ‘Thanks a lot.’

  I left the yard and started up towards the centre. I hadn’t gone far when the old instinct kicked in again and I turned round.

  Shit. The persistent freedman. Only this time he wasn’t trying to hide, or to avoid me. He kept on coming.

  Well, I was safe enough: we were still in Bovillae, after all, on a public street, and there were plenty of people around. I waited for him to catch up.

  ‘OK, pal,’ I said when he had. ‘What’s this all about?’

  ‘I’m taking you to see the boss,’ he said.

  I didn’t have to ask who the boss was, not any more, because now he was close up I’d placed him. He’d been at Caesius’s funeral, in the market square, carrying a bundle of rods. Manlius’s rod man, or one of them.

  ‘Is that so, now?’ I said. ‘Care to tell me why?’

  Instead of answering, his hand gripped my arm. I shook it off, grabbed it with both of mine, and bent the thumb back as far as it would go. He grunted and froze, his eyes wide.

  ‘OK,’ I said quietly. ‘Public place, right? Not somewhere to cause any trouble, is it? Now you be nice and in return I won’t break your fucking thumb. Deal?’

  ‘Deal,’ he said, through gritted teeth.

  ‘Fine. That’s better.’ I let go.

  ‘Look.’ He was rubbing his hand. ‘I was only to tail you, right? See where you went.’

  ‘OK. You were doing that. So what’s changed the rules?’ He said nothing. ‘Suit yourself, friend, I’ll answer for you. I’ve been sniffing around the old wool store, I talked to Sextus Garganius, and I’ve just been to Marcus Ulpius’s place. Tick three boxes. That’s at least one too many for your boss’s peace of mind. So now you’ve decided that Manlius will want to have an urgent word with me about the wool store business in person, yes?’ Still nothing. ‘Come on, you bastard! You know damn well what’s going on! If Manlius used one of his own men to set the fire – which he did – then it isn’t hard to guess who picked the lucky number.’ He gawped at me, and I sighed; rod men as a profession don’t need to be too bright, sure, but this one couldn’t even manage a glimmer. And most of the size wasn’t muscle but flab. Heaven help the empire. ‘Fair enough, forget it, sunshine. I’d’ve been calling on Manlius soon in any case. Off we go.’

  It wasn’t far: on the main drag again, and only a couple of hundred yards centre-side of Caesius’s place. My none-too-friendly rod man nodded to the door slave sitting outside, who opened the door for us, and we went in. The major-domo met us in the atrium.

  ‘Boss around, Flavus?’ Rod said.

  The major-domo was looking at me with obvious curiosity. ‘Yes, he is,’ he said. ‘In the study, with Sextus Canidius.’

  ‘You want to tell him I’ve got Valerius Corvinus here? He’ll know what it’s about.’

  The major-domo gave me another curious look and went out.

  ‘You don’t need to stay, pal, if you’ve got other things to do,’ I said. ‘I can take it from here. I’m a big boy now. I don’t need nannying.’

  ‘The boss’ll want me to deliver you personally, so I’m delivering you personally.’

  Well, you couldn’t argue with that; stark in its simplicity, and offering no room for interpretation. We waited in silence until the major-domo came back.

  ‘This way, sir, please,’ he said to me.

  I followed him through to the study, with Rod tagging along behind. Manlius and Canidius were sitting on stools at a small table neatly stacked with various items of paperwork and wax tablets. They looked up as I came in, their faces expressionless.

  ‘He’s just been talking to Ulpius, sir,’ Rod said to Manlius. ‘I thought you might want a word.’

  ‘All right, Decimus. Well done, you can go.’ Manlius waited until the door had shut behind him. ‘Good afternoon, Valerius Corvinus.’

  There was another stool by the desk. I pulled it up and sat down.

  ‘Interrupting something, am I?’ I said.

  ‘Just some everyday administrative matters. They’ll keep.’ He was watching me carefully.

  ‘OK,’ I said. ‘Do you want to do the talking or shall I?’ Silence. I crossed my legs. ‘Fine. The wool store business was a scam from the start. Canidius here, as quaestor, made sure you got the contract when it fell unexpectedly vacant. Technically that should’ve been illegal, since you were and are a serving aedile, but you’ve got the senate in your pocket and it went through on the nod. You squared the night watchman Sextus Garganius and had a crooked carter by the name of Marcus Ulpius switch most of the bales for rags and take the wool over to Aricia where it was sold on by a guy called Gnaeus Pompeius, presumably splitting the proceeds between you. Then, to cover the theft, you staged a fire set by the tame gorilla who brought me here. Decimus, wasn’t it?’ I paused for a response that didn’t come. ‘How am I doing?’

  Manlius was looking green. Canidius was just … looking.

  ‘Corvinus,’ Manlius said, ‘I swear—’

  Canidius put a hand on his arm. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me. ‘So how much do you want?’ he said.

  ‘Wrong question, pal. Wrong attitude.’

  ‘No one was hurt in the fire. There wasn’t even any other property damage. We made sure of that.’

  ‘True. And that makes it OK, does it?’ I uncrossed my legs. ‘Look. I’ll level with you here. My mandate’s just to find out who killed Quintus Caesius. That still stands, and to be honest the fact that the guy had promised an investigation when he took up office puts you two well and truly in the frame.’ Manlius started to say something, but another touch on the arm from his pal made him clam up. ‘Now it could be that you’re just another couple of crooked politicians on the make, so where the actual scam’s concerned I’m willing to cut you a bit of slack. Option one: I take what I know to, say, an outsider member of the senate such as Silius Nerva and let him deal with it as he sees fit.’ Manlius blanched, but said nothing. ‘Option two: well, you must’ve turned a pretty substantial profit out of all this, while the town’s out a season’s wool plus one of the communal buildings. Maybe it’d be a nice gesture if two of their solid citizens made it up to them. Say by offering to pay out of their own pockets for a snazzy new public meeting-hall with all the trimmings on the empty site. Plus rebuilding the warehouse elsewhere, of course.’

  ‘That would cost a small fortune!’ Canidius snapped. ‘Far more than double what we …’ He caught himself, and his lips formed a tight line. ‘This is sheer blackmail!’

  ‘Suit yourself, pal,’ I said. ‘Like I told you, it’s only one of the options on offer. Choose the other one if you prefer.’

  He and Manlius exchanged a look.

  ‘We’ll consider it,’ Canidius said, through gritted teeth.

  ‘The offer’s limited as far as time goes, so don’t take too long, will you? Let’s say until the festival, max?’ I smiled. ‘Fine. That’s got that out of the way. Now. Alibis.’

  ‘What?’ Manlius goggled.

  ‘For the night Caesius was killed. I told you, you’re both in the frame for the murder, together and separately.’

  ‘Corvinus, this is an insult,’ Canidius said softly. ‘We had nothing to do with Quintus Caesius’s death.’

  ‘OK,’ I said. ‘Prove it.’

  Again, the exchanged glance. ‘As it happens,’ Canidius said, ‘we were together, here. We’d been discussing some town business until late in the afternoon and hadn’t finished. Marcus invited me to stay to a working dinner. As a result, I didn’t leave until almost midnight.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Manlius nodded violently.

  ‘Uh-huh,’ I said, and stood up. ‘Convenient. Well, thank you, gentlemen, it’s been very instructive. I’ll see you around.’

  I could feel their eyes on me all the way to the door.

  Rod had gone, but the major-domo was still in the atrium filling the lamps.

  ‘Uh … Flavus, wasn’t it?’ I said.
/>   ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Just a question, pal. Silly, but still. When Sextus Canidius had dinner here six days ago what did you serve for the main course? You remember that, by any chance?’

  He frowned. ‘But Master Canidius didn’t stay for dinner that evening, sir,’ he said. ‘He left about an hour before sunset.’

  ‘Ah. Right. My mistake. No problem, it doesn’t matter.’

  ‘I’ll see you out, sir.’

  I glanced up at the sun. Still a fair bit of the day left, and the weather wasn’t looking too bad. I’d time for that chat with Anthus about old Marcus Caesius. It shouldn’t take long – Caesius’s house was only a couple of hundred yards down the road towards the gate – and I could still be back home well before dinner.

  Things were shaping up nicely.

  THIRTEEN

  ‘Back again, Valerius Corvinus?’ Anthus said when he joined me in the atrium. ‘You’re becoming a regular visitor.’

  ‘So it seems,’ I said. Interesting how freedom and the right to wear a freedman’s cap affects behaviour: the old guy was much more relaxed, much chattier now than he had been when I’d first met him as a slave, even though that had only been a couple of days before. It’s very easy to forget that the bought help are people, too, with their own thoughts and feelings. Too easy, maybe.

  Mind you, I couldn’t quite see him behind the counter of a baker’s shop, hefting trays of rolls and passing the time of day with some chatty housewife over her morning Campanian Cob. That didn’t really seem the guy’s bag, somehow. Still, if he’d taken up with a baker’s widow in the first place he must have another facet to his personality, so maybe it wouldn’t be an issue.

  ‘Did you talk to Lucius Ampudius?’ he said. ‘About the old master’s will?’

  ‘Yeah. He was very helpful, and like you said everything seems to be above board there. No problems.’

  ‘Then why this visit, sir?’

  ‘I was just wondering if you could tell me a bit more about the old man himself.’

  Anthus gave me a puzzled look. ‘I scarcely see why that should be relevant to the master’s murder,’ he said. ‘Particularly since Master Marcus has been dead for eleven years now.’

  ‘Maybe not. Still, there is a chance that there’s a connection. If you can fill in a few gaps for me I’d be very grateful.’

  ‘Then of course I’ll give you any information I can. Ask away.’

  ‘You were major-domo here when he was alive, right?’

  ‘Yes, sir. Of course. I’ve held the post for over thirty years now, and I’d been with the family all my life before that. In fact, I was born in this house.’

  ‘According to Ampudius he was, uh, failing mentally and physically in his latter years. Including the time he made the will disinheriting his son.’

  ‘Oh, no, sir. You must have misunderstood. As Lucius Ampudius will have told you, I expect, he was certainly showing some signs of frailty, both physical and mental, when he made the will, but he was in complete command of his faculties, at least where his powers of judgement were concerned. The real decline set in later, a year or two before his death, and it was very rapid, particularly in the final months.’

  Yeah, well, that chimed with what Ampudius had said, right enough. Bugger. Still …

  ‘At the time he made the will, your master Quintus Caesius was managing the family’s business interests, is that so?’

  ‘Yes, sir. At the old master’s specific request. The interests were fairly widespread, and at times rather complicated. He was an intelligent man, Valerius Corvinus; he knew he was failing and he was unsure how far he could trust himself where matters of finance were concerned. Also, naturally, by that time Master Quintus was in his prime and an excellent, experienced man of business in his own right. Old Master Marcus decided that things were better left in his hands completely, and he never had cause to regret his decision.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Ah … Lucius Ampudius also said that your master eventually had his father certified. That true?’

  ‘Yes, indeed he did. Rightly so. He postponed things as long as he could, but in the end, regrettably, he had no choice; in fact, if anything he left it too late. As I said, the old master’s eventual decline was very rapid; in his final year he was unable to perform even the most basic of physical functions without help, and his mind had almost completely gone. The power of attorney which Master Quintus had been exercising for several years previously was only ever an ad hoc arrangement; it had no legal basis. By that time, of course, it was impossible to set it on a legal footing because old Master Marcus was beyond completing the paperwork involved, or even understanding what was required of him. So to avoid any possible legal complications my master’s lawyer Publius Novius advised formal certifying. It was only a technicality, making no difference whatever to the existing situation, and as I say the old master died shortly afterwards.’ He gave me a straight look. ‘There was nothing there, Valerius Corvinus, which should arouse your suspicions, should you be entertaining any. Everything my master did, he did reluctantly, as a last resort, and for the most honourable reasons. He was the most excellent of men.’

  Yeah, well, that more or less put the lid on it, and to be truthful under the circumstances I hadn’t really expected anything else. So scrap the coercion theory. Bugger again.

  ‘Thanks, Anthus,’ I said. ‘Again, you’ve been a great help.’

  ‘I’m glad, sir.’ He hesitated. ‘Was there anything else? About the missing figurine, for example? You’ve talked to Quintus Baebius and raised the matter with him, I suppose?’

  He was smart, Anthus, and no fool; but I already knew that.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘It seems they were going to do some sort of deal the day your master died involving a part-exchange – a physical part-exchange – but it fell through. When he went out that evening, is it possible he had the figurine on him?’

  ‘Very possible, sir. But if he did, as I told you, I wasn’t aware of it. You have no idea where it could have gone?’

  ‘No. No clear one, anyway. It’s still a mystery. If it does turn up you’ll let me know, right? You can always contact me through Silius Nerva. Or of course send direct to my son-in-law’s villa outside Castrimoenium.’

  ‘I’ll do that. Although it isn’t likely, I’m afraid.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose it is.’ I held out my hand. ‘Thanks again, pal, for all your help. And if I don’t see you before your marriage, give my regards to your wife.’

  ‘Certainly.’ We shook. ‘As always, the best of luck to you, sir. I hope you bring the killer to justice.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I’ll try.’

  I left. Enough for today; really enough.

  Home.

  Perilla was alone in the atrium when I got back, reading.

  ‘Oh, hello, dear,’ she said, putting the book down. ‘Back early again? You’re doing well.’

  ‘Yeah.’ I kissed her and lay down on the couch opposite. ‘Early-ish, anyway. No Clarus and Marilla?’

  ‘They’re both out. Marilla’s walking Placida and Clarus was called away into town about an hour ago to set a broken arm. They’ll be back in time for dinner. So how are things going?’

  ‘Pretty well, really.’ Bathyllus came in with the wine tray. ‘Thanks, little guy. Everything still fine below stairs?’

  ‘Yes, sir. Lupercus and I seem to have reached an acceptable modus vivendi, as I outlined to you.’

  ‘That’s great. Keep up the good work.’ He poured and buttled out. ‘I’ve solved the business of the fire in the wool store, anyway, lady. It was deliberate theft and arson right enough, and Manlius and Canidius were behind it.’ I gave her the details.

  ‘But, Marcus, that’s dreadful!’ she said when I’d finished. ‘You can’t be letting them get away with it, surely?’

  I shrugged. ‘That side of things has nothing to do with me. As far as their getting away with it is concerned the cover-up is going to cost them an arm and a leg, and with
guys like those two that’ll really hurt. Mind you, they’ll get their names on the plaque above the door of the new public hall they’re going to build and be well ahead on brownie points for elections in future, so they can’t complain they’ve been too hard done by.’

  ‘So you don’t think they were responsible, then? For the murder?’

  I shook my head. ‘Uh-uh, lady, that’s a separate issue. What it does confirm is that they had a genuine motive. They needed to stop the enquiry, the only way that was going to happen was if Caesius wasn’t around in a month’s time to push it through the senate, and now both of them are firmly on the hook where opportunity’s concerned, too. At any rate, neither has a valid alibi for the time Caesius was killed. Canidius claimed that they were together at Manlius’s place for a business dinner until midnight, but according to the major-domo he left the house well before sunset. Which means he, at least, could’ve been anywhere at all that evening. Manlius too, because instead of providing a genuine alibi for himself, if he had one, he backed up his pal’s story.’

  ‘Why should he do that if he knew it wasn’t true?’

  ‘Maybe just out of solidarity, because from what I can see Canidius is the brains of the pair, the cool head, and Manlius just follows his lead. On the other hand, maybe it suited him.’

  ‘You mean he was elsewhere himself?’

  ‘Yeah.’ I sipped my wine. ‘It’s a possibility, anyway. I didn’t want to push things with the major-domo by asking if he’d gone out after Canidius had left, because he’d probably just have got suspicious and clammed up, or worse blown the whistle on me to his master. As it is, chances are that they don’t know they’ve been sussed. Definitely sussed, that is. So like I say the upshot is that at the time of the murder both Manlius and Canidius, together or separately, were running loose.’