Marilyn Todd - Jail Bait

Claudia could not speak. There was a trapdoor across her throat and a mountain in her lungs. No, not a mountain. A volcano. Desperate to erupt.

‘Lavinia-’

‘That,’ the old woman said purposefully, ‘is why I won’t drink that wretched medicine. Since they found that tumour inside me, large as a fist and hard as lead, well…since then, I put myself into a trance whenever I feel the pain coming on. It’s a trick I picked up nearly fifty years ago, and it’s served me well ever since. Now, stop that grizzling, girl, I’m not dead yet. There’ll be time enough for sorrow, then, if that’s what takes your fancy.’

Claudia gulped back her sobs. Lavinia was right. If her estimation of the timescale was correct, better she lapped up every moment.

‘H-how long have you known?’ she asked. A quernstone seemed to have settled in her stomach.

‘Long enough for the pain to have aged me ten years,’ Lavinia replied. ‘But if I don’t make my sixty-fifth birthday, so what? Can you think of a more idyllic way to end my days, and if I have no regrets,’ she reached for another wine-filled phial, ‘neither should you.’ She gulped the contents down in one go. ‘But like I said, Lavinia’s not dead yet. In fact, she’s relishing her role in rooting out these murders. So then.’ She smacked her wrinkled lips. ‘Without any hard evidence from me, where does that leave the investigation?’

‘Grounded,’ Claudia snapped. Completely and utterly grounded.

Tarraco, goddammit, was going to get away with it.

The electric storm trapped by the Etruscan hills which surrounded Lake Plasimene had little impact down in Rome other than to compress the clouds low on to the rooftops and tickle the tiles of the Imperial Palace. As more lamps were lit to counteract the blackening sky, the wife of the Emperor picked up a silver hand mirror and patted her hair in place. Greying only at the temples, she was still a handsome woman and she knew it. Straight of back, sharp of eye…and sharper still of mind. For a quarter of a century she had been married to Augustus and for a quarter of a century she had striven to bear him a child. She ran her tongue over her teeth. Neither of them was at fault-both had been parents in previous marriages, he with Julia, she with two sons, Tiberius and Drusus-therefore, by definition, this barren marriage must be the will of the gods. Livia breathed on the mirror, then cleared the mist with the heel of her hand. Surely, then, it followed that the gods were pushing Julia and Tiberius together?

Downstairs, the clop-clop-clop of legionaries’ boots on stairs and mosaic and marble was finally beginning to fade and in the flickering half-light, Livia allowed herself a hint of a smile. With the two most influential houses in the Empire joined in matrimony, Rome would soar to even greater heights, rise to grander challenges, take on the Dacian kings for control of the goldmines, annexe Arabia, Germany, why, then even the Orient would be ripe for the taking…

True, Julia was heavy with the dead Regent’s fourth child, but their firstborn, Gaius, was only eight, for gods’ sake, and the instant she’d received news of Agrippa’s death, Livia swung her considerable intellect into action, selling her son’s virtues to the pregnant widow in such a way that the silly cow was virtually begging Tiberius to divorce that bookish wife of his and marry her instead. Knowing her son would do anything to secure the future of the Empire, Livia had brusquely dismissed his protestations of love for his wife. Tiberius would come around eventually.

So then. That was settled. All it needed now was a quick stamp of approval from the Senate and the question of Regent (and heir) was assured.

Smoothing the rug which covered the trapdoor over the secret staircase in her spinning room, her imperial majesty’s wrath turned to the fool who imagined that, with that one scrap of paper, he could wield power over a man as mighty as Augustus. Did Tullus’ weasel-faced nephew seriously imagine that she, wife of said Emperor, would stand by and watch twenty years of peace and stability washed into the Tiber simply for that little shit’s personal profit?

Imbecile. Livia spat in disgust at his memory.

His mistake, of course, came in his claim to a blood link. Snobby little turd thought it gave him protection. As if. Still, all things considered, it was as well the nephew’s approach had come through her. The Emperor was a clever, often devious opponent, but his wife was downright ruthless. And unlike her husband, she had not softened with time. Like a cat at a mousehole, she watched and she waited and she waited and she watched, and it hadn’t taken long before she’d discovered where the nephew had stashed his precious piece of paper. From then on, it was simple. Twist the architect’s arm into co-operating with the plan. Steal the incriminating letter. Find a patsy to raid the depository at the same time Sabbio Tullus collected his silver. Then sit back and let Spaco the dwarf work his charms…

Neat, or what?

Livia opened a casket and delved beneath the ropes of pearls and necklaces dripping with emeralds and agates. She had hoped, naturally, the day would never dawn when this paper surfaced, or that by the time it did, it would be powerless to cause damage.

Which is not to say she hadn’t been prepared.

From the early days of her marriage, she had been aware of its existence-there were no secrets between herself and Augustus in those days-but as long as Marcus Vispanius Agrippa remained married to the emperor’s daughter, there was no problem. Until Agrippa died both unexpectedly and prematurely, throwing the Empire into confusion. With Augustus away in Greece at the time, there was no official inquest and a whole range of question marks flew up. Most of those the Emperor had calmed down, but the biggest question remained-who was eligible to take over?

To Livia, the answer was simple, and having ensured the circumstances were ripe for a union of the Emperor’s child with his well-respected stepson, and with the immortals smiling upon them, what could stand in their way?

Apart from one small piece of paper, yellowed and softened with age?

An order, issued over thirty years before, penned by Augustus himself?

How it had come into that weasel’s possession, Livia would never know and moreover she did not remotely care. Suffice that it was back where it belonged (not that Augustus was aware of it, of course) and with the mouth of every witness sealed, that little scrap of handwriting could inflict no further damage.

Livia’s hand faltered over the flame. For one brief second, she felt the weight of the parchment’s responsibility and her mind drifted back through the years.

Julius Caesar lay dead, slain by men he called his friends. In his will he appointed his adopted nephew, Augustus, as his heir, who quickly won the people over with his charm and generosity, paying out of his own funds the legacies the Divine Julius had bequeathed the city but which Mark Anthony, hard-nosed as ever, refused to release from the treasury. Most of all, however, the young Augustus won them over with the sheer power of his personality and his dynamic leadership, bringing them unimagined peace after three generations of civil war.

Deep inside, Livia felt a warm glow envelop her. Twenty years on and thirty-two years after the death of Julius Caesar, the people still adored him, the Senate backed him to the hilt, Augustus was a hero to one and all.

But Augustus was a man. And one day the man would die.

Born of patrician rather than imperial blood, Livia was the first to admit that her own son, however magnificently he had proved himself in the field, would not be the Senate’s first choice. And supposing a small piece of paper was handed in at the next session?