“Go on, then. You set out on the evening sweep. Did you start any infiltrators?”
“We found none this night, and that seemed odd, for we usually net anything from three to a score of them. Perhaps this night is one ill-omened for the Helvetii and they deemed it a bad time to go adventuring.”
“You swept all the way to the lake?”
“Yes. Then Captain Carbo told the Scouts to make a careful check of all the nearby bodies of water. Sometimes the raiders hide among the reeds until the sweep passes. I led these spearmen,” he gestured to the dice-playing skirmishers, “and we came here. That was when I saw the dead man.”
“Then this is not the lake itself?” I asked him, surprised.
“No, we are about five hundred paces from the lake proper. This is a pond. There are many of them around here. The reeds make this one a good place to hide. The skirmishers had just begun poking their spears in the clumps of reeds when I noticed something floating out in the water. At first I thought it was a dead Helvetian, perhaps one wounded the night before who went to hide in the pond and died there. His tunic was dark. But then I saw that his legs were bare, like a Roman’s.”
Most Gauls wear trousers. Often they fight bare-chested or wearing a brief cape over their shoulders, and some of them fight stark naked, dedicating themselves to their gods and trusting to no other protection. But very seldom do they wear tunics leaving the legs bare, like civilized soldiers.
“When did you recognize him?”
“He floated facedown and I waded out to him, thinking to take his head should he prove to be an enemy. But then I saw his short hair and knew he was a Roman. I rolled him over and I knew his face instantly. The First Spear always stands on the platform next to Caesar during reviews and we had one just two days ago.”
“You did not lie about having good night vision. Was there anything else?”
“I told the spearmen to stay and guard the body while I ran to report to Captain Carbo. We went to tell Caesar. He would not believe me at first, but he sent for the First Spear and he couldn’t be found. So he summoned his officers and I led the lot of you here.”
The rest of Carbo’s men arrived and I was busy for a while arranging them into a cordon around the site. I told them to come no closer, my main concern being to preserve the site as best I could. Not that there was likely to be anything to read from the signs, with the way half the Empire had been trampling all over the place for hours.
Gradually the eastern horizon turned pale. Imperceptibly, a bit at a time, distant objects became discernible. In time I could see that I did, indeed, stand beside a pond. It covered perhaps three acres, half of its area choked with dense weeds. In the distance I could see Lake Lemannus itself. Satisfied that I had sufficient light, I went to the body and crouched beside it.
Death had rendered Titus Vinius no prettier. His mouth was twisted in a wide-open snarl, as if he had been gasping for breath when death overtook him. The cord of braided hide around his neck would account for that. It was buried deeply in the flesh of his neck and had been tied off over the spinal cord.
He wore a dark tunic of coarse wool, such as slaves wear. As the light improved, I noticed a thin slit about the width of three fingers just over the heart. I grasped the neck opening and ripped the garment halfway down. There was a stab wound two inches to the left of the sternum, probably through the heart. There was no blood, but then the body had been in the water for hours. In any case, penetrating wounds to the torso bleed internally. My old friend Asklepiodes had taught me that and I wished fervently that I had him by my side just then. He could read wounds the way a huntsman can read the signs left behind by animals.
All I could tell was that the wound had been made by a double-edged dagger. Every soldier in both camps carried just such a dagger at his belt. I wore one myself. At least two killers, then. I could visualize it: One man looped the garotte around Vinius’s neck from behind and drew it tight. Perhaps he struggled too fiercely and a confederate in front stabbed him, or perhaps the noose was just to hold him so that the knife man could do the real execution.
Then I saw that there was something wrong with his scalp. I fought down superstitious revulsion and felt the damp hair. Beneath the dense, curly, goatlike hair, I felt a skin laceration. With a little pressure, I could feel bone shift beneath my fingers. Someone had smashed Vinius’s skull with a club or some similar object. Three killers now?
Not necessarily. Men do not always die easily and a man like Vinius could be counted on to die harder than most. Perhaps the daggerman or the strangler had bashed him on the head to make doubly certain. One would think, though, that the knotted cord would be enough. And if there was uncertainty, why not just stab him a few more times? Men willing to stab other men are usually not reluctant to do it repeatedly.
A theory began to take shape in my mind, and it was not one I liked. It pointed straight at the First Century and most particularly at one special contubernium.
There was little more to be read from the corpse. It was unarmed and without a purse or ornaments of any kind. That meant little, since Gauls would have stripped Titus Vinius of any valuables. I was still hoping for Gauls, although the continuing presence of his head argued against that.
I examined the ground near where the body had been found, but it was so thoroughly trampled by hobnailed boots that there was nothing to be learned. Surely, I thought, a man as strong and battle-hardened as Titus Vinius must have put up a terrible struggle, even if only for a few seconds. I hoped for bits of clothing or ornaments or weapons torn from the killers, but I found none. A single foreign dagger would serve to direct suspicion away from the legion. I found only a scrap of dirty white linen.
A score of questions tore at me: Why was he dressed in a dingy, slave’s tunic? Why was he here? Why that particular night? And for which of several exceedingly good reasons had he been killed?
My musings were interrupted when a solemn procession came from the direction of the camp. Most were soldiers, but they glittered more than those I had seen so far. Then I saw the flashing greaves on their shins and I knew that these were the surviving centurions of the Tenth. They had donned their dress uniforms for this duty. With them came a small group of slaves. Among these was Molon, wailing extravagantly and bearing a great bundle upon his back.
The man in front halted the procession. “I am Spurius Mutius, centurion of the Second Century, First Cohort of the Tenth, and now acting First Spear. We’ve come to take the body of our comrade back to the camp for his funeral.”
“Has the Proconsul informed you of my special authority?”
“He has.” I looked at fifty-nine hard, closed faces and I knew what I was in for. I was the outsider here, just another political interloper. These were the professionals of the Tenth. They were closing ranks the way the old military maniples used to, when the principes and the hastati and the triarii merged their squares into one massive, impenetrable block to face the enemy.
“You may have him,” I said. “I’ve learned all I can here.”
Mutius turned to the slaves. “Do your duty.” These were funeral slaves, of which every legion keeps a staff. On campaign, they dispensed with the archaic trappings they wore in Rome and looked like any other army slaves. The priest, also a slave, performed a lustrum to purify the corpse. Foreigners are sometimes shocked to find that slaves can be priests among us, but our gods are not the snobs that some people’s are.
The funeral men stripped the dingy tunic from Vinius’s body and Molon, still wailing and weeping, dumped his bundle on the ground. He threw open the wrapping blanket to reveal his master’s glittering dress uniform. With swift efficiency, the slaves dressed the corpse.