Finished Business (5 page)

S
o. Onwards and upwards. Or in this case, downwards, both physically and socially, all the way from the dizzy heights of the Pincian to the vegetable market, between the western slopes of the Capitol and the river, and Tarquitia’s Five Poppies Club. This, by a happy chance, would take me down Iugarius, where according to Sullana her ex-husband’s upwardly mobile not-quite-a-bailiff had his office. I could call in there on the way. Besides, it was an excuse to drop in at Renatius’s wine shop, also on Iugarius, for a quick restorative cup of wine and – hopefully – more detailed directions.

As it happened, the quick cup of wine turned into two slower ones plus a plate of cheese, olives and pickles, but I got the directions OK. Like Sullana had said, Gallio’s office was near the Carminal Gate at the south end of the street, on the ground floor of a newish tenement block which was owned by the family. According to my informant, one of the regular bar-flies, it was a pretty thriving business, and Gallio himself was now the senior partner of three, the other two being his sons. Certainly, when I pushed open the door and went in, the place had a busy feel to it, with half-a-dozen clerks working full out. I gave my name and business to the nearest one, and he led me through the back to a small inner office where the man himself was sitting behind a desk.

The senior partner was right: you didn’t get much more senior than Naevius Gallio and still be on the right side of an urn. He had to be eighty at least, and what he was doing still working the gods alone knew, because mobile – upwardly or in any other direction – was something the old guy, by the evidence of the crutches behind his chair, wasn’t any longer to any great degree. Even so, he seemed bright enough when he waved me to a stool.

‘Now, Valerius Corvinus, what can I do for you?’ he said. ‘I know, of course, of Naevius Surdinus’s death – a terrible business, that, simply terrible – but not what your connection with him might be.’

I told him, and he sat back.

‘Murdered?’ he said. ‘Surely not! Who would want to murder Master Surdinus? You’re certain?’

Same question as Sullana’s, and I gave him the same answer. ‘Absolutely. The stone that killed him was loosened and dropped on him deliberately.’

‘But this is – excuse me a moment, please.’ There was a cup of water on the desk. He picked it up with both hands and drank, so shakily that some of it was spilled. I waited until he’d put the cup down again. ‘It’s unbelievable. Why would anyone do something like that?’

‘His ex-wife, Cornelia Sullana, said that you managed his business affairs.’

‘That’s quite correct. Or administered, rather, under instruction. My family, as you’ll have guessed from our name, have had charge of the Naevius estate for three generations. My grandfather was the first Naevius Surdinus’s freedman-bailiff.’

‘So Sullana told me.’ This next bit was going to be tricky. ‘Uh … I understand that shortly after they were divorced, about a month ago, Surdinus made over part of the property on the Vatican Hill to his mistress, Tarquitia.’

The old lips pursed. ‘That is correct. Through a duly-witnessed process of sale, for the sum of five denarii.’

‘And that when Sullana ceased to be his wife she had no more to do with his financial affairs.’

‘Naturally not.’

‘Ah … have there been any other major changes since, do you know?’

‘I do.’ You could’ve used Gallio’s tone to sand wood. ‘Of course I do, since he gave the task of carrying them out to me. Four, to be precise, all in favour of the lady you named. The transfer of a tenement building in the Subura, for a similar amount to what she paid for the Old Villa. Ditto an oil-pressing concern in Veii. Ditto, a blacksmith’s and saddler’s business near the Capenan Gate, back here in Rome. Ditto, an ironmonger’s shop in the Velabrum.’

Jupiter! ‘All this was in a
month
?’

‘Yes. Total value in the region of three hundred thousand sesterces. And he was planning on more.’

Gods alive! The guy had been haemorrhaging money like there was no tomorrow.

And, of course, for him there hadn’t been …

‘You didn’t try to stop him?’ I said.

Gallio just looked at me. ‘Of course I tried,’ he said. ‘What do you think? But in the last analysis the property was his, to do with as he thought fit, and Master Surdinus was a very stubborn man. There was very little I could do.’

‘You didn’t tell anyone? Like his son, perhaps?’

‘Naturally I did. However, in the younger Surdinus’s case, the same strictures applied. There was nothing he could do about it either. His father was perfectly sane, so there was no question of diminished responsibility. Not legally, anyway. He had a perfect – and absolute – right to do as he pleased.’

And Tarquitia hadn’t told me. Nor, for that matter, had his son.

Shit.

I carried on down Iugarius to its end, by the Tiber. We were definitely downmarket here: the ground between the blunt end of Capitol Hill and the river, like that whole stretch of riverside south to Cattlemarket Square and beyond, is low-lying, and even nowadays after all the improvements to the drainage system and the riverbanks themselves, it’s prone to flooding. Added to which, in summer the stink from the Tiber and the thriving insect population are definitely two of the area’s most notable features, meaning that anyone of a sensitive disposition who can afford to own or rent elsewhere on higher ground, or at least somewhere that doesn’t smell so obviously of Tiber mud and sewage, generally does just that, for reasons of simple self-preservation. Mind you, there’re plenty who can’t or don’t, and the area round the vegetable market is seriously full of tenements that make up a micro-community of their own. Well-off it isn’t: the Poppies’ clientele would be low-spending regulars, porters and stallholders from the market, with a sprinkling of local tradesmen with actual shops to their names to add a bit of class and raise the tone.

I found the place with a bit of help from a passing bag-lady trudging home with her string bag loaded down with assorted root vegetables, and tried the front door. Locked, of course – it was far too early for customers – and knocking on it didn’t produce an answer, either.

Bugger.

Well, I hadn’t come all this way to give up that easily. There was an alleyway at the side, and investigating it revealed a small courtyard full of empty wine jars and a back door to the place through which a guy was carrying a couple of fresh jars to add to the pile.

‘Hi.’ I waited until he’d dumped them and straightened up. ‘Could I have a word, do you think?’

‘Sorry, mate,’ he said. ‘I’m busy and we’re closed. Open an hour before sunset. Come back then, OK?’ He turned to go back inside.

‘It’s about Tarquitia.’

He stopped and turned back, and I saw his eye catch the purple stripe on my tunic beneath the cloak.

Rapid reassessment. Yeah, well, rank does have its privileges.

‘Ah … right, sir,’ he said. ‘What about her?’

‘She used to work here, yes?’

He was still looking at me suspiciously, which was understandable: you wouldn’t get many purple-stripers hanging around area like this, and even fewer would be interested in the staff of a third-rate nightclub like the Five Poppies. Not interested enough to have a name to hand, certainly.

‘Yeah, she did,’ he said at last. Then he shrugged. ‘What the hell? You’d best come inside.’

I followed him in. The place – it was just one room, and not a big one, at that – was pretty basic, with a few plain wooden tables and stools, a bar counter with its wine rack behind and a low stage at one end. Someone had decorated the walls, though, with murals, and they were surprisingly good: Silenus on his donkey, hung with grapes and holding up a wine cup; what looked like a rout of Bacchanals; and a woodland scene with a satyr sitting beneath a tree playing the double-flute while a couple of deer and a set of birds in the lower branches listened.

‘You the owner?’ I said.

‘Nah. Barman and general dogsbody, me.’ He pulled up a stool at one of the tables and indicated another. I sat. ‘Name’s Vulpis.’

The name fitted him, or more likely it was a nickname: he was small, wiry, sharp-featured, red-haired and generously freckled. Definitely fox-like. Probably, like Tarquitia, a north Italian with Gallic blood. They might even be related.

‘Marcus Corvinus,’ I said.

He nodded. We had, at least, contact. ‘Well, then, Marcus Corvinus,’ he said. ‘If you want to talk to the boss, you’ll have to come back when we’re open. He’s generally in just before sunset, but it varies.’

‘No, that’s OK,’ I said. ‘At least I think it is. If you can help me yourself, that’d be great.’

‘I’ll do my best. Tarquitia, you said.’

‘Yeah.’

‘She hasn’t worked here for nigh on a year now. Took up with some old nob she met at a dinner party. At least, he was a guest and she was part of the entertainment.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ I said. ‘His name was Naevius Surdinus. He’s been murdered.’

He stared at me and gave a low whistle. ‘And Tarquitia’s involved?’ he said. ‘Directly, as it were?’

‘Not necessarily. Why would you say that?’

‘No particular reason. But you wouldn’t be round here asking questions about her if she wasn’t, right?’

Fair enough. ‘You knew her well?’

‘Sure. She was on most nights. Not a bad voice, good little dancer, very fair juggler and acrobat. The punters we get in here don’t expect too much, but they recognize talent when they see it. She had it and she was popular. Easily the best of the bunch. The boss was sorry to lose her.’

‘You know anything about her background?’

‘Not a lot. She’s from Padua originally, like me, although that’s just coincidence. Worked there for a year or so before coming to Rome. That’d be four or five years back. She did an audition for the boss and he took her on straight away. That’s about all I know. Anything else, you’d have to ask her husband.’

‘Her
husband
?’

‘Sure. Titus Otillius.’ He frowned. ‘You didn’t know about him?’

Jupiter! ‘No, I didn’t. They been married long?’

‘Two or three years. He works as a porter in the market, and he was one of our regulars. That’s how they met.’

Two or three years. So she’d been well and truly spliced when she took up with Surdinus. Yet another thing that the lady hadn’t told me.

Also very relevant, where the terms of the will were concerned. Interesting …

‘He know about Surdinus?’ I said.

‘Naturally.’

‘And he didn’t mind?’

Vulpis laughed. ‘Yeah, well, that’s something I can’t tell you,’ he said. ‘Me, I’d mind like hell, particularly since Tarquitia wasn’t that sort of girl. A prostitute, I mean. Oh, sure, a lot of the talent we have here go with men for money – most of them, in fact, that’s par for the course in our business, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But Tarquitia didn’t. Oh, she was no blushing virgin, she slept with some of the customers off and on, but only by her choice, and money didn’t always feature. But after she married Otillius, all that stopped. He’d’ve half-killed her if it hadn’t.’

‘But taking up with Surdinus was different?’ I said.

He shrugged. ‘Seemingly. Can’t say for sure, myself.’

‘You know where I can find him? This Otillius?’

‘Oh, yes. Nothing easier. But you don’t want anything to do with Otillius, sir. He’s a total head-banger.’

‘Come again?’

‘Known for it. Why a girl like Tarquitia should take up with someone like that, let alone marry him, I can’t fathom. Still, who knows how women’s minds work, eh? He punched her around now and again, but she seemed happy enough.’

‘They still an item?’

‘Again, that I can’t tell you. Like I say, I haven’t seen her around for almost a year. Otillius drops in sometimes, but it’s not a subject I’d risk raising with him, and he doesn’t volunteer.’

‘So where
can
I find him?’

Another shrug. ‘Well, sir, it’s your funeral,’ he said. ‘Don’t come back and say you weren’t warned. Your best bet’s the market. Any of the porters’ll be able to point him out to you. And there’re plenty of people around in case he does decide to get nasty.’

Shit. Still, it had to be done.

Things were getting complicated. And I was rapidly beginning to revise my opinion of sweet little Tarquitia.

A
s a matter of fact, the market was pretty quiet. Unsurprisingly so, really: we were halfway through the afternoon, the morning rush was long over, most of the stalls were tenantless and clear of produce, and there was only a scattering of both stallholders and customers. I couldn’t see any porters in evidence, either, so the chances of Otillius still being around were pretty slim. Even so, it was worth asking rather than putting it off and having to take the long hike back here another day.

I tried a couple of the remaining stallholders first with no result, before an old woman selling eggs pointed me towards the edge of the square.

‘You might find him over there, dear,’ she said. ‘It’s where a lot of the men go when they’ve finished for the day.’

I looked. Sure enough, there were some tables and benches with people sitting at them.

‘Thanks, grandma, much obliged,’ I said, and walked over. It wasn’t an actual wine shop, just a drinking area with a canvas booth and a makeshift bar counter. But it was popular enough, and filled entirely, as the old woman had said, with the male element of the market’s sellers and porters. I got a few glances as I went up to the counter, but they were curious rather than unfriendly ones.

The guy behind the bar was already pouring me an earthenware cup of wine from the single jug on the counter – basic was right; evidently you took what you got – and I pulled out my purse.

‘You happen to know a porter by the name of Otillius, pal?’ I said as I paid.

‘Titus Otillius?’ The man gave me my change. Well, the price couldn’t’ve been lower, anyway. ‘That’s him.’ He nodded. ‘The big guy over there in the corner, with the red tunic.’

I took a sip of the wine, decided I’d been grossly overcharged after all, and followed the direction of the nod. ‘Red’ was an exaggeration, but from the looks of the tunic in question I’d guess it was more or less a permanent fixture that had never seen the inside of a fuller’s shop. Maybe our barman here just had a very good memory.

‘Big’, however, was a gross understatement: Naevius’s garden slave, Cilix, came to mind. With added extras. And a head-banger into the bargain, right?

Thank you, thank you, Vulpis. Most appreciated. Still, I had been warned.

Shit.

Ah, well, such are the sacrifices I make in the service of honesty, truth and justice. I sighed inwardly and carried my cup over.

‘Titus Otillius?’ I said. He looked up but didn’t answer. ‘Name’s Corvinus. Marcus Corvinus.’ Still no response. There was another stool at the table opposite him. I pulled it out and sat. ‘I understand you’re Tarquitia’s husband.’

‘So they tell me,’ he said. ‘I haven’t seen the little bitch for almost a year.’ His eyes went to the stripe on my tunic. ‘Who the fuck are you?’

‘I said. Marcus Corvinus.’

A hand the size of a ham reached out and grabbed my tunic just below the neck. I jerked forwards, spilling my wine.

‘You one of the bastard’s relatives?’

I temporized. ‘Ah … which particular bastard would that be, now?’

‘Who do you think? Naevius fucking Surdinus.’

‘Uh-uh.’ I reached up and slowly, gently, unprised the grip, finger by sausage-sized finger. ‘Not me, pal, no way. Perish the thought. No relation whatsoever, not even by marriage. But I am looking into his death. Purely as a favour, you understand.’

‘Surdinus is dead?’ Otillius took away his hand. He could’ve been faking it, sure, but the surprise on his face and in his voice looked and sounded real.

‘Yeah. As of five days ago.’ I was watching him carefully for signs of further imminent head-bangership. Or whatever the phrase is. They were all there, in spades. Bugger. ‘Someone dropped a lump of stone on top of him.’

The surprised look slowly turned into a grin, and it broadened.

‘Well, bully for them,’ he said. ‘You know who did it?’

‘Not yet. I told you, I’m just looking into things at present.’

‘You shake them by the hand for me, then, when you do.’

‘So you haven’t seen your wife – Tarquitia – for almost a year?’ I said, straightening the tunic.

‘That’s right. Since she took up serious with the old lecher and moved in with him.’

I shook my head. ‘She didn’t do that. He set her up in a flat somewhere.’

‘News to me. Mind you, she’d keep that quiet, to stop me gatecrashing the happy home. Which I would’ve done if I’d known where the fuck it was.’

‘You didn’t?’

‘Uh-uh. Me, I thought she’d be up at that fancy villa of his on Vatican Hill. She talked about it enough when she met him first, but I wasn’t going to try anything there.’ He was still grinning. ‘You’ve spilled your wine. Let me get you another cup. Shit, this is the best news I’ve had in a month.’

‘No, that’s OK, pal.’ The tabletop was the best place for the stuff. I could just see it eating into the wood. ‘I’m fine. So you won’t, uh, have heard about the property he sold her?’

‘What property? And how the hell could Tarquitia afford any kind of property? She hadn’t two copper pieces to rub together.’

‘Oh, it doesn’t matter. Nothing of much value.’ I put my empty cup down on the table. Evidently, the worst was over. Hopefully, at any rate. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. ‘You care to tell me how she met this guy? At a dinner party, wasn’t it?’

‘Yeah, that’s right.’ He looked over my shoulder towards the counter and lifted an arm. ‘Hey, Barrio!’ he shouted. ‘Bring us a top-up over here, will you? My bill.’ Bugger. Then, turning back to me: ‘Queer thing, that was.’

‘Yeah? In what way queer?’ I said. Well, at least he was talking normally. All in all, a promising sign.

‘Tarquitia usually works – worked – with a girl called Hermia. She played the double-flute, Hermia I mean, while Tarquitia did whatever other bits they or the customer’d decided on. Singing, dancing, cartwheels, that sort of thing. It was a pretty good arrangement. Hermia’s a natural on the flute, but she’s no beauty, what with her squint, and she couldn’t throw a cartwheel to save herself. Tarquitia’s the opposite.’

‘So?’

‘So they’ve got a gig arranged for that evening. Only at the last minute Tarquitia tells Hermia that she’s done a swap. There’s another couple of girls booked for that dinner party I told you about, and she’s arranged with one of them to take her place.’ He shrugged. ‘Didn’t make no difference to the two sets of punters, of course; they were both getting what they paid for. Odd thing was, Tarquitia and the other flautist had worked together once or twice before, and it hadn’t worked out.’

‘Hang on, pal,’ I said. ‘Are you saying …’ I paused while Barrio came over with the jug and filled our cups. ‘Are you saying that Tarquitia was only at the dinner party where she met Surdinus because she made a switch at the last minute with one of the team who’d originally been booked?’

‘Yeah.’ He picked up his cup and drank. Inwardly, I winced. ‘Strange how these things happen, isn’t it? If she hadn’t done the swap she’d never even’ve seen the bastard.’

Strange was right. Or maybe not. Jupiter, what was going on here? ‘So what happened then?’

‘Way she told it to me, she was throwing a cartwheel that went wrong and she landed up on Surdinus’s couch. Pure accident, it happens sometimes, and it was too clumsy to be intentional because she made him spill his drink all over his party mantle. She apologized – not that he’d be complaining, mind – and when they’d finished the act he asked her and the other girl to stay. There wasn’t no funny business, at least that’s what she said, it wasn’t that sort of party, and she didn’t start any, either. They just talked. She’s a good talker, Tarquitia.’ He took another swallow of his wine. ‘Leastways, that’s what the little bitch told me at the time. Far as I knew, that was the end of it. Only half a month later I come home and she’s cleared out, leaving me a note to say they’re an item. You seen her?’

‘What?’

‘Tarquitia. You seen her, yourself, recently?’

‘Yeah. Over at the villa, as it happens. The one on the Vatican.’

‘She OK? Healthy enough, and that?’

‘She seemed so, yeah.’

He grunted and drank again. ‘Did she mention any plans she might have? A great little planner, she is. One of the best, and always was. “You’ve got to have a plan, Titus,” she’d say to me. “Plans make the world go round. They make the future. Without a plan, you’re going nowhere.”’

‘No,’ I said cautiously. ‘She didn’t have any plans. Not ones that she talked about, anyway.’ I wasn’t going to mention the Old Villa, let alone the other stuff. Including the will. Otillius hadn’t seemed a bad guy to me, certainly not bad enough to justify Vulpis’s description of him as a head-banger. Or not latterly, anyway. But then when I’d given him the news of Surdinus’s death I’d obviously been slotted into the ‘bosom buddy’ category – which had been absolutely fine by me, of course, because as a result he’d blossomed like a rose. However, if he found out that his wife was fair set to owning property worth the best part of half a million, I’d bet that’d be a completely different story. Liar and con-artist though the lady might be – and that aspect of things was pretty much beyond doubt, now – I couldn’t be the one to finger her. They’d have to work things out for themselves, if push ever came to shove. That side of things wasn’t my business, and I wanted no part of it.

There was always the chance, too – an outside one, I admitted, but a chance none the less – that Otillius had been stringing me along; that he’d been responsible for Surdinus’s death himself. He’d certainly had motive, whatever the points against.

‘Anyway,’ he was saying, ‘you tell her. Tarquitia. If you see her again. You tell her that if she wants to come back it’ll be fine with me. No problems, none at all. Clean slate. OK?’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘OK. I’ll do that.’ I stood up.

‘You haven’t drunk your wine.’

Fuck; he’d noticed. ‘Nah. I’m not much of a one for wine, me,’ I said. ‘A sip or two now and again. Maybe two cups at the Winter Festival, just to celebrate, if it’s well-watered.’ I passed the cup over. ‘You have it, pal. Enjoy. I’ll see you around.’

I left.

Hmm. Quite a lot to think about there. On top of everything else.

Enough for the day. Back to the Caelian.