David Wishart - Illegally Dead

‘Yeah, I’d sort of assumed that, pal,’ I said. ‘Who the hell was that?’

‘Her name’s Renia.’

‘That so, now?’ I took another glance at the retreating figure. Gods! Make that an octogenarian priest at sixty yards. ‘What were you talking about?’

‘This an’ that.’

‘Meton…’

‘’s my own business, innit?’ He inserted a finger in his ear, screwed out a bit of wax and flicked it away. Then he leered. ‘Good looker, though, isn’t she?’

‘Meton, you bastard…’

‘’s okay. She’s married.’

‘She is what?’

‘Yeah. Husband’s a locksmith.’ He sniggered. ‘Not a very good locksmith, from what I hear.’

Oh, gods! This was the stuff of nightmare. And Meton? To my certain knowledge the closest that single-minded bugger ever got to having designs on a woman was lusting after her recipe books. ‘Ah…listen, pal,’ I said. ‘I’m being serious here. Do you have any — any — idea what the penalty is for a slave who…devalues a freeborn wife?’

‘Uh-uh.’ Another leer. ‘Might be worth it, though, in Renia’s case.’

I gaped afresh.

‘Joke, Corvinus. ’s all under control, nothing to worry about. Just forget it, okay?’ He removed another flake of wax. ‘Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve got better things to do at present than stand an’ chat.’

He ambled off.

I shook my head to clear it. Forget about problems; what we’d got here was a full-blown domestic crisis in spades. Home, and Perilla. Fast.

I made it as far as the lobby. There was a woman there, talking to Marcia’s door-slave. She turned as I came in.

‘Valerius Corvinus, sir?’ she said. Small, middle-aged and mousy, and obviously nervous as hell.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Yeah, that’s me.’

‘I’m Tyche, sir. The mistress Paulina’s maid. She wants to speak to you, sir.’

I stared at her. ‘What?’

She ducked her head. ‘The mistress Paulina sent me to say she wants to speak to you, sir. Straight away, if you can manage it.’

Holy gods! ‘You know where she is?’

‘’Course, sir. She’s at my cousin’s, that’s Mika, sir, she’s a freedwoman, lives above the baker’s near the shrine of Latinus. I…well, I arranged it, sir, when the mistress said she wanted somewhere to go.’ She hesitated. ‘I wouldn’t of come, sir, only the mistress insisted. Don’t you believe her, Valerius Corvinus, when you do see her. She don’t know what she’s saying.’

‘Yeah? And what’s that?’

Tyche swallowed. ‘That she did it, sir. Killed the master.’

Shit!

Paulina was a wisp of a girl, mid teens, with a long face, big teeth and mousy hair like her maid’s; no looker, certainly, and from the self-effacing way she was sitting on the chair opposite me in what was obviously Mika’s and her husband’s bedroom she was probably more conscious of it than I was. She’d a nice voice, though: low-pitched, quiet and serious.

‘I didn’t actually kill him myself, Valerius Corvinus,’ she said. ‘That was Cosmus, I know, because I saw him come out of Uncle Lucius’s rooms that morning. Not that I knew at the time what he was doing there, although — ’

‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘You saw him? You’re sure?’

‘Oh, yes. Absolutely. At about an hour after dawn. I’ve been…getting up very early these last few months.’ She lowered her head, and unaccountably blushed. I noticed that Tyche, who’d come in uninvited and was sitting on a stool by the door, shot her a quick glance.

There was something odd there, but I left it alone for the moment. We’d come back later. ‘So where were you?’ I said. ‘In your room?’

‘No. In the garden. He didn’t see me, at least I don’t think he did, because I was sitting in the little arbour by the rose-bed. You can see out from there, but it’s difficult to see in.’

The garden? An hour after dawn? Odd was right. Still, we’d better sort out the most important point first. ‘Paulina,’ I said carefully. ‘If you saw Cosmus leaving your uncle’s rooms and you know — at least now — that he was the killer, then where do you come into things?’

She looked at me wide-eyed. ‘Because I was responsible, of course. My uncle wouldn’t have died at all if it hadn’t been for…well, the way he treated me.’

Yeah; I could imagine life hadn’t been too pleasant for the kid. After all, if Veturina had been going through hell these last twelve months for no reason then Paulina had probably been doing the same. Even so, for her to suggest that as Cosmus’s motive for murder was complete nonsense. From all I’d heard of him he didn’t exactly seem the altruistic type; certainly not to the extent of risking his own neck by bumping off his master as a favour to Paulina.

‘Uh…you sure about that?’ I said gently. ‘I mean, that that was Cosmus’s only reason?’

She was scowling. ‘You’re down on him like everyone else, Valerius Corvinus, and you never even met him!’ she said. ‘Do you think that’s fair?’

I caught Tyche’s eye. Her lips were set in a tight line and she nodded imperceptibly. Yeah, well: whatever the mistress’s opinion of Cosmus was, her maid certainly didn’t share it. I remembered what Scopas had said, about Cosmus being able to use his charm to get round the youngest members of the family, especially Paulina. Now that I’d seen her for myself, that made complete sense; it certainly explained her view of the boy and the large slice of wishful thinking involved where his motives were concerned. No surprises there, quite the reverse: he’d been good-looking, about her own age, attentive and probably good fun, and even if he was a slave that combination would’ve weighed a lot with someone like her. She’d never have let things go beyond mild flirting, sure, or if she had done then she was a bigger fool than I thought she was, but I’d bet she hadn’t had much experience even of that. Yeah, I could see how Paulina would easily get starry-eyed over Cosmus.

‘Maybe it isn’t fair, at that.’ I temporised. ‘And if your uncle was being cruel — ’

‘I never said he was being cruel.’

Said very quietly. The head was down again, and Tyche was looking at her hard, with pursed lips.

Uh-oh.

I let a few seconds go by. Then I said gently: ‘You want to tell me, Paulina?’

‘No. But I will.’ Her chin came up. ‘It…never got beyond touching, and that was when Aunt Veturina found out and put a stop to it. Besides, I kept my bedroom door locked so even if he tried to get in he couldn’t.’

‘That’s why you’d been getting up so early, isn’t it?’ I kept the conversational tone. ‘Because he did try.’

‘Sometimes, yes. First thing in the morning. Most mornings, by that stage.’ She frowned. ‘Valerius Corvinus, my uncle was a good man! He was! Before he was ill he’d never, ever have done anything like that, he’d have died first, believe me!’ There were tears in her eyes. ‘And now he is dead, and I’m glad. And that’s terrible.’

Gods!

‘No, it isn’t,’ I said quietly. ‘It’s not terrible at all. And maybe it’s for the best, that part of it. Whoever killed him, and whatever their motives were.’

‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘Yes, that’s what I’m hoping. That they did it for the best of motives.’

There was something in her voice that made the hairs rise on the back of my neck. Besides, that wasn’t exactly what I’d said. In fact -

The penny dropped. Oh, shit!

‘You think your aunt killed your uncle, don’t you?’ I said.

‘Cosmus killed him.’ She wasn’t looking at me. ‘And I was responsible.’

We needed to take this slowly. I drew a deep breath. ‘Look, Paulina,’ I said. ‘You may’ve liked Cosmus — he may’ve liked you — but you have to admit he wasn’t the greatest brain in the world. He’d never have thought of doctoring that medicine bottle on his own, however much he wanted to help you. And if you didn’t give him the idea then somebody else must have.’