Poseidon_s Gold

'Wrongly?' the centurion asked me in a light, easy tone.

'Wrongly,' I said.

'Nice to be sure of these things!' Laurentius folded his hands calmly on the table. 'Anything you want to know, Watch Captain,' he said. 'If it will help find the killer.'

'Right.' Then Petronius raised a hand so his trooper Martinus, who had been hanging about at the counter, came back into the caupona and sat down with us. Laurentius and I exchanged half a smile. Petronius Longus was doing things properly. Not only was he making sure he had a witness to his own procedure when he interviewed two suspects (one of them known to him), but Martinus brought out a waxed tablet and openly took notes. 'This is Martinus, my second in command. He'll be keeping a record, if the two of you don't mind. If what we talk about is shown to be a private matter which has no bearing on the murder, then the notes will be destroyed.'

Petro skewed round to ask the waiter to step out and give us some privacy, but for once Epimandos had discreetly disappeared.

LVII

Petronius asked the questions; at first I sat tight.

'Centurion, are you now prepared to volunteer what it was you and the dead man wanted from the Didius family?' Laurentius nodded slowly, though made no reply. 'You were trying to recover your stake money from an investment which Didius Festus had organised?'

'In effect.'

'Am I allowed to ask where the money came from?'

'None of your business,' Laurentius answered pleasantly.

'Well,' said Petronius, at his most reasonable, 'let me put it this way: the dead man's quarrel with Falco over this money has been cited as a possible motive for Falco stabbing him. I know Falco personally, and I don't believe he did it. I do know that we are talking about the price of a statue by Phidias, and it could be suggested that a group of centurions on active service in the desert might have found it difficult to come up with so much ready cash?'

'It was not difficult,' Laurentius informed him laconically.

'Resourceful fellows!' smiled Petronius. This was all extremely civilised-and it did not help.

The centurion had enjoyed dodging but was not, in fact, trying to be difficult. 'The money we are trying to replace now we had gained on a previous flutter; it would have been doubled by another sale which Festus was hoping to make. I came to Rome to ascertain what happened about that second sale. If Festus went ahead, we're well in profit. If he didn't, we're back level; we'll just have to give it the gambler's shrug and start again.'

I felt obliged to intervene. 'You sound nicely philosophical! If that is your attitude, why was Censorinus so desperate when he tackled me?'

'It was different for him.'

'Why?'

Laurentius looked embarrassed. 'When he first came into the syndicate, he was only an optio-not one of us.'

The trooper Martinus was grimacing at Petro, not understanding the reference. Unlike us, he had never been in the army. Petro quietly explained to his man. 'An optio is a soldier who has been nominated as suitable for promotion to centurion, but who is still waiting for a vacancy. It can take a long time for one to come up. He spends the waiting period acting as second in command in the century-much like yourself.' There was a slight edge in Petro's voice. I knew he had long suspected that Martinus was trying to encroach on his position-though he did not think Martinus was a good enough officer to push him aside.

'I'd better come clean on the whole story,' said Laurentius. If he had noticed the personal atmosphere, it was one he understood.

'Clarification would be appreciated,' I agreed, as mildly as I could.

'A group of friends,' Laurentius explained, 'found the money for an investment-never mind how-' I avoided looking at Petronius; this was almost certainly a reference to raiding the legionary savings bank.

'Don't write this down,' Petronius instructed Martinus. Martinus awkwardly lowered his stylus.

'We made the investment successfully-'

'And I hope you replaced your capital?' Deliberately I let him know I had guessed where they had taken it from.

Laurentius smiled demurely. 'Relax. We did! Censorinus was not part of our syndicate then, incidentally. On that first scheme we made something like a quarter of a million profit, between ten of us. We were happy men, and Festus was already a hero in our eyes. There was no way to spend the money in the desert, so we sank it into another investment, knowing that if we came unstuck we could now just thank the Fates for being vindictive, and we'd lost nothing overall-though if we made our sale, we could all retire.'

'Censorinus then came in with you?'

'Yes. We had never talked about our winnings, but when people have a windfall word always gets out. Censorinus was already being considered as a candidate for promotion. He was becoming friendly with our group in anticipation of his co-option. Somehow he must have heard we were on to a good investment. He approached us, and asked to come in on it.'

Petro showed an interest: 'The rest of you were risking your profit-but he had to draw on his savings?'

'Must have,' shrugged Laurentius. Again he was revealing embarrassment. 'Obviously we expected him to match what we put into the kitty.' Since their kitty was founded on an illegal loan from the savings bank, this was wondrously unfair of them. They had pulled off a scam-and immediately overlooked their good fortune in getting away with it. 'Actually, I now realise he put in everything he had and then borrowed some, but at the time the rest of us were pretty offhand about where he was finding the cash.' Petro and I could imagine how cocky the others would have been; how insensitive to a newcomer. 'Look, there was no pressure on him to join us. It was his choice.'

'But when your project fell through it hit him much harder than the rest of you?' I asked.

'Yes. So that's why,' Laurentius said to me with a hint of apology, 'he did tend to become hysterical. He was a bit of a jumpy beggar anyway, in my opinion-' That was shorthand for saying Laurentius himself would not have promoted him. 'I'm sorry. With hindsight, I ought to have handled the whole thing myself.'

'It might have helped,' I said.

'Did he explain?'

'Not properly. He was very evasive.'

'People like to be suspicious,' Laurentius commented.

I drained my winecup with a wry smile. 'And your syndicate is suspicious of me?'

'Festus always said he had a very sharp brother.' That was news. I set the cup down again carefully. Laurentius murmured, 'Our second investment seems to be mislaid. We did wonder if it might have been found by you?'

'I don't even know what it is,' I corrected him gently-although by then I thought I did know.

'It's a statue.'

'Not the drowned Poseidon?' asked Petronius. His man Martinus made a jump towards his stylus again, but Petro's great paw clamped over his wrist.

'No, not the Poseidon.' Laurentius was watching me. I think he was still wondering whether I might have found this second piece, perhaps when Festus died.

Meanwhile I myself was wondering if Festus had disposed of it deliberately, and diddled his mates.

'Everyone's keeping secrets!' I told the centurion levelly. 'You'll be glad to hear I live in squalor. The watch captain will assure you I'm not soaking in luxury with profits that should have been yours.'

'He lives in a pit!' Petro grinned, confirming it.

'This special item seems to be lost,' I said. 'I searched my brother's property after he died, and I've looked in his store since, but I haven't found your treasure. My father, who was my brother's business partner, never heard tell of a second statue. And as far as we can see, even the agent Festus was using for your business never knew it existed.'