Steven Saylor - The House Of The Vestals

"Except that I see a dead body on the floor."

"Yes, that," he said, wrinkling his nose. "I was preparing to go-oh yes, I lingered for a few moments, savoring the delicious danger of the situation; what man would not?-and then there came a terrible cry from behind that curtain. The sort of sound a man makes, I suppose, when he's having his throat cut. I pulled back the curtain, and there he was, writhing on the floor."

"You saw no sign of the murderer?"

"Only the knife on the floor, still spinning about in that pool of blood."

"You didn't pursue the killer?"

"I confess that I was paralyzed with shock. A few moments later, of course, the Vestals began arriving."

"The cry was heard all over the house," said Licinia. "I arrived first. The others came soon after."

"And what did you see?"

"The body, of course; and Fabia and Catilina huddled together…"

"Can you be more precise?"

"I don't understand."

"Licinia, you force me to be crude. How were they dressed?"

"Why, exactly as they are now! Catilina in his tunic, Fabia in her vestments."

"And the bed-"

"-was just as you see it: unslept-in. If you are insinuating-"

"I insinuate nothing, Licinia; I only wish to see the event exactly as it occurred."

"And quite a sight it was," said Catilina, his eyelids droopy. "A bloody corpse, a dagger, six Vestals swooning all around- what an extraordinary moment, when you think of it! How many men can claim to have been at the center of such an wild and sensual tableau?"

"Catilina, you are absurd!" said Rufus, with disgust.

"No one saw the killer escaping? Neither you, Licinia, nor any of the others?"

"No. To be sure, the courtyard was dark, as it is now. But I lost no time in sending one of the slave girls to close and bar the door."

"Then it's possible that you trapped the villain here in the house?"

"So I hoped. But we've searched the premises already and found no one."

"Then he escaped; unless, of course, Catilina invented him altogether…"

"No!" cried Fabia. "Catilina speaks the truth. It happened just as he says."

Catilina turned up his palms and raised his eyebrows. "There you have it, Gordianus. Would a Vestal lie?"

"Catilina, this is not a joke. You must realize how the circumstances appear. Who else but you had cause to murder this intruder?"

To this he had no reply.

"I'm no expert in religious law," I said, "but it's hard to imagine a more serious offense than committing murder in the House of the Vestals. Even if you can somehow explain away your presence here tonight-and few judges would find a forged note or a practical joke an adequate excuse-the fact of the corpse remains. In an ordinary murder case, a Roman citizen has the option of fleeing to some foreign land rather than face trial and punishment; but when desecration is involved, the authorities have no option for leniency. Unless of course you flee the city tonight…"

He fixed me with a steady gaze. His eyes seemed impossibly blue, as if blue flames danced behind them. "Though I may joke and make riddles, Gordianus, never doubt that I understand the circumstance in which I find myself. No, I will not flee Rome like a frightened cur and leave a young Vestal to face a change of iniquity alone."

Fabia began to weep.

Catilina bit his lip. "If this was more than a practical joke- and the corpse is proof of that-then I think I might know who is behind it."

"That would be a start. Who?"

"The same man who is behind the prosecution against Licinia and Crassus. His name is Publius Clodius. Do you know him?"

"I know of him, certainly. A rabble-rouser, troublemaker-"

"And a personal enemy of mine. A constant schemer. A man of such low moral character that he would have no qualms about involving the Vestal Virgins in a plot to bring down his enemies."

"So you suspect Publius Clodius of luring you here with a forged message, and of having you followed. But why would he send his man in after you? Why not have him raise the alarm from outside the house, trapping you inside? We still have no motive for this man's murder."

Catilina shrugged. "I can tell you no more."

I shook my head. "I'll do what I can. I'll want to question the other Vestals and whatever slaves were in the house tonight; that can wait for morning. I may be able to track down the boy who brought you that message, and thus trace it back to Clodius, or whomever. I may be able to ferret out the man or men who followed you on your way here tonight, if they exist; they might be induced to tell what they know about the dead man and his reason for being here. All this is no more than circumstantial, I fear, but I might uncover something of use for your defense, Catilina. Still, it looks very bad. I see nothing more to be done tonight, except perhaps to make another search of the premises."

"We searched already, and found nothing," Licinia said.

"But we could search again," said Fabia. "Please, Virgo Maxima?"

"Very well," said Licinia sternly. "Summon some of the slave girls, and see that they're armed with knives from the kitchens. We'll look again in every corner and crevice."

"I'll come with you," said Catilina. "To protect you," he added, looking at Fabia. "The man we're looking for is a desperate murderer, after all."

Licinia scowled, but did not protest.

In the moonless courtyard, beneath the colonnade, I paused to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. Rufus bumped against me. I stumbled and kicked a pebble that skittered across the stones. The sound seemed loud in the stillness. From the pool came a tiny splash.

The noise startled me and made my heart race. Only that frog again, I thought. Still, I saw phantoms in the shadows, and shook my head at such imaginings. In just such a way, I thought, Catilina might have imagined being followed by men who were not there. Even so, I felt in some way that Rufus and I were not alone in the courtyard. The faint chanting of the Vestals from the nearby temple seemed to hover in the still air above us. I sat on a bench, close by the reeds at the edge of the pond, and gazed at the stars that spangled its black surface.

Rufus sat beside me. "What do you think, Gordianus?"

"I think we are in deep waters."

"Do you believe Catilina?"

"Do you?"

"Not for a moment! The man is false to the core, all charm and no substance."

"Ah, you compare him to Cicero, perhaps, and find him wanting."

"Exactly."

"And yet it seems true to his character that he would respond to such a reckless letter for the sheer novelty, does it not? That part of the story seems credible; or is he so devious as to devise such a letter himself, to use as a ruse if needed?"

"He's certainly wicked enough!"

"I'm not sure of that. As for his innocence of the murder, I'm impressed by his detail of finding the knife still spinning about in the pool of blood. It seems too striking a detail to be invented on the spot."

"You underestimate his cleverness, Gordianus."

"Or perhaps you underestimate his nobleness. What if it was Fabia who murdered the intruder, and Catilina is lying to protect her?"

"Now that is truly absurd, Gordianus! The girl is frail and timid-"

"And very much in love with Catilina. Did you not see that, Rufus? Might she have killed in a frenzy to protect her lover?"

"This is too fantastic, Gordianus."

"Perhaps you're right. The murmur of distant chanting and the pool full of stars carry me away. I even find myself considering the possibility that it was Licinia who wielded the knife…"

"The Virgo Maxima! But for what purpose?"

"To deflect attention from her own impending trial. To take vengeance on the young lovers-assuming they are lovers- because she is insanely jealous of them. Or to protect them, by killing the man sent to spy on them-because she grows more sentimental as she grows older, like myself. Except that her plan failed when the man cried out and the other Vestals came running…"