Negrinus laughed. `Oh I know that! But here you are, you see. I have nowhere else to turn. You have to look after me.'
He stood up. Now he was being positive again. He was thirty years old, a senator, a curule aedile. He must have been in the army. He had held other posts in government. We were mere curs in his social entourage – and he was certain that in the end we would beg for scraps.
He went off to bed. When he left us, we argued there for hours. He must have known we would. It grew too late for the Camilli to return to their father's house; they were still arguing together when they dragged themselves off to the room where Helena let them doss on guest beds if they stayed over. I had told them, there was no way we could take on pleading Birdy's defence. They had declaimed some high-flown concepts, such as justice demanded it. I had disparaged Justice and her foolish demands. We all felt trapped. The bastard had nailed us to the wall with our own consciences.
`It's not just that he needs help.' Justinus glared at me. I understood his feelings; he had a wife and was about to be a father. He was sick of being reminded that his wife Claudia was an heiress; he wanted money of his own.
`I know. Silius and Paccius are about to make a great deal out of this. So, if Birdy asks us, why shouldn't we have a share in the proceeds?'
`I'm off to dream of cash boxes,' Aelianus muttered blatantly.
I checked the house. Doused lamps. Fastened shutters. I looked in at my children, one feverishly hot under a tangle of bedcovers, one snoring, with dribble all over her pillow. I straightened limbs and quilts. Fine. I found Helena, in our room, also sleeping, her pose strangely like that of my elder daughter, though in fairness she was not dribbling. I tucked her arm under the bedspread. Lifted up a scroll she had been annotating…
Fancy that. Helena Justina had been re-reading the report I produced for Silius.
Every informer needs a girl in the office who will take messages. Mine ran the accounts, kept me in order – and made commercial decisions. While we haggled, with Negrinus and among ourselves, Helena had been working over our interviews, looking for new lines to investigate. She had already decided we were working this case.
I climbed into bed, having moved an oil lamp from Helena's bedside to my own so I could just about see.
I thought about the way Negrinus had come here, first insisting that I was the only person who could or would help him, then changing his mood to moan wretchedly that his position was hopeless, yet now once again demanding that we take on the charges. If he was a victim, ruthlessly targeted by Paccius and Silius, we in turn had been targeted by him. The lads were right: there could be rich pickings here. But I wondered why I felt so sure I did not trust our beleaguered client.
I began to study Helena's marginal notes, so I would be ready with viable ideas of my own tomorrow.
The Accusation against Rubirius Metellus: Helena Justina's Notes
Interview with Negrinus
Will formally read to close family and friends, including the original witnesses…
• Ask the senators what it says (any ideas on Saffia?) and what
happened at the reading!**
• Ask Birdy, while we've got him here.
Calendar of events…
• Check timings (very carefully)
• Date of will?
Interview with Euphanes, herbalist
Denied knowledge of Metellus senior's pills. Denied supplying them…
• But does he handle hemlock?
• If not, where did they get it? Who bought it? (Does Birdy know?)
Interview with Claudius Tiasus, undertaker
… mausoleum on the Via Appia
• Visit mausoleum?
Negrinus presided (at funeral), together with another man…
• Who? Lutea? (His friend, NB)
They had ordered the full ceremonials with flute players, a procession accompanied by mourners, masks of ancestors, and satirical clowns abusing the memory of the dead man…
• Find other participants, not just Biltis. Clowns?
Interview with Biltis
Overbearing friendliness…
• Did she make advances to my brother??? (Ask Aulus!) (Don't tell Mother!)
Comedians omitted
• YES! Find the chief clown – urgent! What was he going to say???
Biltis willing to give evidence if her expenses can be refunded…
• Wants the money! Unreliable.
Interview with Aufustius, money-lender
• Lutea and Negrinus are friends. Do they have the same banker?
• Re-interview Aufustius. Why was Lutea in financial difficulties? Ask about wilt. Is Lutea hoping to profit from Saffia's inheritance?
Interview with Servilius Donatus, father of Saffia
Donatus considering action against Negrinus re dowry
• The two children of Saffia/Negrinus are close together so presumably the marriage was short. Has the third instalment of the dowry been paid? If Negrinus successfully defends against compensation claim, what is the position?
• NB Did Metellus senior fully pay up the dowries of his own two daughters?
• Younger d. (Carina) has 3 children, so presumably hers was long paid. What about) Juliana though? (One child. Is her marriage recent?)
Unnamed source
Will contains certain surprises
• WELL WHAT??? More than Saffia? Ask my mother. Ask my father – he knows something. Did he get it from my mother – or is information about this will widespread?
Interview with Rhoemetalces
Admitted he sold pills…
• When were these pills bought?
It was at this point that Helena must have fallen asleep.
The proposed visit to the mausoleum would be fruitless. An urnful of ashes would not tell us much; in my experience, urns were taciturn witnesses. But the rest was all wise stuff. Her rank and sex debarred Helena from walking around Rome doing my work, but she knew how investigative informing should be done. If we did take on Negrinus, we would not start with the tale he spun, but with our own evidence. I made a few extra notes, based on today's and tonight's experience. They were people to interview:
• Calpurnia Cara (if possible) (O silly boy, you are joking!)
• Licinius Lutea (something whiffs)
• Saffia (something whiffs a lot)
• Perseus the nearly-dead door porter (knows he was fingered? Why was he fingered?)
• Rubiria Carina (doubtfuclass="underline" at least try her) Or husband. (Cruciaclass="underline" angry scene at funeral?* Why did she not attend last lunch with father?)
*in view of accusations at funeral, why was Carina not questioned at JuIiana's trial? (ask Paccius) (joke!)
Then, before I blew out the lamp and lay down, I wrote in a neat box:
?? WHO WILL DEFEND BIRDY IN COURT??
XIX
WE WERE taking the case. At breakfast, Falco and Associates all agreed: the thought of money clinched it. When Negrinus appeared, looking refreshed and more buoyant, we asked him for a deposit. To our surprise, he immediately wrote a request for a loan from Rubiria Carina, the younger of his sisters – who immediately paid it.
She and her husband then offered Negrinus a place of refuge. He seemed surprised when her messenger brought the invitation. I was just surprised we had not thought to send him there straight away.
`I heard Carina stayed aloof from your family,' I said, as I packed him off in Helena's litter. `That's where you gain when the rest of your family dumps you, I suppose. Tell me, had they dumped Carina too?'
`There was some trouble a few years ago,' said Birdy. `She disagreed with things. And her husband had a tussle with my father over money…
Rome seemed to be stuffed with people fighting over dowries. `Instalment of her portion not paid?' I was getting the hang of life at aedile level.
`You guessed.'
`Has it ever been handed over?'
`Yes. Verginius Laco gets his way.'
Such problems did not afflict my section of society. Helena did not bring a dowry; our children would be fed, clothed and educated out of my income and a legacy of hers. There must have been a dowry set aside for Helena once; she had been married to a senator. Given that Helena's parents were mortgaged up to their hairlines, I had done them a favour. By my forgoing a marriage ceremony, they had been able to forgo setting us up in life.