Illegally Dead (Marcus Corvinus Book 12)

by David Wishart

  ‘Corvinus, I do advise you that you’re getting perilously close to slander here.’

  ‘So call in your clerk, friend.’ He didn’t move. ‘Castor’s already admitted to me that he passed on the information about how high Hostilius’s client was prepared to go in the offering price for the Lutatius property. And that it wasn’t a one-off; you’d been running him as a mole for months, picking up what he could about areas you and the Castrimoenian practice shared an interest in until Hostilius caught on and pulled the plug. Me, I think the intention - the original intention - where Cosmus was concerned was to have someone else on the inside at the guy’s home as well as his office, to run along with Castor. The problem was that although Cosmus was personable enough for promotion to an upstairs slave Hostilius didn’t like or trust him, so that particular plan fizzled out in the end, but it was a sharp idea in principle. You’re the lawyer. You want to tell me how something like that would square legally?’

  ‘I did nothing illegal.’

  ‘No, I’m sure you didn’t. Not as such, because you’d be very careful not to. But can you answer for Castor?’ The lips formed a tight line. ‘Over the Maecilius business, for a start. Colluding in the suppression of a will is definitely on the criminal side of the fence. Now I’ll admit that that doesn’t, on the face of it, seem to be to your advantage, quite the reverse, but –’

  ‘Colluding in what?’

  ‘– even though the chances are he was working on his own there you and he were definitely in bed together otherwise, and if it came out then you’d have awkward questions to answer.’

  ‘Are you blackmailing me, Valerius Corvinus?’

  I shook my head. ‘No. Not at all. As far as I’m concerned you can play your lawyers’ games until hell freezes. All I want to know is how Castor fits in with the deaths of Lucius Hostilius and Brabbia Habra.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The brothers’ younger sister. Her body was found up by Caba a few days ago. Did you know her?’

  ‘No. I knew there was a sister, but not her name. And I never met her.’ He was frowning. ‘Corvinus, what’s this about Castor suppressing a will? Presumably you mean the one my client Gaius Maecilius - Bucca - says his father made shortly before he died, in which case if you have proof of its existence then you’re legally obliged to reveal its whereabouts.’

  ‘No proof, not yet, but I will have because I’m right. I just mentioned it to show you that covering up for Castor to save your own skin might not be such a smart idea in the long run. Oh, he’s inoffensive and mild-mannered on the surface, sure, but his father said that when he was a kid if he wanted something then he’d go for it, whatever stood in the way, and I’d bet that sums the guy up neatly, especially the last bit. Believe me, pal, there is something very rotten about Castor, and it goes a long way past the games you’re involved in.’

  He was quiet for a long time. Then he said quietly: ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘When was the last time you saw him?’

  ‘He was here perhaps seventeen or eighteen days ago.’

  Uh-huh. That would put it - I did a quick calculation - just a day or so after Hostilius’s conversation at the villa with Acceius, which I would bet that Veturina had overheard a hell of a lot more of than she’d told me, and duly passed on to her brother. ‘For any specific reason?’

  ‘He wanted to talk to me about the Julian law. Its precise terms and ramifications.’

  Yeah; Veturina had mentioned a Julian law. ‘Hang on, pal,’ I said. ‘This would be the Julian law on inheritance tax, would it?’

  Novius chuckled. ‘No, it wouldn’t. At least, yes, there is a Julian law on inheritance tax - the Julia Vicesimaria -, in fact there are several Julian laws. But the one Castor wanted to discuss - and before you ask, Corvinus, in purely theoretical terms - was the one on adultery and the punishment of adulterers.’

  Everything went very still. ‘You, ah, care to take me through that one, pal?’ I said.

  ‘Certainly. The gist of it is that if a man has proof that his wife is committing adultery he is legally obliged to divorce her forthwith. He then has sixty valid days - days when public business can be transacted - to instigate her formal prosecution, which, again, he is obliged by law to do. If the adultery is proved in court then, where the marriage is childless, as it was in Castor’s theoretical scenario, the husband retains a sixth of the original dowry, the rest going in fines to the state; while the adulterer loses, again as a fine, half his property. The wife and adulterer are punished by exile to separate islands.’

  I sat back. Sweet immortal gods! Unless I was really, really mistaken I’d just been handed the key to the whole case. The only problem was, which lock did it fit? Wife and adulterer, eh? I reckoned that if you stretched the definition of the second category a little we’d had three possibilities for that combination over the last few days, and they all made sense, of a kind at least. So which was it? You paid your money and you took your choice. ‘And that’s what Castor wanted to check up on?’ I said.

  ‘Oh, no. He already knew that much. It was the next proviso of the law that he wasn’t altogether clear about.’

  ‘Namely?’

  Novius told me.

  Jupiter bloody Best and Greatest. One possibility; not three. Just the one.

  Shit!

  Puteoli and Spain, nothing. He’d still be around, that I’d bet on, because he’d nothing to gain by running now. And I knew where to find him, sure I did; he’d told me that himself.

  I left Novius and headed for the town granaries.

  28

  The girl who opened the door of the flat was thin as a whip, pinch-featured and, I’d guess, under her tunic, well-muscled. Yeah, he’d said she was a dancer.

  ‘Stratyllis?’ I said.

  ‘Yes.’ Suspicious as hell, and the hand on the door moved it forward an inch. ‘What do you want?’

  A stage name, obviously: you could’ve cut the Bovillan accent with a knife. ‘My name’s Valerius Corvinus. I’ve come to see –’

  If I hadn’t been quick and got my boot against it the door would’ve been slammed in my face. As it was, it bounced back hard against the wall and I shoved past the girl and in.

  There was only the one room. Castor was sitting on the bed, a plate in his hand with some cheese, sliced sausage, bread and olives on it; the other, beside him, had mostly salad. Me, I’d’ve thought it was a bit early for lunch but maybe she had a gig that evening, and dancers don’t eat before they work.

  He set the plate aside and stood up slowly. I thought he was going to go for me because his fists bunched, but then he relaxed, shrugged and turned away. The girl sat down on a stool against the wall - apart from a clothes chest it was the only other piece of furniture - and folded her arms tightly like she was hugging something.

  ‘So you found me,’ Castor said.

  ‘It wasn’t difficult, pal,’ I said quietly. I reached back and closed the door. ‘Oh, and by the way, those two heavies you sent after me? Red-head and his mate? We had a run-in earlier, and they tried to knife me. The second guy got away, but Red wasn’t so lucky. He’s with Agilleius Mundus now, charged with attempted murder and spilling his guts out on the rack.’

  It was a shot in the dark, but I’d given it to him like it was hard, uncontrovertible fact, and it went home. Castor looked, suddenly, sick.

  ‘Corvinus, I swear!’ he whispered. ‘I only told them to frighten you, get you off my back! Not –!’

  ‘Like hell you did.’

  ‘It had nothing to do with Lucius’s death! I’m no killer! Believe me!’

  ‘No, you aren’t,’ I said. ‘Or at least not yet, anyway.’

  He hadn’t expected that, and I’d kept my tone mild. He blinked and sat down again.

  ‘Well?’ he said. He was getting some of his bounce back fast, and there was an edge of truculence in his voice. I noticed he hadn’t picked me up on the qualification, if he’d spotted it, but we’d let that pass fo
r the present.

  ‘You want to tell me about it?’ I said. ‘Or shall I tell you?’

  Another shrug. ‘Go ahead.’

  ‘Your sister overheard a conversation between her husband and Quintus Acceius, the day after the attack in the street. Normally, she wouldn’t’ve bothered to listen in, but your name was mentioned and so she did.’ He said nothing. ‘Hostilius was talking about the Julian law on adultery. Under its terms, if a husband is conscious that his wife is having an adulterous affair then he’s legally obliged to divorce her and bring a formal prosecution. If he doesn’t, or refuses to, then it’s the right of a third party who knows of the affair to bring the prosecution himself. In which case the husband becomes technically a pander in collusion with the wife who has profited and is profiting, financially or otherwise, from the woman’s immorality. Yes?’

  He’d gone pale. ‘Yes.’

  ‘How did Hostilius know about your affair with Seia Lucinda?’

  Silence. The girl - Stratyllis - raised her eyes and shot him a hard look, but she didn’t say anything. Her arms still hugged her chest tightly.

  ‘It...wasn’t an affair,’ Castor said finally. ‘Not a proper one. And it was none of my doing. She was bored, she was lonely, she and Acceius hadn’t slept together for years. I tried to avoid her as much as I could, but she’s still a beautiful woman, and it just happened. She rode over here once - once! - about a month ago. Hostilius was at home - I didn’t know that at the time - and he must’ve seen her coming in to my part of the house. He...sneaked in and caught us kissing. Kissing! No more! I swear to you!’

  Yeah, right. Well, I reckoned I’d got the seriously-edited version there, but it didn’t matter, that side of things wasn’t important. And I’d believe that Seia Lucinda had made the running, certainly: Castor might have playboy looks and be a lady’s man through and through, but he wasn’t a fool. If he started an affair it would be for what he could get out of it in other ways, and Seia Lucinda was just too damn dangerous to play around with. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘So Hostilius caught you. There weren’t any witnesses, mind, or were there?’ Castor shook his head. ‘So if you’d been careful otherwise - and I’d bet you were - there wasn’t any legal danger. We’ll come back to that.’

  ‘Corvinus, I swear -’

  ‘You want to take over?’ He shook his head again. ‘Fine. Hostilius tells Acceius that if he doesn’t divorce his wife and bring a prosecution against the pair of you then he’ll do it for him.’

  ‘But he’d’ve had no case! You said yourself if there were no witnesses - and there weren’t - it was only his word against mine and Lucinda’s. And the way my brother-in-law threw accusations around -’

  ‘I told you we’d come back to that.’ I leaned against the door. ‘He didn’t need a case, because he’d never have to bring one. Giving Quintus Acceius the chance to divorce his wife and prosecute her for adultery himself was the easy option, it was even generous, in its way. The alternative was for Hostilius to bring a charge against the two of them for murder, and that he could prove. Given time, which he wasn’t. Acceius made sure of that.’

  Silence. Total silence. Then Castor said: ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Working it out wasn’t hard, once I knew about the second part of the Julian law. Oh, sure, having to divorce his wife would’ve hit Acceius badly, financially: if the charge had gone uncontested, which it’d have to have done under the terms of the bargain, he’d only be left with a sixth part of the original dowry, and the practice was built on Seia’s money. But he could’ve weathered that, and so might Seia, although she’d’ve been the harder hit. The problem was, Hostilius being Hostilius, they could never have trusted him to keep to the deal.’

  Castor shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I meant the murder. How did you know that Acceius had killed his first wife?’

  ‘I didn’t. Oh, it was a possibility, sure, especially when I found out who the dead woman up at Caba was, but I didn’t know for absolute certain until Publius Novius told me about Acceius’s plans to bribe the jury in the Brabbius trial. That would’ve cost: it was an open-and-shut case, and he would’ve needed to buy at least half the jurors. The money had to come from somewhere, it sure as hell couldn’t’ve come from the Brabbii themselves, and Acceius didn’t have nearly that amount of gravy at the time even if he’d’ve wanted to spend it. It had to be Seia’s. Which meant that the two of them were in it together.’

  ‘Go on.’ Now he was off the hook - or that hook, anyway - Castor seemed genuinely interested. Well, the guy was a lawyer, after all, or at least a wannabe lawyer. I shouldn’t’ve been all that surprised. And he wouldn’t’ve known all the whys and wherefores. I hadn’t known them myself until that morning.

  ‘One stupid mistake,’ I said. ‘Me, I think that’s the phrase that sums everything up. My bet is that Seia Lucinda made the running, like she did with you, and Quintus Acceius made the one stupid mistake of his life by being tempted and giving in. On Seia’s prompting he made a bargain with Brabbia Habra. She’d provide him with the poison that’d kill his wife in childbirth, leaving him free to marry Seia, and in return he’d bribe the jury and see that her brothers were acquitted. Only it went wrong: one of the jurors blabbed to Novius, Novius stopped the bribery and the two Brabbii went down after all. Acceius had welched on the deal, and Habra - and her brother Senecio - never forgot it. So when Senecio had done his stint in the galleys and came back –’

  ‘Hold on, Corvinus.’ Castor was frowning. ‘You’re going to say that this Senecio wanted revenge for his brother’s death, right?’

  ‘Yeah. Yeah, of course.’

  ‘But why attack Hostilius? And what about Habra? She knew where Acceius lived, she’d known for twenty years. She’d’ve wanted revenge herself, surely?’

  I shrugged. ‘Habra I don’t know about. Not yet. But Senecio thought that both the partners were in on the deal. He wanted both of them dead. If he went for Hostilius first, that was just chance.’

  ‘You mean Hostilius didn’t know at the time of the trial? About the bribery, at least?’

  ‘Uh-uh. Not a thing. That’s the whole point. If he had, he’d’ve blown the whistle himself. My guess is that Senecio said something, the day of the attack, just before he put the knife in, that gave the whole game away. Hostilius didn’t say anything at the time - he was a lawyer, after all, he’d watch his mouth until he’d thought it through, especially round other people - but it would’ve registered. And he was an honest man, at root. When Acceius came round the next day he’d’ve worked out how he was going to handle things. Hence the ultimatum. It was beautiful: if Acceius stuck it out, then he’d track down Habra, subpoena Novius, and put together a case that his partner and his wife would find it difficult to answer even after all this time. Even if Acceius did manage to get off somehow a lot of the dirt would’ve stuck, because it was true, and he’d be ruined professionally and socially. On the other hand, if the guy agreed to the divorce and prosecution angle both he and his wife would get the punishment they deserved anyway. Hostilius had them both ways.’

  ‘So he had to die.’

  ‘Right.’

  He was quiet for a long time. Then he said: ‘What happens now?’

  ‘With you? Or with Acceius?’

  He tried a smile that didn’t work. ‘With me, for a start.’

  ‘That’s up to Libanius. You’re an accessory after the fact. You and your sister.’

  He glanced up sharply. ‘Veturina knew nothing about -!’

  ‘Sure she did, pal. She had to. Almost from the start.’

  ‘She thought I was responsible! She still does, even although I swore to her that I wasn’t. She was shielding me, not Acceius.’

  ‘Yeah. Yeah, I know.’ I sighed; this bit was going to be difficult. The guy had a rotten streak a yard wide, sure, but he wasn’t rotten in that way. ‘Your sister...loves you. And I don’t mean as a brother.’ He looked away. ‘There’s nothing she can do about it, if she’s admit
ted it to herself then she probably despises herself for it, and I’m not saying that you or she have taken things any further because I’m sure you haven’t and wouldn’t, ever. Still, it’s a fact. I’m right, yes?’

  He nodded, then said quietly: ‘Yes. On her side, yes. She always has loved me.’

  ‘She must’ve suspected that her husband’s death wasn’t natural even when it happened. It was too convenient, and she’s a clever woman. She might even have thought of tasting the contents of the medicine bottle before Hyperion got to it.’ He said nothing. ‘Certainly she’s lied and covered up the truth as far as she could all the way. That business with the two Julian laws. She’s no lawyer, she couldn’t’ve invented the confusion with the one on inheritance tax, and she knew damn well which one her husband was talking about. That had to come from you. And she knew all about Cosmus and how he fitted into your dealings with Novius. She thought - she still thinks - that you used him to poison her husband, to save yourself from disgrace and exile. Yes?’

  He nodded again. His head was still turned away. ‘I couldn’t convince her that I hadn’t done it,’ he said. ‘She said it didn’t matter, she didn’t mind, her husband was better off dead for his own sake anyway. What she couldn’t’ve stood was to lose us both.’

  ‘And maybe she had another reason for not believing you,’ I said quietly. ‘Because she knew just how much you were capable of, if it’d get you something you really wanted.’ His head came round, and over by the wall Stratyllis, who had been sitting unmoving through all this, looked up startled. ‘Fimus’s wife Faenia. You’re having an affair with her, aren’t you? A genuine affair.’

  ‘Why the hell should I –?’

  ‘Come on, pal! It’s not because of her looks, that’s for sure. Three million, isn’t the estate worth, potentially, if it’s kept whole and entire? As it would be if that missing will didn’t turn up. Oh, sure, Fimus’d never sell, but that’d be all to the good, wouldn’t it, because his widow might. If her new husband advised it. Of course, there is the kid, young Aulus, but if you left a decent interval after the accident to Fimus a couple more natural deaths wouldn’t –’