Chapter Seventeen
To say that I was thunderstruck by this reply would be an insult to Jove’s thunderbolts. Not only was it the last response I was expecting, but I had no idea what it meant. I shot a look at Junio, who was standing behind the attendant, but he simply shrugged his shoulders at me and opened his eyes wide. He was obviously as baffled as I was.
‘Money?’ I said to the bath boy, ‘I did not come here looking for money. I am interested in Maximilian.’
This answer seemed to cause the attendant more anguish than ever. ‘Great Mercury! You are not about to arrest him? Don’t do that, citizen. It will solve nothing now. Ulpius is dead, and we shall all be the losers. Leave Maximilian to me, citizen. No one else need know our little secret, and I’ll make it worth your while.’
A glimmer of possible understanding filtered into my brain. ‘Maximilian is paying you for your silence?’
No answer. If my surmise was accurate, I thought, Maximilian was getting value for his money at this moment at least. I remembered my earlier thoughts about Maximilian, and ventured another wild guess.
‘Because you have evidence against him? Evidence about who stabbed his father? Maximilian did it?’
The youth looked at me with contempt. ‘No, of course he didn’t. At least not personally. It would have been far too dangerous to do it himself.’
My carefully constructed conclusions crumbled at his words like a wattle wall at a battering ram. However, the fellow was only talking because he thought I knew something. I said with a show of great conviction, ‘But you know who did.’ I did not make it a question.
The attendant blanched. ‘I see, citizen. You have come from them.’ He shook his head in agitation. ‘No, citizen, I swear to you. On all the gods I swear, I did not recognise the men. I did not even see them properly. All I know is that after the stabbing they went to meet Maximilian. They were standing there, in the shadows, when I came out of the baths. I recognised Maximilian, but I couldn’t see the men’s faces. I promise you that, citizen.’
I was nonplussed. How could anyone arriving at the baths with Maximilian yesterday be hidden in shadow? ‘In the shadows, you say?’
He gave me a shifty look. ‘It was dark. There was a moon, but I was carrying no torch or candle, and neither were they. The light was poor, and Maximilian was so busy with the men he didn’t notice me.’
Suddenly, I began to understand. A dark night, a clouded moon. This was the night of the chariot races. I remembered it only too clearly.
‘It was late,’ I said. ‘The baths were closed. What were you doing here at that hour?’
‘I’d come back to collect. . something I’d left behind.’ Whatever the ‘something’ was, I thought, ten denarii to an as he had stolen it from a bather. As he had also, presumably, stolen a key to the door of the building. ‘I came out and saw them together. Maximilian was furious, because the plan had gone awry. He kept saying over and over that they were simply supposed to threaten Ulpius and take his purse, not stab him in the stomach, but of course the men didn’t care a quadrans for that.’
So that was it! I could imagine the scene: the attendant skulking in the shadows, taking good care not to be noticed; Maximilian talking to the ruffians. The boy had not observed the men’s faces, I thought, but even in the feeble light he had seen one thing clearly enough — the opportunity for profit. Doubtless he hoped that Maximilian would pay a high price for silence.
‘Maximilian did not want to pay them, but of course he had to do it in the end. He had bribed the soothsayer, an old woman who hangs around the forum so that she would waylay the medicus on his way back from the chariot races, and leave the way open for the attack. And the men knew it.’
The story was making sense. If Maximilian refused to pay the men, she would presumably go to the authorities, for a price, and testify against him — though of course the attackers themselves would take care to be in another part of the country by then. If he was proved to have bribed the soothsayer, there would be a convincing case for attempted parricide. No court would believe that he merely intended robbery.
‘So,’ I said, ‘you waited until the men had gone and then confronted him? Told him that he could have your silence for a price?’
The youth gave that unattractive smile again. ‘Maximilian offered first,’ he said, primly. ‘I stepped out of the shadows and he offered me half the purse if I held my tongue. There was not much money in it. There should have been more. Quintus had won a good sum on the races. I think the men had stolen half of it, and then Maximilian had to pay them as well.’ He laughed unkindly. ‘The poor fool gave me all he had, in the end. He didn’t even have the money to hire a slave to see him home.’
‘And, of course, you’ve asked him for more money since then?’
‘Well, he deserved it. Forever coming in here drunken and gambling. And he arranged to have his father robbed at knifepoint. Why should he get away with it? He would have fared worse at the hands of the aediles if I had informed on him. Anyway, I needed the money more than he did. I saw a chance to get out of here — to move from that hovel of a top flat over the wineshop and start a little business of my own somewhere. Some town where I have not been a beggar since I could walk.’
‘A trade in second-hand clothes, no doubt?’ I enquired. He ignored the barb, and I went on. ‘But you are still here, I see?’
He scowled. ‘One cannot pick olives from a dead tree. Maximilian has no money to give — he has been trying to fob me off with gifts of jewels and plate. What use are they to me? I can hardly sell them, at least not in Corinium. I should get myself crucified as a highway thief if I tried. But it will be different, now that he has inherited his father’s estate. Do not arrest him, citizen. As I say, I will make it worth your while.’
‘It seems to me,’ I said, ‘that Maximilian is not the only one who should fear arrest. I came here to build a pavement for the baths, so you can see I have the ear of the town council. I think they will be interested to hear of this. Not only do you conceal your knowledge of a crime, but you come to the baths at night to collect items you have hidden here — stolen, no doubt, from the customers. You also have, by your own admission, jewels and plate in your possession belonging to Ulpius Quintus, since that is of course where Maximilian got them from — I believe he was hunting in his rooms yesterday trying to find something else to pay you with. No doubt the aediles would find them in that hovel over the wineshop that you spoke of.’
He looked at me, horrified. ‘But you can’t. .’ You could almost see him weighing up the bribe. At last he burst out with it. ‘How much is it you want?’
‘Provided, of course,’ I went on, ignoring him, ‘that you survive long enough to be arrested. Maximilian, after all, knows people who are handy with a dagger. If they will attack a decurion like Ulpius, I do not imagine that a bath boy will cause them much concern. I am surprised that Maximilian has not thought of it before.’
It was too much for the youth. He cast a terrified look in my direction and, stopping to pick up a small urn from one of the niches, bolted for the door and disappeared. Junio was ready to run after him, but I called him back.
‘Let him go. We have other matters to attend to, and the baths will be a better place without him.’
Junio nodded reluctantly. ‘If you say so, master. After all, he wasn’t a slave.’
That was no idle distinction. Permitting a slave to escape is a serious offence — although it is even more serious for the deserter. Runaway slaves are hunted by everyone, from the authorities downwards, and are likely to be severely whipped or fed to the beasts when recaptured. Or both. Those that fail to escape must often wish that they had perished less painfully in the attempt.