The commander looked thoughtful. ‘That isn’t always so. When a knife is left inside a wound, it doesn’t always spurt. Though the tribune seems to think that it was poisoned anyway and it killed the victim instantly. Was that your impression? Did he look as if he’d made an effort to defend himself?’
Redux shook his head. ‘I don’t know anything about such things. You’d better ask Libertus, he’s the expert, I believe. I am a simple trader, and that takes up all my time.’ He sounded petulant.
‘Yet you accompanied Libertus halfway round the town, when — by your own admission — you’d gone back to work?’ The commander folded his arms across his breastplate again. ‘Were you not afraid of losing trade while you were out?’
Redux had the grace to look very much abashed. ‘I was supposed to be at a wedding anyway, today. No one was expecting to find me at my desk.’
‘Or Antoninus either?’ the commander said. ‘It’s a riddle, isn’t it? Yet somebody must have known that they would find him at his home — and, what is more, that he would be alone. Now who could possibly have known that — except the pair of you? And Libertus, I am including you in this.’
Seventeen
For the first time since we had reached the garrison I felt a surge of fear. When I had suggested that the tribune bring us here, I knew the commander would remember me — as indeed he had — but I thought my record (and my patron’s name) would have protected us from unpleasantness. But it was clear that this was no token interview. The commander had been sharp with Redux, certainly — subjecting him to pointed questioning and generally making his suspicions clear — but somehow I hadn’t expected him to take that tone with me.
That last remark had shown me how badly wrong I was. The commander was harbouring serious doubts about my involvement in the day’s events — and I could not blame him, on the face of it.
I swallowed. We could still hear the soldiers down below, forming up and rattling their javelins on their shields. It was a sound designed to be threatening and unnerving to the enemy, and it was certainly successful in unnerving me.
I was seriously wishing I’d consented to the jail — where a bribe or two, and an appeal to rich acquaintances (like Gracchus for example) will usually secure one’s comfort overnight — and buy the time to send for witnesses. But if I could not persuade the commander of our innocence, I had no illusions about how unpleasant the next few hours might be. He was not a man to shirk his duty, as he conceived of it. If he could treat a tribune with conspicuous disdain — a young man of patrician birth, with the protection of the Roman army at his back — how would he treat those under suspicion of a heinous crime?
‘Well, Libertus?’ the commander said again. ‘What have you to say? It seems to me to be unusual for a wealthy citizen to be alone with no attendants when expecting guests.’
That was true, of course — and all I could do was offer an excuse. ‘Redux tells me that the dead man always sent his slaves away whenever he had private business to conduct,’ I blurted, knowing that I sounded like the schoolboy telling his tutor that the dog had gnawed up his homework on his copy-tablet.
The commander turned to Redux with an unsmiling face. ‘So you have had dealings with the man before?’ I had forgotten how acutely perceptive he could be. ‘And what was his business exactly, citizen?’
Redux said nothing. I could have shaken him. This was no moment to evade the truth.
The commander thought so too. ‘I advise you not to be obstructive, citizen. I have means of dealing with people who refuse to answer me. And understand that I can find the information anyway, in time, simply by making enquiries elsewhere. And we have soldiers searching his documents right now. So, have you anything to tell me about him, citizen?’
Redux had turned even redder than he’d been when he was out of breath. He gave me a look which said — as clearly as if he’d spoken the words aloud — that this was my fault for having insisted that the tribune brought us here. He turned to the commander, and said reluctantly, ‘I hear he made a business out of making threats. Obtaining information that was dangerous to a man in public life, and demanding money not to pass it on.’
The commander went back to his stool and picked up the writing tablet again. ‘So he sent you this, Libertus, summoning you to him? But you have rubbed the message out? I think I shall keep this tablet for a while.’ He put it into a compartment in his desk. ‘And you have no idea what he might want with you? Some kind of “private business” as your friend might say, since Antoninus had sent away his slaves?’
It did look suspicious when you thought of it like that. The rattle of the javelins had stopped abruptly now, and in the sudden silence my words seemed very loud. ‘He was looking for promotion to the council, I believe. He may have wanted to ask me to put in a word for him, once he discovered I was Marcus’s protégé. That’s all that I can think of, I swear on all the gods. Or perhaps he had some information about someone else, which he was hoping to pass on to me — for a reward, perhaps.’ My throat was dry and I was gabbling.
Redux gave a bitter little laugh. ‘You could not have afforded his prices, citizen.’
The commander was instantly on his feet again. ‘So you know what they are? You must have paid them, Redux, to know a thing like that. Antoninus obviously had some kind of hold on you. I think you’d better tell me what it was about.’ Redux said nothing, and the commander came and stood within an inch or two of him. ‘I assure you it is easier for you to tell me now, than make me send for someone who’ll persuade it out of you.’
It was a threat and Redux looked appalled. He took a step backwards. ‘But I’m a citizen!’
The Roman followed him, standing even closer than he was before. ‘But Antoninus was a candidate for local government and Honorius was a senior magistrate. If these deaths are connected, it is a state affair. The law permits extraordinary measures in such a case.’ He stressed the word ‘extraordinary’, and my blood ran cold.
Redux was as pale as he’d been red before. In the last few moments all his fire had gone. He looked beaten and defeated. He took a deep breath. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘I suppose it hardly matters now, in any case, since both men are dead. It was something concerning Honorius himself — a little business deal that I had made with him. I sold him a statue — it was very fine. The thing is, it was not quite honestly obtained — and Honorius may have known it, but he went ahead anyway.’
‘It was stolen?’ The commander sounded shocked — not at the idea of theft, I guessed, but at the idea of Honorius conniving in the deal.
Redux swallowed. ‘Something of the kind. Naturally it wasn’t shipped here in its proper form. It was covered in a rough clay cast that looked like something else — a sort of clumsy copy of the original. I had no part in that side of things, of course. I simply arranged for it to come from Rome, and Honorius bought it from me in the normal way. Of course it was a risk, and the price reflected that. When he got it home he took the coating off and revealed the marble that was underneath. I saw it in the inner courtyard at his house today.’
I nodded. ‘I think I know the one. Minerva, isn’t it? I marvelled at the craftsmanship when I first noticed it.’
Redux gave me a murderous glance. He clearly blamed me for our predicament. ‘I told him it was dangerous to put the thing on show. Anyone with half an eye could see the quality — and naturally the statue has been missed from Rome, though admittedly it is unlikely that they’d seek it here.’
‘Where did it come from?’ the commander snapped. ‘Not the Imperial Residence?’ He sounded as if he could not believe the import of his words.
‘I don’t know and I didn’t want to know,’ Redux protested, but it was clear he did. ‘Zythos arranged it when he was in Rome. I just sold the statue as it was when it arrived and no one can prove that I did otherwise.’