`Oh she was as bad as Lutea – and Negrinus was all her idea, if you ask me. I saw the downfall happen. Her father kept her on a tight rein at home; she married young, got her hands on the dowry, then she and Lutea just ran through it.' The banker shook his head. `Saffia always hopes for a financial miracle.'
`She seems to have found one,' I muttered. `Her new apartment is stuffed with loot. And your client Lutea is hovering close. So now he tells you he's looking to be more solvent…'
`Saffia has a big legacy coming. Lutea says he intends to remarry her.' Aufustius suddenly looked troubled by his indiscretion. `That may be confidential -'
`Or glaringly obvious! They stayed close?'
`Well, they had the boy… I never knew why they separated. The Metelli were very well off, but Saffia was losing all her independence with the new marriage. The wife of an unemancipated son in a household that was governed by strict and suspicious parents couldn't hope for much. Calpurnia Cara must have curbed Saffia's love of lavish shopping.'
`How about this,' I proffered. `The Metelli lost their funds because – for some strange reason – their cash moved swiftly to the interesting Saffia?'
`But why?' asked the banker, quite baffled.
`She has some hold over them. It has to be something very big.' I was working up slowly to our solution.
`She could have known about the corruption,' Justinus offered. `Blackmailed them over that?'
`Everyone knows about it now,' I argued. `Yet Saffia has still got them. No, I think Saffia made herself a sweet little friend to Metellus senior.
The banker was thrilled. `That's rather unsavoury!'
`Especially if Lutea put her up to it.'
`A pimp?' Aufustius pulled a face; he almost seemed fond of Lutea as a client. `Oh he's not that bad!'
I grinned. `Then Saffia must have thought of it all by herself.'
`Better ask her then. But do me a favour,' pleaded Aufustius. `Penurious clients are agony. Don't stop whatever is due to come to Licinius Lutea!'
Nothing was due to him, in my opinion. That did not mean he was not intending to take a great deal.
When we left the banker, Justinus ran a hand through his straight hair. `We need a talk with the land agent. Someone needs to go to Lanuvium.'
`If you were not a new father, I'd be sending you.'
He volunteered anyway. He assured me that Claudia Rufina was a dear girl who would understand.
I doubted that. But Justinus was reliable and if he was daft enough to leave his wife I would let him go.
Helena had failed to wheedle admittance to Saffia's apartment. The baby was still not born, after an already very long labour. This did not seem the moment to walk in and ask who its father was.
`Saffia must be exhausted.' Helena's voice was subdued. She meant the struggling mother was now seriously at risk.
Honorius attended the pre-trial hearing. Not trusting him, I went along too. The praetor agreed the case must be answered. Calpurnia had appointed Paccius to defend her and be her spokesman.
`Oh by the way, praetor,' Paccius murmured, just when it seemed all over. `The plaintiffs are alleging that Calpurnia sold her jewellery and went to an astrologer. Since magic practices are involved, may we seek trial in the murders court, please?'
The praetor glared. He was aware that he had heard this request from our side, on behalf of Negrinus, and that he had crisply denied it. This time he was not defending the right of a senator to trial by like-minded nobility. Calpurnia was merely the daughter, wife and mother of senators.
I could see why Paccius Africanus had taken up our ploy. The Senate had a long history of voting against women accused of murder by poison with mystical overtones; these sorceresses were packed straight off home to cut their wrists in a hot bath. While it was entirely in our interests that our accused should be put before the Senate, whose members would be outraged that one of their illustrious number had been slain at home by his wife, Paccius wanted to avoid it.
`Oh yes. Magic belongs in the murders court,' the praetor announced.
The chief magistrate in Rome may be a blithering incompetent, but when the magistrate makes a pronouncement, there is no appeal. We were stuck with it.
Aelianus came back cold and angry from the Via Appia. It had taken him hours to find the Metellus mausoleum in the strung-out highway necropolis. When he did identify his goal, the door was locked. Breaking into a tomb is a serious offence. By the time Aelianus, a terrible burglar, managed to effect entry, it was dusk, he was scared he had attracted notice, and he had cut his hand. Inside, he was thwarted: no proper inscription had yet been provided.
`Why, what did you see there?'
'Nothing. It was bloody dark.'
`Afraid of ghosts?'
`No, robbers. And spells. That vicinity is famous for witches and perverts. I wouldn't hang about as prey. I had a quick look. There was nothing that named Negrinus – nor his mother, come to that. I identified the glass urn that contains the ashes of Metellus senior. Over it, there was just a marble tablet erected by the two daughters. I guess the proper plaque is still lying in some mason's yard. Either poor old hopeless Birdy has forgotten to organise it, or more likely he can't pay for it and the mason refuses to hand it over.'
It fitted. We knew the impoverished son had had to beg for last minute inclusion on a freedman's plaque. Julius Alexander, who as a land agent would be able to afford a memorial to a patron, had allowed Negrinus to be tagged on to his own inscription. It must be hard for Birdy to see an ex-slave now prospering when he was so completely luckless.
Was there something else dubious here? Julius Alexander, the mystery man in Lanuvium, could be yet another uppity one-time household staff member who was preying upon this family. I made sure that Justinus was primed to investigate when he rode off there next day.
XXXV
WE MADE one last attempt to tackle the three Metellus siblings. Helena and I went to ask the questions. We had sent a message in advance, saying we would like both sisters to be present as well as Negrinus. The women were there when we arrived, and both had their husbands for back-up. This was the first time we had seen the whole group of five assembled together. Canidianus Rufus, who had seemed eager to stay out of things when I had interviewed his wife Juliana about her role in her father's death, now appeared more at ease. The presence of Verginius Laco may have encouraged him. Helena agreed afterwards that the party all knew each other well, and they seemed fairly affectionate.
It was out of the question to demand that Saffia Donata join us, but I had said it would be helpful to invite Licinius Lutea. If asked, he did not show.
`Have you and your dear friend quarrelled?' I murmured to Negrinus.
He gave me one of his self-pitying exclamations. `Oh no! He still speaks to me when I can be useful!'
`Does he touch you for money?' I threw at him. Unlikely, now Negrinus was disinherited.
Negrinus went very still. `No. Lutea has never asked me for money.'
I was not yet ready to retort, So he just uses his ex-wife, does he? Negrinus, with a flash of his understated intelligence, looked rueful, as if he knew exactly what I thought.
At a glance from Helena I fell silent. She was to initiate the discussion, while I observed the parties.
She sat on a couch, a little way from me. Tall and graceful, she had dressed in the style of a senator's daughter, adorned with favourite semiprecious jewellery over a long-sleeved white winter gown, formally wound with a voluminous dark red stole. Holding a note tablet, she looked like a high-class secretary – one keeping minutes for an empress who was plotting people's downfalls.
`I maintain the records of our enquiries, so my husband has asked me to begin.' She rarely called me her husband, though that was the state I had reported in my Census return. We lived together. It was accurate. But Helena knew it always gave me a shock.