Solid Citizens (5 page)

‘No, sir. In fact, I don’t think the master has had any contact whatsoever with him for the past ten years, at least. Not since he was relegated.’

‘Relegated?’ I said sharply. Relegation’s the punishment for a crime, a minor form of exile where the convicted man is forbidden to come within, say, a hundred miles of his home town for a fixed period; the difference being that he isn’t permanently deprived of citizenship or stripped of his assets. ‘For what?’

‘Theft, sir. He was caught stealing money from his employer. A local lawyer. Master Aulus was relegated for ten years, and the period only expired recently.’

Uh-huh. ‘The lawyer wouldn’t be a guy called Publius Novius, would it, by any chance?’

He looked surprised. ‘Yes, it would, as it happens. You know him?’

‘Yeah. Slightly. He was your master’s lawyer, too, wasn’t he?’

‘Of course. Naturally. Publius Novius is the only lawyer in Bovillae, sir, and has been these forty years and more. Master Aulus was his apprentice clerk. In fact, it was the master who got the young man his position, originally. He and Novius were long-standing friends. He felt very guilty over the affair, sir. Very guilty indeed.’

Yeah, well, no surprises there. As far as the original recommendation was concerned, it was normal procedure in any family, particularly a well-connected one: a close relative had a duty to help launch a young man just starting out on his career, if he could, and if he was part of the Old Boy network, as Caesius obviously was, then that was the way it was done. The guilt was understandable, too: as his nephew’s patron and sponsor Caesius would’ve felt personally responsible when everything went pear-shaped.

‘So that was the reason for the estrangement,’ I said. ‘The theft and his nephew’s relegation, yes?’

Anthus shook his head. ‘Oh, no, sir. Not at all,’ he said. ‘Although of course it did confirm the master in his opinion. The actual break itself had already taken place, a few years previously but subsequent to the young man’s being taken on by the legal gentleman. His nephew was always a great disappointment to Master Quintus.’

‘So what was the reason, then?’

The major-domo hesitated, and I thought he wasn’t going to answer; Old Retainer Syndrome kicking in again. Finally, though, he cleared his throat and said, ‘Master Aulus entered into an unsuitable romantic entanglement with a girl well beneath him socially, sir. He always was a very unconventional young man, and completely unrealistic in his outlook.’

Uh-huh. Reading between the lines, I could make a fair guess at what had happened, and given the guy’s family circumstances why it had led to a breach. A casual sexual liaison between the son of the house and a girl from a lower class, sure, that wouldn’t have mattered: it happened all the time, and no one gave it a second thought. He might even set her up as a mistress without raising too many eyebrows, let alone hackles. But anything more serious – which was what Anthus was implying here – would cause major ructions. And I’d guess, from what I knew of him already, that Quintus Caesius hadn’t been one to hold liberal views.

‘So who was the lady?’ I said. Silence. ‘Come on, Anthus! Give!’

‘I’m sorry, sir. That I can’t tell you, and in any case it’s old history now.’

Can’t
or
won’t
again? Probably the second. Ah well, being ancient history it probably wasn’t important, anyway. Mind you, I’d have to have a word pretty soon with this Aulus Mettius. ‘OK,’ I said. ‘So let’s talk about the murder itself. Anything there you can tell me about?’

‘Such as what, sir?’

‘Your master had, uh, made a habit of visiting the local brothel these past couple of months, so I understand.’

Anthus’s lips formed a tight line. ‘I’m afraid, Valerius Corvinus, that I really cannot help you there.’

‘Oh, come on, pal! It can’t be a sensitive subject, surely. That’s where he was found, remember.’

He shook his head. ‘No, sir,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m sorry. The master was a very private man, who kept himself to himself. His personal life was none of my concern, unless he chose to make it so. He did not, in that regard, and it was certainly not my place to pry. Nor, if you’ll forgive me, to discuss the matter with strangers.’

Yeah, well; that was me told. And maybe I had been pushing things, to be fair. Besides, I’d already got all the information on the subject that I needed from Andromeda.

‘Fine,’ I said. ‘OK. Moving on. What about the period immediately prior to his death? Anything significant there that you noticed?’

‘No, sir. He behaved much as usual.’

‘No mention of an enemy, or a quarrel, or even a recent disagreement with anyone?’

‘There was an unpleasant incident in the main street with one of the local farmers. A Quintus Roscius, as I recall.’

‘Yeah, I know about that. Something to do with business, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, sir. I’m afraid I don’t know the details. It was connected with the repayment of a loan, I think.’

‘Caesius was in the loans business?’

‘No, not as such. He dealt in property. Buying and selling. Particularly with clients in Rome who were interested in acquiring land in the area for building purposes. He travelled to Rome quite frequently, at least once a month.’

‘So you can’t think of anyone he was on bad terms with? Apart from this Roscius.’

‘No, I’m afraid not. Certainly not recently. Oh, I’m not saying that he got on perfectly with everyone he had dealings with. The master was very much a man of business, and he would drive the best bargain he could. But he never acted in a way that anyone could honestly complain about.’

Well, I couldn’t really expect more than that. Men like Caesius – and I knew plenty of them in Rome – were pretty tough nuts. They had to be, to pay the bills at the end of the month, and in the world of business softness and a readiness to allow the other guy the best of the deal weren’t survival traits. Besides, I wasn’t too dissatisfied: I’d got quite a lot from Anthus, all I could for the time being, anyway. Certainly the background was filling in as well as I could’ve hoped.

I stood up.

‘OK, pal,’ I said. ‘Thanks. You’ve been very helpful.’

‘Don’t mention it, sir. If it helps to find the master’s killer then it’s my pleasure. I’ll see you out.’

So. An estranged brother who’d inherit and a nephew with form who’d just moved back into the area, right?

Things were complicating nicely.

A
fter leaving Caesius’s house I headed back along the Hinge towards the centre of town.

So. The funeral was at the seventh hour, was it? I glanced up at the sun. Just shy of noon: I’d just over an hour to kill. So who did I have to talk to? There was Novius, of course, the dodgy lawyer; where the matter of a will and so the question of
cui bono
went, he was the logical next interviewee, plus he might be able to point me in the direction of Caesius’s brother Lucius. His office, if I remembered rightly from before, was in the top part of town near the baths, only a couple of blocks up from the market square where as far as I was concerned the ceremony would start from. Close enough, in other words, for a there-and-back where available time went. Chances were, though, that he wouldn’t be there at present: as one of Bovillae’s Great and Good, and a close friend and associate of the dead man’s, he was probably at home changing into his mourning mantle for the funeral. Novius could wait for another day. Besides, when you’re digging the dirt on a local celebrity there ain’t no better place to start than a bar, and I reckoned I’d earned a break.

When I came down to Bovillae I had a favourite one, where the owner knew his way around the Second Growth local wines and stocked the best his customers could afford. It was pretty close, too, down one of the streets directly across from the market square itself. So I made for that.

There was a small antiques shop a few yards before it that was either new or one that I hadn’t noticed before: a chi-chi rarity that you’re beginning to see more of these days in the towns of the Alban Hills, now the big money’s arrived in the form of well-heeled second-home owners from Rome. I slowed as I passed; like I said, we were expecting Mother and Priscus to join us for the festival, and the old guy’s birthday – which particular one it was exactly I wasn’t absolutely certain, probably, by the look of him, his hundred and forty-seventh – was in four days’ time. Oh, sure, Perilla had probably already bought him something – she was the shopper in the family – but it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. And these places out in the sticks are still a lot cheaper than Rome. With some of the prices they charge in the Saepta, if you want something decent you have to pawn your grandmother.

I went in.

It was well-stocked; some pretty nice stuff, too. The shopkeeper, an old guy in a freedman’s cap, was arthritically polishing up the bronze of a horseman that looked like it was way outside my price bracket.

‘Can I help you, sir?’ he said.

‘No, that’s OK, pal, you just carry on.’ I closed the door behind me. ‘I’ll just browse, if you don’t mind.’

‘Certainly. Feel free.’ He went back to his polishing. Good sign. Me, I’m no fan of pressure salesmanship, and in some places in Rome the guy behind the desk would have been up and starting his personal guided tour of the priciest items before you could say ‘hustler’.

It was good stuff, right enough, and to be fair the prices weren’t exorbitant. Which meant the numbers didn’t completely fill the tags. Still, I kept to the shallow end of the range: miniatures, rings, clay figurines, that sort of thing. On one of the tables there was a collection of nice little ivory plaques, like you see inlaid in trinket boxes. I drifted over, picked one up, and examined it.

The plaque showed a philosopher, or a rhetoric-teacher, or something, finger raised and frozen in the act of making an abstruse point to a bored-looking student standing beside him. I grinned: the philosopher was the spitting image of Priscus sounding off about the optative mood in Ancient Sabine.

Perfect; absolutely perfect. The thing wasn’t all that expensive, either: even if Perilla had got him something already, we could add it to the pot.

I took it over to the guy on the desk.

‘I’ll have this one, friend,’ I said.

‘Ah, yes.’ He peered at it myopically. ‘Syracusan. A good choice, sir.’

‘How old is it, do you know?’

‘A century and a half, it would be. Give or take a decade.’

Yeah, well, that’d fit with Priscus, then. Like I said, perfect.

‘You’ve got some nice pieces here.’ I took out my purse. ‘How long have you had the shop?’

‘Oh, it isn’t mine, sir. I just run it for the owner. Quintus Baebius, that is. A very knowledgeable gentleman, and a keen collector himself.’

A collector, right? ‘Like Quintus Caesius,’ I said, handing over the money and putting the plaque into the purse for safe keeping. ‘They, uh, friends or associates at all?’

‘The magistrate?’ The old man laughed. ‘Oh, bless you, no, sir! He’s got no time for Caesius, has the master.’

‘Is that so, now?’

‘He won’t hear his name mentioned, not this long time. You’re a friend of his yourself?’

I shot him a look, but there was nothing in his rather simple expression other than polite curiosity. ‘I, uh, met him recently, yeah,’ I said. Well, I had, in a manner of speaking. ‘You don’t get out much, do you?’

‘No, sir, I must confess I’m afraid that I don’t, or as little as I can. I live over the shop, you see. And my legs aren’t strong these days. Nor my eyesight. I go with the master to an auction sometimes, just out of interest, so long as it’s close by and there’s things worth seeing, but that’s about all.’

I made a point of examining the bronze horseman that he’d set down on the desk. ‘So what’s Baebius got against Quintus Caesius, then?’ I said casually. ‘If you don’t mind my asking?’

‘Oh, no, sir, I don’t mind at all. No secret there. They’re real birds of a feather, Caesius and the master. Don’t like to be beat, neither of them, and living practically cheek by jowl’s made it worse. You should see them at the auctions; it’s a tonic, especially when they’re both after the same piece. Spitting cats isn’t in it.’

‘That happens often, does it?’ I was pushing, sure, but the old guy didn’t seem to notice. He chuckled and shook his head.

‘Gods bless you! It happens all the time! Proper sideshow sometimes – you’d pay good money to see it.’

‘Anything, uh, particularly recent?’

‘Not particularly so, sir. The last was a couple of months back, at a sale of effects belonging to old Plautius Silvanus. Did you know him at all, yourself? A Roman gentleman. He had the big villa down the Appian Road a few miles outside town.’

‘Ah … no. No, I didn’t.’ I’d given up the pretended examination of the horseman. No need for subterfuge here, evidently: if I wanted to shut the old guy up I might be able to do it with a right hook to the chin, but I reckoned that’s what it would take.

‘A real aristocrat, Plautius Silvanus – well, you can tell by the name, can’t you – but not stuck-up for all that. Lovely man when he was alive, very courteous and soft-spoken. He’d been a governor out east somewhere, Asia or such, brought some pieces back with him. When he died the heir sold up, lock, stock and barrel. There was a bronze figurine of a runner, beautiful thing, over two and a half centuries old, and perfect as the day it was made. You should’ve seen the detail, sir, every fingernail and curl clear as clear. The master’d set his heart on it, so along we went.’ He chuckled. ‘Only when the auction came up it wasn’t there, was it, because old Caesius’d slipped in early and bought it off the heir direct for cash money down.’

‘Is that right, now?’

‘He saved the man the auctioneer’s fee, you see, and that wouldn’t’ve been nothing, so he wasn’t crying. The master was livid, sir, simply livid. Cursed Caesius root and branch all the way home, and threatened he’d do I don’t know what to him.’ He was still chuckling and shaking his head. ‘I laughed about it for days. Not in the master’s presence, mind, that wouldn’t’ve been right, and I didn’t mean anything by it. Present, was it, sir?’