‘Efficient, isn’t he?’ Lais gloated.
Efficient. The word sent shivers down Claudia’s skin. Like a well-greased machine, Pul arranges for families to be evicted, men beaten up, property destroyed, he calmly tells Kamar who should die. Did Pul, she wondered, experience no flutterings of remorse when he brought food to the woman scheduled to die in Lais’ place? Was there the slightest nip of conscience when he put his hands around her throat and squeezed? And what skipped through his mind when he crept up behind Cal and snapped his neck like a dry twig?
Cold-blooded, cold-hearted, but Claudia felt a faint glimpse of comprehension. All men have a living to earn, even Pul. But Lais? Claudia swallowed her revulsion along with the wine. ‘Why?’ she asked simply.
With a short laugh, the hard-eyed, ravaged harpy indicated the rows of chests, embellished by glorious lamplight. Gold plate, gem-studded salvers, goblets, vases, silver pitchers twinkled back.
‘Tuder was a banker, a successful one at that, but he also was a miser.’ She let out her deep, throaty chuckle. ‘And in that he was most successful, too. Which is why he purchased an island isolated from virtually every living soul and built himself this hidden chamber. Day after day he spent closeted in here, feasting his eyes on the proceeds of his business, running his fat hands over their contours, yet what of his wife of thirty-six years? What of the wife who had buried three sons all aged under five? The first I knew of our move to this hellhole was when the wagons arrived to transport us from Rome.’
For one brief second, Claudia was almost tempted to feel sorry for her.
‘Faced with a choice, twenty years of obscurity against the chance of fulfilling a vocation, what would you do?’
A ball of lead settled in Claudia’s stomach. ‘I’d get rid of my husband,’ she said quietly, ‘with the aid of a greedy physician.’
‘Exactly.’ When Lais clapped her hands, Claudia counted seven liver spots. ‘After that he kept on doing my bidding, for which he received ample rewards, with the choice of keeping quiet-or me screaming to the world that he murdered my dear, departed husband. And who would be believed in this scenario? A sexual pervert or the faithful wife?’
‘Pervert?’
‘You didn’t know about his predilection for boys? Oh, my, he likes them tender, does Kamar.”
Fire shot through Claudia’s veins. Janus, Croesus, she’d had him in her power, with ample hemlock in his dispensary. Instead, she didn’t just fall into his honeyed trap, she pinched her nose and jumped in. Small surprise he led her here. When she’d given the game away by saying it was Tarraco she was after, he’d simply handed her over to Lais.
Idly, she wondered what expression would be on his face when he was chained in the arena with a pack of snarling, starving dogs and a warm glow spread over her. Then Claudia recalled what Lais had said earlier and snapped out of her reverie.
‘ What vocation?’ she asked. Pretending to smooth her skirt as she crossed her legs, she felt for the thin-bladed knife. Juno be praised, it was still there.
‘Have you ever been in the position where you know there is something missing in your life, but have never known what that gap might represent?’ Lais moved across the room, draped herself across a blue upholstered couch and began to toy with the arm carved in a lion’s head. ‘When I was younger, I suspected it was children, my lost boys, but then we arrived here-’ she waved her hand around to indicate not just the villa, but the island ‘-and I knew. Just-’ she snapped her fingers ‘-like that, I understood my destiny was to be Queen of the Lake.’
‘Ex-cuse me?’
Lais smiled a patronizing smile. ‘Let me simplify it for you. You see, for so long, Plasimene, like myself, had been spiritually abandoned. Suddenly here was my chance to redress the balance. Using Tuder’s precious fortune, I was able to start building up my empire-indeed, Pul reports that in another three months, maybe four, the entire town and its environs will belong to me.’
‘Apart from Atlantis.’
Lais shrugged. ‘That shouldn’t take longer than another six or seven weeks to acquire once I have the rest, and I’m practically there. I can see from your face, you’re impressed?’
Your majesty! But maybe this was Claudia’s chance? ‘Who couldn’t be overwhelmed?’ she gushed. ‘And your…’ she forced herself to spit it out. ‘Your people?’
‘Will revere and respect me,’ Lais said, stretching out along the couch. ‘Until Atlantis is under my control, I shall naturally refrain from announcing myself, but you’ll find I shall rule my subjects fairly, I shall be just in quarrels, generous in famine, they will have no cause for complaint.’
Lucky them. ‘And what of the killings which take place under Kamar’s medicinal aegis? It’s tantamount to a murder factory up there.’
‘Don’t be so suburban,’ Lais snorted. ‘No one dies who doesn’t deserve it.’ Her face softened. ‘Look upon them as dead wood, and you’ll understand. In life these people serve no useful purpose, whereas in death, whether into money, business or marriage, so many others are made free. I am merely performing a service.’
Claudia thought of a woman she’d never even met. The woman who kept cats. Twelve of them, strangled before their mistress had her first luxurious massage in Atlantis…
She thought of a silversmith. The woman in the mudbath. The orphan killed in the hills.
She thought of Cal. Vibrant, laughing, walking the tightrope between danger and fun. She didn’t know which way he’d end up living his life…but the choice should have been his to make, not Lais’. Whoever possesses the gold rules. Not any more, they don’t. Not any more. People have families. They have feelings. You can’t prune them like old trees.
‘What did you expect to achieve, coming here?’ Lais asked, arching one thickly painted eyebrow. ‘Me to row back with you and confess everything to-who is it pays you? Tuder’s buttoned-up brother?’
Claudia nodded. ‘You shouldn’t have cut him out of the will.’ She was taking a chance, but ‘Why not?’ Holy Hades, the ploy worked! ‘I needed the money to finance my operation, and you don’t seriously expect me to give up everything I’ve worked for?’
Claudia’s heart raced like snowmelts down a mountain. This was the moment she had been building up to. With a studied languidity, she leaned back in the chair and stretched out her hands to examine the half-moons on her fingernails. ‘Hardly.’ She kept her eyes on her hands. ‘You see, it occurred to me that once you knew I was clever enough to trace you and confront you with my findings, you might be inclined to cut me in.’
Lais chewed her lip. ‘You have guts, I’ll give you that. The fact you came out here alone inclines me towards you, but it’s a firm rule of mine. Never deal with blackmail.’
Claudia breathed on her thumbnail and buffed it against the lap of her gown. ‘I had you pegged as a smarter businesswoman than that,’ she replied, and without even looking up, knew she had Lais’ attention.
‘You don’t want a pay-off?’ Old Stonyface couldn’t hide the intrigue from her voice.
‘Oh, no.’ Still Claudia refused to meet her eye. ‘I want you to add my name to the payroll.’
‘Hire you?’ Lais nearly fell off the couch.
‘My financial situation is somewhat rocky.’ Claudia smiled. ‘My wine business is faltering, I need funds to shore it up-and let’s face it, Kamar and Pul can only do so much without attracting attention. Imagine what another woman can get away with.’
Was she hooked? Claudia pressed on.
‘Don’t you think that, if I meant you harm, I’d have approached the authorities? Had you and Kamar and Cyrus arrested? Pul, too?’
‘I’d considered that,’ Lais said slowly. ‘You are either very arrogant or very stupid.’
‘Or very skint. So test me. Tell me who’s next on your list and I’ll kill that person for you. Tonight.’
There was a moment’s hesitation, almost a smile playing on Lais’ lip, and Claudia capitalized on her moment’s good fortune.