I sighed. ‘It seems so. This is my patron’s gatekeeper. The one my wife expected to find on duty when she came. He has been missing since early in the day and now, I think, we know the reason why. Somebody has poisoned him.’ I tried to turn the body over as I spoke, but it was difficult. Aulus was in any case a very heavy man, but he seemed to be twice as heavy dead. He was stiff and unresponsive and in the end I gave it up.
I turned to Farathetos, seeking help, but he was already getting to his feet, his sullen face creased in a doubtful frown. ‘Someone poisoned him? I don’t see how you can be so sure of that. Strikes me he might have taken the poison for himself. After all, he seems to have come into the forest on his own, rather than going into the villa to seek help.’ The idea seemed to cheer him up, if anything. ‘Guilt of that other murder, preying on his mind. You mark my words, citizen. Here’s the man who put that body in Morella’s dress. Afraid of someone finding out what he’d done, and handing him to the torturers to force him to confess.’
‘I do not think so,’ I said soberly, although I admit I did briefly consider the idea. But a moment’s reflection disposed of it at once. The murder had happened a day or two before, when Aulus had been on duty at the gate from dawn to dusk and — even if he had the opportunity to kill — would have had no chance at all of disposing of the corpse. Besides, he would hardly have hidden it in the ditch where it was found — he must have known that the land slaves were going to clear the land.
But Farathetos was unwilling to abandon his idea. ‘Perhaps he was the one who robbed and murdered my Morella, too. In that case I shall make a claim against his owner for my loss. Important magistrate or not, I’ll take him to the courts — you see if I don’t. It’s a lot of money for a man like me to lose.’
‘Then don’t waste any more of it on useless claims,’ I said. ‘Let’s concentrate on finding out what happened, if we can.’ I turned to the woman, who was still standing further off. ‘Was there any sign of how the gatekeeper came here? Any tracks to show the way he’d come?’
She nodded. ‘Along that path beside the thicket over there, I think,’ she said, indicating a faint track which I could just perceive. ‘That’s where I was walking when the dog picked up the scent. It had been tracking something right along the trail and all at once it veered away and dragged me over here. You can see the bracken, where he pulled me. It’s all been trodden down.’
I got up to look more closely, leaving Aulus where he lay. Taking care not to disturb things more than I could help, I traced back along the trail — a zigzag route that led here from the path, getting more random as it came along — right through the bushes, in some places, rather than going round them as I had to do — as if the person walking had lost all sense of place and simply been reeling helplessly around till he fell. And that, I was quite certain, was what had happened here. I’d already noticed the telltale signs on Aulus’s legs, and as I looked carefully along the way he had come I found fresh blood visible on several jagged twigs, and broken branches where he had blundered through.
‘See, there is vomit in places along the path as well.’ I realised that the woman had followed at my heels. She gave me a conspiratorial smile. Out of her husband’s hearing, she had more confidence. ‘I had an awful time to keep the dog away, and once or twice he pulled so hard I almost trod in it.’ She glanced back to the clearing. ‘Was it something that the poor man ate that killed him, do you think?’
I smiled. ‘It’s possible.’ I recalled what Minimus had said about the time when Aulus had eaten flower bulbs instead of onions and been very ill. Was it possible he’d made the same mistake again? I shook my head. It would be too much of a coincidence, and anyway his previous misadventure had not laid him low for long. But Aulus had gone into the forest then, and was discovered vomiting. It was obvious why his instinct was to come this way if he was taken urgently unwell — the forest was much closer than the slaves’ latrine and much quicker to get to from his gatehouse cell.
The woman was looking at me enquiringly and for some reason I found myself explaining this last idea to her.
‘I see,’ she said, with that shy smile again. ‘I suppose I would not go back into the house of my master, either, if I wanted to be sick. But why keep moving, once he was under the cover of the trees? Or do you think he felt so ill, by then, that he didn’t really know what he was doing and just went on stumbling along until he fell?’
‘It must have been something of the kind,’ I said. ‘Someone must have given him a massive dose to be sure of killing an enormous person like him — enough to fell three ordinary men — and once it began to take effect it would very quickly show results. I expect he felt so dreadful that he could hardly stand, let alone decide which way to go.’
‘But how could he be poisoned, anyway?’ she said. ‘Surely his master would provide his food and drink?’
It was the very question that I was asking myself, and I was about to commend her for voicing it aloud when there was a shouting noise behind us, followed by a bark, and we turned to find Farathetos and his dog crashing towards us through the undergrowth.
The farmer was scowling by the time he got to us. ‘Going to leave me there all afternoon,’ he said, ‘while you stand here and chatter to my wife? Well, I’m sorry, citizen, but I’ve got other things to do — especially if that other matter is now with His Excellence. So if you have quite finished with us, we’ll be on our way. And if there is a reward for discovering the corpse, remember that it was my dog which led you to the place.’ He gave a tug to the rope leash as he spoke, and the creature bared its teeth.
I came to a decision. ‘In fact,’ I said, ‘I have a task for you. And for your dog as well. I want you to stay here and mount guard over the corpse, while I go back to the villa and fetch some help to carry it. They will want to cremate it as soon as possible, before the Roman Festival of the Dead, which starts in the middle of tomorrow night.’ I could see him looking doubtful, and I went on hastily. ‘No doubt my patron will be grateful for your services — and gravely displeased to learn that you’d declined to help.’
It was a threat, of course, and an effective one. Farathetos could no more have refused than he could have brought the corpse of Aulus back to life again. The farmer gave me a slow, unwilling glance and forced himself to smile. ‘At your command then, citizen — of course.’
‘Very well. Be sure you are here when I get back, and don’t let anyone go near the corpse. Or that dog either, if you know what’s good for you.’
And with that I turned back down the path, in the general direction of the villa and the gates, while Farathetos set off the other way, accompanied by his dog and his unhappy wife. I could hear them both snarling at her, in their different ways, as they went back towards the clearing where the body was.
I came to a decision. I turned and called to them. ‘On second thoughts the woman had better come with me. I shall be required in the house and someone will have to show the bier-carriers the way.’
She flashed me a grateful look and came hurrying after me. ‘Do you think this is related to Morella’s fate?’ she said, as soon as she caught up with me again.
I looked at her sadly. ‘I’d been hoping he could help me in my search for her.’ That was an understatement. I had been relying on Aulus, as my only lead. ‘This is the man she was speaking to the last time she was seen alive. Now we shall never know for sure what she was asking him.’
‘You are sure that she is dead then, citizen? Even though the body’s not been found?’