‘Great gods!’ I murmured. ‘The messenger from Dorn.’
‘Exactly, citizen,’ Lucius said. ‘Though of course I only learned that afterwards. He’d called at the villa and had been told that Genialis had just left. But to his surprise he hadn’t caught him up, and the sentry at Glevum reported that he hadn’t passed the gate. So he was riding back again the way he’d come, asking anyone he met, in case he’d missed him somewhere on the road. Fortunately he took me for the owner of the yard.’
‘And of course you told him you’d seen nobody at all.’
He made a face at this. ‘In fact I said that I’d been to and fro all day, collecting wood from down the lane, hoping that would account for all the tracks. But mercifully he wasn’t interested in that, he simply thanked me briefly and rode on again. But it was doubly important that I moved the body now — if it was later found in that vicinity he’d certainly remember that he’d seen me there.’
‘So you went on looking and found yourself a sack?’
He nodded glumly. ‘Two sacks. Genialis was too big to fit into a single one. I had to use an axe I borrowed from the yard and chop him into two.’
‘You did it very cleanly — I observed that at the time — though I suppose that for you, it wasn’t difficult. I’d forgotten that you’d been a woodman in your youth.’
He took the comment as a kind of compliment. ‘I tried to do it as neatly as I could. It wasn’t desecration I was aiming at. I even moved his clothes to stop them getting stained, but he’d been dead some time by then, and lying in the snow, so he didn’t bleed as much as I had feared. I covered up the bloodstains as much as possible, by scraping snow and leaves together with the axe — it even helped to clean the blade before I took it back. Then I cut his horse’s bridle and let it wander free and brought my grisly burden home with me.’
‘Pretending it was venison, if anyone enquired?’
He almost smiled. ‘It did look rather similar — and it’s a commodity we’ve handled once or twice. I didn’t mean to take it into store. I thought that I’d be able to drop it in the dock, but I found I couldn’t do it straight away because the slaves were always there, stirring the ice to keep it from the quay. So I brought the sacks in here and packed them round with snow, then told Vesperion that it was venison. He didn’t question it — he just wrote it in the records as he always did. I tell you, citizen, most of what happened wasn’t planned at all. I just did the first thing that came into my head.’
I nodded. ‘And you might have got away with it,’ I said. ‘If you hadn’t tried to be too clever at the very last and put half the body out there to be found.’
That rueful smile again. ‘I agree it was unfortunate. Especially when Adonisius accidentally betrayed the fact that we’d discussed the details, before I was supposed to know the corpse was found. But when you told me what had happened to the priest …’
‘You thought that you could replicate the circumstance, and I would think that there was some connection between the two events?’
‘Of course.’ He made a noise which was a bitter ghost of his old hearty laugh. ‘After all, I had already cut the wretched thing in half. And nothing legal could be sorted out, till Genialis was officially recognized as dead. It almost seemed a kind of augury.’
‘So you sent Adonisius out to hide it in the snow, today, after you had sent your other slave to me?’
A nod. ‘He had a good horse, so he could carry it, and I knew he would get there much sooner than the searchers in the cart. And since Alfredus Allius was to be here with me, I would have a-’ Lucius began, but he got no further. There was a sudden hammering at the door and a flustered Allius put his head round it.
‘Citizen Libertus, your patron has arrived. And he has brought the lady Silvia to see Lucius as well. What should I do with them? And what about that slave that they’re holding for you on the ship? Silvia says that he belongs to her. Do you still want him, to talk about that sack, or should I do as she requests and let him go?’
I glanced at Lucius. ‘I think I have all the information that I need — at least for the present,’ I said carefully. ‘In the meantime, you may let the Syrian go. Assure the lady that the slave is free to leave with her, but I may wish to talk to him another time. In the meantime, tell my patron that we are on our way.’
Alfredus nodded and went away again.
Lucius was breathing rather heavily. He put his hand into his belt and in the dimness of the lamps, for a moment I thought that he was going to draw a knife, but it was just the rabbit mittens that he’d lent me earlier. ‘Have these, citizen, with my thanks,’ he said. ‘I am more grateful than I can express. I could not bear to think of Silvia in the dock and poor Adonisius only did what I had told him to. I’m happy to take all responsibility myself — I hope you will tell them that I confessed the truth, though I know I can expect the cruellest punishment. What is it that you plan to do with me?’
I looked at the offering he was holding out. He was not an evil man at heart, I thought — his attempt to shield his two accomplices had rather touched my heart. And the penalty for carving up a citizen would be a dreadful one — however much the victim had deserved his fate. All the same …
‘You have some gold, I think?’ I asked him urgently. ‘Genialis had some in his purse. Ten gold pieces, I believe you said?’
He looked surprised and troubled. ‘You want me to give you that? I thought you might have seen the offer of money as a bribe. I do have them somewhere — there was no point in leaving gold pieces on the corpse — and Silvia brought the rest to Glevum when she came. I was going to see that Alfredus Allius got them back, somehow.’
‘So the search for the money at the villa was a sham?’
He shook his head. ‘Well not exactly that. The money had already got to me by then, and we could hardly explain how I had come by it. There was more than forty aureii in all. It isn’t really mine. But if it’s the price of silence …?’ He looked as if I’d rather disappointed him. ‘Though perhaps — all things considered — it would be best if you simply hand me over to the authorities. I can’t afford to go on paying you for years, as you’d no doubt require.’
I shook my head. ‘You mistake my motives, trader. I was thinking, rather, that since you had some gold, then you could start again elsewhere. If, for instance, you chose to sail to Gaul tonight, accompanying that cargo that they were loading when I came? I’m sure the captain would agree to carry you — and your wife and servant — if you arranged to pay.’
He was staring at me in perplexity. ‘My wife and serv- Oh, I see! You mean that you’d say nothing until we’d got away?’
‘You have satisfied my curiosity and I applaud your honesty — but I have my ethics, too, and in the end I’ll have to tell my patron what I know. But not necessarily for a day or two. Genialis was an evil man and you are a kindly one. It serves no purpose to have you put in jail — or worse,’ I told him patiently.
I thought he was about to fling himself before my feet, but in the end he simply seized my hand. ‘You think she would come with me?’ His face was bright with hope. ‘Do you know, citizen, I believe she would! She was going to come here after Genialis died, even if it meant forfeiting her status and estate, and by and by she would become my wife in common law — but then your patron came and overruled the scheme …’ He stopped abruptly, looking crestfallen. ‘Ah! Your patron! I had forgotten him. He is now her legal guardian, of course. He would never permit her to come away with me. And even if she wanted to defy him and elope, it would not be easy to escape his vigilance: every moment when he isn’t there himself, she’s got that nurse to keep an eye on her.’