David Wishart - Foreign Bodies

‘Uh-huh.’ I didn’t, not completely, but at least she was talking. ‘Did he have any enemies? Anyone who’d want him dead?’

She shook her head. ‘Not one. Everyone liked Sextus. I don’t know much about his life in Durocortorum, and I was careful not to ask in case there was a wife, but he’d nothing but friends here. I don’t even know anyone who had a bad word for him, let alone kill him.’

‘Fair enough. Now what about yesterday evening? Did you see him at all?’

‘Yes, I did. But only for a moment, just before sunset. He called in to say he wouldn’t be staying the night after all. He’d some urgent business to take care of, and it wouldn’t be finished until the small hours. He didn’t want to disturb me coming in, so he’d doss down with Anda above the stable.’

‘He say what the business was, at all? Give any kind of indication?’

‘No. Not a word more. But then that was Sextus for you; like I said, sometimes he could be really close-mouthed. And I never pried. It wasn’t my concern.’

Hell! Still, it confirmed that he and Anda had some sort of clandestine meeting arranged. And although again from Severa’s description he hadn’t come across as the criminal type a moonlight assignation beyond the city gates stank like a barrel of oysters in a heat wave.

‘There’s nothing else you can tell me that may be of use to find out who did it?’ I said. ‘Nothing at all?’

She hesitated, then reached into her belt-pouch and brought something out. ‘There’s this,’ she said, handing it over. ‘He gave me it before he left. For safe keeping, he said.’

I turned the thing over in the palm of my hand. It was a gold piece, but not a Roman one; on one side there was a stylized head with the letters COMI, and on the other a prancing horse and a wheel.

‘Yeah, well,’ I said. ‘That’s not surprising, is it? Gold coins aren’t too common here, from what I’ve been told. He wouldn’t have wanted to carry it around with him, especially if he was going out after dark.’

‘No.’ She shook her head decisively. ‘That wasn’t the reason. At least, I don’t think it was. Sextus was well-to-do, he was used to carrying a lot of money about. He wasn’t afraid of being robbed, either.’

Uh-huh; fair point. And Balbinus had said there wasn’t much crime in Augusta to begin with. It was an oddity, however you sliced it. ‘You think I could hang on to this for a while? You’ll get it back, I promise.’

Another hesitation. Then she nodded. ‘All right. If you think it’ll help.’

‘It might. I don’t know. Thank you.’ I slipped it into my own belt-pouch. ‘Incidentally, where do you live?’

‘Up near the Temple of Rosmerta, on the river side of the Moguntiacum Gate.’

‘Right. Thanks, Severa. And again I’m sorry for your loss.’ I turned to go.

‘Where is he?’ she said. ‘The body, I mean?’

Yeah, she’d want to know that, of course. ‘At the undertaker’s just off the market square. I don’t know the name, I’m afraid.’

‘The name doesn’t matter; there’s only the one. Thank you, sir.’

‘You’re welcome. Anything else I can do, you’ll find me at the residence. Valerius Corvinus, remember.’

‘I’ll remember,’ she said. ‘But please. Find the man who did it for me. You’ll do that?’

‘I’ll try.’

There was no more to be said. I left.

Back to the residence, then, to see if by any chance Balbinus had arranged for me to meet the man who’d found the bodies and see the place for myself.

I was crossing the market square towards the main drag when someone shouted my name. I turned. Quintus Cabirus. I waited until he’d joined me.

‘What on earth are you doing in Augusta?’ he said.

Yeah, well, he wouldn’t’ve known I was coming, or even that I might be, would he? It was a last-minute decision, and he’d left Lugdunum before I’d set out.

‘Seeing your sister-in-law, as a matter of fact,’ I said.

His eyes flickered. ‘Really? Why should you want to do that?’

‘Just an idea.’

‘It’s a long way to come, for just an idea.’ He tried a smile that didn’t quite work.

‘Maybe.’ I wasn’t going to elucidate; absolutely no way. Brother Quintus wasn’t out of the frame by any means, and whatever reason the Cabiri had had for leaving Augusta, if it wasn’t the purely commercial one he and Diligenta had claimed it was, it applied to him as well.

‘So,’ he said, ‘did you see her?’ Obviously, from the too-casual way he asked the question, the answer was important.

‘Yeah, I did.’

‘And?’

‘You don’t keep in touch yourself, being through so often?’

‘No. I told you when we talked last that the two halves of the family have nothing to do with each other. I haven’t seen Quadrunia or her husband for twenty years, out of choice on both sides. I don’t even know where she lives.’

‘It’s a shame when you get these family rows,’ I said. ‘Particularly when they fester. What was it about, originally?’

‘I told you before. That’s none of your business. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with my brother’s death. Doubtless my sister-in-law told you the same, or you wouldn’t be asking me now.’

‘What’ve you done to your hand?’

‘What? What has that …?’ He looked blank, then glanced down at the long scratch or cut that ran across the back of his left hand below the knuckles. It wasn’t still bleeding, but it looked pretty recent to me. ‘Oh. I brushed against the point of a nail at our warehouse. We’re having some rebuilding work done, and there’s a lot of exposed timber.’

Uh-huh. ‘It’s quite nasty. You should get it seen to.’

‘I’ve had worse. And I’ve got too much to do at present. So; you’ll be getting back to Lugdunum soon, will you?’

‘No, I think I’ll hang on for a bit. No need to go dashing off almost as soon as we’ve arrived. Besides, Governor Hister’s aide Saenius Balbinus, who’s taking care of me while I’m here, has asked me to look into a couple of murders.’

‘Murders?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘In Augusta? That’s impossible! They don’t have murders up here.’

‘Yeah; I remember being told the same thing about Lugdunum. But there you are. A trader by the name of Sextus Drutus and his servant. You know him?’

‘ Drutus ! Who would want to kill Drutus?’

‘You tell me, pal. It’d save me a lot of time and effort.’

‘Yes, I know him. Not well, but yes. He trades in hides, doesn’t he? With the garrison at Moguntiacum?’

‘That’s him.’

‘What happened?’

‘That’s what I’m still finding out. But it seems that the two of them – Drutus and the servant – were out beyond the Moguntiacum Gate for some reason after sunset yesterday and someone used a knife on them. The bodies were found early this morning.’

I was watching him closely, but there wasn’t a reaction other than shock and surprise.

‘But that’s dreadful!’ he said.

‘Yeah, isn’t it? Where are you staying, by the way?’

Again the momentary blank look. ‘Oh. I’ve got a room fitted up in our warehouse. Near the town baths not far from the bridge. It’s pretty basic, no more than a shakedown with a bed and mattress, but it does me for the short time I’m here.’

‘You’re on your own, then?’

He smiled. ‘I’m a bachelor, Corvinus. I’m used to fending for myself. And I’ve never been one for seeking out temporary female company when I’m away from home.’

‘You’re going back soon?’

‘Within the next couple of days. I’ve done most of what I came for, seen our agent and everything, so there’s no need to put off.’