I left Junio to wait outside and heard the door lock behind me. I set my candle on the wall-spike, but even so without a window-space the room was very dark. Rufus looked up at me, pale but defiant in the candlelight. Someone, I noted, had given him a thrashing already. There were weals on his arms, and a thin stripe of blood coloured the shoulder of his tunic. Andretha, I guessed, furious at his own close brush with execution.
I squatted on the pavement beside him, glad of my toga to moderate the chill on my own extremities. ‘So,’ I said, conversationally, ‘you murdered Crassus, did you? Did you do that alone, or with Faustina?’
The effect was much as I had hoped. A bright spot of red flared on each pale cheek. He tried to lift his chin defiantly, but the cruel chain constricted him. He said, in a strangled voice, ‘Faustina had nothing to do with it. Nothing. She knew nothing about it.’
‘So,’ I continued, in the same casual tone, ‘you administered the poison and put him in the hypocaust unaided?’
That flush again. ‘I did not say that.’
‘Ah,’ I said. ‘So you did have help? Which part did you perform? It was clever of you, in so little time. Aulus saw you at the South Gate halfway through the festival.’
He lifted his head and almost choked himself again. It was cruel, I thought, to question him like this, but I had to learn the truth before there was another innocent killed. ‘I did not do it with my own hands,’ he said. ‘But I brought about the killing. I paid to have him dead. That is enough.’
‘You paid?’ That explained why Rufus had no money, despite the fact that Andretha had seen him given coins. ‘Whom did you pay? Someone in the villa?’
He tried to shake his head and winced with pain. ‘I cannot tell you that. I have sworn an oath, before the gods.’ He looked at the long pale hands shackled at the wrists. ‘I did not expect that his death would be so quick. I — ’ His voice broke. ‘I thought that it would answer everything. But it has not. It has made things worse. Faustina and I would have been separated, perhaps for ever — you cannot know how that feels.’
I thought of Gwellia, but I held my tongue.
‘Marcus told us you had made progress with your investigation. I could not stand by and watch Paulus blamed. It was not his fault. If he used a poisoned razor, he was forced to do it.’ He managed to turn his head and look at me. ‘He told me, you see, about the novacula — that you had found it covered with blood, and that you suspected him.’
‘You think the blade was poisoned?’ I doubted it myself. Given Crassus’ appetite, I guessed the fatal dose had been disguised as food or drink, and probably swallowed eagerly as a result.
‘If the blade was poisoned, it was not Paulus’ fault. He was a tool, no more. An instrument of stronger forces. He had no choice.’
I thought about that, turning a hundred theories in my brain. One thing, though, I was certain of. ‘That may be,’ I said. ‘All the same, you did not confess to protect Paulus. You are a brave young man, but you are not quite a fool. I am an old man, but I am no fool either. There is only one person for whom you would willingly give your life. What has Faustina done, that you suspect her so?’
He glowered in the candlelight, but did not answer.
‘Well.’ I got to my feet. ‘There are ways of discovering.’
That did it. ‘No — ahh!’ (as he pulled his neck). ‘No. I told you, she knew nothing of my plan.’
‘Then you believe she had a plan of her own? Or, she had the poison.’
That moved him. ‘Libertus, you must believe me. You must protect her. She did not do it, I know she didn’t. She could not have done it, she didn’t leave the procession. But. . Crassus was poisoned. I believe it was aconite — it had all the signs. One quick dose, and the man is dead.’
‘And Faustina had aconite? How does one persuade a man to eat a poisoned herb? Disguised in a meal, yes. But there was no sign of that.’
He looked at me hopelessly. ‘When Regina was here, she had a chest of herbs. She made decoctions from them, dried them, made them into philtres. She gave some to Faustina.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Berry leaves for child-pangs, something else to stop the flux. Faustina told me.’
‘She did not tell you everything,’ Rufus replied. ‘She did not take the second medicine. I do not believe it was for the flux at all. Regina came to the slaves’ quarters one day, from the furnace room. She had been drying aconite. Too dangerous, she said, to use the kitchen fire; one bunch of that in place of cooking herbs would kill us all. She was decocting it into a phial. “In the right hands and the right dose,” she said, “this can do miracles. Has done and will again. We shall see if Crassus refuses to marry me now.” And then she laughed. Laughed.’ He paused, as if the memory were painful to him.
‘You think Regina poisoned Germanicus because he refused her?’
He looked away. ‘Not personally, no.’
‘You think Faustina administered the poison for her?’
He could not answer that. ‘I know Regina gave her a tiny phial of something. Faustina wore it hidden on a thong around her neck. I thought nothing of it, at the time. I thought it was for the flux, as she said.’
‘But now you do not think so? When did you change your mind?’
‘This morning. I had not seen her alone since Crassus died. You know how it is between us, so I will not pretend. We had only a few moments. She slipped off her tunic — and the phial was gone.’
I nodded. A phial threaded on a leather thong. I had a good idea where that phial was now — under my pillows, where I put it when Aulus gave it to me. I didn’t say that to Rufus.
He was still explaining. ‘I asked her about it, and she laughed. A strange laugh. I knew there was something wrong. She told me she had used the potion for my benefit. Now Germanicus was gone we could rejoice, she said. Whoever killed him deserved our heartfelt thanks. She was talking wildly. If anyone had heard her utter such sedition it would have been certain death, but she did not seem to care. It frightened me. When I pressed her, she turned on me. She denied poisoning Crassus.’ His voice trembled. ‘She accused me of plotting his death myself.’
‘Of which you are completely innocent?’ I said. ‘Notwithstanding your confession?’
He sank back into a huddled heap again. ‘What does it matter now? Libertus, she did not kill him. She would not lie to me.’
‘If you believed that, young man,’ I said, ‘you would not be sitting here in chains.’
He set his face. ‘I brought his death about. I am as guilty as if I poisoned him myself. I paid. I knew that Germanicus would die — I did not know how, I swear to that. I did not dream that it might endanger Faustina. I did not pay enough, I suppose. A richer man might have made a better bargain. If I delay, she will be suspected. She is an expert with herbs, and if I noticed that the phial was gone, others might do so too. I could not have her accused. You have your culprit — let it go at that.’
‘And what about Daedalus,’ I said. ‘Did you pay to have him killed?’
‘Daedalus?’ He was so surprised he almost hanged himself. ‘Of course not.’
‘Then perhaps you can explain how you knew that he was dead, three days before his body was discovered in the river?’
There was no mistaking the genuineness of his reaction. He said sadly, ‘You have found Daedalus?’