David Wishart: White Murder

Septimus frowned; the guy was obviously thinking. ‘Histrio has – had – a stable in Catana,’ he said.

‘Yeah, I know. That’s where we met up. I rented a horse from him.’

‘That’s not what I meant. He breeds himself, in a small way, just as a sideline. He has a stud farm outside the town on the Hybla road.’

The back of my neck prickled. ‘Is that so, now?’

‘It’s nothing major. Most of the colts go for riding horses, but he’s sold a couple of winners to the Blue faction in Leontini.’

Quite an entrepreneur, this Histrio: livery stable, tourist business, now horse breeding. Mind you, they were all connected, and these small-town types tend to have several irons in the fire at once. And things were beginning to gel. ‘He run it on his own?’ I said. ‘The stud farm, I mean?’

‘More or less. Like I say, it’s only a small business. Technically his brother’s co-owner, but he’s away a lot.’

‘Brother?’

‘I don’t know anything about him other than the name. Man called Leon.’

Everything went very still. I noticed that Perilla was staring at me wide-eyed. ‘You sure about that, pal?’ I said carefully. ‘No mistake?’

‘Could be Leontes. He’s mentioned him once or twice, no more.’ He looked up; his wife was coming from the direction of the kitchen outhouse carrying a loaded tray. ‘Catia, what was Histrio’s brother’s name?’

‘Leon.’ She set the tray down on the table. ‘He’s some sort of sailor, isn’t he? Off on one of the boats.’

Oh, sweet and holy Jupiter! The Phorcys ’s mate, it had to be! There was a connection after all!

Septimus was watching me. ‘The sailor bit I’d forgotten,’ he said. ‘That make sense to you?’

‘Yeah. Some, anyway.’ It still didn’t explain why Histrio had tried to kill me, mind – even if he and his brother had happened to talk when the Phorcys had called in at Catana neither Maximus nor Leon could’ve known that I was following them – but it couldn’t be coincidence; no way could it be coincidence. Which meant that Histrio, for some reason or other, had decided on murder off his own bat.

Horses. It all came down to horses. Pegasus drove them, his brother bred them, Maximus and Leon transported them and now I found that Leon had a brother of his own who dealt in them and had done his best to push me down the crater of an ex-volcano. Planned it, too: I’d bet the whole trip had been a set-up from the start.

So what the hell was going on?

We hired one of the locals the next day to drive us in the coach back to Catana. The murder attempt had effectively lifted Perilla’s ban, so we spent the first bit of the journey chewing it over.

‘They weren’t natural killers,’ I said. ‘Neither of them. That’s what bugs me. Maximus is an antisocial bastard, but no one I’ve talked to has suggested that he was capable of murder; even Florus wouldn’t’ve accepted the idea if I hadn’t presented it as a fact. And Histrio was just a wheeler-dealer. So what pushed them over the edge?’

‘Not a very happy phrase, Marcus, in Histrio’s case.’

I tried a grin that didn’t work. ‘Black humour’s not like you, lady.’

She turned away to look out of the carriage window: we were back with the pastoral scenery again, and I for one wasn’t sorry; you don’t appreciate fields and vineyards until they’re gone. ‘Let’s be clear about this, dear,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t feel any regret or pity for that man. None at all. He deserved all he got. And I don’t agree with you about their comparative innocence, either. The only difference between Histrio and Maximus, or indeed between him and the murderer of Pegasus, is that the latter two’s murder attempts succeeded.’

‘Yeah. Right.’ Nevertheless, I tried to blank out the thought that had been with me ever since Ox Valley: a mile; a whole mile! She could be hard, Perilla. ‘But they weren’t movers. Or not prime movers. The guy responsible for all this – ultimately responsible – has to be someone who benefits both from Pegasus’s death and the poisoning. That means Natalis or Acceptus.’

She was facing me again. ‘So which one?’

‘Before we came to Sicily my money would’ve been on Acceptus, but now I’m not so sure. Natalis is the only one of the pair with links to all three. Plus to Pegasus himself, of course, through his brother. And one gets you ten that the key to the whole shooting match is horses.’

‘Hmm.’ Perilla rested her chin on her hand. ‘You don’t suppose it could have something to do with revenge, do you?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘You told me that Florus and Pegasus were at daggers drawn five years ago over their father’s will, and that Florus was responsible for cutting his brother off without a penny. Florus has built up a very successful stud farm, and a lot of the success has come from his supplying of horses to the Roman Greens.’

‘Yeah, that’s right. So?’

‘It’s just that Histrio was a breeder too, and his brother is the mate on the Phorcys which transports for the Greens. I was just wondering what would happen if Pegasus managed somehow to persuade the two to exchange one of the colts supplied by Florus for one of their own.’

A cold finger touched my spine. ‘Go on.’

‘That’s all, really. But the result would be that Natalis would get a second-rate horse when he’d paid for a champion racer. Where would that leave him vis-à-vis Florus?’

I felt a prickle of interest. What had Florus said? In this business you can’t afford to make mistakes. Reputation is everything. It would work; sure it would. ‘Florus’s reputation with the Greens would go right down the tube.’

‘There you are, then. Pegasus’s brother has refused to give him – in his eyes, at least – his proper share of the joint inheritance. In revenge Pegasus ruins – or tries to ruin – Florus’s market with the Greens.’

‘Yeah, but lady, it didn’t happen like that. Florus is still trading with Natalis. And if Natalis had thought he’d been sold a ringer then the first thing he’d do is scream to Florus and the game would be up.’

‘Unless he wasn’t taken in. I did say “tries to ruin”, Marcus. Remember, he did know that Pegasus was Florus’s brother and the two men had and have a long-standing business relationship. Or at least Florus had one by that time with the Greens as a whole. Natalis might have decided to absorb the loss and bide his time to take a revenge of his own.’

I shook my head. ‘Perilla, it wouldn’t work. There are too many holes. First of all, if this happened as much as five years back then why hasn’t there been any sign of it? Pegasus was still driving for the Greens up to six months ago and Natalis is still using Maximus as a transporter. If he knew both of them had tried to screw him he’d’ve settled the score long since. Also there’s the problem of Maximus himself. The guy’s a businessman, he relies on his reputation for honesty. You think he’d be ready to throw that away in exchange for a few gold pieces from Pegasus? Third, it doesn’t explain either of the other two murders or the poisoned horse. The dead deck-hand wasn’t aboard the Phorcys five years ago. Whatever beans he had to spill must’ve had a connection with something a lot more recent than -’

I stopped. Oh, shit. Oh, holy, immortal Jupiter!

Perilla frowned. ‘Marcus? Marcus, what’s wrong?’

I waved her down. I had to think. I remembered the guy with the thimbles and the pea in Cattlemarket Square: around and around and around…

Five years. Pegasus had been at his brother’s stud farm five years ago. Maximus might be a surly bugger, but businessman or not what friends he had he stuck to. Histrio didn’t know me from a cold in the head and couldn’t’ve known I would be in Sicily, but he knew I had to die all the same. Sopilys, with a secret that was worth twenty gold pieces and earned him a knife in an alley. Pegasus, with his penchant for blackmail…