Heads of the hydra was right.
Imperial admin officers — the ones on the private side, anyway, like Capito — have their offices in the administrative wing of the palace itself. So up to the Palatine I went, passed unchallenged between the two Praetorians on guard, and was directed by the clerk on reception to a room on the mezzanine floor. I knocked, opened the door, and went straight in.
There were two guys there. The one sitting behind the desk was late-middle-aged, in a narrow-striper mantle; the other, standing in front of it, had a senator’s broad stripe. He turned round sharply as the door opened, and I saw that he was much younger, in his late twenties. They were obviously, from the facial resemblance, father and son.
They were obviously also, from the expressions on the faces, in the throes of a family conference. A fairly urgent, unpleasant one, at that.
‘I’m busy,’ Capito snapped. ‘What is it?’
Fair enough; if that was the way he wanted to play it, fine with me. It’d save a lot of pussyfooting around, certainly.
‘Actually, pal’ — I closed the door behind me and set my back to it — ‘I wanted a word with your son here. About the death this morning of a military tribune by the name of Sextus Papinius.’
I was watching the younger man’s face when I said it, and I couldn’t miss the flash of panic — the same look I’d got from Sextus’s brother, Lucius. He glanced back at his father.
‘Dad-’ he began.
‘I’ll handle this,’ Capito said. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and his face was set. ‘Who are you? And what makes you think you can barge in here without an appointment?’
‘The name’s Corvinus. Marcus Corvinus.’ Definitely a flicker there; if I’d had any doubts that Herennius Senior was involved I didn’t have them any more. ‘I understand from his brother that the quaestor here was with Papinius when he died.’
‘That’s correct. In a fall from his horse on Mars Field. They were out riding together, and young Sextus’s horse shied and threw him. A terrible business, terrible.’
‘Was there anyone else around?’
‘No, as it happened. They were in the top corner of the field, near the river, beyond Augustus’s Mausoleum.’ He was frowning. ‘What’s this about? And what has it to do with you?’
‘I’m looking into the death — the murder — of Lucius Naevius Surdinus.’
He blinked; that name had registered, too.
‘So?’ he said.
‘Papinius told me, yesterday, that he had certain information he thought I should have. We’d arranged to meet this afternoon, only of course he never turned up.’
‘That was unfortunate, but-’
‘He never turned up because your son here killed him. Or rather, probably, he engineered things so that someone else could do the job.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Bassus was white with anger. ‘Sextus was one of my best friends! We grew up together! If you think-’
His father reached out and put a hand on his wrist. He was still staring at me, but he’d gone noticeably pale. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
‘Corvinus,’ he said, ‘that accusation is not only nonsensical, unfounded, and unwarranted, but actionable in a court of law. Which is where I and my son will see you as soon as I can lay a charge before the city judge. Now, get out of my office.’
Weak. I recognized bluster when I heard it, and I could see a bead of sweat on his forehead. I didn’t move. ‘You haven’t asked why,’ I said.
Capito’s brow furrowed. ‘Why what?’
‘Why he did it.’ I shrugged. ‘Oh, sure, you know the answer perfectly well already, but I’ll give you it nonetheless. There’s a plot to kill the emperor. Papinius was involved; your son Bassus here’s involved. You’re involved yourself. How Surdinus fits in I’m not sure yet, but that’s why he was killed, and Papinius knew about it. Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong.’
They were both staring at me: Capito like an actor who’d suddenly lost his place in the script, his son in pure wide-eyed terror.
‘That’s …’ Capito stuttered.
‘The simple unvarnished truth,’ I went on easily. ‘Right. Of course, you’re wondering just how much I know in the way of detail, and who else knows besides me. Whether it’s enough to take to the emperor himself, and whether I’m in a minority of one. Maybe whether I have taken it to the emperor already, in which case you’re all dead men walking. That includes your pals Longinus and Cerialis, plus the two Gauls. No doubt quite a few others that I don’t yet know about, yes, but never mind, because once you’re in the bag, the emperor has ways of getting the names out of you. Not very pleasant ways, but there you are. And believe me, if you are thinking of passing the fact that we’ve had this little talk on to your heavies so that they can take appropriate action, the secret isn’t a secret any longer. The horse is out, the stable door’s wide open, and you’re living on borrowed time. Trust me on this, absolutely.’ They were grey with fear now, both of them. ‘So the good news is that I’m cutting you some slack. Not much, but it’s the best offer you’ll get.’ I folded my arms and leaned back against the door. ‘As far as I know, Gaius doesn’t-’
I’d been half-expecting it, so it didn’t come as a complete surprise; besides, Bassus was no fighter. He came at me swinging, but I ducked and planted a fist in his midriff, then when he doubled up I followed it with a sock to the jaw. He folded like a wet rag and lay there groaning.
Capito had got to his feet, but he didn’t move.
‘Like I was saying,’ I continued, ‘as far as I know — although I may be wrong — all this’ll come as news to the emperor. Me, well, I’m an outsider, a nobody, but if someone he trusts, one of his own senior admin staff, say, were to go to him off his own bat and tell him the whole story up-front, first to last, he might just decide to overlook the details of where the guy had got his information. He might even be grateful, although I wouldn’t count too much on that possibility, myself.’ I shrugged. ‘It’s a gamble, sure, but I’d think the odds would be pretty good. Better, certainly, than if you let things slide, or if you’re stupid enough to stay on the losing team, because if you do and you are, then you have no future at all. Your decision completely, pal, and you might be lucky. Think about it.’ I opened the door. ‘As for the mechanics of the thing, well, Gaius couldn’t be more handily placed, since you’re virtually neighbours, so I’ll only give you until tomorrow morning before I make an appointment myself. I’ll see you around. Hopefully.’
I left.
That had been risky, sure, but it’d been a calculated risk, and I reckoned it would pay off because those two were no hardened conspirators — that had been obvious practically from the first. Someone with backbone like Longinus, or even Graecinus, would’ve laughed in my face and brazened it out, then quietly arranged to have me chopped. Them, I’d never have tried it on with, not in a million years, because it would’ve been just too damn dangerous. Capito and his son, though, were running scared, particularly the son, and if I’d been bluffing when I’d implied that other people were in on the secret, it’d been in the certainty that they wouldn’t call the bluff and arrange for the chopping themselves. Besides, I’d been totally honest about their options. Spilling the beans voluntarily to the emperor wasn’t by any means a guarantee that they’d live through this, especially in the current climate, but the chances of it were a hell of a lot better than if they’d just been two more names on the list. And given my deadline of tomorrow morning, which allowed them no time to think, it would be by far the best and fastest way of letting Gaius know what was going on; I could spend months putting a watertight case together, and whatever the plot’s timetable was, months were something I’d bet I didn’t have. Nowhere near it.
So, a good day’s work, and if I was lucky the first real crack in the case. I hadn’t lost sight of the fact that my remit was to find whoever had killed Surdinus, and a little thing like unmasking a conspiracy against the emperor was just an incidental feature. Oh, yeah, sure, there was a connection; there had to be. The simplest explanation was that, like Papinius, Surdinus had been involved in the plot himself, got cold feet, and taken the best indirect way he could of blowing the whistle. Or ensuring, rather, that if he were to die prematurely, the whistle would still be blown. Still, I didn’t actually know that, not yet, and there were factors militating against it. Like — given the other conspirators were either serving senators or Praetorians, or had strong imperial connections — why should an apolitical sort like him be mixed up in it at all? However, if I was lucky, when the whole boiling were hauled in for questioning, the case would solve itself. You might not like them — I didn’t, particularly — but as I’d said to Capito, Gaius had ways of getting even the most reluctant suspect to talk. And with a planned assassination in the pipeline, he wouldn’t pull his punches, either.