Twenty-Five
Junio and I allowed the turnip-seller’s family to remove the bier — it would have been unthinkable to push in front of it — and immediately afterwards we set off ourselves, leaving the workshop in the care of Maximus.
The slave-boy had been waiting outside the workshop door and was desolated now at being left behind, but there was no time to explain. I would simply have to tell him later what this was all about. I said as much to him.
He nodded glumly. ‘Master, I am at your command.’ And then, as if he could not help the words, ‘But if there’s any news of Minimus, you will send word to me?’
‘I will,’ I promised with a heavy heart, though I’d begun to fear that Minimus might, after all, be dead. Virilis was too cool a murderer to hold his hand, if my slave had proved to be a threat to him.
Junio must have read my feelings in my face, because as soon as we rounded the corner and were out of sight, he turned to me. ‘What is it, father? Something is amiss. Are you still worried about Minimus? I thought that we were fairly certain he was safe, even if he is a prisoner somewhere. And if you can prove what you’ve been saying, it should not be hard to get him freed. He was only arrested at Quintus’s behest.’ He paused, partly to cross the wider road, which after the recent rain was very sticky here, so that we had to pick our way across it on the granite stepping blocks, carefully positioned an axle-width apart.
When we reached the further pavement and were side by side again, he went on. ‘But, I suppose, they claim to have that purse and you don’t have any actual evidence of who the killer was. And Glypto, who might have been a witness, has been silenced now. And you can’t prove who killed him either.’
‘If they catch up with Virilis tonight, I think there will be circumstantial evidence at least,’ I told him grimly. ‘He won’t have had the opportunity to change his clothes, and I’m certain that there will be spots of Glypto’s blood on him — and on the dagger-hilt, though he will have wiped the blade. No doubt he’ll tell some story at the military inn — fighting off a bear or something — to account for it. That’s where strangling is so much easier.’
I was hurrying onwards as I said this, and Junio had to scurry to keep up with me. ‘But, Father, surely, if you’re right, the cursor won’t have left the town? He’s made two attempts to kill you and not succeeded yet. You would expect him to try again.’
‘He has done, Junio. Don’t you realize that? Twice today he has come to look for me — once when we were walking into town and later at the workshop. Looking back, we should have seen that it was strange. It is rare to see horsemen on that stretch of lane — I thought so at the time. Even a skilled rider like Virilis would avoid it if he could.’ A sudden thought struck me, and I almost laughed. ‘I suppose that’s why Hyperius was suddenly so keen that I should ride back to Glevum in his company. I imagine that Virilis put him up to it — it would have been much easier to attack me then.’
Junio nodded. ‘But he did not attack you when he passed you in the woods.’
‘There were three of us,’ I reminded him. ‘That’s what saved my life. And the same thing at the shop, though Virilis probably thought that he would find me on my own. Doubtless he discovered that we’d parted company when we first arrived in Glevum. Quintus saw me in the street with no attendant at my side — I met him when he was on his way to oversee the vote, and we know that he’d been talking to Virilis since then. The cursor had just come from the curia when he called on me, and the decurion had given him a letter under seal. He told me so himself. And that’s another thing which I should have questioned at the time! Why should Quintus suddenly send him to enquire whether I had a message for Marcus Septimus? Of course, he did not do anything of the kind — it was just a ruse of Virilis’s, made up on the spot.’
Junio nodded his agreement. ‘Considering the outcome of the ordo vote, you’d think, if anything, Quintus would try to prevent you from sending word. Though, of course, you hadn’t heard the news about Gaius Greybeard then. I do see what you mean. It does seem Virilis expected to find you on your own, but it’s hard to believe that he meant to strangle you. He was so charming. He gave no hint of it.’
We had almost reached the centre of the town by now, but I changed my route to avoid the enclosure where the forum was, and where, of course, the basilica and curia building lay. I did not want to meet Quintus anywhere.
‘Charm was the weapon he most relied upon,’ I said. ‘He certainly charmed Gwellia — and my patron too. You heard the glowing testimonial that Marcus gave to him. And as for hinting, I think perhaps he did. He told me that he had something for me when we could be alone. Something that I did not expect and was connected with my patron — all of which was true — except that the ‘something’ was a piece of twisted silk around my neck. I suppose it amused him to play games with his prey.’
I had to check my stride and step into the road. The pavements here were cluttered with stalls of every kind.
Junio, too, was dodging the displays. ‘Then we’ll make sure you always have someone at your side. But if you manage to have Virilis caught, there won’t be such a threat.’
I frowned at him. ‘Be careful what you say.’ Since we’d turned into this crowded area, I’d been avoiding names. Virilis was right. The town was full of spies, including, as he’d warned me, the ones I’d least expect. I wondered if he’d really, in the end, had some respect for me. It was a peculiar compliment, if that were true. I turned to Junio. ‘The man you speak of was an expert at his trade, if you can call it that. The deaths he meted out were swift and merciless. Let us hope that a different danger doesn’t face us now: a meeting with some other person’s gang of brutal thugs.’
‘You mean Qui-’ Junio left the decurion’s name unsaid. ‘Oh, dear gods, I hadn’t thought of that. You still think he’s behind this? And that Marcus is in danger too? I hope you can convince the garrison commander of all this.’
‘So do I,’ I told him. ‘We will soon find out. We are very nearly at the garrison.’ I brushed aside a trader who was offering me belts — ‘Finest leather, citizen. A special price for you!’ — and turned down a narrow lane, where we rejoined the main street that led towards the gate. I could already see the tower of the guardhouse block where the commander had his headquarters.
I was just hastening towards it, quickening my step, when I was halted by an imperious voice. ‘Citizen Libertus! Imagine seeing you. I had supposed that you would be busy with your pavement work today.’
I whirled round to see a curtained litter which had drawn up close to me, and the face of Quintus Severus peering out of it. ‘I am on my way to Pedronius’s house right now to admire your handiwork,’ he went on, with a smile that did not reach his eyes. ‘I hear it’s very fine. Perhaps if you are going there, I could save you the walk, though there is only room for one of you in the litter, I’m afraid. Or, if you are returning home, my slaves could take you there? They have nothing particular to do when they’ve delivered me.’
Junio, beside me, had stiffened visibly, but I tried to match the decurion’s mirthless smile with my own. ‘Thank you, councillor, but there is no need of that. I am only walking to the garrison. I have a message for the commander there.’
I saw momentary anxious puzzlement in his eyes, and an idea came to me.
‘Thank you, by the way, for sending Virilis to me. I have sent a message by him to my patron, as you suggested I might do, though doubtless it largely duplicates your own,’ I said, pausing to let my next words take effect. ‘But I’m sure that he’ll be anxious to learn the latest news — the result of the election was such an unexpected one.’