David Wishart - Food for the Fishes

Two sixes and a five. She whooped, and hugged me.

Yeah, well, when the lady does something she does it with style. The punters erupted.

‘Okay, pal,’ I said to Florus through the hubbub. ‘You and me are going to have a little talk.’

The three of us (‘I’m not being left out now, Marcus! Not after I’ve done all the work!’) went over to the table I’d been sitting at with Philippus. Florus was looking sick as a dog. I’d brought the wine jug over with me and I filled both our cups. No point in being cruel, and the bastard looked like he needed it just as badly as I did. He sank his in a oner.

‘Right,’ I said. ‘Give. Let’s start with that grain barge deal. And you’re on oath, remember. Gambling debts are sacred.’

‘There’s nothing to tell! It’s all above-board!’

‘Fine.’ That didn’t explain why he’d practically filled his pants when we’d bumped into each other at Nerva’s a few hours ago, mind. Or why he’d looked like running when he’d caught sight of me that evening. Or why he was sweating now like a pig in a steam bath. However, we’d take things as they came. ‘So we’ll just begin with the straight facts, okay?’

‘Aulus and I are partners. We’re going to buy the barge — it’s one of these big ones that go from Egypt to Puteoli — do it up and moor it offshore as a floating gambling hall and brothel.’ He glanced sideways at Perilla. ‘I’m sorry, but he did ask.’

‘That’s all right.’ Perilla gave him a bright smile. The lady was looking chirpy as hell. Jupiter, it’d be months before I took the bounce out of her for this! ‘I’m not offended, Aquillius Florus. A brothel is a very good investment, and it keeps girls off the streets.’

I ignored her. ‘Equal partners?’ I said.

‘Yes. Yes, of course!’

‘It sounds pricey to me. Where’s the money coming from?’

Florus coloured up. ‘That’s none of your damn — ’ he began.

‘Oh, yes it is, pal. As of five minutes ago. Gambling debt, remember? Just answer the question, okay?’

He subsided. ‘I already had my share. A legacy from an uncle.’

‘Congratulations. What about Nerva?’

This was the sticking point, and both of us knew it. Florus’s eyes shifted. ‘He…was hoping to get it from his father,’ he muttered.

‘Yeah. Only his father wouldn’t oblige. Wouldn’t and couldn’t both, because he’d got plans of his own. Expensive plans, connected with the new hotel he wanted to build. Right?’ Florus didn’t answer. ‘Which was why they had the slanging match the day Murena died.’

‘He didn’t tell me about that!’

‘Maybe not. But believe me, it happened. Fine. So if Nerva wasn’t getting the money from his father, and if your barge scheme was still a viable option, which it was and is because you’re talking about it in the present tense, then where did he propose getting the cash?’ He hesitated. ‘Come on, Florus! Give!’

‘From a money-lender in Puteoli. Gaius Frontinus.’

I kept my face expressionless. ‘Is that so, now?’

His eyes widened. ‘You know him?’

‘I’ve heard of him. Quite recently, as it happens. On what security?’

The shifty look was back. ‘Aulus has a house of his own. A good one.’

‘No one puts his own house up as security for a dodgy business venture, pal. Not unless he’s desperate, or an idiot. And you haven’t answered the question.’

‘All right!’ Florus glared at me. ‘Then I don’t know! Whatever the security was, Frontinus accepted it. The why isn’t my business. How he came up with his half of the capital was Aulus’s concern, not mine.’

‘Yeah. Only in the event he doesn’t need a loan now, does he? Not with his father and his brother both dead.’

‘Titus’s share of the estate goes to his widow. They’ve got a daughter. That’s the law. If the marriage has produced children then — ’

‘Yeah, I know all that,’ I said. ‘But with his brother dead Aulus Nerva controls the family company’s finances. Together with his father’s partner, sure, technically, at least, but Decimus Tattius isn’t going to make any waves. The widow Catia neither, for different reasons. Oh, and we might add Gellia, too, while we’re on the subject. I understand you’ve got a bit of influence there.’

If Florus had looked green before he went three shades greener. ‘You leave Gellia out of this,’ he muttered. ‘She’s got nothing to do with it.’

I’d touched a nerve somewhere. Maybe it was time to probe a little deeper. ‘She’d have a prime motive for killing her husband, wouldn’t she? Mind you, she’d need help.’

Florus stood up; or tried to, at least, because I grabbed his arm and forced him down again.

‘I’d nothing to do with Licinius Murena’s death, Corvinus!’ he said. ‘Nor Chlorus’s. I swear that. If Gellia had, then I know nothing about it. If you think — ’

‘Yeah. Right. Still, it’s a thought, isn’t it?’

‘Put it out of your head. We’re…friends, certainly, I admit that, but I wouldn’t…I couldn’t…’ He swallowed. ‘Gods! You’ve got to believe me! It’s the pure and honest truth!’

Shit, he was probably right: this long streak of cowardly lard wouldn’t have the guts to murder anyone. Which left one interesting alternative.

‘But Aulus Nerva would, right?’ I said softly.

All the colour drained out of his face. He didn’t say anything.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Stop faffing around. Just tell me what you know.’

‘I don’t know anything! That’s the trouble!’

‘Fine. Tell me what you guess.’

He was quiet for a long time. Then he said: ‘Aulus wasn’t here the night of the murder. He tried to tell you he was, but he wasn’t.’

‘Yeah, I know that. I checked. And?’

‘He wasn’t here last night, either. When Chlorus died. He should’ve been: we had an arrangement. When I talked to him this afternoon he said he’d had a head-cold and decided to stay in.’

‘Did he? Have a head-cold, I mean?’

‘He gets them sometimes. But you talked to him yourself, after I left. What’s your answer?’

Yeah; I saw the guy’s point. Not a sniffle. Still, it might’ve cleared up. All the same, it meant that Aulus Nerva didn’t have an alibi for either the evening of his father’s death or his brother’s. And he’d lied, or tried to lie, about both. Interesting. ‘Is that all?’ He hesitated. ‘Come on, Florus! Gambling debt, forty big ones, remember, and I’m not getting value for money here! Cough it up, pal!’

‘He…said he wished his father would drop dead. Or that someone would kill him,’ Florus muttered. ‘The day we agreed on a price for the barge. He said it would…simplify things. He was serious, Corvinus. Really serious.’

The guy was still white as a sheet, and shaking. Yeah, right: I reckoned we’d got to the heart of that one, finally: Aquillius Florus was scared out of his skin. ‘So,’ I said, ‘you think Nerva murdered his father. And his brother. To get the money for your grain barge scam.’

‘Corvinus, I swear to you I don’t know anything more about it! Whatever he did, it’s got nothing to do with me, I’m not involved, okay? If Aulus is a killer then — ’

‘Right. Right.’ Jupiter, I felt sick myself.

‘All I ask is you don’t tell him I’ve told you any of this. If he finds out he’ll kill me too.’

‘Fine.’ The only thing I wanted now was to go. ‘Okay, pal. Interrogation over. You still owe us twenty gold pieces in cash. Pay the lady.’

He took out his purse with a shaking hand and counted out twenty big ones. Then he stood up. ‘Corvinus, I swear — ’ he said.

He stopped. His eyes were fixed on something behind me. I turned.