She was quiet for a long time. I wondered if she’d dozed off, but when we happened to pass a door with a lit torch outside it and I looked at her, her eyes were open and she was watching me closely.
‘So what can you do?’ she said softly.
I shrugged. ‘Not a lot. Just what I’ve been doing all along, really. Dig, see what comes up. Rattle a few cages, see if anything jumps. And hope to hell that somewhere along the line before the stupid bugger gets himself chopped I find something concrete that I can take to him without risking him telling his guard to cut my throat or ordering me to slit my wrists. Even if he would regret it ten minutes later.’
‘It’s dangerous, dear. You know that, don’t you?’
There wasn’t any answer to that. Not one I hadn’t given her already, anyway, and she could’ve supplied it herself.
I was glad I’d met Vinicianus, mind; he’d been a real possible for a conspirator, virtually a cert. But if I was going to rattle anyone’s cage it would have to be the guy’s who’d come across so far as the weakest link. Which meant Sextus Papinius’s brother and fellow tribune, Lucius. We’d have a crack at him tomorrow.
Like Perilla had said, it was late. I closed my eyes, concentrated on the swaying of the litter, and let myself drift into a doze.
TWENTY-SEVEN
I was over at the house on Patricius Incline by the fourth hour the next day. This time the gate slave was awake, and he remembered me.
‘You’ll be wanting to see the young master, no doubt, sir,’ he said. ‘Master Lucius.’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ I said. ‘He at home?’
‘That he is, sir, but there’s another gentleman with him at present, and if you don’t mind I’ll make sure that he’s not occupied first. If you’d care to wait a moment?’
‘Who’s the-?’ I began, but the guy was gone, disappearing through the garden gate.
He took his time coming back; in fact I’d been kicking my heels for a good five minutes before he reappeared.
‘I’m sorry for the wait, sir,’ he said. ‘You’re to go in. The gentlemen are in the atrium. You know the way?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Yeah, sure.’
I went through the garden, into the house and through the lobby to the atrium. The couch where young Sextus’s body had lain was still there, but the man sitting on it I recognized from the time at Longinus’s place. So, Valerius Asiaticus himself, right? This was going to prove even more interesting than I’d expected.
Papinius was sitting next to him, in his tribune’s uniform minus the hardware, and he was scowling. There was a folding stool — probably the same one Papinius had been using when I’d visited the house before — set about four feet in front of them, dead centre.
The whole thing felt staged, set for a trial. Or maybe ‘inquisition’ would be a better term.
‘Well, well.’ Asiaticus was smiling, or at least his mouth was. ‘Valerius Corvinus, as I live and breathe. How very nice to see you again. Please do come in and have a seat.’
I moved forwards and glanced down at the stool. ‘No thanks,’ I said. ‘I’ll stay where I am.’
‘As you like.’
‘I thought the guy on the gate had brought the message that I wanted to see Lucius Papinius.’
Papinius raised his head, but he said nothing. He still had the deep scowl on his face, and he was looking at me with something very close to hatred.
‘And you are seeing him,’ Asiaticus said. ‘The only difference is that you’re seeing me as well. I thought you might be pleased about that.’
‘Oh? How so?’
‘Because you think we’re both conspiring against the emperor.’
Shit; the gloves were off here and no mistake!
‘Are you?’ I said.
Asiaticus laughed. ‘Oh, now, Corvinus!’ he said. ‘You know Caesar doesn’t believe that! It’s been thoroughly gone into by better men than you, and the possibility has been dismissed for the nonsense it is. You’re not thinking of accusing us to him again yourself, are you? Because trust me, that would be very, very silly.’
‘Yeah, I know that, pal,’ I said equably. ‘The thought never entered my head.’
The smile slipped a bit. ‘Then why are you here?’
‘I told you that the last time I saw you. Or at least I told Cassius Longinus in your hearing. I’m investigating the death of Naevius Surdinus. At his niece’s request. She wasn’t satisfied — and quite rightly so — that the job was properly finished. I’m finishing it now, that’s all.’
I’d fazed him, which was all to the good. Always nice to see one of those cocksure bastards have to go in for a bit of drastic retrenching.
‘What have I to do with Surdinus?’ he said. ‘I hardly knew the man.’
‘But I said,’ I was bland, ‘I came to talk to the tribune here. I didn’t even know you’d be visiting. Still, now you mention it, I think you had some connection with him, at least. Maybe quite a lot.’
‘Such as what?’
‘The day after I called in at your pal Longinus’s, somebody arranged for me to be attacked. For reasons that we won’t go into, it must’ve been one of the four of you, and for more reasons ditto it had to be you.’
‘That’s complete nonsense!’ But his eyelids had flickered. ‘I told you, beyond a nodding acquaintance I had no connection with Naevius Surdinus whatsoever. Why the hell would I want to kill him?’
‘Because I think he … posed a danger.’
‘Oh? What sort of danger?’
Shit; I was sweating here myself, now. The answer, of course — if the theory held, precise whys and wherefores aside — was to the members of the inner conspiracy, of which, if he’d been the guy behind Surdinus’s death, ipso facto Asiaticus was one, if not the actual guiding force. Exactly the area I was pussy-footing around. From the smug way the guy was looking at me, he knew it too. This was a challenge.
Like he’d said, I didn’t have enough in the bank for a direct accusation. I folded.
‘I’m not completely sure of that yet,’ I said.
‘Fine. Fine.’ He was smiling again. ‘Well, you just keep it that way, will you, Corvinus? It might be safer.’
‘Incidentally,’ I said, ‘where’s Anicius Cerialis at present?’
The smile faltered. ‘What?’
‘Mind your own fucking business,’ Papinius ground out. Silent or not up to now, he hadn’t taken his eyes off me throughout the whole conversation.
I turned to him. ‘It was an innocent-enough question, pal,’ I said mildly. ‘This is his house, after all.’
‘He’s in Capua,’ Asiaticus said. ‘Negotiating the sale of some property he owns there. Why do you ask?’
I shrugged. ‘Just curious,’ I said. ‘It just struck me that he wouldn’t be exactly flavour of the month here, that’s all.’
‘Why shouldn’t he be?’
‘Well, you know best about that. But me, if I’d found out that he was responsible for blowing the whistle on some of my friends, even though they were … misguided’ — I chose the word carefully — ‘then I’d be pretty miffed with him. Particularly if they’d ended up tortured to death. I’m thinking primarily of Julius Graecinus. He was a good mate of yours, wasn’t he?’
‘Yes, he was,’ Asiaticus said stiffly. ‘But, as you say, he was misguided enough to conspire against the emperor. I’m afraid he deserved all he got. And I certainly don’t hold Cerialis’s loyalty against him.’
I glanced at Papinius. He was clenching and unclenching his fists. Yeah, well, pal, I thought, if you don’t then someone else does, in spades. I remembered the last time I’d been in this room, with Papinius’s brother lying dead on the couch and Papinius himself getting stewed and gritting his teeth while he went through the motions of covering up for the guy’s murderers. That’d been an instance of loyalty as well, although in the elder Papinius’s case it’d been a conflict of loyalties. Which was why I’d come here in the first place. If it hadn’t been for the accident of Asiaticus being here, I might’ve had a chance of turning him. As it was, he’d clearly been told to keep his mouth firmly closed and toe the party line.