David Wishart - Solid Citizens

‘I’ll do that,’ I said. ‘Thanks a lot.’

I left the yard and started up towards the centre. I hadn’t gone far when the old instinct kicked in again and I turned round.

Shit. The persistent freedman. Only this time he wasn’t trying to hide, or to avoid me. He kept on coming.

Well, I was safe enough: we were still in Bovillae, after all, on a public street, and there were plenty of people around. I waited for him to catch up.

‘OK, pal,’ I said when he had. ‘What’s this all about?’

‘I’m taking you to see the boss,’ he said.

I didn’t have to ask who the boss was, not any more, because now he was close up I’d placed him. He’d been at Caesius’s funeral, in the market square, carrying a bundle of rods. Manlius’s rod man, or one of them.

‘Is that so, now?’ I said. ‘Care to tell me why?’

Instead of answering, his hand gripped my arm. I shook it off, grabbed it with both of mine, and bent the thumb back as far as it would go. He grunted and froze, his eyes wide.

‘OK,’ I said quietly. ‘Public place, right? Not somewhere to cause any trouble, is it? Now you be nice and in return I won’t break your fucking thumb. Deal?’

‘Deal,’ he said, through gritted teeth.

‘Fine. That’s better.’ I let go.

‘Look.’ He was rubbing his hand. ‘I was only to tail you, right? See where you went.’

‘OK. You were doing that. So what’s changed the rules?’ He said nothing. ‘Suit yourself, friend, I’ll answer for you. I’ve been sniffing around the old wool store, I talked to Sextus Garganius, and I’ve just been to Marcus Ulpius’s place. Tick three boxes. That’s at least one too many for your boss’s peace of mind. So now you’ve decided that Manlius will want to have an urgent word with me about the wool store business in person, yes?’ Still nothing. ‘Come on, you bastard! You know damn well what’s going on! If Manlius used one of his own men to set the fire — which he did — then it isn’t hard to guess who picked the lucky number.’ He gawped at me, and I sighed; rod men as a profession don’t need to be too bright, sure, but this one couldn’t even manage a glimmer. And most of the size wasn’t muscle but flab. Heaven help the empire. ‘Fair enough, forget it, sunshine. I’d’ve been calling on Manlius soon in any case. Off we go.’

It wasn’t far: on the main drag again, and only a couple of hundred yards centre-side of Caesius’s place. My none-too-friendly rod man nodded to the door slave sitting outside, who opened the door for us, and we went in. The major-domo met us in the atrium.

‘Boss around, Flavus?’ Rod said.

The major-domo was looking at me with obvious curiosity. ‘Yes, he is,’ he said. ‘In the study, with Sextus Canidius.’

‘You want to tell him I’ve got Valerius Corvinus here? He’ll know what it’s about.’

The major-domo gave me another curious look and went out.

‘You don’t need to stay, pal, if you’ve got other things to do,’ I said. ‘I can take it from here. I’m a big boy now. I don’t need nannying.’

‘The boss’ll want me to deliver you personally, so I’m delivering you personally.’

Well, you couldn’t argue with that; stark in its simplicity, and offering no room for interpretation. We waited in silence until the major-domo came back.

‘This way, sir, please,’ he said to me.

I followed him through to the study, with Rod tagging along behind. Manlius and Canidius were sitting on stools at a small table neatly stacked with various items of paperwork and wax tablets. They looked up as I came in, their faces expressionless.

‘He’s just been talking to Ulpius, sir,’ Rod said to Manlius. ‘I thought you might want a word.’

‘All right, Decimus. Well done, you can go.’ Manlius waited until the door had shut behind him. ‘Good afternoon, Valerius Corvinus.’

There was another stool by the desk. I pulled it up and sat down.

‘Interrupting something, am I?’ I said.

‘Just some everyday administrative matters. They’ll keep.’ He was watching me carefully.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Do you want to do the talking or shall I?’ Silence. I crossed my legs. ‘Fine. The wool store business was a scam from the start. Canidius here, as quaestor, made sure you got the contract when it fell unexpectedly vacant. Technically that should’ve been illegal, since you were and are a serving aedile, but you’ve got the senate in your pocket and it went through on the nod. You squared the night watchman Sextus Garganius and had a crooked carter by the name of Marcus Ulpius switch most of the bales for rags and take the wool over to Aricia where it was sold on by a guy called Gnaeus Pompeius, presumably splitting the proceeds between you. Then, to cover the theft, you staged a fire set by the tame gorilla who brought me here. Decimus, wasn’t it?’ I paused for a response that didn’t come. ‘How am I doing?’

Manlius was looking green. Canidius was just … looking.

‘Corvinus,’ Manlius said, ‘I swear-’

Canidius put a hand on his arm. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me. ‘So how much do you want?’ he said.

‘Wrong question, pal. Wrong attitude.’

‘No one was hurt in the fire. There wasn’t even any other property damage. We made sure of that.’

‘True. And that makes it OK, does it?’ I uncrossed my legs. ‘Look. I’ll level with you here. My mandate’s just to find out who killed Quintus Caesius. That still stands, and to be honest the fact that the guy had promised an investigation when he took up office puts you two well and truly in the frame.’ Manlius started to say something, but another touch on the arm from his pal made him clam up. ‘Now it could be that you’re just another couple of crooked politicians on the make, so where the actual scam’s concerned I’m willing to cut you a bit of slack. Option one: I take what I know to, say, an outsider member of the senate such as Silius Nerva and let him deal with it as he sees fit.’ Manlius blanched, but said nothing. ‘Option two: well, you must’ve turned a pretty substantial profit out of all this, while the town’s out a season’s wool plus one of the communal buildings. Maybe it’d be a nice gesture if two of their solid citizens made it up to them. Say by offering to pay out of their own pockets for a snazzy new public meeting-hall with all the trimmings on the empty site. Plus rebuilding the warehouse elsewhere, of course.’

‘That would cost a small fortune!’ Canidius snapped. ‘Far more than double what we …’ He caught himself, and his lips formed a tight line. ‘This is sheer blackmail!’

‘Suit yourself, pal,’ I said. ‘Like I told you, it’s only one of the options on offer. Choose the other one if you prefer.’

He and Manlius exchanged a look.

‘We’ll consider it,’ Canidius said, through gritted teeth.

‘The offer’s limited as far as time goes, so don’t take too long, will you? Let’s say until the festival, max?’ I smiled. ‘Fine. That’s got that out of the way. Now. Alibis.’

‘ What? ’ Manlius goggled.

‘For the night Caesius was killed. I told you, you’re both in the frame for the murder, together and separately.’

‘Corvinus, this is an insult,’ Canidius said softly. ‘We had nothing to do with Quintus Caesius’s death.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Prove it.’

Again, the exchanged glance. ‘As it happens,’ Canidius said, ‘we were together, here. We’d been discussing some town business until late in the afternoon and hadn’t finished. Marcus invited me to stay to a working dinner. As a result, I didn’t leave until almost midnight.’

‘That’s right.’ Manlius nodded violently.