‘I should have trusted you! What news, my friend?’
I told him briefly, struggling to put the facts in order. ‘Four slaves, at least, were not at the procession. Paulus, the barber slave, confessed his absence himself.’ I didn’t tell Marcus about the Druid connection. Even in my stunned state I knew better than that. ‘Rufus, the lute player, was seen to leave. Andretha was missing too, if my guess is right. He did not tell us of the other absences, which he certainly would have done if he had known. Rufus confirms it. He thought Andretha had gone to an alehouse — which might well be true.’ If he had drunk the vilest brew in the taverna, I thought, his head could not ache more than mine did.
‘Where did the others go?’
‘I am not sure, yet. Rufus would have us think he went to meet the girl slave, Faustina.’
‘A lovers’ meeting?’
I shook my head, and then wished I hadn’t. ‘I do not think so. Aulus saw him leave, and followed him, but Rufus hid in a wayside temple. Faustina is trying to shield her lover, and is agreeing that they met, but she does not know what to say. I don’t think they had time to arrange a story before Andretha summoned the boy to play the lute at the lament.’
Marcus inclined his head. ‘He is there still. I have been talking to the chief musician. Rufus left once to change a broken lute-string, but apart from that none of the musicians has left the room. They are taking it in turns to play, and sleeping at the door.’
Strange, when I came to think of it. I could not hear the dirge. I said so.
Marcus smiled. ‘I ordered them to mourn more quietly. I feared their wailing might disturb you while you slept. I have no wish to lose you, and be forced to mourn in earnest.’
He had paid me a compliment, and for a moment I basked in it. It was, after all, the only thing he was likely to pay me. But just for a moment. Marcus said suddenly, with the flourish of a schoolboy outguessing his master, ‘So, even if she did not meet her lover, Faustina was the fourth slave missing?’
I said, ‘I doubt if she ever left the procession. She implied that she went to meet Rufus, but that was to protect him. I imagine the other slaves could tell us. No, the fourth missing slave was Aulus himself. By his own admission he left the others, and we only have his testimony for exactly what he did next.’
Marcus was a little crestfallen. ‘You think, then, that this was an internal affair after all — Crassus was killed by someone from the villa?’
I shrugged. ‘Others do not think so. Aulus believes those soldiers had a part in it. He may be right. Andretha insists that we must find Daedalus. He has a case, too. After all Daedalus was the last person from here to be seen with Crassus, and now he has disappeared.’
‘And if his freedom was refused,’ Marcus supplied, ‘he might have a motive. I have told the guards to watch for him, anyway. He will soon be found if he is in Glevum.’
‘Have them search, too, for this Regina, Crassus’ would-be wife. Ask in the nearby inns. Aulus thinks Daedalus has gone to her.’
We were interrupted by Andretha, bearing wine, water, and a platter of luscious-looking fruits. Plums, apples, medlars all of a sweetness and ripeness that my humble purse could never have commanded. Marcus handed me the water, and took out his knife absently. Most Romans carry one, in case of dining out, since few houses provide knives for guests. I devoutly wished that I had brought my own. He waved Andretha out of the room again and began to peel a plum.
‘And?’ he prompted.
‘She — this promised wife — is an expert in poisons, and she has taught the slavegirl to be the same. Faustina and Rufus loathed Crassus. Faustina swears she did not kill her master, but does not say she did not touch him. She may have moved the body, for instance. Rufus did not touch him, but may have killed him all the same. They choose their denials with care.’
Marcus speared a piece of peeled plum with his knife. ‘Perhaps, but you are forgetting one thing. When could they have done it? They may have missed the procession, but Crassus didn’t. He was leading his cohort.’
I said, respectfully, ‘It occurs to me, excellence, that one man in armour and a mask looks very like another.’
‘You mean, it was not Crassus in the march?’
‘That is possible, yes.’
He thought about that for a moment. ‘So the murder may have happened during the parade? While they were missing?’
‘That seems a likely explanation. It does not answer the question of how the body was brought back to the villa, or why, but it offers a beginning.’
‘Perhaps Crassus did not leave the villa at all.’
‘I thought of that. Aulus says he did. How reliable is Aulus? If one man can buy his services, perhaps another could, by offering a higher price.’
Marcus cut another piece of plum. ‘There is no higher price. I hold his life. One word from me and the courts would have him.’
‘For picking up a purse that he happened upon? That’s not a crucifying offence, surely. One word from the quaestor would prove that he is innocent of the real theft?’ I was surprised. Marcus can be cruel, but he is not wanton.
Marcus laughed. ‘Innocent? What makes you think he was innocent? The man who died — the one who stole the purse — that was his brother! How do you think that Aulus just “happened” to be there? He was waiting, at an arranged spot, to take the money and disappear while we chased fruitlessly after the thief. It had worked before. Only they reckoned this time without the quaestor’s sword. Aulus wasn’t innocent. He was guilty as Tantalus.’
I felt rather foolish.
‘And another thing,’ Marcus went on. ‘Something you have overlooked in your calculations. You have done well, certainly, but there is one thing more. Someone else from the villa who was not at the procession.’
I tried to follow his line of thought. ‘Ah, yes,’ I said, ‘Regina.’
‘Not her,’ he said impatiently. ‘A slave. A member of the household.’
‘Who, excellence?’
‘Why, Daedalus himself,’ he said triumphantly. ‘Your fugitive slave. You are quite right, we must find him. He is more likely than anyone to have killed Crassus.’
If Andretha was listening at the door, as I suspected, he was doubtless smiling now.
‘It is essential to find him, excellence,’ I agreed. ‘And your sources are good.’
That pleased him. ‘By the bye, I have not been idle since I saw you. I had enquiries made at the barracks. Those soldiers Aulus reported, they are not from Glevum. Everyone in the garrison was accounted for at curfew every day. Perhaps, though, if this is a household murder, it no longer matters.’
‘On the contrary, excellence,’ I said. ‘It must be significant. A Roman soldier, twice — at dusk, at a private villa, down a country lane? And Germanicus keeping it secret? It cannot be coincidence.’
Marcus got up, preening. ‘Well, I must let you rest. I have arranged transport for you to the funeral, if you are well enough to come. I am having two litters sent from Glevum, and a dozen slaves to carry them. The will was formally opened and read in the forum this afternoon, incidentally. Everything to be sold and the money to Lucius, just as you said.’
‘No memorial games?’ I asked. Most wealthy men left a substantial sum to endow a gladiatorial contest, to ensure that the local populace remembered them with affection.
Marcus laughed. ‘Crassus did not care for good opinion, if he wasn’t to profit by it. More to his taste to endow a church, and try to bribe his way into the hereafter. Now, is there anything you want?’
‘I would like to see Junio,’ I said. Marcus was looking so pleased with himself that I did not dare say what I truly wanted — a plum, if only he had left one! It would not do, either, to tell him that he was mistaken in his reasoning.