David Wishart - Food for the Fishes

I leaned back. ‘Is that right, now?’

‘I don’t know about “right”, dear. You asked for gossip, and gossip is what you are getting.’

‘Fair enough. What about Gellia?’ This was the big one. If we were talking cui bono here then Murena’s widow was right at the front of the queue.

Mother was obviously aware of that as well, because she took her time before answering. ‘Gellia is…quite sad, in a way,’ she said slowly.

My eyebrows rose. ‘Sad’ wasn’t the word I would’ve chosen for that lady; not even in the top hundred. But then Mother didn’t use words lightly. ‘Yeah?’ I said. ‘You care to amplify?’

‘Certainly. You get women like her often in Baiae; men sometimes, but these are rarer. She’s common — I’m speaking in Baian social terms, you understand —, she has no style, which would go a long way towards making up for her poor looks, she has a vindictive streak a yard wide, and, worst of all, she’s aware of none of this. She thinks she’s a femme fatale but isn’t, nowhere near it, despite the fact that she is breaking her neck to be one. Which is why she’s so friendly with Catia, who is.’

‘Uhuh.’ Well, I’d just have to take that assessment on trust. Not that I doubted it was valid: I’d a lot of respect for Mother’s opinion, especially where people were concerned. ‘How did she get on with her husband?’

‘Reasonably well, under the circumstances. As far as I know, at any rate.’ She straightened a fold in her mantle again. ‘Of course, she’s much younger than he was, and in Baiae that leads to the obvious result.’

‘Lovers?’

‘She is very careful; slightly surprising, given her character, but then Murena had a certain reputation of his own for holding old-fashioned values, and seemingly he controlled the purse-strings. Kept quite a tight grip on them, what’s more. Matters may not have gone beyond simple flirting, but I have heard that she’s rather involved at present with a man by the name of Aquillius Florus. He’s a friend of Aulus Nerva’s, and out of much the same mould. If you’re interested.’

A friend of Nerva’s, eh? Well, that explained why that particular handful of mud hadn’t been thrown, by one of the brothers anyway. I filed the name for future reference. ‘Not this doctor guy? Diodotus?’

‘Diodotus is another name I’ve heard mentioned, yes,’ Mother said cautiously. ‘Although not so often, and not with much…authority. Certainly he’s a good-looking young man, and of course an intimate of the family. Very popular with the better class of patient. He has quite a successful practice near the town baths.’

Right. And if we were picking and choosing with an eye to a murder accusation then the doctor/wife combination would score every time. Presumably both Chlorus and Nerva — or Nerva, at least — would’ve known about this Florus character, but as an accomplice the doctor had the better mileage. No wonder his was the name that’d been dropped. I’d have to find out more on Florus, though.

‘What about Murena himself?’ I said. ‘You know anything about him?’

‘Not a lot, dear. Apart from in connection with Gellia. He didn’t go into society much; as I said, in many ways he was quite strait-laced, a businessman rather than a bon viveur. Not a spender, either. Quite the wrong type to be the subject of gossip.’

‘He, uh, was planning to build a hotel. On the edge of town, on what was the Juventius estate.’

‘Was he, indeed? How unusual. Well, there I’m afraid I can’t help you.’

‘What about his partner? A guy called Tattius?’

‘Not a name I’m familiar with either, Marcus. I’m sorry. I know nothing about the business side of things.’ She stood up. ‘Now, if you’ve finished with me I’m afraid I must be going. Titus promised to take me to one of the jewellers in Fountain Street this afternoon, then on for a chat with Cornelia Gemella, but since he seems to have forgotten all about it I shall go by myself. You really will have to have another word with him. He’s been behaving most peculiarly.’

‘Ah…right,’ I said. Bugger. ‘Yeah, I’ll do that. When I see him.’

She sniffed. ‘That may not be for some time, on present showing. Goodness knows what he and that friend of his have to talk about all day. I’d’ve thought that even Siculan oil-lamps had a very limited conversational value.’

We watched her go. Perilla was looking thoughtful.

‘It is strange,’ she said. ‘About Priscus. Vipsania’s right; he’s scarcely ever around at the moment. She’s right about the shiftiness, too, when he is here.’

‘Yeah, well.’ I grinned. ‘Me, I’d bet the old guy’s finally hit his teens head on sixty years down the line. Only for the gods’ sake don’t tell Mother.’

She whipped round and stared at me open-mouthed. ‘He has what?’

‘Priscus has discovered the joys of booze and loose company. My guess is that he’s only using his oil-lamp pal as an excuse for bunking off to a wineshop somewhere. Or maybe something worse.’ I told her about the chat in Priscus and Mother’s bedroom.

‘Marcus, you are not serious!’ She was looking at me like I’d just told her the guy was screwing ducks. ‘You are serious! Holy Juno! Priscus?’

‘Call it a midlife crisis if you like, lady. Or in his case even that’s pushing things. The gods knows what triggered it, but there we are.’

‘What are you going to do about it?’

Now it was my turn to stare. ‘Me? Why the hell should I do anything?’

‘You’re head of household. It’s your duty.’

‘Jupiter on bloody wheels, Perilla! The guy’s twice my age and in possession of all his marbles.’ I stopped; be fair, Corvinus. ‘Well, some of his marbles. If he wants to spend a little quality time in wineshops and so on then that’s his affair. Besides, I don’t know for sure that that’s what he’s doing. He may be round at his friend’s house discussing — ’

‘Siculan oil-lamps. That’s nonsense and you know it.’

I sighed. ‘Yeah. Maybe I do. Okay, I’ll talk to the old bugger. But if there’s any grounding to be done or strips to be torn off that’s Mother’s job. Leave it for now. What about my suspects list?’

‘What about your suspects list?’

‘Come on, Perilla! This is important!’

‘All right. Go ahead if you must.’

Not exactly bouncing with enthusiasm, but you had to take what you got. And, as I say, the lady had a reputation for disinterest to keep up. I settled back. ‘Okay. My count to date is five. Which, coincidentally, is the number of people I’ve talked to today and doesn’t include the doctor. Call it six. With an option on this Florus guy. Seven.’

‘Marcus — ’

I ignored her. ‘Take Gellia first. The motive’s obvious, the oldest in the world. She’s half her husband’s age, she’s got an eye for the men and she’s on a reasonably tight leash financially. She could sit and wait for the old guy to pop his clogs, but she isn’t getting any younger and Baiae isn’t exactly a place that’s conducive to nurturing the old-fashioned wifely virtues.’

‘Your vocabulary is improving.’

‘Shut up, lady. She also has the means — that’s her doctor pal — and the opportunity.’

‘How is the doctor the means? That’s assuming, of course, that he’d have anything to do with it, which is a moot point in itself.’

‘Ligurius — that’s the manager — told me that Murena had been suffering from fainting fits recently. Gellia was pretty upset when I mentioned them and she tried to deny it, but Titus Chlorus confirmed. Okay; so let’s say Murena’s tame doctor, at Gellia’s suggestion, had been feeding him something that made him black out at times. All it’d take would be for one of the pair, Gellia or the doctor, to wait their opportunity to push him into the eel tank and blame it on an accident. Or maybe even simpler. The guy wasn’t subject to fits at all, they were a complete invention. Neither Ligurius nor his sons’ve ever seen him taking one of them, so the only proof would come from Gellia or the doctor. But they would provide a pretty good excuse subsequently for an unfortunate accident, wouldn’t they?’