There was nothing more to be gleaned here, I thought, and I turned to leave, though my mind was full of a thousand questions. Why, for instance, had a man like Monnius — with all his expensive furniture, and the best tradesmen of Londinium at his bidding — chosen to lay such an appalling floor?
At first sight it was a simple mosaic design, very crudely fashioned, of interlocking shapes within a border: the sort of thing that Junio could have done within six months of joining the workshop. And even those shapes were not quite regular. There, under the carved Egyptian writing table, there was something very peculiar about the tiles. There was one segment of unusual regularity, with a wide gap between the tiles around the edge. Almost as though it had been done on purpose.
I stopped. Fulvia had spoken of hiding places. I moved aside the stool and knelt down to examine further. If I slipped my fingers into the crack, like this. .
‘Citizen!’ A ringing voice from the doorway arrested me. I let go of the section of floor which had, indeed, moved slightly under my fingers, and backed out from under the table. Annia Augusta was standing in the lobby, staring at me in affronted disbelief. Two attendants were lurking at her side.
I scrambled to my feet and attempted to look as though crawling under the writing desk in another man’s study was the kind of thing that I did every day. ‘Forgive me, madam citizen. I am a pavement-maker by trade,’ I said feebly. ‘I was admiring. .’
She looked at me stonily. ‘I thought you were here to solve the mystery of my son’s death, not to examine the pavements.’ However, there was only disdain in her face, not a trace of anxiety, and her eyes did not flicker towards the hiding place. If Annia Augusta knew of its existence, she was an excellent actress.
‘With regard to that,’ I went on, brightly, ignoring the rebuke, ‘those documents that were missing from the chest: I understand that you were the one who came in and found that they were gone. Can you give me any indication of what I’m looking for?’
Annia Augusta unfolded her ample arms, and said impatiently, ‘There were some scrolls here yesterday and now they’re not. That’s all I know. And a great deal of money, besides.’
‘Scrolls?’ I said, refusing to be deflected. Only the most important records merited the permanence of documentation — storehouse records, for instance. ‘Are you sure of that?’
‘I am not accustomed to talk nonsense, citizen. They were scrolls. Two or three small ones, with seals on the end.’
More interesting news. If a document was sealed, the loss of it was doubly significant. A man’s seal to a contract was binding under the law.
‘And you have no idea what they were about?’
She was dismissive. ‘Something to do with business, I imagine. You will have to ask the slaves. They were the ones who saw them locked away. Why are you so interested in these stupid scrolls? And how should I know what they were about? Do you suppose, citizen, that I opened them? Or that I could have read them if I did?’
In fact, I would not have been surprised on either count. Annia Augusta struck me as a woman of lively curiosity, and I could not imagine her as the product of an education concentrating exclusively on household skills. But I did not want her examining that piece of floor before I had a further chance to look at it myself. I murmured humbly, ‘Perhaps not, lady. And the money that is missing, you saw that too?’
If there had been the slightest constraint and uneasiness before, it had completely disappeared. This time her answer was less grudging. ‘Indeed I did, citizen. Thousands of sesterces there were — my son was counting them at the time. I saw him put them in that chest behind you. And lock it, as he always did. And this morning when I came in here, the chest was open — and it was empty, as you can see. No doubt when you find Fortunatus, you will find the money too.’ She folded her arms again. ‘Now, do you want to talk to the slaves? Try not to be too long with them — they are wanted for household duties, and there is a great deal to be done before the funeral.’
After what Junio had told me, I did not expect to learn anything more from questioning the household. ‘I have a more pressing matter to attend to,’ I explained. ‘My slave will be back in a moment with a litter. I hope to visit the charioteers in Verulamium, before the festival is over and the teams go on elsewhere.’
She nodded grimly. ‘So you are going to take my advice, at last. I am very glad to hear it. Perhaps now you will get on with it and search out that scoundrel who murdered my son.’
‘Indeed, madam, I hope to speak to Fortunatus soon,’ I said, and was rewarded with a grim smile as I moved towards the door. Instead of walking through it, however, I turned and looked at her. ‘Though there is one more thing I wish to ask you before I leave. I believe you have a necklace like the one that was used to strangle Monnius. A triple-stranded silver chain?’
She frowned. ‘I do. But surely that one was Fulvia’s? What else would Fortunatus use?’
‘It was not Fulvia’s, madam citizen. She has it with her. And Lydia is wearing hers — I noted it a moment ago. Can you produce yours?’
Annia Augusta flushed. ‘I can. At least, I can account for where it is. I lost one of the small stones set into the chain, and Monnius sent it to the jewel merchant to have the gem replaced. I suppose it is still in the workshop. It would be easy to check.’ She looked at me suddenly. ‘You are surely not suggesting, citizen, that I strangled my son? I would have more wit than to do it with my own necklace if I did.’
And that, I thought, as I followed her meekly back through the house, was certainly true. Unless she had done it with her own necklace hoping that everyone would reason in that way.
As with many town houses, there was no way to the entrance except via the atrium, and I was obliged to sidle my way round the edge though the funeral bier was now laid out in the open space at the back of it, and the extravagant rituals of official grief were being observed. Fulvia was still there, tunefully lamenting, while the pipers wailed and the professional keeners beat their breasts and wept. Pine cones had been added to the braziers, to disguise the smell of human corruption, and the air was heavy with the scent of candles, incense and herbs.
I went into the entrance passage and the doorkeeper nodded at me from his niche as I passed. ‘Water and fire in those pots, citizen. On the lady Lydia’s orders. She said to tell you they were there, so you could purify yourself properly.’ I must have looked startled — this formality was not usually observed by mere visitors to a house. He winked. ‘Always a stickler for fulfilling observances, the lady Lydia.’
I obliged, and was stepping obediently over the ‘fire’ (a small metal bowl with a few coals burning in it) when a thought occurred to me.
‘Last night,’ I said, rinsing my hands solemnly in the perfumed water, and drying them on the small towel provided, thereby ‘washing my hands of death’ in the approved Roman fashion, ‘did you see all the feasters leave the house?’
He was suddenly sober. ‘Oh yes, citizen. And their slaves. The master was always terrified of plots against him, and I was always most careful to see that everyone had gone.’ He looked anxious now. ‘The other servants will bear me out. You will tell the governor that, won’t you? Annia Augusta will have me whipped as it is, for falling asleep at my post, and if they think I allowed one of the feasters to hide in the house. . dear Jupiter! I shall be lucky to come out of it alive. And then I let that Eppaticus in this morning — oh, merciful gods!’ He began to pluck at my toga in agitation.
I handed him the towel to occupy his hands, and hastened past him out of the door. What a household of tensions, I thought. It was quite a relief to get out into the open air again. Junio was there, with the same litter which had carried me to the house earlier — it was at my disposal for the day, I learned, and had been standing by for further instructions, on the orders of the governor. Junio helped me in, and we set off again at a brisk pace.