David Wishart - Old Bones

'Hey, little guy,' I said while he dished out the cheese and olives. 'Where's the Princess disappeared to?'

Bathyllus sniffed. 'She went straight out with the donkey, sir,' he said. The tone that went into the penultimate word would've fitted a loathsome disease. Like I said, Bathyllus is no animal lover.

'She's missing a meal?' Gods! That would be enough to bring the end of Vipena's tenth saeculum on.

'No, sir. She took half a loaf and a bagful of sliced sausage with her.'

Half a loaf and a bagful of sliced sausage, eh? Yeah, that made a lot more sense. As did taking Corydon. I grinned and settled back in my chair with my feet propped against the terrace wall. Today was the day the brute's probation ran out, and subject to the original owner turning up to claim him he was officially ours, for which read Marilla's. We'd done all we could. Alexis had tramped about the countryside for three days asking at every farm, but no one had bitten. I didn't blame them; if I'd finally managed to get shot of the bugger I'd be keeping quiet too.

I was tucking into what the Princess had left of the sausage when Perilla came out, looking cool in her lightest lounging tunic. She leaned over and kissed the back of my neck.

'So, Marcus. And how was your day?' she said.

I gave her the full details while she made inroads on the cold pickled tongue with sweet-sour sauce that Meton had sent up. 'So we've got too many suspects,' I finished. 'Every time I talk to someone I find another reason why Navius should be dead and why they could've killed him.'

'What about Hilarion?'

'Perilla, I can't even begin to guess about Hilarion! His death fits in, sure, but the gods know where. Leave him out for now.'

'All right.' She reached for a stuffed olive. 'So let's go through the various motives for murdering Navius.'

Fair enough. It was about time I got them all straight in my own head anyway. I pushed away the sausage plate and filled myself a cup of proper brain food.

'Okay,' I said. 'We'll start with the biggie, Larth Papatius. Points for: all the circumstantial stuff we'd got already, plus this new angle that Arruns handed me. Papatius has two motives for murdering Navius, unconnected but reinforcing each other. One, the kid threatened to blow the whistle on Thupeltha, not just about his own affair with her but Clusinus's as well. Papatius had already killed a man for that, although after all this time we'd be hard pushed to make that stick, so a second murder's well within the grounds of possibility. Agreed?'

'Agreed.' Perilla sipped her grape juice. 'There's one thing more. The Clusinus affair is still going on, or I assume it is. If Navius had made it public then Papatius's everyday relations with Clusinus would be under considerable strain. To say the least. In a small community like Vetuliscum that would be an important factor.'

'Right. If nobody talked about it it didn't exist, and eventually, Thupeltha being the lady she is, it'd probably go away of its own accord. Letting Navius dig the dirt in public would open up a whole new can of worms. As motives go they don't come much bigger.' I took a swallow of wine. 'Two. Navius's plans for his property. These hit Papatius where it really hurts. The guy may not care who's screwing his wife, but vines and wine are a different thing. He's built up a good business over the years and he has a reputation as the best vintner in the district. Now he's faced with the prospect of all that going down the tube; worse, of Caeretan becoming the sort of junk you only find on the boards of Suburan slop- shops. For any self-respecting winemaker that'd be the equivalent of seeing your grandmother sell herself for a copper a throw under the Sublician Bridge. In fact -'

I stopped. Something was teasing at the back of my mind; something I'd missed. And nothing to do with Larth Papatius…

'Marcus?'

'Hmmm?'

'Your eyes have glazed over.'

'Yeah?' I shook myself. 'Sorry, lady. Just wool-gathering. Where was I?'

'The Sublician Bridge.'

'Oh. Right.' I took another belt of wine. 'So. Papatius is still a prime contender. Points against.' I paused. 'Shit, there are no points against. We've got rid of these already. The guy had motive, means and opportunity, the whole ball game.'

'So he's guilty.'

'Yeah.' I was frowning; it didn't seem right somehow, but exactly why I couldn't put my finger on. Maybe it was something to do with his insistence against the teeth of the evidence that he'd gone into Caere. That just didn't fit, no way, nohow, never…

'Marcus, will you please stop doing that!' Perilla snapped. 'We're supposed to be having a discussion here!'

'Uh, yeah.' I blinked and refocused. 'I'm sorry. Okay. Let's leave Papatius and look at some of the others. Larcius Arruns for a start. He's had his knife into the family for years over that stretch of vineyard.'

'Is that a bad pun or was it an accident?'

I grinned. 'Accident. But it's true enough all the same. He's got a motive -'

'Has he? What exactly would he gain by killing Navius? It wouldn't get him the vineyard back.'

'It might open up a space for him. I've met Navius's mother, remember. She's got no other kids, she's not from around here originally, and she's a fancy fish in a muddy pool. Sure, she might decide to work the property herself through an agent, but it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't sell up and move somewhere the locals don't scratch their armpits and stink of garlic. In that case the fifty-year deadlock's broken. Arruns might be able to come to an arrangement with the new owner, especially if the guy's persistence is the constant embarrassment Sicinia says it is. And there's another thing. Navius's father didn't die from natural causes, or not in the narrow definition. The guy met with an accident out riding and bust his skull.'

Perilla stared at me. 'You think it could have been murder?'

'It's a possibility. Both male relatives unnaturally dead inside a year is pushing coincidence. Arruns was getting nowhere fast through legal channels, and he's no spring chicken. Maybe he decided it was time to change his tactics.'

'Corvinus, you have an over-suspicious mind.'

'Yeah. Admitted. It would fit, though. And Arruns is definitely on the hook.' I topped up my wine cup. 'Next. Quintus Mamilius.'

'Mamilius is a nonagenarian!'

'He's a nonagenarian ex-First Spear. That makes a difference. These guys are no shrinking violets, even at ninety, and Mamilius is as tough as old boots. Certainly he's got a hell of a motive: Attus Navius put his granddaughter in the family way and she died of it.'

'You don't know that for certain.'

'Mamilius seems to. In any case he hated the boy's guts. And Navius's father dying the way he did and when he did fits too. The bastard refused to marry his son to the girl because she didn't come up to social scratch.' I took a mouthful of wine. 'Added to which, Mamilius needn't've done either of the killings himself. I've seen the guy's son. He's built like a rhino and takes orders like a lamb.'

Perilla chewed thoughtfully on an olive. 'You're right,' she said. 'There are too many suspects.'

I reached for the wine jug. 'I haven't finished yet, lady. There're still Vipena and Clusinus.'

'Oh, for heaven's sake!'

I ignored her. 'Let's take Vipena. He's a vine-grower like Papatius, and Navius's scheme would hit him in the pocket as well. Also he quarrelled with the guy just before he died.'

'By his own admission.'

'Only because I caught him out through my extensive knowledge of Etruscan. That yarn about the dried-up spring and trying to buy into the water rights may be straight enough, but if it's the full story I'll eat my sandals. The bastard was covering. What he was covering I don't know yet, but I mean to find out. And I've got a gut feeling about our liver- reader. He knows more than he's telling, and he's crooked as a Suburan dice game.'