Rosemary Rowe - Requiem for a Slave

I was still reeling. Of course, this was the kind of gift in which Marcus specialized: I would have had to keep the place in good repair, at my own expense, and in the end his family would reap the benefit. And public life required the lavish financing of public works and games, which would be crippling, though it was possible to recover something of the cost through patronage. But if Marcus had instructed me to stand, I could scarcely have refused. Thwarting the wishes of a man like that is apt to be severely detrimental to the health. Fortunately, I had not been called upon to choose.

I said, ‘But Marcus never wrote to me of this!’ And then I realized. ‘Or at least I never received it if he did.’

‘I am sure he meant to. I know he was planning to send a present for your child.’

I nodded. So that was the explanation for the expensive gift! It was a kind of bribe, by proxy as it were. ‘And that was the reason Quintus wanted me removed?’ I made the link at last. ‘Not simply because he was afraid I’d find him out, but because I might have been a rival to his chosen candidate.’

‘I am sorry if that is an insult to your pride.’

‘So I was wrong in my assumption. Marcus is not in danger after all.’

He whirled around on me. ‘But of course he is. More than ever, after what you’ve told me here. I thought that he’d asked you and you had refused, and he had succumbed to Gaius’s pleadings in disgust. But if that is not the case, and Greybeard was elected on the basis of a lie, then Quintus cannot expect to get away with it for long. Obviously, Marcus will reveal the truth as soon as he returns.’

‘So Quintus will want him silenced? By Virilis, no doubt, since he is on his way to see my patron now.’

‘I doubt that the attempt will take place straight away — that would be too suspicious. It will happen nearer home. But after what you tell me, we cannot take the risk. I shall send a rider after Virilis at once and have him stopped. Wait here a moment.’ He took a piece of vellum from the drawer beneath his desk, dipped a sharpened quill into a bowl of soot-black ink, scribbled a sentence and then folded the paper and attached a seal, pressing his seal-ring on to wax that he had melted at the lamp. He went outside and shouted down the stairs, ‘Optio!’

The man was there so quickly that it seemed he must have been fired from a bow. ‘You called me, sir?’ he panted.

‘Have this sent at once. The fastest messenger. It is to be relayed to every military inn between here and Londinium. It is only to be given to the commanding officer, who is to send it on at once. The man named is to be put under immediate arrest and brought back here as soon as possible. He is not to be permitted his weapon or his horse, or to change his clothing. Oh, and send a detail to the house of Quintus Severus as well. I know that he’s the chief decurion, but have him brought in here for questioning. Is that quite clear?’

The optio was looking startled, but he rapped out a reply. ‘Clearly understood, sir.’ He clattered off downstairs.

The commander sat down at his desk again. ‘We’ll catch him, Libertus; have no fear of that. We’ll have fresh horses and fresh riders at our disposal at the inns, and Virilis won’t know that we are after him, so he will be making no especial speed.’ He sighed. ‘We’ll pick up Quintus too, though your accusations of conspiracy might be hard to prove, since he never actually murdered anyone himself. Besides, as decurion, he would not be put to death, even if we did find proper evidence — the most he could expect is lifetime exile or confiscation of his property. Though I am very interested in what he said to you: that Virilis might accuse him of assisting the rebels in the wood. Why would he say that if there’s no truth in it? And, of course, Quintus is an Ordovicius by birth. But, as he says himself, it will be hard to prove.’

I nodded. ‘Virilis might agree to testify, of course. That would be sufficient confirmation to convict.’

‘Then let us hope he will — either under torture or in return for a promise to spare his life. Meantime, we have adequate evidence for a corruption charge, so we can bring Quintus in for questioning on that. If we can find him. He might have fled by now, and, unlike the case of Virilis, we won’t know where to look. And to think I had him in this very room this afternoon and let him go.’

‘You did?’

He nodded. ‘We were discussing the transport of some valuable items to the town — which seems ironic in the light of this.’

‘I see,’ I said. ‘So what will happen now?’

‘You are going to tell me about that body in the woods. Pedronius’s land slave, I believe you said. You have some idea what he was doing there? I suppose you’re going to tell me that Virilis murdered him?’

‘Well, that’s what happened, if I am any judge. I hear he was strangled, like the other two. I presume that the cord had been removed? And perhaps there were marks on his armpits and his thighs, where he’d been carried on the saddle of a horse?’

The commander nodded. ‘Very well. Suppose that you are right. Why did he do it?’

‘Because the boy knew too much. It would not have mattered if the plan had gone aright, but it all went badly wrong. I went to the mosaic site instead of Junio, so the slave had to go and report to Virilis, who was forced to send him back to tell a blatant lie — that there had been an accident to me — which the boy knew was not true. That made him dangerous, though when Minimus sent him over to my house, taking the same message, Virilis let him go, knowing he could catch up with him on horseback later on and dispose of him. I think you will find that they were actually seen, and I can find you an urchin who could swear to it and no doubt identify the corpse and rider, if he got the chance.’ I frowned at him. ‘What made you think the rebels were involved?’

‘The fact that they had very clearly searched the corpse. Every seam and hem had been undone, his boots had been removed and even the soles had been slit open with a knife. They were looking for something — a message, we supposed. And someone is giving them information, I am sure. Before your patron left for Rome, we had defeated them — driven them back into the forests in the west — but recently they have been having more and more success. They evade our ambushes and there are constant raids — every time a convoy of military equipment passes through.’ He sighed. ‘Ever since Quintus became decurion, in fact. You don’t suppose. . He couldn’t have used the same boy as a messenger to them as well?’

‘Why not? It wasn’t his slave, if he did get caught. He used to borrow him from Pedronius, ostensibly to move kindling about — and where would that take him other than the wood? And why move kindling, come to think of it? Unless there was a message of some kind in its midst, which the slave-boy might not know about, especially if the wood was bundled as it often is-’

He interrupted me. ‘Well, Quintus won’t tell us, you can be sure of that. And the slave-boy’s dead, so we have no proof at all. If only we could lure the rebels to a trap. They must have a signal, but we don’t know what it is.’ He got to his feet and stretched out a hand to me. ‘Well, goodbye, Libertus, thank you for your help. I’m sure we’ll catch Virilis before he does his worst, but that’s the best that I can offer, I’m afraid. I wish I could prove your case against the chief decurion, but I can only hold him on suspicion of corruption as it is. So there you are. By the power vested in me, I fine you one sestertius for indignity of dress, and declare that you are innocent of any other charge. So you are free to go. You can pay the optio if he is back by now. And I believe that I can see that red-haired slave that you were looking for, walking across the courtyard with a soldier by his side. And your son is with them, by the look of it.’