‘But not involving Marcus,’ I said indignantly. ‘He is sometimes foolish, but he never takes a bribe. Not over anything important anyhow.’
The sharp eyes twinkled. ‘I won’t tell him you said that. Now, about this murdered turnip-man. .’
I went on with the story, and he made notes of it, occasionally pausing to ask me to expand. When I had finished, he leaned back on his stool and folded his arms across his armoured chest.
‘So, in summary, you think that Quintus tried to have you killed because he’d falsified your patron’s message to the curia — presumably in return for a considerable bribe — and he thought you’d find him out? You have a high opinion of your talents, it appears.’
‘It isn’t my opinion that is relevant,’ I said, feeling a little snubbed by this remark. ‘If Gaius feared me, that might be enough. Perhaps he thought that I would write and tell my patron too, since it is no secret that I send to him each moon with news of what is happening in the town.’
‘Such as the unexpected death of that town councillor?’ The commander grinned at me. ‘I know that your patron found that very interesting. He wrote to me about it under seal. It was inconvenient, he said, having a sudden vacancy when he wasn’t here himself, and he intended to propose a trustworthy candidate.’
‘Inconvenient is not a word I’d choose. I wondered if it was a little too convenient.’
‘So did he, Libertus. That’s why he decided to come home so suddenly. But, returning to your patron’s nominee, it had to be someone with sufficient property, of course, and he told me he would need me to look into that before the voting day.’
‘So he didn’t nominate a candidate at all? Because he didn’t know if the man he had in mind owned enough to qualify?’
The old soldier got slowly to his feet. ‘Oh, he had decided on a nominee all right. He told me who it was. Can you really not guess whom he intended to propose?’
I shook my head. ‘It would have to be someone who’d agreed to it. I suppose that one could make enquiries and find out who it was he had approached. There are not so many people who would qualify.’ I broke off suddenly. ‘It wasn’t Pedronius by any chance?’
‘It was not Pedronius.’ He was smiling now. ‘The man that your patron had in mind is a troublesome old fellow, though he’s bright enough and honest in a dogged kind of way. A pavement-maker who has a workshop on the northern edge of town. .’
I was gaping at him. ‘Me! But he never mentioned it! And I don’t have a property within the walls at all.’
‘That was the reason he consulted me. However, the councillor who died possessed a large estate, including several properties in town. He had no family, so everything went automatically to the residual heirs — Quintus, as you know, received the country house. Your patron got a town apartment as his share. He wanted me to go and look at it, to see if it was big enough to meet the regulations. If so, he was intending to make a gift of it, on condition that you kept it up and left it to his son.’
I was still reeling. Of course, this was the kind of gift in which Marcus specialized: I would have had to keep the place in good repair, at my own expense, and in the end his family would reap the benefit. And public life required the lavish financing of public works and games, which would be crippling, though it was possible to recover something of the cost through patronage. But if Marcus had instructed me to stand, I could scarcely have refused. Thwarting the wishes of a man like that is apt to be severely detrimental to the health. Fortunately, I had not been called upon to choose.
I said, ‘But Marcus never wrote to me of this!’ And then I realized. ‘Or at least I never received it if he did.’
‘I am sure he meant to. I know he was planning to send a present for your child.’
I nodded. So that was the explanation for the expensive gift! It was a kind of bribe, by proxy as it were. ‘And that was the reason Quintus wanted me removed?’ I made the link at last. ‘Not simply because he was afraid I’d find him out, but because I might have been a rival to his chosen candidate.’
‘I am sorry if that is an insult to your pride.’
‘So I was wrong in my assumption. Marcus is not in danger after all.’
He whirled around on me. ‘But of course he is. More than ever, after what you’ve told me here. I thought that he’d asked you and you had refused, and he had succumbed to Gaius’s pleadings in disgust. But if that is not the case, and Greybeard was elected on the basis of a lie, then Quintus cannot expect to get away with it for long. Obviously, Marcus will reveal the truth as soon as he returns.’
‘So Quintus will want him silenced? By Virilis, no doubt, since he is on his way to see my patron now.’
‘I doubt that the attempt will take place straight away — that would be too suspicious. It will happen nearer home. But after what you tell me, we cannot take the risk. I shall send a rider after Virilis at once and have him stopped. Wait here a moment.’ He took a piece of vellum from the drawer beneath his desk, dipped a sharpened quill into a bowl of soot-black ink, scribbled a sentence and then folded the paper and attached a seal, pressing his seal-ring on to wax that he had melted at the lamp. He went outside and shouted down the stairs, ‘Optio!’
The man was there so quickly that it seemed he must have been fired from a bow. ‘You called me, sir?’ he panted.
‘Have this sent at once. The fastest messenger. It is to be relayed to every military inn between here and Londinium. It is only to be given to the commanding officer, who is to send it on at once. The man named is to be put under immediate arrest and brought back here as soon as possible. He is not to be permitted his weapon or his horse, or to change his clothing. Oh, and send a detail to the house of Quintus Severus as well. I know that he’s the chief decurion, but have him brought in here for questioning. Is that quite clear?’
The optio was looking startled, but he rapped out a reply. ‘Clearly understood, sir.’ He clattered off downstairs.
The commander sat down at his desk again. ‘We’ll catch him, Libertus; have no fear of that. We’ll have fresh horses and fresh riders at our disposal at the inns, and Virilis won’t know that we are after him, so he will be making no especial speed.’ He sighed. ‘We’ll pick up Quintus too, though your accusations of conspiracy might be hard to prove, since he never actually murdered anyone himself. Besides, as decurion, he would not be put to death, even if we did find proper evidence — the most he could expect is lifetime exile or confiscation of his property. Though I am very interested in what he said to you: that Virilis might accuse him of assisting the rebels in the wood. Why would he say that if there’s no truth in it? And, of course, Quintus is an Ordovicius by birth. But, as he says himself, it will be hard to prove.’
I nodded. ‘Virilis might agree to testify, of course. That would be sufficient confirmation to convict.’
‘Then let us hope he will — either under torture or in return for a promise to spare his life. Meantime, we have adequate evidence for a corruption charge, so we can bring Quintus in for questioning on that. If we can find him. He might have fled by now, and, unlike the case of Virilis, we won’t know where to look. And to think I had him in this very room this afternoon and let him go.’
‘You did?’
He nodded. ‘We were discussing the transport of some valuable items to the town — which seems ironic in the light of this.’
‘I see,’ I said. ‘So what will happen now?’
‘You are going to tell me about that body in the woods. Pedronius’s land slave, I believe you said. You have some idea what he was doing there? I suppose you’re going to tell me that Virilis murdered him?’
‘Well, that’s what happened, if I am any judge. I hear he was strangled, like the other two. I presume that the cord had been removed? And perhaps there were marks on his armpits and his thighs, where he’d been carried on the saddle of a horse?’