David Wishart - Last Rites

‘She didn’t turn up. I was hoping you might be able to tell me why.’

He looked blank. ‘She didn’t? But that’s -’ He stopped. ‘She was looking forward to it. It’s the slot of the year. You’re sure?’

‘She sent a substitute. You didn’t know?’

‘I haven’t seen Thalia since the end of last month. What substitute?’

‘That’s what I’m trying to find out. Not one of the usual girls. Someone she knew.’ I hesitated. ‘Maybe a man.’

‘At the rites? ’ His eyes opened in shock.

‘Yeah. You wouldn’t have any notion who he could be, would you?’

He shook his head numbly. ‘No. But Thalia wouldn’t do that. It’d be more than her reputation was worth, and if anyone found out it’d finish her.’

‘Uh-huh.’ That made sense, and it didn’t leave me feeling any happier, either. ‘Okay. So what about in general terms. She have any fluteplayer friends – male friends – that you know of?’

‘One or two.’ He pigeon-pouted; either he didn’t see the ‘friends’ as being much of a threat in the sexual sense or he dismissed them as competition. Which was fair enough: for a girl like Thalia even a plain-mantle clerk as a regular boyfriend was quite a catch.

‘You have any names?’

‘No. Celer might know. He doesn’t have anything to do with the male members of the profession himself, but he may be able to lay his hands on a few for you.’

Not a very felicitous way of putting it, but the guy didn’t seem to notice and I didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘Yeah. Right.’ Well, that was something I could check later. ‘What about Thalia herself? You any idea where she may have got to?’

The guarded look came back. ‘She’s a popular girl. We… go out together now and again, but she’s very independent. Not to say close-mouthed. We have what you might call a flexible relationship.’

Someone sniggered behind me. I looked round. The other five clerks had stopped work and were following the conversation with interest. Valgius glared at the nearest and he bent back over his tablets.

‘So you can’t give me any names there either?’ I said.

‘I’m afraid not.’ He was on his dignity now, and he lowered his voice. ‘Also I have a considerable amount of work to get through today, so unless I can help you further…’

The standard brush-off. We were flogging a dead horse here, obviously. ‘Okay, friend,’ I said. ‘One last question. You been to the girl’s flat recently, checked if she’s around there?’

‘Certainly not. Public Ponds is a most undesirable district. We meet at a friend’s house in the Argiletum.’

‘Not at your own house?’

He stared at me. ‘Why would I do that? She’s only a flutegirl. Besides, my wife wouldn’t like it at all.’

I left him to his cross-referencing. Okay; so it had to be the flat, for what that was worth. The rain was coming down in sheets by the time I reached it, and Public Ponds was living up to its name. I thought of calling in at Watch headquarters to see if Lippillus was around and waiting for the weather to clear, but after walking half across Rome I was soaked in any case, and it would’ve meant a detour. Sure, I could’ve taken a litter, but I don’t like these things, and anyway the ranks were empty.

I climbed the stairs to Thalia’s floor. Someone was boiling cabbage, and the smell got stronger all the way up. Probably Thalia’s domestic neighbour: tenement dwellers don’t go in for home cooking much, braziers being braziers and these places being regular firetraps. Like the last time I’d been there the door looked seriously closed, but I knocked anyway. No answer.

Not from the Thalia side of the hall, at least. As I thought it might, old Grandma Charybdis’s door opened and there she was, with the same kid in attendance. This time he’d got a boiled pig’s trotter in his fist and he was sucking on it. I’d been right about the cabbage, too; if the smell had been bad on the staircase now it practically knocked me down.

‘Oh.’ She sniffed. ‘It’s you again, is it?’

‘Yeah.’ I winked at the kid, who pulled himself round the old woman’s tunic like I’d just turned into an ogre with designs on his trotter. ‘Thalia hasn’t been back?’

‘No.’ Categorical. Uh-huh, so that was that, then. For a self-professedly incurious neighbour she seemed to be doing pretty well in the observation stakes. ‘You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.’

Just for something to do, I beat another tattoo on the door and listened. Silence. Shit, this was hopeless. Still, I wasn’t going to go away a second time without having a look inside, even if it meant breaking in. I took a hold of the doorknob and pushed hard…

No resistance. The door creaked open.

‘Here! You can’t do that!’ The old girl was bridling again. ‘That’s private property!’

I ignored her. The ice was forming on my spine. Even with someone like Charybdis here standing guard, you didn’t leave doors unlocked in a Public Ponds tenement if you were spending a few days away from home. This looked bad. The worst.

She was right at my shoulder, craning her neck to see past.

‘Take the kid back inside,’ I said.

Maybe it was something in my voice, but she didn’t argue. The door closed behind them. I went in. The first room was empty, and no tidier than Aegle’s. I stepped over the remains of a meal and a bundle of clothes that was possibly the girl’s dirty washing. Beyond was a small bedroom, and on the bed…

Yeah, well, at least it was winter and there were no flies. Not even, with the window being open, much of a smell. What there was was blood and plenty of it, dried now, but all over the pillow, the blanket and the floor. Where it’d come from was obvious. Thalia had certainly been a looker; even under the circumstances I noticed that. Her head was pulled back and her throat had been slit ear to ear like a pig’s.

My stomach heaved. Quickly, I went back outside and closed the door behind me. She’d be safe enough left for the next half-hour or so. And it looked like I’d have to go round to Lippillus’s after all.

‘I’d reckon she’s been dead for four days, Corvinus.’

I watched as Lippillus poked around the room, lifting bits of discarded clothing and setting them down again. ‘That’s quite a precise guess, pal,’ I said. ‘Why four exactly?’

‘Your sharp-eared old girl in the flat opposite’s the local midwife. She was out four days ago at a difficult birth, which means she wouldn’t be around to hear any visitor arrive.’

Uh-huh. Four days; that’d put the murder the same day as the Good Goddess rites. It fitted. ‘Anything else you can tell me?’ I said.

‘Not a lot. At the moment, anyway. I’ll talk to the other residents, see if anyone noticed anything, but it’s not likely. Or at least not likely they’d tell me if they did. Tenement folk don’t have much time for the Watch.’ He moved over to the body and turned the head sideways. It lolled half off the pillow so that the empty eyes were looking straight at me. My stomach gave a lurch.

‘Jupiter, Lippillus!’

He grinned. ‘You want to come next door? I’ve seen all I have to here, and the lads with the stretcher will be along soon.’

‘Yeah.’ We went into the other room. I opened the window – this one was shuttered – and took a few breaths of fresh air while he sat on the only chair and swung his legs. He was looking even more like an evil-minded dwarf than ever. Smart, though; vertically challenged or not, Lippillus is one of the best Watch commanders in the city.

‘So,’ he said. ‘What’s this all about?’

I told him; the basics, anyway. He listened in silence.