Illegally Dead (13 page)

16

She was in her private sitting-room this time. The room was practically identical to the one further along the corridor, that Hostilius had used - big, light and airy, opening onto the portico and the garden - except that instead of bookcases stuffed with law books the place was full of plants, growing plants as well as vases of cut flowers. No couches, either, just the well-padded high-back chair where Veturina was sitting, a low table and a couple of stools.

‘Valerius Corvinus. Welcome. Do sit down. ’ The lady was still wearing her mourning mantle. ‘That’s all,’ she said to the slave who’d brought me. He bowed and exited.

I pulled up one of the stools and sat. ‘Veturina, I –’ I began.

She held up a hand. ‘First let me apologise for the...well, the scene I made two days ago when you were last here. I was overwrought, yes, but that’s no excuse. I behaved dreadfully.’

‘No problem.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Ah...I was just wondering about your brother. Whether he –’

‘Whether he’s at home this time? Yes, he is, actually.’

I stared at her. ‘Castor’s back?’

‘I’ve just said so.’ She was looking at me coolly. ‘He came back an hour or so ago. I’m sure he’d be glad to speak to you if you have the time.’

‘Where’s he been?’

‘Staying with a friend in Bovillae. But that’s something you can ask him about yourself.’

Jupiter! ‘You knew, last time I was here, that he’d been missing for eight days, didn’t you, lady?’ She said nothing, but her lips tightened. ‘Did you know where he was then?’

‘No. I might have guessed, but I didn’t think –’

‘He didn’t call back that evening? The day he had the quarrel with your husband in town? He wasn’t here when you had your own row with Hostilius and he told you he wanted him out of the house?’

Two red spots had formed on her cheeks. ‘Valerius Corvinus!’

Oh, hell; here we went again. None the less... ‘I’m sorry, Veturina,’ I said, ‘but this is too important for pussyfooting. I just can’t believe that Castor disappeared into the blue without telling you where he was going, or at the very least that you knew he’d gone and why. And that raises the question of why you tried to cover for him.’

She was glaring at me now. ‘If Scopas has told you –’ she began.

‘It isn’t Scopas’s fault,’ I said quietly. ‘He started by lying to me too, only I twisted his arm and threatened to ask you yourself. He was just saving you pain, or thought he was.’

‘Then I’ve nothing further to say on the matter.’ Her lips clamped shut.

I sighed. ‘Very well, lady. You’re being really, really foolish, but have it your way. I’ll just have to ask the guy himself.’ I stood up. ‘This is where you saw Cosmus from?’

‘Yes,’ she said stiffly. ‘He came out of the portico to the right and went down the garden towards the gate at the far end.’

I stepped out onto the portico and looked along it. Yeah; there was the door Scopas had brought me in by on the previous occasion, with the opening to Hostilius’s sitting-room beyond it. Not all that far, only a few yards. ‘Incidentally,’ I said, ‘the, uh, day that Quintus Acceius came to see your husband, the day after he was attacked, did they meet in his room?’

‘Yes.’ The ice was still in Veturina’s voice, but I had the impression that - again - she was beginning to regret the way she’d behaved. Not changed her mind, just begun to be sorry she hadn’t been a little less abrasive. Definitely not a looker before she leaped, Hostilius’s widow. ‘That’s right.’

‘And you were here?’

‘I was.’

‘You hear anything? Of the conversation?’

‘Valerius Corvinus, I am not in the habit of eavesdropping!’

‘Right. Right.’ She’d hesitated for a split second, though, before she’d answered, and that was interesting, especially since what I’d got wasn’t a simple denial. Grieving widow though she might genuinely be, I had very serious doubts about Veturina. I didn’t trust her much above half, for a start. ‘Just checking. Quintus Acceius told me it was bread-and-butter legal business, nothing very important.’

‘Oh, you’ve asked him already?’ She looked relieved. ‘Yes, that’s right. Or the occasional words and phrases that I did hear when the breeze was in the right direction would suggest it, anyway.’

Uh-huh; too quick, lady, too quick! And much too eager. ‘Such as?’ I kept the tone flat.

‘I...can’t recall anything specific.’

And I was Cleopatra’s granny. ‘Come on, Veturina!’ I said. ‘There has to be something you remember.’

She was looking flustered. ‘I...did hear Lucius mention a Julian inheritance tax law. Or so Castor -’ She stopped dead.

I gave it a couple of seconds, then I said neutrally: ‘You, uh, passed on what you’d heard to your brother.’

Veturina coloured. ‘I may have said something to him later, yes. Just in conversation.’

Just in conversation. Yeah, right. Me, I’d bet a flask of Caecuban to a rotten fig that whatever juicy snippet she’d chosen to pass on just in conversation had had nothing to do with inheritance tax; and a second flask that - because she had passed it on - I already knew what it must’ve been, at least in broad outline. ‘You heard something that affected Castor, didn’t you?’ I said.

I caught a quick flash of...yeah, it had to be fear; no other word would cover it. Then her face shut down like a door slamming.

‘Why on earth should you think that?’

‘Acceius mentioned bringing a letter from Publius Novius, the lawyer in Bovillae, informing them that the asking price of a property one of his clients was selling had gone up.’

‘So?’

Now that was curious. I wasn’t wrong - I’d swear on all the sacred shields of Mars I wasn’t wrong - but some of the tightness had gone out of her, as if she’d been steeling herself for me to say something different. ‘The price went up to just the amount your husband’s client was prepared to pay. Me, I’d wonder if that was coincidence. I’d bet that Hostilius had the same thought.’

She was on her feet now. ‘How dare you!’ she snapped. ‘How dare you!’

‘You want to tell me what the quarrel between your brother and your husband was about?’ Silence; she was glaring at me. I stood myself. Our eyes were on a level. ‘Fair enough, lady,’ I said. ‘I’ll take it up with Castor himself. Still, I’ll give you one piece of advice before I go. Your brother’s a grown man now, he should be taking responsibility for his own actions. He doesn’t need you to protect him.’ Unless it’s the other  way round, of course, I added mentally; but I wasn’t going to say it aloud, not to this devious bitch.

‘Talk to Castor if you must,’ she said. ‘Any of the slaves will take you to him. But, Corvinus, I’d be grateful if from now on you left me strictly alone.’

Yeah, well, we’d see about that. I nodded a curt acknowledgement and walked out.

He’d got his own suite of rooms, over in the east wing. The slave I’d buttonholed took me there, bowed me into a study and left.

Castor was lying on the reading couch with an open book-roll in his hands: a tall, big-boned, well-built, strong-featured guy, the male equivalent of his older sister. He glanced up and set the book aside.

‘Valerius Corvinus?’ he said. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

I could see why he’d be attractive to women, and why - like Marilla - they wouldn’t be too critical. Good looking, sure, but he also had a deep, serious, brown voice and a way of looking straight at you that suggested he meant what he said. There was something in the eyes, though, that I didn’t like at all. Hasty first impression or not, when push came to shove I wouldn’t trust this bugger an inch. No more than I would his sister.

‘Veturinus.’ I nodded acknowledgement. ‘You mind if I call you Castor?’

‘Everyone does. Have a seat.’ I pulled up a stool while he got up off the couch and crossed over to a small table with a winejug and some cups. ‘You like some wine?’

‘Sure.’

He poured for both of us, brought me my cup over then settled back on the couch with his own. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘I assume I’m in for some kind of interrogation.’

‘Spot on, pal,’ I said.

He’d been smiling: a sort of conspiratorial, all-mates-together smile that faded now that he saw it wasn’t getting a return. ‘Want to tell me why I should put up with that?’ he said.

‘Because the day before your brother-in-law died he’d finally got the proof that you were passing on privileged information to a rival firm.’ I sipped my wine. ‘Because I think you came back here and may not actually have gone wherever the hell you went until the next day, the day of the death, giving you motive and opportunity. Because for some reason your sister is lying herself black in the face to protect you. Because you did disappear for almost ten days, and that isn’t the action of an innocent man. And finally because I can’t be bothered to pretend it’s anything but an interrogation, because otherwise you’d just give me the fucking run-around.’

He leaned back. The colour - and what little was left of the friendliness - had left his face. ‘You can’t -’ he began.

‘Can’t what? Talk to you like that? Prove anything? Yes I can, sunshine. I can do both. As far as the second goes it’s just a question of putting the idea into Quintus Acceius’s mind and then going over to Bovillae to have a quiet, official word with Publius Novius.’

He stared at me for a good ten seconds, turning the winecup round and round in his hands. Finally, he set it down.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘Yes, I was giving Novius the occasional scrap of information. But nothing very important, and not for money.’

‘For what, then?’

He picked up the book-roll and handed it to me. I looked at the title: a commentary on the praetorian edicts for the last ten years of Augustus’s principate. ‘This belongs to Novius. He lent it to me a few days ago. I want to be a lawyer, Corvinus; I’ve wanted it as long as I can remember. If my brother-in-law wouldn’t help, wouldn’t treat me as an apprentice, then I had to go elsewhere.’

‘Come on, pal! You’re a free agent! If Novius was willing to take you on then -’

‘It wasn’t that simple. You know how my brother-in-law was. How do you think he’d’ve reacted - what do you think the result would’ve been where Veturina was concerned - if he’d found out I’d joined the rival firm? Besides, the set-up suited Novius already. He wasn’t going to change it.’

Yeah, fair points, both of them. Still... ‘But that’s what happened, isn’t it? Hostilius did find out. Care to tell me how?’

‘I don’t suppose it matters, now. Or not much.’ Castor took a deep breath and a long swallow of his wine. ‘He’d suspected for some time. Months. Then came the business of the letter, that Novius sent and Acceius brought round the last time he was here, raising the price of the Lutatius property. You know about that?’

‘Yeah, I know. Go on.’

‘That...confirmed it for Hostilius. He set a trap. He sent me round to the office with some documents that I was to tell Fuscus to take round to one of our clients. He’d left the door to his room open when he’d gone home earlier, and the key in the lock of his deed box. I...well, he’d obviously followed me into town and just waited until Fuscus had left and I’d had time to find the open box and look through the contents before sneaking back in. He caught me red-handed.’

‘The papers in the box. Any of them unexpected?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘There wasn’t a will in there, by any chance?’

His eyes shifted. ‘No. No will. Why should there be?’

Uh-huh. ‘No reason. It was just an idea. So then you had the shouting match, Hostilius called you names, Fuscus came in, and you left.’

‘Yes. There wasn’t anything else I could do.’

‘You went home first? Came back here?’

‘Not for long. Just long enough to pack some clothes, borrow some money from my sister.’

Liar! I thought, but that I couldn’t prove; not yet, anyway. And Veturina would back him to the hilt, I’d bet on that. Probably Scopas, too. ‘So where did you go?’ I said.

‘To a girlfriend of mine. In Bovillae. Her name’s Stratyllis.’

‘You’ve been there all this time?’

‘Yes.’ He must’ve noticed the look on my face. ‘Yes! She’s a dancer, she’s got an attic flat in a three-storey building near the town granaries. You can check if you don’t believe me. It’s the one with the oil shop on the ground floor.’

‘You missed the scene between your sister and your brother-in-law?’

‘Yes! I told you, I wasn’t here when he got back. Do you think I’d wait around?’ He looked sullen. ‘If you don’t trust Veturina to confirm it you can ask Paulina. She would’ve been there, I expect.’

‘Paulina? The ward? She’s gone to stay with her aunt in Rome.’

Castor frowned. ‘She hasn’t got –’ he began. Then he clammed up, so suddenly that I could almost hear his teeth click.

Everything went very quiet. ‘Hasn’t got what?’ I said finally.

‘Nothing.’ He took a sip of his wine. ‘I’m just back, Corvinus, I didn’t know. Veturina didn’t mention it.’

‘Paulina hasn’t got an aunt in Rome to go to, has she?’ I kept my voice very soft. ‘So where the hell has she gone?’

‘I don’t know! I told you, I’m just back myself! All I know is, she was here when I left. Ask Veturina.’