‘Even so.’ I took another sip of wine. ‘It’s a scam. It has to be. And in that case, of course he’s scared. Imperial or not, if he’s stepped out of line the Wart will nail his skin to the senate-house door if he has to get off his deathbed to do it. And if he doesn’t then Gaius’ll do it for him.’
She was quiet for a long time. Then she said: ‘Marcus, I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. It’s beginning to turn very nasty.’
I knew what she meant; to be honest, I didn’t like it either. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: you don’t mess with imperials, even when they’re second-rank ones, and if someone of the calibre of Domitius Ahenobarbus had something private cooking then lifting the lid of the pot and dipping your spoon in was a bad, bad idea. Still, the job had to be done, and I had enough problems without worrying about Perilla worrying, as it were. I put the wine-cup down, went over and kissed her.
‘Look, lady,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a charmed life, all right? And I’m on the right side of the fence. The guys who should be sweating blood — and I’ll bet they are — are the ones who had young Papinius thrown through a window. Who they are, and why they did it, I don’t know, but I have to find out, okay?’
She rested her forehead against my chest for a moment. ‘Yes. Yes, I suppose you do,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, dear. I won’t mention it again.’ A pause; then, like she was asking a doctor for a verdict that she knew already: ‘Do you think there’s any possibility that Ahenobarbus could have been involved? Directly involved, I mean? In Papatius’s death?’
I went back to my couch, taking my time doing it. That was a question I’d been trying not to ask myself. Still, it had to be faced. ‘It’s possible,’ I said carefully. ‘In theory, anyway. Leaving out the whys and the wherefores.’
‘His own son?’
‘That wouldn’t count much with him, Perilla. He’s a callous bastard, Ahenobarbus, Papinius was nothing to him but a by-blow and I doubt if he’d think twice about having him killed. If it became necessary, if he had a good enough reason.’
‘And you think that he might have had?’
I took another gulp of the Setinian. ‘Maybe. You could argue for it, anyway. Certainly he got the kid his job on the commission; he did, not Allenius, although Ahenobarbus fixed things publicly so it’d appear otherwise. There must’ve been a reason for that besides paternal affection, which like I say just isn’t that bastard’s bag. Six gets you ten having Papinius to hand on the staff was an essential part of the scam.’
‘But, Marcus, you said it yourself. Papinius was nineteen years old, hardly more than a boy. What use could he be to someone like Ahenobarbus?’
‘I don’t know! Jupiter, lady, if I’d got that far I’d have the whole thing!’ I swallowed another mouthful of wine. ‘In any case, whatever it was it went wrong. Badly so, and my bet is that it was the kid’s fault. Maybe he got cold feet, maybe he blabbed to someone out of turn, maybe he just made a mistake. Whatever happened, he became the weak link. Which is where Mucius Soranus comes in.’
‘There is one major problem, of course,’ Perilla said.
‘Yeah? What’s that?’
‘Whatever Papinius was involved in would be illegal, wouldn’t it? Certainly dishonest.’
‘Naturally it would. That’s the whole point.’
‘But if Papinius knew that — well, surely you’ve been insisting all along that he was fundamentally an honest young man? I thought that was axiomatic.’
‘No problem there. In fact, things make more sense that way. Okay. Scenario. Imagine you’re the kid, right? You’ve just landed your first responsible public post and you’re on the ladder a good step higher than you’d expected to be. How do you feel?’
‘Very proud. Over the moon. And desperate to do well.’
‘Fine. At that point, completely out of the blue, one of your top bosses — your top bosses, the emperor’s own nephew — calls you into his office or wherever and tells you you’re his son. How does that grab you?’
Perilla was looking thoughtful. ‘I suppose I’d be totally dumbfounded. Unless I’d suspected it already, naturally.’
‘Yeah, right. Still, the qualification doesn’t signify. Young Papinius was no bonehead, and he hadn’t led a sheltered life, either. He must’ve heard rumours, and what with the timing of the divorce and his legal father’s attitude to him and his mother over the years he’d have to have been thick not to put two and two together. But he couldn’t’ve been sure. Now he was. We know he was, because Cluvia told us he was really proud of his family, and of his father in particular. That’d make no sense where Allenius was concerned — up to that point Papatius had scarcely even mentioned him — but if he meant Ahenobarbus it makes sense in spades. Okay?’
‘Yes. Go on.’
‘So.’ I refilled my wine-cup. ‘Ahenobarbus calls you in and hits you with the whammy. He also tells you that he’s directly responsible for getting you the post. Like you say, you’re totally gobsmacked. Then — this is the clincher — he says he’s got a very special job for you within the commission. Very important, very hush-hush. How do you react?’
Perilla smiled. ‘Again, I’d feel proud and privileged; too much so — which is clearly where you’re leading, Marcus — to ask any questions.’
‘Right. Only like I say, you’re no bonehead. You’ve got stars in your eyes at present, sure, but over time when the glitter begins to wear off your brain kicks into gear and you begin to think about what you’re doing.’
‘And it doesn’t seem so innocent any more.’
‘Right. So what happens then?
‘I…begin to have second thoughts.’
‘Fine. Only problem is, you’re in the scam — you know by now that it’s a scam — up to your neck. You want out but you’ve nowhere to go. You can’t blow the whistle on Ahenobarbus, because you’re a no-account nineteen-year-old kid, and who would believe you against him? Added to which, he’s your father. Your real father. Maybe you even think of what it’d do to your future political career. You’re honest in yourself, sure, but for someone like you a career is your life. Balancing honesty now against your whole future is a tough decision for a nineteen-year-old to make. So what do you do?’
‘I confide in someone. Someone older, someone neutral.’
‘Yeah. Not your mother, because you don’t talk, and what could she do anyway? Not Allenius; definitely not Allenius. Not Minicius Natalis either, because he’s in thick with Prince Gaius, and Gaius for all his faults is Official with a capital O. So who?’
She was twisting the lock of hair beside her ear. ‘Lucia Albucilla,’ she said.
‘Bang on the button. Albucilla’s perfect. She’s a woman, so she wouldn’t matter — ’
‘Thank you, dear.’
‘- she’s been around, she’s experienced, smart. She’d know what to do. Best of all, you’re in love with her.’
‘Marcus, you do not know that!’
‘It’s a fair assumption.’ I took another mouthful of wine. ‘So you tell Albucilla the whole story. Only then — ’
‘Albucilla takes it directly to her friend Soranus.’ Perilla frowned. ‘You’re right. It works.’
‘Whereupon Soranus zaps you with a demand for fifty thousand sesterces or he does his duty as a responsible citizen and peaches to the Wart and you’re up shit creek without a paddle. Without a sodding boat.’
‘Of course, there is still one more problem.’
‘Yeah? What’s that?’
‘You’re going to tell me that Papinius went to Ahenobarbus and made a clean breast of things, after which Ahenobarbus paid off the loan he took out from Vestorius. Aren’t you?’
I blinked. ‘Uh…yeah. Yeah, more or less. Or that Ahenobarbus found out some other way. It comes to the same thing.’
‘Very well. In effect, then, Soranus had already been paid off. So why should Ahenobarbus subsequently kill Papatius? What reason would he have?’
‘Perilla, the kid had become a liability! He’d blabbed once, he obviously wasn’t happy about what he was involved in, and he could well blab again, to someone higher up the ladder this time who might just believe him. Ahenobarbus couldn’t risk that. He had to cut his losses.’