She looked at him coldly. ‘There is nothing to confess. I did not bring it in order to kill my father.’
Marcus frowned. ‘Then why?’
‘If my father had lived, and forced me to marry you, I should have taken it myself.’ Her voice trembled. ‘As it is, I shall be spared the necessity. Now, with your permission, Excellence.’
Marcus was looking at her, stunned, but he nodded in dismissal and she left the room.
The old crone edged nearer. ‘And me? Do not forget me, Excellence.’
Marcus glanced at her with contempt. ‘And you! You set out to offer false witness against your mistress. That is a punishable offence. I shall not forget you, never fear. Take her away, you can lock her up too.’
I have never heard my patron speak with such fury. Perhaps it was not surprising. The idea that someone would genuinely rather die than marry him must have struck a terrible blow to his self-esteem. His expression did not soften until the guards had left the room, taking their captives with them.
Marcus turned to me. ‘I congratulate you, Libertus. You have achieved a swift conclusion to this business.’
‘You think so, Excellence?’
He looked affronted. ‘I suppose you are going to tell me that Octavius did not murder Felix after all?’
‘I think he is acting most suspiciously, Excellence, but I am not sure that he administered the poison.’
Marcus frowned. ‘But the phial you found. .’
‘I did not find a phial, Excellence. I did not even suspect a phial until the young man himself mentioned it. We have no evidence against Octavius except his own word. And he is a citizen. Perhaps it would be unwise to commit him to the jail. He may appeal to the Emperor.’
‘Then why did you agree to his arrest? I have enough problems with Commodus, without risking further rebukes.’ Marcus’s youthful face was flushed.
I considered my reply with care. ‘I thought he should be locked up here, Excellence, before he caused any further problems for you. If you had not imprisoned those two, rumour that Felix was murdered would have been all over Glevum before nightfall. Now, even if any rumours do get out, it will seem that you have the murderer under lock and key.’
Marcus looked doubtful. ‘That is all very well, but I am not Felix, to enjoy imprisoning the innocent.’ It was true. My patron dislikes injustice, and he was tapping his baton dangerously.
I said, ‘Besides, Excellence, I presume the woman is right. There is a phial of stolen poison somewhere, and Octavius knows that there is. Why else would he have concluded that I had found it?’
Chapter Fourteen
A brief silence followed this exchange. I knew better than to speak again. Marcus does not like to be confronted with the obvious.
At last he said shortly, ‘No doubt you are right, as usual. However, since, as you say, Phyllidia’s phial was not used to poison Felix, it seems that we have shed no further light on the mystery. Unless you have discovered anything else?’
I told him briefly what I knew. ‘So, Excellence,’ I finished, ‘that is what I have gleaned in Glevum. I am, of course, at your disposal should you wish me to make enquiries further afield.’
He looked at me coolly. ‘I know you, Libertus. You do not lightly suggest abandoning your workshop. What is it that you wish me to suggest?’
If I were not such an old man I would have coloured. I had not supposed that I was so transparent. ‘Felix had visited Eboracum,’ I suggested. ‘And Egobarbus and his party came from that direction, too. What took the Celt so many miles from his home? It seems worthy of investigation, at least.’
He looked at me. ‘That would be a long and expensive journey.’
I said nothing. If it were less long and less expensive I should have made it myself long ago.
He sighed. ‘Yet I suppose you are right. It should be investigated. Fortunately I know the commander from the Glevum barracks. He is always sending messengers to Eboracum — and they get there quickly, too. No more than three days sometimes. These military envoys always have the pick of the horses. I will have a word with him: since it concerns Perennis Felix, no doubt even the imperial post can be instructed to stop and make enquiries as they go.’
‘Indeed, Excellence.’
He saw my face and broke into a grim smile. ‘Did you suppose that I would agree to send you? With private transport no doubt, so that you could look for your wife? Well, I am afraid not, Libertus. I cannot spare you — there are matters I wish you to investigate here. I have my own wife to consider now, and she is most anxious that you look into the loss of her slaves.’
‘Excellence?’ I had almost forgotten the deaths in Corinium.
Marcus ran a distracted hand through his short blond curls. ‘I know, Libertus. It is hardly an affair of state. But what can I do? I have been married only for a few hours. I can hardly refuse her. I have made arrangements to send her to my country villa shortly — I am afraid there may be trouble in Glevum when the Emperor learns of Felix’s death — but she insists that she must see you first. It seems she has a high opinion of your abilities.’
From his tone, I gathered that she had been forceful on the subject. I said meekly, ‘Of course, Excellence, if I can help. . But there seems little I can do at this distance. .’
‘You know Delicta has brought her gatekeeper with her? She has her own ideas about the killings. She suspects a visitor who called at the house this morning — thinks he was one of a group of out-of-town fraudsters and thieves, come to spy out the house. Found out that she was intending to shop, she thinks, and lay in wait later to kill the servants for what they were carrying. Certainly the caller was a stranger.’
I nodded. ‘Junio told me so. He said that someone unidentified had come early with a wedding gift.’
Marcus looked at me wryly. ‘In that case, you know as much as I do. As much as the gatekeeper seems to, for that matter. I had him questioned, while you were out in the town.’
‘And did he remember anything?’ I was doubtful. I hoped the man had not been ‘questioned’ too enthusiastically. Since such interrogation often involves flogging, it is not unknown for the victim to remember all kinds of things that never happened at all, just in order to make it stop.
Not this time. Marcus shook his head. ‘He had nothing to add, beyond the fact that the visitor was cloaked and hooded — though that was not unexpected, with the rain. He did not wear a toga, though, and spoke Latin with a strange accent.’
I smiled. ‘Conspicuous enough, one would think. Almost as if he was wishing to be noticed.’
Marcus grimaced. ‘If that was the case he failed. The gatekeeper seems to have been paying more attention to the gifts than to the bearer. Costly bronze bracelets and a length of silk. Doubtless he was hoping for a tip. He didn’t get one. But I am sure he told us all he knew. Even the promise of gold from me was not enough to sharpen his recollections.’
I smiled more broadly. This interrogation, then, had been of the more gentle kind. Marcus knows my views. Feeble purse-strings can often be as persuasive as the thickest lash, and no more unreliable. ‘But you wish me to speak to him, all the same?’
Marcus’s grin was almost sheepish. ‘My wife wishes it, old friend. I do not know what you can achieve, but I am a married man. I am returning to my apartment, now, in a litter. Delicta is waiting for me. If you would attend us there?’
I bent my knee and bowed my head. ‘With pleasure, Excellence,’ and Marcus left. I could hear him summoning attendants in the hall. He would take Gaius’s attendants, of course. Marcus had no doubt dismissed his own to wait on Delicta, and my poor slave had not yet returned to the building. When I went to visit Marcus, I should have to walk the streets unattended.