Now Flaccus looked uncomfortable, so I had an inkling that I knew what he was going to say.
“Fourth of the Third.”
I was right, and I hoped that my face did not betray my internal groan at the news. This complicates things quite a bit, I thought, because this is Flaccus’ man. I have a habit when I am distracted or worried in some way of rubbing my face, and I found that I was doing that very thing.
“So, he’s your man then,” Serenus said triumphantly, Flaccus shooting him an angry look.
“I assure you, that has nothing to do with my report,” he replied angrily, and I made a placating gesture to him.
“Nobody,” I looked sternly at Serenus, angry that he had spoken out of turn, forcing me to verbalize this, “is making any suggestion that it will, Princeps Posterior. In fact,” I lied, “it means that you may be able to provide even more valuable insight into what happened precisely because you do know the Gregarius. . I mean, Plautus. . very well. Please tell us your side.”
I took great pains to avoid using the word “version,” having learned that when one used that word, others took it that you were inferring that they were not being truthful.
Flaccus nodded and continued, “What Serenus has just described is not what happened.” I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise, but he either ignored or did not see my expression. “It's true that Plautus and your man Verres had words, but that is all they were. . words. Plautus didn't force his way into the woman’s room; in fact, it was the exact opposite. According to my witnesses, both men were sitting in the outer room, waiting their turn for their. . partners. My information is that they were not seeing the same woman. Anyway, what is true is that my man Plautus began talking to Verres, but the subject wasn't which woman they were seeing.”
I suspected I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. “What was the topic, Flaccus?”
Now he was looking like he would rather be anywhere but standing in front of Serenus or me, and I felt a pang of sympathy. Serenus was staring at him coldly, waiting for him to speak.
“It concerned. . the. . uh. . the events of yesterday.”
I raised an eyebrow, a trick I had learned from Gisela.
“Well, that's certainly understandable,” I said reasonably, “since yesterday was an eventful day. Do you know exactly what Plautus was saying?”
Flaccus looked positively miserable, but as much as I may have sympathized, I could not let this question go unanswered, so I repeated the question.
“Plautus was commenting on the. . performance of the men of the 37th,” he could not look at either of us as he finished.
“Let me guess, he wasn't exactly complimentary, was he?”
Flaccus sighed then shook his head. “No Primus Pilus, he wasn't.”
“Do you know specifically what he said about the 37th?”
Oh, I am willing to bet my entire fortune that at that moment, Princeps Posterior Flaccus was offering an urgent prayer that the ground beneath his feet would suddenly open to swallow him up.
Closing his eyes tightly, he said something in such a soft whisper that I could not hear, so I had to ask him to repeat himself. “He said. . he said. . that the 37th wasn’t worth the sweat off his balls, and that they deserved to be decimated.”
I had to stifle a laugh at the colorful invective that Plautus had spewed, but it was truly no laughing matter. The last part especially was troubling, because that was about the worst thing one Legionary could say about another Legion, and I said as much.
“But that isn't reason enough to kill him,” Flaccus protested, and this I could not argue.
However, Flaccus was not finished; he went on to claim that it was actually the other way around, that Verres had followed Plautus into the room his whore occupied, where he stabbed him to death.
When Flaccus was finished, I sat thinking for a moment. “Flaccus, I'm curious about one thing. You're the commander of the guard for the 28th in your sector, correct?”
“Yes, Primus Pilus.”
“Isn’t it customary that the commander of the guard and the Century on watch be from the same Century?”
He nodded, and I asked, “So why was Plautus not on duty?”
“Because I was doing a favor for a friend of mine who commands the Sixth Century, and I took his shift.”
I had suspected as much; Centurions swapped guard shifts all the time, despite there being regulations against it, which are almost universally ignored. There was no way that this matter was going to be handled quickly, or quietly, for that matter. I would have to talk to the witnesses for both men. Biting back a curse as I stood up, I grabbed my helmet and vitus.
~ ~ ~ ~
I was not surprised that the men were no help, on either side. They were uniformly as solemn and sincere as Vestal Virgins, each of them swearing to their household gods that they were being completely truthful and not embellishing a thing. However, I did not really need to hear what they had to say, because I was as close to convinced as I could be that I knew the real story, and unfortunately, it was closer to Flaccus’ version than Serenus’. I think that this Plautus saw a golden opportunity to pay those uppity bastards from the 6th back for all the cac they had been making the 28th eat. What he did not count on was one fact in particular; Verres’ older brother was a Centurion in the 37th, although he had survived the disaster, and I could not help wondering if Verres’ brother was the Centurion we saw cutting his own men down. However, there was no way I could ask Verres that, or that Verres would have known, even if his brother had confessed, since the 37th was still down on the ships. Still, knowing the truth, and proving it were two different things, which was only part of the problem. The bigger issue, at least in my own mind, was that by choosing to believe that the version Flaccus gave was closer to the truth than what Serenus, Verres and his friends had provided, I would be siding with the 28th against my own men. The fact that I was as close to convinced as I could be that Verres had killed Plautus simply for what he said just made things more difficult. In the larger picture, this was a no-win situation; if I sided with Verres, the men of the 28th would be even more embittered towards us, while siding with Plautus would make the 6th not only angry at the 28th, but at me as well for siding with them. The fact that I would simply be acting in the interests of justice and the truth had nothing to do with it, because rankers only care about what is fair when it somehow benefits them. If they see the right thing as somehow taking something from them, you can forget them wanting to do the right thing. On the surface, it appeared that the decision, while not easy, was at least clear. The lesser of two evils was to accept Verres’ version of events. I did not think it could make relations between the 6th and 28th any worse, and indeed, Verres escaping punishment might at least encourage the 28th to keep their mouths shut about what happened to the 37th. I also had to consider the fact that while in command of the 6th for several months now, the men still had not fully accepted me. The assault on the island had helped a great deal to solidify my hold over the men, but I knew there were still doubters, and some of them were Centurions and Optios. I could easily see Cornuficius turning this to his advantage; as I was learning, he was much cleverer than Celer, and more devious. I resolved that I would sleep on it, but I got precious little of it, tossing and turning instead, and it slowly dawned on me that the cause of my distress was. . anger. The realization struck me suddenly, shortly before dawn, when I sat upright, my mind racing. This had less to do with what was true than with the idea that I felt that I was being manipulated by not only my men, but Cornuficius as well, since Verres was his man, and all the witnesses were not only in the same Century, they were Verres’ very own tent mates, a fact I thought was very odd. There was little doubt that they had gotten together and worked out their story, probably rehearsing it. In truth, this was not unusual at all, having done it myself many times when I was a ranker. Except, somehow I convinced myself that this was different, that the men thought that they were getting one over on me, so by the time I was through thinking about it, I envisioned them sitting around the fire laughing uproariously at their gullible Primus Pilus and how easy it was to fool him. By the time the sun rose, I was in a cold fury, and the fate of Verres was sealed.