Marcus was still looking shaken. ‘And you are quite sure. .?’
‘Completely, Excellence. If I had any doubts, his performance here a minute ago dispelled them. It had to be Meritus. I should have seen that from the start, when he told us he’d seen a body at the shrine but when we got there it had disappeared.’
‘What happened to that body?’ Marcus said. ‘You think it was the robber with the bag, again, and afterwards Meritus put it back into the ditch?’
‘There never was a body,’ I explained. ‘Who saw it? Only Meritus. None of the others did. He told us he locked the door on it before he called the priests, and had them light the purifying fires outside — which proved that no one could have come or gone. I made it clear I suspected human agencies, so the next day he went back to spread the ‘reappearing blood’ — and put back the ring which he’d taken from the water butt. But he used the inner door that time — presumably so that he would not be seen — and could not fasten up the bolt again. It was a very clever move, as it turned out. I must confess it misled me for a time.’
‘And tonight?’ Hirsus had managed to sit up, although his voice was still no more than a croak. ‘There was a body then. I saw it myself.’
‘But not a dead one. That was Lucianus, I believe,’ I said. I added, as Hirsus gasped in disbelief, ‘Probably Meritus demanded it. A last penance, no doubt he would say. Poor Lucianus. I wonder how he felt, lying there in darkness in the shrine, too afraid to move, with that blood-soaked cloak draped over him. He must have been in terror for his life ever to have agreed to such a thing.’
Hirsus shuddered. ‘He didn’t tell me. He told me less and less. Only that Meritus had read the auguries and knew that he had stolen everything, and was compelling him to pay it back. And when I saw him earlier tonight. .’
‘You did see him?’ I said. ‘This evening in the court? After the bones had been revealed?’
Hirsus slumped back on his heels and buried his head miserably in his hands. ‘I thought — Mercury forgive me — I thought Meritus was right and that Lucianus had killed someone for the bag, and that now the sevir had compelled him to reveal the corpse.’
‘That’s why you said “he cannot have come to this”? And why you were so nervous in the court?’
He nodded. ‘I glimpsed him when I came to fetch you here. I don’t think he saw me. He was hiding in the grove, or trying to. But I would know him anywhere. And then, when they found Trinunculus, I thought — well, you know what I thought.’
Marcus brushed this impatiently aside. ‘So, Meritus killed Trinunculus as well? But why, for Olympus’s sake?’
‘Because Trinunculus saw him move the bones. That is the only reason I can see — especially with the body where it was. The sevir would have doused the cloak with blood — easy enough to collect a bowl of that, with all the sacrifice going on — but I’m sure he would have done that nearer to the sacrificial shrine. A little extra blood would not be noticed there, and I know he washed the vessel in the water bowl. But the bones were out there in the ditch — of course, he never moved them to the pit at all. They must have been an afterthought — they were not found till yesterday — but once he knew about them he could not resist a chance to cause an even more dramatic stir. Those bones were his mistake. Without them he might have got away with it.’
Marcus was shaking his head. ‘So there never was a murder at the shrine? At all?’
‘Not until Trinunculus,’ I said. ‘That’s the ironic thing.’
Aurelia had been listening intently. ‘He strangled Trinunculus with that stole of his,’ she said suddenly. ‘Just took it off, like he did in here, and pulled it tight around his neck.’ Her voice quivered. ‘Poor little Trinunculus. He never did anyone any harm.’
‘He simply talked too much,’ I said. ‘The sevir told us that himself. He relied on that, in fact, to spread the stories that I was to blame. But once Trinunculus had seen him with the bones the whole town would know. Meritus had to silence him, that’s all. He could not be frightened into secrecy, like Lucianus, or dazzled by talk of auguries like Hirsus here.’
Hirsus looked hurt, and scrambled to his feet. ‘But Meritus read the omens wonderfully.’
‘He was no more skilled in augury than you or I. He knew how to convince you, that was all.’
‘Then how did he know that those were stolen goods, and I hadn’t given them to Lucianus?’
‘Because he was expecting them, that’s why. Consider this. A thief comes to the temple grounds at night, carrying a load of precious goods. That’s possible, I grant you, but what if the priest on duty is a dealer in metal artefacts? And is prepared to bend the law, as we now know. Does that suggest anything to you?’
Hirsus nodded gloomily. ‘I suppose you’re right. Certainly he dealt in metal goods — that’s why Lucianus went to him in the first place. Meritus had already given him a price for Aurelia’s gifts.’
‘Of course!’ I said. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. The things he found were not originally offered as a sacrifice at all. Why should they be? Lucianus was saving to be free. I’d wondered why he’d produced them at the shrine.’
‘He did make one voluntary offering, the night he found the bag,’ Hirsus said quickly. ‘At the altar of Jupiter, that was, as a sort of thank you to the gods. A brooch that Aurelia’d given him — for bringing her a letter, I believe.’
Aurelia looked uncomfortable, and changed the subject instantly. ‘Citizen, do you think the sevir killed the thief as well?’
I shook my head. ‘I doubt it, lady, or he would have had the goods — and moved the body from the temple long ago. All these magician’s tricks with bones came to him quite suddenly, I’m sure — when the body was discovered yesterday. He made sure he had the Imperial temple to himself — he told us he sent the sub-sevirs into town to buy some sacrificial doves. I think he forced Lucianus to play his part, and then, when the body was “discovered”, he safely locked the door to “contain the evil”. Lucianus crept out of the back, and Meritus smuggled in the bones while Scribonius stood guard at the front door and Hirsus was sent over here to ask for help.’
Marcus looked grave. ‘I see. That meant that he had witnesses when the skeleton was revealed. You think he used the same technique to organise the boodstain this morning?’
‘I’m sure of it. Not hard to find blood, after all the rituals. I’m sure he spread it there while the others were asleep, expecting that Hirsus would open up the shrine: but when that failed he insisted that they should all three go together, so that he had witnesses when it was found.’
Marcus said suddenly, ‘Why was he doing it at all? All these false bloodstains and disappearing bodies? Simply to terrify the populace? If it brought people to the temple, I could understand — the gifts and sacrifice would be credited to him — but it seems designed to frighten them away!’ Now that the immediate danger was over, he was beginning to sound irritated again.
I looked at him steadily. ‘Ask yourself, Excellence, where he got that ring.’
He stared at me. ‘More stolen goods? Surely he can’t have staged all this simply to distract attention from his trade in dubious goods! It would be more likely to do the opposite.’
I said nothing.
He frowned. ‘Pavement-maker, what are you telling me?’
‘Forgive me, Excellence, but who owned the ring?’
‘The legate who was mur-’ He stopped. ‘Great Mercury! Surely you’re not suggesting. .? But of course! The bodyguards. Chopped into pieces. Some of them were never recovered. Didn’t you say the sevir didn’t have a slave-brand?’
‘And he could ride a horse,’ I said. ‘And play the temple instruments. And fight — we saw him demonstrate that tonight. And he knew Aquae Sulis too — and that the legate had been there on his route. He let that slip as well.’