David Wishart: Food for the Fishes

‘Ligurius wasn’t a killer, lady. Not originally, not by nature. Murena’s death was an accident. What turned the guy into a murderer was knowing I was sniffing around the corpse and being afraid I’d find out what happened. That’s what I’m saying. If I hadn’t interfered then it would’ve ended with Murena, and Murena’s was no murder at all. Chlorus and Tattius would still be alive — even those bastards had some right to life — and Ligurius and Penelope would still have a future, or at least the hopes of one.’

‘Trebbio wouldn’t.’

That stopped me. She was right, of course: someone had to be up for the rap, and Trebbio had been it. Penelope had told me upfront that she wouldn’t’ve interfered. He could’ve got off at the trial, sure, but that wasn’t likely. Praetor’s reps are very neat about those things: a murder needs a murderer, and that’s the end of it. We were still talking balances here, though: one life saved against three lost. Not good arithmetic. I said so.

‘One innocent life, Marcus,’ Perilla said.

‘Against three guilty? One I’d grant you, just. The other two — well, Chlorus and Tattius might’ve been out-and-out bastards, but could you put your hand on your heart and say they deserved to die? Because I couldn’t. And they died because I interfered.’

She put the book down. ‘They died because Ligurius killed them,’ she said.

I sighed. Yeah, well; it wasn’t worth arguing, and she was right, anyway. It was just the mood I was in. I watched the squirrel for a bit, and after a while Perilla picked her book back up and carried on reading.

Ten minutes later she raised her head. ‘Why don’t we go to Philippus’s tonight?’ she said.

My eyes had glazed over. I snapped back to attention. ‘What?’

‘I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. He’s a lovely man really. And I noticed that some of the people there were playing Robbers. I enjoy Robbers.’

Jupiter in bloody spangles! ‘Perilla, that’s a men-only gambling hall! Just because he let you in once as a favour doesn’t mean — ’

‘Nonsense. We can ask, at least. I’m sure there must be some good players there. I can give you a whole row of men and still beat you hands down every time. It’d be nice to have some decent competition for once.’

Oh, shit. What had I let loose? ‘Perilla — ’

‘We could even persuade Vipsania to let us take Priscus along. He’d be all right with us there, and the poor man deserves a proper holiday like anyone else.’

I had to put a stop to this right now. ‘Perilla, listen,’ I said. ‘Pin your bloody ears back for once and use them. We are not going back to Philippus’s, okay? Believe me, gambling’s a habit that can get a real grip on you. Just don’t start, right?’

She grinned at me.

Bugger. I stood up, kissed her and went inside to see if I could scare up Bathyllus and another half jug of wine.

Ah, well; maybe life wasn’t too bad after all. And an evening at Philippus’s might be fun.

So long as the lady didn’t get a taste for it.