David Wishart - Sejanus

'Ex-gardener.'

'Whatever. Before we start splitting hairs you care to tell me, one, what your connection with Felix is, and two, why you think I might be interested?'

He grinned. I'd seen more teeth on a garden fork. In better condition, too. 'Yeah. I can manage that. Your answers are one, none whatsoever — up to three days ago, that is — and two, because I can give you a cast-iron link between my ex-master and Aelius Sejanus. That do you?'

Bloody hell! Forget the buzzing; my brain had gone numb. I got up and poured myself a cup of wine from the jug on the table beside him.

'Thanks. Don't mind if I do.' Festus leaned over, took the cup from me and sank it in one. 'Good stuff. Pity about the water.'

Silently I filled another cup, topped his up again and took mine back to the couch where I'd been sitting. This Festus was definitely getting up my nose. Literally and metaphorically.

'The price is five gold pieces,' he said.

I nearly dropped the cup. Shit! I could've bought the guy himself for that, easy!

'One,' I said. 'If you're lucky.'

'Five, or there's no deal. I'm laying my neck on the line here.'

Well, I supposed he had a point. Although why anyone would touch his neck with anything shorter than a ten-foot pole I couldn't imagine.

'This had better be good, chum,' I said. 'Especially with the damage you're doing to my wine cellar.' He didn't say anything; just grinned. 'Okay. Five. If and provided that I decide the information is worth it.'

'Oh, it's worth it.' He downed the second cup and poured himself another. 'You mind?'

'Go ahead.' I could see now how he'd managed to bulldoze Bathyllus. By comparison, rhinos were thin-skinned. 'Feel free.'

He sipped at this one. Not a fool, then: he wanted to keep sober, which was wise. 'To answer your first question first,' he said. 'This weird guy in a lemon tunic — '

'Felix.'

'Right. Felix comes up to me three days ago when I'm out seeing to to the manure. He says how would I like to make a lot of money and get my freedom into the bargain — guaranteed freedom — for coming round here and telling you what I know.'

'"Guaranteed" freedom? Guaranteed by who?' And why the hell should Felix bother? I thought, but I didn't say it out loud. It might've confused the issue.

'That I'm not telling, but believe me you don't get better. I'm no cabbage, Corvinus. He gave me proof; real proof. But the deal's off if I snitch so don't waste your breath asking.'

'Okay. Forget it.' Well, it would've been nice to know, but I could live with that. For the moment. 'Carry on.'

'How he knew I knew anything I don't know, and I don't care.' He sipped the wine. 'That's some smart little bugger, your pal. Maybe he reads minds. But he was right, I did have something to sell. Only I couldn't do anything with the information myself. Get me?'

'I get you.' I sipped my own wine. 'So after talking with Felix and with his guarantee in your pocket you went over Fabatus's wall. Did a runner.' Jupiter! Whatever Felix's guarantee was backed by, like Festus said it had to be one hundred percent, cast-iron genuine: we both knew what the chances of a slave escaping successfully were, and what would happen if the poor bastard got caught. That wasn't pleasant, not pleasant at all.

'I did a runner.' Festus took a swallow of Setinian. 'Felix gave me somewhere to go, somewhere safe where the food's good and the drink's better. I'm not complaining, and I'm not greedy. You get a decent crack at freedom, you take it, whether it pays or not.' He shifted on his chair. 'And if you can have money as well then you're laughing. Right?'

'Fair enough.' Well, at least he had realistic priorities. And garden slaves were the bottom of the domestic ladder, one step higher than the chickens and one under the pet monkey. Who was I to sneer?

'Now your second question,' Festus said. 'The link with Sejanus. For that we've got to go back a couple more days. I've got this hide I built myself at the bottom of the garden. Doesn't look like much even close up, which is the idea. I go there for some peace and quiet, or when I'm wanted real bad. You know?'

'Uh-huh.' The way he described it I wouldn't've been too anxious to dig him out myself, even if I knew he was in there. Not without gloves and a good set of nose plugs.

'Okay, so this day I was in the hide when I hear the master coming. He's got that bastard Crito with him, the head slave, and somebody else.' He paused. 'Hey, I hear that Crito got his finally. You responsible for that?'

'No, it was an accident.'

'Pity. Crito was a sod. If you'd asked anyone in the household to put him under we'd've done it gladly. Congratulations, anyway.'

'You care to get back to your story?' I knew what was coming. Sure I did. 'Tell me about this "somebody else". He got a name?'

'Wait. That's your answer, Corvinus, the five gold pieces' worth. Be patient, okay?'

'Fine.' I settled back. I could wait. It looked like Felix had done my job for me, and five gold pieces was cheap at the price. 'They were discussing a murder, right?'

'Two murders. A guy named Vibius Celsus and yourself. I sat tight because I knew if I stuck my nose out it'd be bye-bye Festus, but I could hear everything clear. See it as well, because there're chinks in the hide I made special for that sort of thing. The — someone else — says you both have to go, Celsus because he knows too much and he's soft as butter, you because you're too nosey by half and a real pain in the arse.' He paused and grinned. 'His words, not mine.'

'No offence, I've been called worse. Go on.'

'He doesn't want to deal with things himself, right, because he's too big a wheel and if things go wrong he's in the shit up to his eyeballs with no way to go but down. He wants to borrow Crito, because he's used him before. And the master owes. You still with me?'

'I'm with you. Fabatus agreed?'

'Yeah.' Festus spat on the floor: Bathyllus would have a fit. 'The master's got no balls. Never has had, and he'd lick any arse in range to make consul. Even city judge. Sure he agreed. Fell over himself. Crito wasn't too happy, but with the pressure these two were putting on him he didn't have much option.'

That was something I hadn't thought of. Maybe I ought to feel a bit of sympathy for Crito. Not that I could manage it, mind. 'And?'

'That was it. They went back to the house. I gave them a good hour then slipped round to the rose garden to do a bit of mulching. Two days later your pal Felix turns up.' He was watching me closely. I got up, refilled my cup, and sat back down again. 'So. What do you reckon? A good five gold pieces' worth?'

'Yeah, I suppose so. Only you haven't given me the important name yet, your "someone else". Maybe I can do it for you. The someone else was Sejanus, right?'

Festus spat again, scornfully. 'No, it wasn't him. Aelius Sejanus wouldn't do his own dirty work, even I know that. And if it had been I'd've asked you for more than five measly gold pieces. But the guy was the next best thing. I told you, he's a cast-iron link.'

'Okay. So who was he?'

'Sejanus's stepbrother. Seius Tubero.'

Tubero!

I sat back. I'd dismissed Seius Tubero, or rather I hadn't even considered him in the first place. Not because he wasn't a double-dyed crook, or prime treason material: I'd known he'd been working for Sejanus ten years back when as a city judge he'd quashed the investigation into Regulus's murder. No, I'd ignored Tubero because Celsus had cited him along with old Cornelius Lentulus as his father's collaborator in the Sacrovir scam and I'd bracketed the two together. Which was exactly what Serenus had intended people should do.

It made sense. Now I was starting at the other end, with Tubero's involvement in the Gallic scam proven fact, it made a lot of sense. Celsus had said that the choice of Lentulus and Tubero had been his father's, not his, although he'd gone along with it. I'd assumed that the idea behind choosing them was to destroy Celsus's credibility as a prosecutor; which was true enough. But that was only half the story, seemingly. The scam had another purpose as well, and with that Serenus had been more successful than I'd given him credit for.