I shook my head. ‘That’s the worst of it. I don’t know who it is. Minimus was taken by someone’s private guard — I have discovered that much — but I don’t know whose they were or where they’ve taken him. If I did, I would be trying to get him freed by now, though it might require a hearing before a magistrate. Even Quintus has no information, so he says, although the arrest was made on his authority, so he may know rather more than he pretends.’
Maximus looked up, struggling with tears. Years of serving in a Roman house had taught him not to weep. ‘But, master, he’s accused of robbery, you say? That can’t be right. Minimus wouldn’t have stolen anything, whatever proof they think they might have found.’
‘I am quite sure of that,’ I told him. ‘But whoever arrested him may have to be convinced.’
Maximus nodded dumbly and went back to his task.
‘It must be someone of importance, to have a private bodyguard,’ Junio put in. ‘Even Marcus doesn’t have one as a general rule. A slave or two, perhaps, to clear a way for him.’
‘And an armed escort following behind, to protect him if there’s any kind of incident,’ I pointed out. ‘He is a very important person after all.’
‘Exactly,’ Junio said triumphantly. ‘So is this some kind of public official, do you think? It’s against the law for private citizens to carry weapons in the streets, and how else could someone have effected an arrest?’
I considered this a moment. ‘It is hard to say. There’s certainly been fashion this last moon or two for wealthy citizens to keep a bodyguard — supposedly to protect them in case the rebels strike.’ It was true. One increasingly saw little groups of burly slaves beside litters and generally accompanying their masters around town, though I had assumed it was generally more for show than anything.
‘I think it was a fashion which began in Rome — they say the Emperor is so afraid of plots against his life that he has a hefty escort everywhere he goes.’ Junio laughed. ‘Marcus will probably effect one when he comes.’
I nodded. ‘He is not the only one. I’ve seen a dozen people accompanying one man, all carrying batons, wooden clubs and staves. It may not create the same effect that swords and daggers would, but it makes for an ugly picture nonetheless. And an effective deterrent, I suppose. That’s probably the sort of guard our mystery person has.’
Maximus wasn’t listening. He wore a puzzled frown. ‘But why should he do it? Arrest Minimus, I mean.’ He gave a last flick to my toga hem and, glancing up to be reassured that I was satisfied, climbed to his feet again.
‘Presumably he’d heard there was a warrant out,’ Junio said at once. ‘So it must have been someone who met Quintus after he left here and stopped to talk to him. Someone who hoped to gain favour or reward by fulfilling what he thought was the chief decurion’s wish.’ He was clearly reasoning aloud and looking to me for agreement as he spoke.
I nodded my approval of his analysis. ‘That’s certainly a possibility.’
‘Though, in that case, wouldn’t Quintus have known who took the boy? Or worked out who it was?’ Junio mused.
I looked at him wryly. ‘And you don’t suppose he did?’
He slapped his hands together in irritation with himself. ‘I am an idiot! Of course. If the man was a favoured protégé of his, it’s likely that Quintus would say exactly what he did — that he had no information — though no doubt he had a very good idea. But couldn’t we find out? This person must have been in Glevum yesterday, shortly after the litter had left here, and that should give us a useful place to start.’ He brought his hands together with a triumphant clap. ‘Find a rich man who met Quintus on the street and you have found the man who captured Minimus. It’s the only possibility. Until then, only you and Quintus even knew there’d been a crime.’
‘Apart from whoever throttled Lucius, of course,’ I said drily, echoing what Radixrapum had once said to me.
My son looked chagrined. ‘I had forgotten him. But naturally, you’re right. In fact’ — his voice was eager now — ‘not only was the murderer aware there’d been a robbery, he had a lively reason for arresting Minimus — if only to deflect suspicion from himself. But then there was the purse they found on him. .’ He paused and looked at me. ‘Oh, great Jove! I should have thought of that. The murderer could easily have cut that off himself and simply pretended that he’d found it on our slave! What could be more-’ He broke off as there was a tapping on the door.
Events had made us nervous. We exchanged a startled glance.
‘That can’t be the urchin back again so soon,’ I said. ‘He wouldn’t have had time to fetch the stallholder by now. Indeed, he would scarcely have had time to leave the street. More likely the tanner come to have another look!’ But I picked up my heavy hammer as a weapon all the same, before I said to Maximus, ‘You’d better answer it, as usual, to make it seem that things are normal here.’ I gestured to the corpse. ‘But don’t let anybody come inside. I’ll be right behind you. I won’t let you get hurt.’
The slave-boy nodded nervously. He half-opened the door, then, to my surprise, disappeared round it and shut it after him. An instant later he was back again, looking much relieved. ‘It is the urchin, master, but he hasn’t been to town. He has a message for you from the tanner’s house, he says, but he won’t reveal it except to you alone. I think he has been told that there might be a tip.’
I nodded. ‘Very well, I’ll go and speak to him. In the meantime, you two, deal with things in here. Junio, set some candles round the head and use my birrus to cover up the corpse.’
‘It won’t bring curses on us, master?’ Maximus blurted out, with a look of superstitious terror on his face. ‘Dealing with the body of a murdered man?’
I was about to say that I had done so yesterday, and so had Radixrapum, but I saw the flaw in that — in the light of what had happened since, this remark was hardly likely to allay his fears. Instead, I told him gently, ‘It will make no difference now — we will have to purify the workshop and ourselves in any case. Besides, the best way of soothing an unquiet ghost is to afford its mortal body proper rituals.’
‘That is why you want to find his family, I suppose, so they can arrange a funeral?’
‘Exactly. And to call him by his proper name and put money in his mouth to pay the ferryman. In the meantime, we will treat the body with respect. I will come and help you when I’ve spoken to our little messenger.’
With that, I slipped round the door myself and went out into the street.
The drizzle had set in, in good earnest by this time, and the urchin was waiting there impatiently, hopping from foot to foot among the stones and trying to find shelter close against the wall, but he stopped at once when I appeared and stood there silently.
‘You have a message for me from the tanner, I believe,’ I prompted, remaining in the shelter of the doorway as I spoke.
The ragged child looked doubtful. ‘I don’t think it was a tanner — not the man I saw. An old man in a loincloth who said he was a slave. Gypso or Glyppo or something of the kind. He said that you would recognize the name.’ Rain was dripping from his hair on to his ragged tunic as he spoke.
I frowned. ‘I know the man you mean, and he’s indeed a slave. But what was he doing sending you to me?’ It was a reasonable question in the circumstances. It isn’t usual for servants to send private messengers, especially to somebody who only lives next door.
The boy rubbed his wet nose with a grimy hand. ‘I don’t know, citizen. Perhaps the fellow’s mad. I rather thought he was. The message that he gave me was very strange indeed, but he swore that it was important and you would want to know.’
I was still frowning. ‘Then why did he not deliver it himself?’ I did not add that I had an arrangement to meet him later on.
‘I think he would have done.’ The scraggy urchin rubbed his nose again, then wiped his fingers on his tunic skirt. ‘He said to tell you he’d been looking out for you, but hasn’t had a chance to speak to you alone. He doesn’t know how long he can keep coming to the pile, especially now that the rain is setting in. His mistress is suspicious of him running in and out and is threatening to punish him if he does not tend the fire.’