David Wishart - Old Bones

'This is your doing.' Papatius was glaring at me. He was crouched over -one of the big boys had kneed him in the balls – and bleeding from a split lip. 'Why don't you mind your own fucking business?'

'Detection of murder is every honest man's business,' Aternius said. 'I'm very grateful to Valerius Corvinus.'

Papatius spat out a tooth. 'I had nothing to do with it. And who's this Salvius Hilarion?'

'A doctor,' I said. 'He was killed yesterday afternoon.'

'I was picking grapes all yesterday afternoon. You saw me come in yourself.'

'I only saw the one bunch, pal. To be absolutely truthful.'

'I packed the rest in sawdust to take in to Rome today! Holy Jupiter, you can check if you like! They're in the wagon round the side!'

I looked at Aternius. He didn't bat an eyelid. 'You could've picked them at any time,' he said.

The big guy scowled. 'You don't know much about the fresh fruit business. Rome's twenty-five miles away and that's a twelve hour drive already. You don't pick until you're ready to transport, not when you're talking prime table quality. The profit margin may be bigger when you sell at city prices but so's the competition.'

'Man's got a point,' I said. 'Me, I'd check.'

'I don't need to. I'm sure they're there right enough, although perhaps not quite as fresh as he claims.' Aternius smiled at me and turned back to Papatius. 'Also that you're sufficiently clever to have arranged an alibi in advance. And in any case, you certainly killed Navius. You were seen following him.'

'For the gods' sakes! I was on my way to Caere! I told that to your tame purple-striper monkey here!'

Ouch.

'Fine,' Aternius said. 'Just give me the name of someone who can vouch for the fact of your presence there and when we've confirmed your claim you'll be released with my apologies.' He waited; Papatius said nothing. 'Precisely. Take him away.'

The big boys hustled the guy out. Aternius turned at the door.

'I'm sorry we don't see eye to eye on this, Corvinus,' he said. 'However, I do thank you most sincerely for your help. You have my admiration, and my congratulations. We'll meet again soon, no doubt, and I hope in more congenial circumstances.'

Then he was gone. I was left facing Thupeltha across the kitchen table. She was still holding the frying pan. She put it down and without a word calmly poured two cups of wine from the jug on the dresser.

'I'm sorry about this,' I said. 'It wasn't my idea.'

She handed me one of the cups and sat down. 'He didn't do it,' she said.

'You sure of that?'

No answer; Thupeltha just sipped her own wine.

'Did he go to Caere? Like he said?'

'I don't know. He might've done. It's what he told me, too, when you left yesterday.'

I took a swallow. 'Okay,' I said. 'So we start fresh. Level with me and I'll do what I can.'

'I've told you the truth. All the truth. I can't tell you any more.'

I wouldn't've bet on that, but I let it go. Now wasn't the time. 'Let's have it again,' I said. 'Just to check.'

She set the cup down. 'I arranged to meet Clusinus at the oak grove mid-morning. I set out from here early, like I told you -'

'Papatius was here? He knew where you were going?'

'He knew. Or he knew about Clusinus, anyway. He was in the yard round the side, boiling up pitch for the wine jars. He saw me go, but he didn't say anything.'

'Then?'

'I went to the grove. I was looking round, like I told you, when Navius showed up. I hadn't known he was following me, and he took me by surprise. We had an argument. I told him my decision stood – the affair'd been over for almost a month – and he tried to make me change my mind.'

'Did he know about Clusinus too?'

'Not from me. But he'd guessed it from where we were. And Clusinus has had other girlfriends in the past.'

'How did he take it?'

Thupeltha shrugged. 'How do you think? He wasn't exactly happy. He threatened that if I didn't agree to divorce Larth and marry him he'd tell everyone we'd been screwing and I'd passed him up for Clusinus. Then when I still refused he drew his knife and told me he'd kill himself. I laughed and told him not to be a fool. He ran off. I waited around for Clusinus, and when he didn't come I went home. End of story.'

'You didn't see Papatius? At any time?'

'No. He wasn't there when I got back, either, but that wasn't unusual.'

'What about the pitch?'

She looked at me blankly. 'What?'

'You said he was boiling pitch for the wine jars. He'd just left it?'

She was frowning now. 'Yes. The fire had gone out.'

'What about the wine jars? Were they done?'

Thupeltha stood up. 'Corvinus, leave me alone, okay? I'm sick of questions and I'm sick of you. Just go away and don't come back.'

What else could I do? I left.

Perilla would be gone into Caere by now with Nepos and Priscus to act as the family rep at Hilarion's funeral, and she'd taken Marilla with her, so I had the rest of the day to myself. I'd thought carefully about what was the best way to spend it and I'd decided on a walk round Vetuliscum, calling in on the locals I hadn't met yet: Nepos's pal Arruns, for a start, the Gruesomes' brother Vipena, maybe even Navius's mother if I had the nerve. Vesia…

And Clusinus. There was one guy I really had to meet.

I could check out that track in the hills, too. That seemed to be figuring quite a lot, and I'd only seen the stretch at Clusinus's end.

Outside the wineshop, I turned towards Nepos's. The road up to Arruns's place would be the one on the right after Mamilius's farmhouse, before the bridge.

That little scene with Papatius, and the talk with Thupeltha, had been interesting. The guy was lying about going to Caere, that was certain: Aternius had been quite right about that, and he'd handled it well. If you're facing a murder rap and someone asks you for a name to prove you were where you said you were you don't mess around, and if Papatius wouldn't give one the obvious implication was that he couldn't. On the other hand he'd gone somewhere, in a hell of a hurry: farmers don't up sticks and leave jobs half done without good reason, especially this time of year when they're working to a tight schedule. And he hadn't told Thupeltha, either: she'd got the point about the pitch, sure she had, and it had rocked her. That's the problem with these open marriages: you get used to knowing everything, and when one partner holds out it's worse than if they've been cheating all along.

So what was Papatius doing that was so bad he wouldn't even admit it to his wife? Scratch the obvious: Thupeltha had already told me that the guy had no interest in sex, and in her position she couldn't well complain anyway. Taken with the fact that the Gruesomes had definitely seen him following Navius, plus his own Caere story, the only alternative was the one we'd started with: that Papatius had secretly gone up Clusinus's track after Navius and his wife, listened in to the argument at the grove, followed the guy and murdered him. In which case, the bastard being already in the hands of the law, finish, end of story…

Only why should Papatius follow his wife at all? He already knew about Clusinus and presumably he didn't care if the couple were meeting. And as for Navius, he knew the guy was a spent coin who didn't matter any more.

Unless he thought Navius meant to cause trouble, as indeed the guy did; in which case we were back to square one, with Papatius as the killer…

Shit. My head was going round. What I needed was wine. I should've brought a travelling flask and filled it up at Thupeltha's before she threw me out.

Someone shouted. I looked up. I was passing Mamilius's place, and the old guy was out in the yard in front pitching wine jars: it seemed that was the in job at the moment, although that was hardly surprising with the main grape harvest coming up. There was another man with him, maybe one of the 'lads' he'd mentioned buying thirty years back.