Rosemary Rowe - The Fateful Day

‘We’ve come to get those purple-stripers who are here — they’re thieves and murderers.’

She stuffed the nibbled chicken inside her tunic top. ‘Blinking incomers — they think they own the place. Keep the proper customers away and won’t give a girl a quadrans for her time. What’s it worth to help you, citizen?’

I glanced at Alfredus Allius, who was looking dazed. ‘A sestertius says you get me in the room with them, another sestertius if we get them under guard.’

‘Done!’ She spat on her two palms and offered them to me. I realised this was a kind of contract, so I did the same with mine. She squeezed my fingers briefly and then leaned forward as if we were the only people in the room, saying softly, ‘It won’t be difficult. They’re in the big rooms round the corner at the back. They’ve sent the girls away into a single cubicle, and they’re sitting together in the other one, whispering, while the big slave’s standing in the doorway keeping watch. They think they can’t be heard but … come with me.’ She placed a chubby finger to her lips and led the way upstairs.

I was glad I’d not brought Minimus up here. It was a frowsty place, a row of little cubicles with ill-fitting doors with graphic illustration of the ‘skills’ available, and — judging by the one that Livia showed us to — nothing but a scruffy mattress and a bench within. Alfredus Allius had followed dutifully, but he was looking very uncomfortable indeed.

‘The others are just like this — round the other side. But put your ear here …’ Livia leant over against the wooden inner wall, as if to demonstrate.

I did as I was told. I could hear a muffled mumbling, but that was all. Any hopes of trapping the Egidius brothers in this way disappeared as quickly as they’d come. Alfredus Allius came to take my place, and then disaster struck. The bench-bed buckled and he tumbled to the floor, taking the outer door with him. He landed in the narrow passageway with a crash and an oath that rang across the dock.

The result was instant. I rushed out to help him, but he’d disturbed the house. There were shrieks and cries, and frightened faces peered from every door. The owner was already charging up the stairs and round the far corner came an enormous form. Cacus was standing on the landing watching me.

‘Great Dis,’ I heard him murmur. ‘It’s that citizen again.’

‘What is it, Cacus?’ It was Commemoratus, in his fancy cloak — utterly incongruous in this shabby place.

‘It’s Libertus, master. He must have followed us.’

‘Nonsense, Cacus. We saw him leave the quay.’ Commemoratus pushed the slave aside. ‘Dear Mercury, you’re right! It is the citizen. What are you doing here?’

‘Looking for the Egidius brothers,’ I said, evenly. ‘To accuse them of theft and of murdering several slaves they did not own. I’ve brought a curial magistrate to witness it.’ I gestured to the shadows at my feet, where Alfredus Allius was picking himself slowly from the floor.

Behind Commemoratus another man appeared. In this light it was difficult to see, but he was clearly younger — and as Festus had declared — his skin was pasty white. And he was burly — almost big enough to be a gatekeeper. But the wise woman was right — in his striped toga and elaborate cloak I would never have recognised the hunched amanuensis that I’d seen at work.

‘Citizen Libertus!’ His voice was dangerous. ‘I told my brother we should have killed you straight away. I’ve heard so much about you from your patron that I knew at once that you were dangerous. If we’d only run you over when we met you on the lane … But my brother wasn’t sure that it was you at all.’

‘And you did not want to draw attention to yourselves by leaving corpses on the road,’ I said. ‘Your intention was to disappear. No one was ever going to look for you — you were supposed to be among the dead. And you almost got away with it. If I hadn’t happened by, it would have been tonight, at least, before the bodies of the slaves were found. And no one would make a connection with a Druid grove.’ I saw a flicker of surprise. ‘Of course, you did not know that some children found your so-called sacred oak while they were collecting firewood today. Unfortunate for you. You must have hoped that by the time the heads were found they would be so decayed that nobody would recognise the features anyway. As it is …’

‘I told you we should have burnt those stupid heads.’ Commemoratus turned on his brother angrily.

‘And I told you to bring Libertus back out to our own villa where we could dispose of him. I knew he would bring trouble if we let him live.’

‘I did my best. I couldn’t help it if he wasn’t at his workshop when I called. And you did no better — you went to find him afterwards, and all you did was kill a slave!’

I felt myself go pale. ‘It was you who killed him! And now I’ve proof of it! Your brother has admitted it in front of witnesses.’

The huge form of Cacus detached itself from the surrounding shadows. ‘What witnesses are these? Who do you think is going to live to tell the tale? Don’t stop me, master — this is the only way. It was such a perfect plan. By the time the deeds were known you would be far away — and we made sure you had an alibi for every incident. Whatever people thought, there was not the slightest proof. And no one knew your brother was involved — the amanuensis was dead, apparently. You had got the gold and we would all have got away — even selling Marcus’s own treasures with the house. It was perfect vengeance for what they did to you.’

‘No vengeance is enough. Justice would never bring my other brother back,’ his owner said.

‘So you devised a symbolic vengeance of your own — by hanging that poor gatekeeper?’ I said. ‘Hanging, as your brother had once hanged, in the front entrance to your own house — is that right?’

‘You may be clever,’ the younger brother cried. ‘But that won’t save you now. Let me have this one, Cacus — you can kill the rest — but I’ll slit his throat with that same knife his servant tried to use on me. On me!!! Because I asked him what his master knew — and then he wouldn’t tell me, though I shook him till his teeth were rattling in his silly little head. Even then he got away and went up the ladder like the fool he was — and after that it wasn’t difficult.’ He laughed, a crazy laugh that made my blood run cold. ‘And now we’ll see his master follow him.’

He made a lunge towards me and I saw the knife blade gleam. He was a big man, big enough to change clothes with a gatekeeper — far too big for me to stand a chance. I closed my eyes and tried, as a last resort, to decide which way to jump. There was a sudden rushing from between my legs, and I sat down heavily just in time to see a small form hurtle at my assailant’s knees. They buckled under him, and the man came tumbling down on top of me. I just had time to grasp his arm and force the knife away — and realise that the blood that covered me was not my own at all.

I rolled aside and let the body tumble down the stairs. It made a dreadful noise and a still more dreadful mess. I heard the taverna owner shrieking in the street, ‘Send for the town watch! The army! Anyone!’

I looked up, expecting to find an angry Cacus bearing down on me. But to my surprise the slave was backing off. The scruffy-looking soldier that I’d seen on the quay was holding Commemoratus in a practised lock with a drawn dagger pointed at his throat.

‘One move from you and the patrician’s dead,’ he snarled. Cacus looked uncertain. It seemed ridiculous. He could have smashed the soldier with a single blow — but his master would have died, and some ancient loyalty prevented him.