David Wishart - Foreign Bodies

We found the undertaker’s place, down an alleyway off the main drag just short of the gate. The two corpses were laid out on tables in the back room, both middle-aged men in their forties.

‘OK, pal,’ I said to Crinas. ‘All yours. What do you think?’

‘They’re definitely both dead.’

Oh, ha. ‘And?’

He lifted the nearer corpse’s arm. Or tried to. It didn’t move.

‘The bodies are a little discomposed,’ he said.

‘ What? ’

‘I mean they’re not lying straight, flat on their backs with their arms decently crossed, as a corpse in a funeral parlour would normally be.’

‘Yeah, right; I can see that for myself, thanks. So?’

‘So rigor was well established when the undertaker’s men got to them, which, from the information you gave me on the way, would probably have been at least a couple of hours after sunrise. Do you know the time exactly?’

‘No, Balbinus wasn’t that specific. He just said the guy who found them found them first thing.’

‘No matter. Timing can vary, in any case.’ Carefully, he lifted the hem of the corpse’s tunic where the thigh touched the table and peered beneath it. I suppressed a shudder. ‘Discolouration seems to match the pressure point. That would indicate that the man fell originally in this position. In other words, that he was not moved before rigor set in.’

‘Uh-huh. In plain Latin again, please.’

‘The body wasn’t dumped where it was found; it had lain there for several hours before the muscles began to stiffen. The implication being that the place it was lying was also the site of the murder, and that the murder itself happened at some time between late evening and the early hours of the morning. Relevant?’

‘Uh, yeah.’ I was impressed, despite myself: Clarus couldn’t’ve done better. ‘You’re pretty good, pal.’

‘I told you, I did my training in Alexandria. They know all about bodies there, and they teach you to look, observe, and interpret, not make unsubstantiated guesses.’

Ouch. That was me told. ‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘Anything else? How did they die?’

‘Oh, that’s quite obvious.’ He indicated the corpse he’d been examining. ‘This one – the servant, from the quality of his tunic – was stabbed through the heart. You can see the bloodstains and the rent in the material. The other’ – he moved to the second corpse – ‘yes. Throat cut.’ He peered closely at the guy’s neck. ‘Very clean, a single slash, probably made from behind if the killer was right-handed. You can see for yourself that the wound is deeper on the left side of the throat than it is on the right.’

‘I’ll take your word for it, friend.’ I was feeling distinctly queasy; bodies I don’t mind, but I’d rather not go into the whys and wherefores, thank you. I had the same problem with Clarus. Still, I’d asked. ‘That it?’

‘More or less. Isn’t it enough?’

‘Yeah. Thanks. Very helpful.’ It had been, too. Surprisingly so, particularly since my only real reason, originally, for having the guy along was to detach him from Perilla.

‘Glad to be of service.’ He smiled. ‘Now, if you’ve finished with me I’ll get back to the residence and collect your wife for our sightseeing trip. Unless you’d care to tag along yourself?’

‘No, I’m fine.’ Damn. ‘Things to do, people to see.’

‘Very well, then. I’ll see you at dinner, if not before.’

He left.

So. To the vegetable market, and Drutus’s girlfriend; what was her name? Severa.

I took a slightly different route this time, down one of the roads parallel to the main drag, although ‘parallel’ was an overstatement. Being a colony, Augusta had been laid out in the usual grid system, but because the place had existed before the army surveyors had got busy the grid was pretty haphazard, with buildings plonked down any old where and the streets making detours around them. Mind you, like Crinas had said, there was a lot of new development going on; at times it was like walking through a building site.

I’d chosen well, though; the street I was on led me straight to the market. This late in the morning – it was about an hour shy of noon – most of the local housewives would’ve done their shopping and be at home cooking the midday meal, so it was relatively quiet. I asked the first stallholder I came to for directions, and he pointed out a small, dumpy, middle-aged woman selling root vegetables and cabbage.

Bugger; this I wasn’t looking forward to. Perilla was the tactful one, and she was a woman into the bargain.

I went over.

‘Uh … excuse me,’ I said. ‘Is your name Severa?’

‘That’s right, sir.’ She glanced at my purple stripe and frowned. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘You’re, ah, friendly with a guy named Drutus, aren’t you?’

She set down the bunch of carrots she’d been rearranging like they were red hot.

‘He’s all right, isn’t he?’ she said. ‘Only I’ve been so worried.’

Oh, shit; she didn’t know. Hardly surprising, mind, since the bodies hadn’t been found until a few hours previously. And Balbinus wouldn’t have thought to send anyone to break the news to her, either; she wasn’t family, after all. So like it or not, I’d landed the job. Where the hell was Perilla when I needed her? Out gallivanting with bloody Smarmer, that was where.

I hated it when this happened.

‘No,’ I said. ‘No, I’m afraid he isn’t. You might want to sit down.’

There was a folding stool to one side. She pulled it up and sat on it.

‘He’s not dead, is he?’ she said. I didn’t answer, which was answer enough. ‘Oh, sweet Mothers, no!’

She hid her face in her hands. I looked around. There was a woman on the stall behind me, watching us with interest.

‘You think you could help out a minute here?’ I called to her. ‘The lady’s just had some bad news.’

She came over quickly; obviously she’d just been waiting for the invitation. I breathed a mental sigh of relief as she went into patting-and-there-there-dear mode. Thank the gods for female solidarity.

‘I need to talk to her,’ I murmured to the back of the woman’s head. ‘It’s important. I’ll give it ten minutes, OK?’

She nodded without turning. I walked off and did a slow circuit of the other stalls.

When I came back Severa’s face was puffy and tear-stained, but she seemed fairly composed. I nodded my thanks to the other woman, and she went back to her stall. Not, I knew, that her ears wouldn’t be pricked throughout the conversation, but that was fair enough under the circumstances.

‘Just tell me what happened,’ Severa said.

‘He and his servant were found dead this morning outside the Moguntiacum Gate,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry, but it seems it was deliberate.’

She nodded, slowly, her face expressionless. She could still be in shock, of course, but I had a suspicion the news hadn’t come as a complete surprise.

‘And you are, sir?’ she said.

‘Valerius Corvinus. I’m, ah, just visiting. The governor’s aide asked me to look into the deaths.’ I waited, then said gently, ‘You were expecting it? Or something like it?’

She raised her face. ‘No! Oh, no! It’s only that-’ She stopped.

I gave her another few moments. Then I said, ‘It’s only that what?’

‘I wasn’t expecting it; I’d no reason to. Why should I? Sextus was just a very nice, very quiet, ordinary man who got on with things and minded his own business.’

‘But?’ I prompted.

‘It’s just …’ She frowned. ‘This’ll sound stupid.’

‘Never mind. Say it anyway.’

‘We’ve known each other since before my husband died ten years back, but I’ve never really known him. Even when we took up together, sometimes there was a distance. You understand?’