David Wishart - Finished Business

‘Yeah, well, maybe I did get a bit carried away, but-’

‘Don’t you realize? If you’re right, which you probably are, those men are on the verge of staging a coup d’état . They can’t take risks, and they are not going to balk at killing anyone they even suspect might prevent them succeeding!’ She was sitting up on her couch and glaring at me. ‘You bloody, bloody idiot!’

‘Perilla, look, there’re only seven days to go to the Games. If that’s when it’s going to happen-’

‘You can not help the emperor by getting yourself killed. And frankly I can’t see why you should even risk it. You admit he’s a monster, or rapidly becoming one, and that Rome would be better off without him.’

‘True, but-’

‘Holy Mother Juno, you don’t even like the man! You haven’t even got that excuse!’

I sighed. ‘Perilla, we’ve been through this already. I told you: liking or whatever has nothing to do with it. Murder is murder, and treason’s treason. Gaius is the emperor, and he’s a human being.’ I held my hand up as she opened her mouth. ‘OK. The jury’s out on that last one, I admit, but still. I can’t just sit back twiddling my thumbs and let it happen. Not when there’s a chance I can stop it.’

‘Very well. Take your chances. Go to him and tell him what you know. At least then it’ll be out of your hands, and it may well save your life.’

‘Don’t be melodramatic.’

‘I am not being melodramatic, Marcus! I’m being … bloody … realistic!’

Jupiter! I took a deep breath and tried to speak calmly.

‘I can’t do that,’ I said. ‘I keep telling you, I don’t actually know anything. Not for absolute sure. That’s the problem.’

‘Very well. Tell him what you think you know. It’s better than nothing, and as you say you’re running out of time.’

Fair point. More than fair: I couldn’t spend the next seven days faffing around in the hope that something would magically pop up, only to have Gaius murdered at the end of them. I sighed again.

‘Yeah. Maybe you’re right,’ I said. ‘I’ll go round to the palace first thing tomorrow morning. You happy now?’

She sniffed. ‘Not especially. In fact, not at all, really, but I suppose it’s the best I can expect under the circumstances. So. What have we got? What’s the theory, at least?’

‘That there’s a conspiracy to assassinate Gaius during the Palatine Games. That the earlier conspiracy was a blind, constructed by the conspirators to distract Gaius’s and his man Felix’s attention from the real one a couple of months later and have them drop their guard. That …’ I stopped. ‘Shit!’

‘What is it?’

‘They’d need an agent provocateur . Someone party to the real conspiracy but involved — on the surface of things, anyway — with the fake one. And someone who, when the time came, would blow the whistle to Gaius and have the whole boiling rolled up.’

‘Valerius Asiaticus. Yes, we know.’

‘Uh-uh.’ I shook my head. ‘Not him. Oh, sure, he’s involved in the real conspiracy up to his neck, no arguments. But if he had been the whistle-blower, either Felix or Gaius himself would’ve told me in so many words. Besides, Gaius obviously despises the man.’

‘Very well, then. Who?’

‘Anicius Cerialis.’

‘ What? Marcus, that is just silly! Cerialis was an agent provocateur , certainly, but he was working for …’ She stopped, and her eyes widened as her brain caught up. ‘Oh.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Right. It had to be him. He was playing it three ways. The dupes in the first conspiracy — Graecinus and so on — thought he was with them right up until he sold them down the river to Gaius, which was how Gaius — or Felix, anyway — thought he’d arranged things. Only Cerialis wasn’t working for Gaius either; he was working for his pals in the real conspiracy, or acting on their instructions, anyway. My bet is that that’s why Surdinus died. Whether or not he was one of the dupes I don’t know; he may’ve been, because like a lot of them he was a starry-eyed idealist at heart. In any case, he found out somehow — or suspected, at least — that Cerialis was playing it two ways. Knowing he was working for Gaius would’ve been bad enough, but my guess is that he’d cut the corner and discovered he was with Asiaticus and his mates.’

‘Why so?’

‘Lady, we’ve been through this before, remember? Because if Surdinus had only discovered he was a double, Gaius — Felix, whoever — could’ve cut his losses and rolled the conspiracy up there and then. Like he did when I shoved my oar in. Inconvenient and scrappy, sure, and it’d offend Felix’s passion for neatness, but not the end of the world, because most if not all of the conspirators were known names already. Only if Surdinus were to tell Gaius that Cerialis was hobnobbing with someone outside the net, and that person was involved in the real conspiracy-’

‘It might well be blown in its turn.’ Panic attack forgotten; the lady was looking quite excited. Thrill of the chase; it happened every time. ‘Cerialis couldn’t take that risk. Marcus, that is brilliant !’

‘Yeah, well …’

‘So who have we got on the revised real-conspirator list?’

I ticked them off. ‘Definites — at least, definite as far as I’m concerned: Cerialis himself; Valerius Asiaticus; Annius Vinicianus; Arrecinus Clemens. Plus Lucius Papinius, because the bets are that when the time comes, as one of the emperor’s guard, he’d be the actual assassin — him and enough of his like-minded and seriously armed mates to do the job properly. As Praetorian commander, Clemens could arrange that because he’d be able to fix the duty rosters. Distinct possibles: Cassius Chaerea — another candidate for the sharp end — and the freedman-secretary guy, Julius Callistus. Oh, sure, there’ll be others, there must be, but they’ll do for a start.’

‘What about the emperor’s replacement? You still believe it would be Marcus Vinicius?’

Yeah, I’d been thinking a lot about that. I rubbed my chin.

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Vinicius is still the best bet. Not that I think he’s directly involved, mind; I’m with you on that. But his nephew definitely is, and like I say, with Gaius safely dead and Vinicius himself with his arm halfway up his back, he could get the appointment through the senate easy. Even so, after last night I’d take out a small side bet on Tiberius Claudius.’

‘ What? ’

I grinned. ‘Yeah, I know. But like you said, he’s no fool in himself. Far from it. And he’s the last surviving male Julio-Claudian. If Vinicius were to refuse, which he might well do because he obviously has a lot of time for him personally, Claudius would be in with at least a chance. Besides, he’d have Asiaticus fighting his corner.’

‘Messalina would be pleased.’

‘Over the moon, lady. She’d give her eye-teeth to play Livia to Claudius’s Augustus. Even so, I reckon she’d have her work cut out. I take it back; that guy is no puppet material, he has a mind of his own. It’s just that so far he hasn’t been given the chance to use it.’

‘Marcus, you don’t think …’ She stopped again, and shook her head. ‘No, of course not. It’s silly. He wouldn’t.’

‘Wouldn’t what?’

‘Get himself involved with the conspiracy. Consciously and actively, I mean.’

‘It’s possible. I can’t say. How well do you know him yourself?’

‘Hardly at all, really. Certainly nowhere near as well as I know Vinicius.’

‘There you are, then. We’ll just have to mark it down as …’ I looked round. ‘Yeah, Bathyllus, what is it?’