‘Perhaps, Helena Domna, I should be the judge of that — with the help of these three citizens, who are at the door.’ She rose to meet them, very graciously, and after greetings and introductions had been made, she indicated that they should find a seat. Helena Domna was compelled to shuffle up a bit and allow Gracchus a corner of the couch that she was on, while Redux and Junio sat down on either side of me.
‘What happened to the vintner and his wife?’ I asked my son.
He shook his head. ‘They’re both under arrest.’
There was a sudden hush. Everyone was looking at him now.
‘There were some documents discovered in Antoninus’s apartment,’ he explained, ‘which proved that Vinerius had been watering his wine, so that for every ten amphora of Rhenish wine he bought, he somehow managed to sell eleven on.’
‘Vinerius?’ Helena Domna muttered furiously. ‘And after all that wine we bought from him! I’ll see him flogged. I’ll go and see him tried and get our money back. He will be tried, I suppose?’
Junio nodded. ‘It seems that the garrison commander sent to bring him in and Maesta was discovered in the act of making hemlock draughts — so she was taken into custody as well, on suspicion of abetting a conspiracy to kill.’
‘And Citizen Libertus has some views on that,’ Livia resumed. ‘He has some accusations that he wants to make. They concern Helena Domna, I believe?’
I saw the three newcomers exchange a baffled glance. ‘That is correct,’ I said. ‘Her dealings with Antoninus, in particular. He was a blackmailer of course — as I think other people around this table know — hence his sudden rise from nowhere and his undoubted wealth.’ Gracchus and Redux were both staring at their feet, and looking rather embarrassed by these words, I saw — and Livia had allowed her jaw to drop and was staring at Helena Domna with disbelief.
‘Antoninus was blackmailing my mother-in-law?’ She sounded more incredulous than shocked.
Helena Domna set her wrinkled face. ‘So this man alleges. He has no proper proof at all.’ If I had hoped that she might break down and confess, then I was wrong — the old woman was clearly made of sterner stuff.
I returned to the attack. ‘Then what was your gold necklace doing in his flat? I noticed it when he was lying dead. It was looped around the water clock. I saw it at the time, and simply thought that it was decoration round the base — a beautiful and intricate festoon of gold and jet. I should have realized earlier what I was looking at. It was not until this morning, when I saw you in the court, and realized that you were not wearing it today, that I put two and two together.’
‘And made five,’ she snapped.
I forced myself to smile. ‘Then demonstrate your innocence. Send for your necklace, and you prove me wrong.’
Angry red colour washed up her cheeks and neck. ‘I have mislaid it temporarily. .’
I shook my head. ‘I think you sent it to Antoninus yesterday when you affected to be sending out to the musicians’ guild. You used the doorman as your messenger. I thought I glimpsed the fellow in the street outside the flat, but I did not pay much attention to him at the time. Shall we ask him? I have sent for him.’
She glared at me again. ‘Do so, if you want to. I know what he’ll say.’
‘Do you, Helena Domna? Are you sure of that? We’ll offer to pay him good money for the truth, and you might be surprised.’
Patrician matrons do not often spit, but Helena Domna came very close to it. ‘Well, if you mean you’ll bribe him, of course it’s different. In that case he might say anything at all.’
‘And what might he say about that statue in the court?’
The old face crumpled slightly. ‘What do you know of that?’
‘Only that it came illicitly from Rome, and that Honorius was probably aware of it,’ I said.
‘So that cursed Antoninus did tell you, after all?’ She had lost her calm. She was white and shaking and her eyes were bright with tears. ‘And after I. .’ She stopped, and glared at me, aware that she had already said too much.
‘And after you had sent him your gold necklace as a bribe? Just as the citizen suggested?’ Redux said, before I had the time to make the point myself. ‘And I can confirm what Libertus said about the clock — I noticed the gold chain around the base myself. Fine gold — it must have been worth a tidy sum.’
Livia was shaking a bewildered head at me. ‘What’s this about a statue?’
‘That Minerva in the courtyard — it’s a stolen one. Probably from the palace of the Emperor himself,’ I said. ‘Zythos arranged it when he was alive, and Redux shipped it and delivered it to you. It was disguised beneath a plaster cast, I hear.’
‘The Emperor?’ She was horrified. ‘I had no idea.’ She shook her head again. ‘It came when I was out, and when I got home it was already in the court and looked exactly as it does today. Honorius was always buying statues for the house, and I thought no more about it — except to wonder how much it had cost. He will have used my dowry money to pay for it, of course.’
‘I suspect it cost him even more than he had bargained for. Antoninus had discovered the details of the sale — he had been blackmailing Zythos all along, and now he was demanding money from Honorius as well. That’s why he came the other night — as I think Helena Domna can confirm.’
All eyes turned to the mother-in-law at my words, but she said nothing.
I was forced to speak again. ‘You told me, Livia, that she came along and prevented you from listening to the men yourself. But I think she stopped and eavesdropped, on her own account. And what she heard appalled her. She discovered that Honorius — her son — was guilty of dealing in illegal goods, and more than that — Imperial property. She spoke to Antoninus at the wedding yesterday — I saw them whispering together in the hall. She must have been unwise enough to tell him what she knew, and he, of course, demanded bribes to keep the secret safe.’
Helena Domna had started to her feet.
‘We can ask the doorkeeper if he took that necklace there or not,’ I said.
She looked at me bitterly, and sat down again. All the fury had ebbed out of her, and she almost seemed physically smaller all at once. ‘Antoninus didn’t keep his word,’ she muttered. ‘I wanted to protect our reputation, that is all — and now, I suppose, the whole colonia will know. You were quite right, citizen. I knew when that note arrived for you — in that writing case that looked so much like Livia’s — that it was intended as a veiled hint to me. He’d already told me he would be in touch.’
‘So you made a point of reading what he wrote?’
She nodded. ‘I knew that he would tell you everything, if I did not find some way of paying him. And — as you say — he set a later time, so I could find the money and get it to him first. I do have a little, but it was not to hand and all I could think of was to send him gold. That necklace is a fine one, the jet is good as well — Zythos imported it from somewhere in the East. And even when I sent him that, the wretch betrayed me and told you anyway.’
‘Antoninus would never have done that,’ I said. ‘If he once told the secret, he had lost his power. He would have gone on making his demands for years — if he thought you could be made to pay. He didn’t tell me anything. He didn’t have the chance — by the time I got there he was already dead.’
She stared at me. ‘So how did you learn about the stolen statue then?’
Redux answered for me. ‘I told him, lady — and, I think that you should know that I told the commander of the garrison as well.’ She half-rose as if to hit him, and he raised his hand. ‘I was being suspected of murder at the time, and I might have been tortured if I did not tell the truth. I did not steal the statue, and I do not know who did — but Antoninus knew that I had been involved in shipping it, and he was extorting money out of me as well. I don’t know exactly what evidence he had — I looked through the papers, but I couldn’t find a thing. No mention of Honorius or Zythos anywhere. That should be some comfort to you, madam, anyway. I rather think that somebody had burned the documents.’