‘It’s the most obvious explanation, sure.’ I took a swallow of the wine: if Meton had brought along a stock of culinary supplies with us, I’d had Bathyllus do the same on the liquid side, and we were well-fixed. Oh, the villa would have a pretty good cellar, no question, and Fulvina’s husband would keep it stocked, but you can take cadging too far. Besides, I wouldn’t altogether trust a guy whose metier was Aqueducts and Sewers to have a good nose for wine. ‘The fact that he hadn’t actually been murdered and the authorities weren’t interested in an investigation would be a godsend to her. And we wouldn’t have to look far for the actual perp. His exec, Doccius, fits the maid’s description perfectly, Mamilia clearly has him eating out of her hand, and equally clearly he’s not too cut up about his boss’s death either.’
Perilla set the remaining half of the rissole down on her plate.
‘You’re saying that Doccius and the missing businessman, Marcus Pullius, are the same person?’ she said.
‘Yeah. Why not?’
‘But, Marcus, dear, that’s impossible!’
‘Oh? How so?’
‘Well, obviously it is! Correllius saw Doccius every day. He was hardly likely to get away with arranging a meeting with him under another name, now, was he?’
‘Hang on, lady. We don’t know that Correllius set the meeting up with this Pullius guy personally, or even that he’d ever clapped eyes on him. He might’ve done it at second hand. In which case as his deputy Doccius could well have made the arrangements himself.’
‘That’s hardly likely. Not if whatever deal Pullius wanted, or claimed he wanted, to discuss was important enough to warrant a sick old man travelling all the way to Rome in person. Either he’d have been personally involved at the start or sent Doccius in his stead.’ Perilla dipped the second half of the rissole into the fish sauce. ‘Besides, Doccius couldn’t have known that Correllius would fall asleep – call it that – on the Pollio bench. The chances were that he’d be in full possession of his faculties when they met face-to-face, as they’d have to do, and he’d certainly know him then.’ She popped the rissole into her mouth and chewed. ‘No, it’s just silly.’
The lady was absolutely right, of course; put like that it was silly. Still-
‘OK,’ I said. ‘Maybe Pullius wasn’t Doccius himself. But the principle holds good. Doccius – with or without Mamilia’s collusion – could’ve arranged the phoney meeting to manoeuvre Correllius into a position where he was on his own and they could take him out in relative safety, using a hitman. The phantom Pullius. After all, why Rome anyway, if it wasn’t to get the guy off his usual patch?’
‘But why should Doccius – or Mamilia, for that matter – want Correllius dead?’
I sighed. ‘Come on, Perilla! Doccius was Correllius’s right-hand man, from the looks of things he’s the one actually running the business on a day-to-day basis, and he’s a good-looking devil in himself. Mamilia’s not all that much older than he is, she may not be a stunner, exactly, but she’s well set-up all the same and knows it, and she was married to a fat sixty-odd-year-old slob. Probably a seriously rich fat sixty-odd-year-old slob, at that. Do the maths yourself.’
‘Correllius was also not a well man.’
‘According to Doccius, sure, but-’
‘Marcus, he died a natural death, and Clarus was of the opinion that that wasn’t surprising in the case of a man of his age and in his physical condition.’
‘OK,’ I said grudgingly. ‘So?’
‘So if it were a case of dead man’s shoes, sexual attraction, whatever, then why go to the trouble of murdering him? After all, the situation would resolve itself before very long. It just wouldn’t be worth the risk. I think we can give Doccius the benefit of the doubt here, don’t you?’
True. At least on present showing. Bugger.
We’d finished with the nibbles, and Bathyllus was wheeling in the main course. I helped myself to some of the braised chicken and the pureed greens.
‘Yeah, well,’ I said. ‘The Mamilia-Doccius pairing’s too good just to let slide. And we’re only at the start of things here.’ I passed her the chicken, and she spooned some onto her plate with a helping of the chickpea casserole. Not a great one for greens, Perilla.
‘Fair enough,’ she said. ‘Leave that aspect of it for the moment. What else have you got?’
‘The most interesting thing is a guy by the name of Fundanius. Publius Fundanius. Turns out he’s a crook as well and that he and Correllius had been at daggers drawn for years.’
‘Hmm.’ She held up her cup for Bathyllus to pour in some of the fruit juice and mint concoction she was currently favouring. ‘Same objection, surely. If the man hadn’t gone the length of murder before, then why do it now?’
‘I don’t know, lady. Like I say, it’s early days to be theorizing. Maybe the situation had changed somehow recently, or Correllius had done something that really got up his nose. Maybe he’d just got out of the wrong side of bed one morning and decided he might as well stiff the guy and be done with him. In any case, Fundanius is a front runner, and from what I saw he might well be up for it.’
‘You’ve met him?’
‘Briefly. At Correllius’s house. He dropped by to give Mamilia his condolences. Or at least that’s what he said.’ I frowned. ‘That was odd, if you like.’
‘In what way?’
‘Come on, Perilla! Why should he? Like I say, he was no friend of the family, and according to my butcher pal Rubrius he was more likely to spit in Correllius’s urn than shed a tear over it. And there was no love lost between him and the widow, that was for sure.’
‘Perhaps it was just good manners on his part. It does happen between business rivals. Correllius was dead, and so presumably was the feud, whatever it was about. Perhaps he was simply making overtures.’
‘Yeah.’ I was still frowning. ‘Even so, it smells. And putting together a case – a hypothetical one, anyway – wouldn’t be too difficult.’
‘Namely?’
I laid down my spoon. ‘OK. Say for some reason Fundanius was responsible for knifing the guy. There’s no mileage in rousing Mamilia’s suspicions, is there? Quite the opposite. Oh, sure, at present he’s not exactly persona grata in the Correllius household, but with the boss dead the family business is bound to be drifting a bit. Say that “making overtures” was exactly his intention, that he was angling for some sort of merger, or at least a spheres-of-activity deal. Oh, not right away, that’d be asking too much. But softening things up might be another matter. Like I said, we don’t know the exact circumstances – or not as yet, anyway – but something along those lines might well give him a viable motive.’
‘Of course,’ Perilla moved the chickpeas on her plate around with her spoon, ‘there is another possibility. Extension, rather. Not that I’m advocating it, mind, but it’s worth considering.’
‘Yeah? And what’s that?’
‘That your Fundanius and Mamilia were in it together from the start.’
I’d picked up my spoon again and had a piece of Meton’s chicken stew halfway to my mouth. I laid it down.
‘What?’
‘It’s as good a theory as any, dear. You’ve already suggested that Mamilia might be involved sexually with Doccius. Why not with Fundanius instead? In fact, he’s a lot more probable. At least he’s from the same social level.’
‘Lady, you weren’t there! When the guy came in you could’ve cut the atmosphere with a knife!’
‘But of course you could. I’m sure the last thing she would have expected or wanted was for her lover and partner-in-crime to drop by when a stranger whose declared intention was to investigate her husband’s death was present. All that would be needed is that she would have the nous and acting ability to carry the thing off. Or do you think she’d be incapable of that?’
Shit; it made sense. All kinds of sense. And it would explain a lot of the oddness: the fact that Fundanius, persona non grata or not, had been able just to walk in past the door-slaves, the fact that Mamilia was obviously completely un-cut-up about her husband’s death, and not least the fact that, to put it mildly, she wasn’t too keen on the circumstances being dug into. And if I’d ever met a lady who had the coolness and sheer brass neck to become mistress of the situation at the drop of a hat, then Mamilia was the one.