There was no mistaking now the look of doubt that crossed his face. I could see my ruse had worked. He must be wondering if his plans had gone awry, and Virilis was in the pay of Marcus rather than his own. After all, it rather looked like it. I was still alive and Virilis was gone, and Quintus could not know how I had learned about the vote.
‘Slaves, put the litter down!’ The smile had vanished now, along with all pretence that this meeting was polite. ‘And you, Hyperius, get that man into it.’
The stolid slave, who had been lingering on the other side, came round the litter and seized me by the arm. It happened so quickly that I did not resist and he might have managed to force me to get in, but Junio was a younger man and far too strong for him. He grasped the startled servant by the throat and pushed him violently. Hyperius fell backwards, spluttering on to the paving-stones.
‘Here! You two! What’s the meaning of this?’ There was a sound of ringing hobnails, and there was Scowler running up. His swagger stick was stuck into his belt, and he had drawn his sword instead. One of his companions was panting after him, carrying Scowler’s helmet and a dagger of his own.
By the time that Hyperius was on his feet again, Scowler had reached me. ‘Oh, it’s you again!’ he said.
Quintus leaned back in his litter, his face a mask of cool disdain. ‘I see that you’re acquainted with this citizen.’
Scowler gave a self-important nod. ‘I met him yesterday. You had us go and move a murdered pauper from his workshop floor.’
‘Exactly!’ Quintus gave me a triumphant, poisonous smile. ‘And there has been another murder at his shop today. So it will not surprise you that I am arresting him.’
Scowler looked doubtfully at me. ‘Is this true, citizen?’
‘That there was a body at my workshop, certainly. But I had no part in either of the deaths. On the contrary, I believe that the decurion ordered them. I had some information from the slave next door.’
The decurion turned purple. ‘But you can’t have had. This is preposterous. Why should I want to murder a pie-seller and a turnip-man? And who would trust the testimony of a simple slave?’
I gave him the best smile that I could conjure up. ‘Very likely nobody, decurion, it’s true. But how did you know it was a turnip-man? Or did you work that out from the description that your hired assassin gave? And, come to that, how did Virilis know that the first corpse had one eye?’
Scowler, who had placed himself between the two of us, bent towards the litter as if to wait for a reply.
‘I don’t know how he knew that,’ Quintus snapped impatiently. ‘He didn’t hear from me. I wasn’t at the workshop, as you may recall, until the pie-seller was dead, and even then I didn’t go inside. And he didn’t describe the turnip-man to me. You can’t implicate me in what Virilis may have said.’
‘But you do agree that it was Virilis who strangled them?’ I said. ‘Especially since he doesn’t deny that fact himself?’
It was a gamble. Of course Virilis had not denied that he was the murderer — nobody had taxed him with it up to now. But Quintus didn’t know that and I hoped that I could lead him to conclude something which I had already hinted at: that Virilis was secretly acting for Marcus all the time, and that he — the decurion — had been betrayed and duped.
But Quintus shook his head. ‘If he maintains I paid him to try to strangle you, he’s lying!’ he declared. ‘Trying to protect the man he’s really working for, I expect, and earn a lenient sentence by accusing me. He’ll be claiming I have dealings with the rebel bandits next, and that I am plotting to deliver certain people to their hands. Well, I deny it, do you hear! If Virilis planned that, he did it on his own. And as for this presumptuous mosaic-maker here. .’ — he was addressing Scowler, but he waved a hand at me — ‘he may not have been responsible for the murders at his house, but he attacked me earlier. Hyperius here was witness to the fact. Is that not so, Hyperius?’
The audacity of it took my breath away, but Quintus had already turned towards his slave. Hyperius was looking flabbergasted too, but after a long moment he inclined his head. ‘Certainly, master. Exactly as you say.’
I was about to protest my innocence, but Scowler already had his sword-point at my throat. ‘And when exactly did this incident occur?’ He did not look at Quintus, but kept on watching me as though I might somehow be tempted to make a dash for it.
Quintus leaned back in his litter, clearly satisfied, and made a vague gesture with his seal-ring hand. ‘Oh, just a little while before the ordo vote was held. I had just heard the bugle-call to tell us to convene. This fellow approached me at the door of my own home and threatened me with violence. Pushed me against a doorpost and banged my head on it. Hyperius saw it all. And even then he followed me to the basilica, shouting that I had his slave in custody, which I certainly did not! Crowds of people were witnesses to that.’ He favoured Scowler’s colleague with a winning smile. ‘And, of course, at that time I thought he’d committed the murders at his house. I didn’t know that Virilis had confessed to them. I simply knew that this man was violent, and guilty, at the very least, of iniuria atrox against a magistrate. I was planning to drag him before the justices. I was trying to arrest him when you came along.’
I had to acknowledge his ingenuity. The way he told the story, it did sound plausible, and no one was going to take my word against that of the chief official in the town curia. I would find it difficult to prove my innocence, especially if Hyperius was prepared to testify. Moreover, given that he’d made a proper charge, I was likely to be taken into custody for this, probably by the decurion himself — in which case some unpleasant accident was almost certain to befall me before I came to trial. And Virilis was getting ever closer to Marcus all this time. I could feel the cold sweat running down my back.
But Scowler had lowered his sword-point and stepped back suddenly. ‘I think you’ve misremembered, decurion,’ he said, putting his weapon carefully in its sheath again. ‘This couldn’t have happened at the time you claim. A moment after the ordo bugle blew, I was talking to this citizen myself. He was here at the gatehouse and there are witnesses. Your apartment, as I understand, is on the further side of town. He could never have got there in the interval.’
Quintus was glowering, but still irascible. ‘Then it was earlier in the day. Hyperius would know. I was so shaken that I can’t recall.’
‘But,’ Scowler said slowly, ‘he’d just come into town. I watched him through the gate. And — before you say anything else you might regret — I happen to know there was a bulla ceremony at his home today that didn’t end till almost noon. I heard that from the high priest who conducted it. It would not be difficult to prove it, I presume.’
There was a silence. Quintus had turned pink. ‘I still say he assaulted me. It doesn’t matter when. Perhaps I got the day wrong. I want him brought to trial. . if only for appearing in the forum in improper dress. There are certainly dozens of witnesses to that.’
I saw an opportunity and seized it instantly. ‘Then, soldier, you had better take me under escort to the garrison yourself. Put me under charge. I’ll appeal to the commander. I believe I have that right, and I would like to speak to him as soon as possible. I have some information he’ll be interested to hear.’
Quintus seemed ready to leap out of the litter and lay hands on me, but the presence of Scowler and his fellow soldier prevented this, of course.
‘I’ll make you pay for this,’ he muttered, as he pulled the curtains to. ‘I’ll find a way to prove you guilty, don’t imagine otherwise. And don’t suppose you’ll ever see your little slave again — I’ll make quite sure you don’t. Slaves, pick up the litter and take me quickly home. At the double or I will have you flogged.’