David Wishart - Old Bones

'So, Valerius Corvinus,' he said, chewing, 'it's your view that Attus Navius was definitely murdered, yes?'

'Yeah,' I was watching him fascinated. 'I'd say that was a reasonable assumption.'

Nepos's spoon with its load of chickpeas paused half way to his mouth. I noticed he'd been pretty careful to sample one first. Quite right. With Phormio loose in the kitchen you didn't take anything for granted. And after the pea-hen’s eggs nothing was safe.

'Gentlemen,' he said, 'do we have to talk murder at the table?'

Mother selected an olive. 'Personally I find it fascinating,' she said. Holy Mars in spangles! That was news to me! Any time in the past I'd brought up anything visceral round the dinner table I'd been slapped down. But she had her eyes on Smooth-Chops Aternius, and they were looking positively melting. The way to Mother's heart is definitely through your stomach. Right through. 'You have a forensic connection yourself, Gaius Aternius?'

'I'm a practising lawyer, yes.' The bastard was chewing on his egg like it was something actually edible. 'Although mostly I deal with the property side. Conveyancing and so on. I'm only doing Uncle Quintus a favour here.'

'Good qualifications,' I said. 'Shuffling paper and an uncle who's the local mayor.'

Perilla gave me a glare. She'd been pretty quiet since I'd nailed her for blabbing, but she was obviously coming out of her shell now. 'Marcus, what is wrong with you?' she said. 'You've been terribly rude all evening.'

I grinned. 'Don't exaggerate, lady. The evening hasn't started yet and I'm just warming up.'

She sniffed and turned away.

'Marcus, stop it.' Mother again, and seriously peeved. She turned to Aternius. 'He's really a lot more intelligent than he sounds. Or rather, not quite so unintelligent.' Ouch. 'And he does seem to have the sort of warped mentality that makes him good at solving puzzles.'

'So I understood from your wife, Valerius Corvinus.' This time I was the one who got the teeth. A shame his uncle couldn't take that white and bottle it. He'd have every political candidate in Italy beating a path to his door with his electioneering mantle under his arm. 'In fact she tells me that you've already solved this particular one.'

'Come again?' I said cautiously.

'Forgive me, Aternius.' Perilla's voice cut across his. There was a flash of movement as a spider in the corner scuttled up its web and disappeared into a crevice. 'But I said nothing of the sort, and well you know it.'

'Not in so many words.' Smile. 'But the conclusion was inescapable.'

I sat up. I was seriously worried now. 'Hang on there, pal! I haven't solved anything!'

'Of course you have.' Smile again. 'And in only two days. I was most impressed, as my uncle will also be. I'll be taking Larth Papatius into Caere first thing tomorrow.'

'You're arresting Papatius? ’

'Of course. He murdered Navius, didn't he?'

'Uh-uh.' I shook my head. 'He could've murdered Navius. There's a slight but significant semantic difference there, friend. In case you didn't notice.'

Aternius sighed. 'Corvinus, you're being far too cautious.' He counted on his fingers. 'One: Papatius was seen by two reliable witnesses following the dead man. Two: his wife was having an affair with same. Three: he has a history of violence, possibly even involving murder. Four: his wife owns the property they jointly occupy. Should they divorce it will revert to her absolute control. With that amount of evidence against him any court in the empire would convict him.'

Shit, that wife of mine had been busy right enough. One application of smarm and she'd passed on the lot. We would definitely be having words. 'Okay,’ I said. ‘So what about Hilarion? He couldn't've known anything about the murder. He wasn't even in Vetuliscum at the time. So why did he die?'

Aternius's brows went down. 'How the hell should I know?' he said.

Well, at least the guy was human after all, or part-human: the exasperation was genuine. 'That's my point, sunshine. Before you can claim to have solved anything you've got to be able to answer all the questions. And that one's the biggie.'

'I would have thought you'd be relieved that the second murder clears your stepfather absolutely of suspicion. And no doubt we'll find out the whys of the case when we interrogate the man.'

My blood went cold. 'Torture?'

Aternius looked pained. 'He's a citizen, Corvinus. Torturing citizens is illegal.'

'Yeah. Yeah, sure.' If you've got a stripe to your mantle, or if it's the best lambs-wool and freshly laundered like this guy's. Hicks from the sticks with calluses on their hands whose normal sartorial level is a sweaty tunic are something else, especially if they're murder suspects. 'Okay, I'll rephrase that. You mean after he's accidentally fallen down a few flights of stairs in the local militia building.'

'I think we can assume the relevant authorities know their own business best.' That came out stiff as hell. 'And I'm afraid I rather resent your tone.'

'Stick around, pal. It gets worse.'

'I think perhaps we should change the subject.' That was Nepos. 'These friends of yours with a villa by Lake Sabatinus, Aternius. They wouldn't be young Oppius Mucro and his wife, would they?'

Ah, hell; I was obviously outnumbered here and I might as well save my breath. I settled back on my couch and reached for the olives. Smooth-Chops here had made up his mind, and there wasn't anything I could do about it for the moment. Besides, he might be right.

Nevertheless, I'd be there the next day when he took Papatius. I owed my conscience that, at least.

I was down at the wineshop bright and early, although I didn't go in. Aternius turned up eventually, with two big bruisers in tow. He gave me a look that was about as far the wrong side of friendly as you can get.

'Valerius Corvinus,' he said. 'I'm surprised to see you here.'

I shrugged. 'Just dropping in for a breakfast cup of wine, pal. Don't mind me. You go ahead if you feel you have to.'

I stood aside to let him pass. He signalled to the bruisers and pushed open the door. I followed them inside.

It was too early for customers. Papatius was sitting at the table over his breakfast porridge, Thupeltha was frying a couple of eggs on the stove. She looked up, saw me and her eyes widened.

Papatius put his spoon down slowly. He didn't say anything, but then it was pretty obvious we hadn't come for social chit-chat.

'Larth Papatius,' Aternius said. 'My name is Gaius Aternius. I am taking you to Caere to answer questions concerning the deaths of Attus Navius and Publius Salvius Hilarion. You'll come with me now, please.'

Jupiter, the guy was fast! I didn't even have time to blink before he was out of his chair and half way across the room. I'd thought he was making for the door, but his hands reached for Aternius's throat.

Aternius took a step to the side and coolly planted a smacker behind the guy's ear. Papatius went down like a poleaxed ox and the two bruisers were on him in a second. They weren't gentle, either.

I had to admit as arrests went it was pretty slick. Mind you, I might've expected that Smooth-Chops would be able to handle himself. It went with the image. Sickening.

The bruisers had lifted Papatius up and were dusting him down. If that's what you'd term covertly beating the living shit out of someone.

'You think maybe that's enough, boys?' I said mildly. 'I'd say at a guess the guy's pretty well restrained.'

They looked at me, then at Aternius. He nodded. They stepped back, although they kept a grip on Papatius's arms.

Thupeltha hadn't moved. I'd thought she might've slammed one of us with the egg pan or screamed abuse, but she didn't. She didn't say anything at all.