'No.'

'Neither of you?'

'I was not close to Metellus. I would have gone if my wife did.'

I did not feel this man would lie. Yet although we had been told he and Carina stayed aloof, now I knew he had been operating on behalf of the Metellus family.

'Did you see Rubirius Metellus just before he died?'

' No.'

'Did you see Negrinus?'

'No.'

'There is a suggestion that he was away.'

'I cannot answer for his movements.'

'I'll ask him. It is important.' Laco looked surprised. 'Laco, if he was away, someone else poisoned his father and Birdy has an alibi.'

At once Laco retracted: 'He may have travelled to Lanuvium. It was around the time of the suicide.'

'It was definitely not suicide. Rubirius Metellus collapsed in his garden, not in his bed - and I know that was about three days before the body was paraded for the witnesses.'

Had he known this? Laco gave nothing away. He was reclining on a reading couch, where he now simply linked his hands and looked thoughtful. He had long, almost elderly fingers. With thinning hair and an old-fashioned expression he seemed too mature to be the father of three young children, though this was common enough among the senatorial cla.s.s. Both he and Carina gave the impression they were content in their marriage. They were comfortable in their domesticity - and so they should be. Theirs was domesticity with battalions of slaves, and gold finials on the furniture. I had called here more than once, and not seen the same slave twice.

Nor had I heard any music, been charmed by a vase of flowers on a side table, seen a scroll lying half-read, nor caught advanced scents of dinner. This was a cold house. It had a cold, unemotional master - and yet, he allowed his wife to give sanctuary to a brother who was implicated in a corruption scandal and now charged with parricide.

'Don't ask me what really went on, because I don't know - but I will find out. I sympathise with your position.' I spoke levelly. It seemed best to show restraint. 'Your wife's family must have become an embarra.s.sment.'

'My wife and I,' replied Laco, 'live with the troubles of her family as stoically as we can.'

'That's generous! Do you know who their banker is?'

I had abruptly changed the subject, but Laco did not seem startled. 'Aufustius.'

'Same as Licinius Lutea! What do you think of Lutea?' Laco shrugged. 'Not your type? A bit of an entrepreneur, I gather... Tell me,' I sprang on him, 'what happened two years ago?'

Verginius Laco made no reply.

'The Metelli were happy and prosperous,' I pointed out. 'Then they became desperate financially and something tore them apart. I think it had to do with Metellus and his partiality for Saffia Donata. Legally that was incest, of course. I can see why it is being shuffled under a mattress, so to speak...' Laco simply let me speculate. 'You have been helping to keep this great secret. When the clown Spindex discovered it, you undertook his dismissal.' Laco did not deny my claim. 'That was dangerous. Deprived of his fee, the clown might have sought public revenge.'

'No,' said Laco patiently. 'I paid him off, Falco.' He was not stupid. Of all the people on this case, I reckoned him the most intelligent. In his way, he was being quite open. I formed a picture of him coolly dealing with Spindex on behalf of the rest of the family - though I sensed it had needed his own money.

'You paid him well?'

He nodded, wryly. I was right about the cash.

'Spindex is dead.' I pa.s.sed on the news conversationally. 'Strangled. I don't imagine you organised that, so there must be someone else with an interest in guarding the Metellus secret.'

Verginius Laco made no comment.

'Someone else knows, Laco. Spindex had a source. It may even have been his source who silenced him. I'll find the source eventually. Now it's a murder hunt, the vigiles are on it.'

Still nothing.

'I understand your position, Laco. You know the story, but you are a man of honour. You stand aside, except when you can give practical help. Maybe when you do act, it is to protect your wife. I suspect you disapprove of the way the family are handling matters. I think, if it was your choice, you would tell me the secret and have done.'

For a moment I felt Laco was about to say something.

But he did not.

x.x.xIV.

THAT NIGHT we reviewed the case thoroughly. Time was short. We decided to opt for a trial of Calpurnia Cara now, and hope to discover more evidence as we went along. This was dangerous. I did realise that - though at the time I failed to grasp just how dangerous it would be for me personally.

'You have no direct evidence to link Calpurnia with the killing,' Helena pointed out. 'This will not be easy. She is not a woman to confess.'

'Trials are not decided by evidence, but arguments,' said Honorius, playing the expert. 'All we have to do is suggest strenuously that Calpurnia did it.'

'And I thought you were an idealist! Can this be why most people hold the law in contempt?' I asked him.

The two Camilli, who were with us for this case review, sn.i.g.g.e.red. 'We still have to persuade a jury that she did it,' said Justinus.

'Careful!' exclaimed his brother. 'Clear guilt in the accused only gets prosecutors a worse name - for indulging in the profit motive when they make charges.' Aelia.n.u.s' new satirical mode was alarming.

'Well look at us!' I was angry at us myself 'We have ganged up on this woman, we are conspiring to accuse her - and we targeted her in order to make money. If the jury decides to despise us, we may yet lose votes.'

'We are saving Metellus Negrinus,' Honorius objected.

'By making him live with the knowledge that his father slept with his wife and his mother killed his father?' Helena was unimpressed.

'What we need,' Honorius fretted, 'is not just a violent dose of poison - that usually convicts women, for some reason - but to be able to say Calpurnia used spells.'

'All she did was sell her jewellery and consult a fortune-teller,' I said. 'Plenty of women do that.'

Honorius threw back his arms above his head and let out a wild cry. 'Aah! What fortune telling? Tell me! A bonus! Magic practices? Astrologers? We've got her then! Falco, this is the most important evidence we could have.'

I recoiled from his excitement. 'Maybe she just wanted to know her own future?'

'Never mind what she wanted,' Honorius said, his teeth clenched. 'The court will know what to think - and it's entirely in our favour.'

I handed out queries for investigation. I would try to interrogate the banker, Aufustius. I took Justinus to help. Aelia.n.u.s was to ride down the Via Appia, find the Metellus monument, and check any memorial to Metellus senior. Helena volunteered to attempt entry at Saffia Donata's apartment. Honorius would try to track down the horoscope-seller, Olympia.

First thing, however, we obtained an appointment with the praetor. Work must have been slack; he saw us within a couple of hours, the same day. We made our denunciation of Calpurnia. He was unimpressed. We mentioned the will. We alluded to Saffia and incestuous adultery. We said Calpurnia was angry. We said she used a fortune-teller. We emphasised that her husband died days before she had said he did; we claimed that she had now burned Saffia's coverlet to hide the evidence.

'It seems a hygienic precaution,' the praetor objected. He had fastened on the least important aspect, naturally.

'The precaution had been omitted for a whole three months, sir,' I pointed out. 'Calpurnia Cara only ordered the destruction of the coverlet once I had seen it.'

'Oh well. We cannot have a Roman matron, a mother of three children I notice, being a bad housewife,' grinned the praetor. This was a sn.o.b who believed a woman should work in wool and keep the home, earning that sweet lie, 'She never quarrelled' on her epitaph; the swine probably kept three mistresses and stinted his wife on her food budget. No question, he was allowing us more leeway with a case against a woman than he would tolerate in a case against a man. He fixed a date for a pre-trial where Calpurnia could hear our evidence, and we rushed off to gather some.

Justinus and I took the banker Aufustius to lunch.

He was cautious and defensive, but then people were constantly complaining about his interest charges and pursuing him for loans. n.o.body ever treated him, because his clients all thought his fees were steep enough and they did not want to look extravagant. Giving him lunch was a cheap investment. He was delighted with a plate of grilled fish and a wine chaser.

He told us the Metelli had been a well-set-up family until a few years ago; then he realised they had eaten into their reserves and were spending prolifically.

'A thought strikes me,' Justinus mused. 'After they lost the corruption trial, Silius told us his compensation as the accuser was a.s.sessed at a million and a quarter sesterces. Isn't the going rate about a quarter of the condemned man's estate?'

'It is.' Aufustius nodded. 'The figure was based on their Census return.'

'That was two years ago then.' I had been involved with the Census - a pleasant commission, and lucrative. 'Most people tried to undervalue their worth to avoid taxes. As a banker, you would know!' Aufustius sucked a fishbone and gave nothing away. 'In order to put Negrinus into the Senate the family had to have a million's worth of land - that's just to qualify. Election expenses would have been substantially more,' I pointed out. 'Nowadays these folk are at rock bottom. So where did it all go, Aufustius?'

'People do lose everything,' the banker sighed.

'True.' Justinus refilled a beaker for Aufustius. We toasted our guest, but then put down our cups. Justinus listed possible disasters: 'Volcanoes, earthquakes, ships that sink in storms, seedy confidence tricksters who run off with the deed boxes...'

'Their cash went down to zero,' Aufustius said. 'I a.s.sumed it was the trial.' I told him they had not paid the compensation yet. He looked puzzled.

'What about their landed estate?' Justinus asked him.

'I don't see that side. Well, except for the income. Rents and product revenues seem to have dried up. Maybe they have sold the land.'

'Who would know?'

'They had a land agent, a freedman, last I heard. What's his name... Julius Alexander.'

Justinus sat up slightly. 'Lives in Lanuvium?'

'Yes. That's where they came from originally.' Interesting.

Justinus looked annoyed. 'I didn't connect him directly. Why is he called Julius, not Metellus?'

'Julia was the grandmother. She must have freed him. The rest seem very fond of him.'

'Ever met him?'

'No.'

'I was impressed.' Justinus swallowed wine. 'He was organised, pleasant, good to deal with. I would think if he runs an estate, he runs it well.'

'During the son's tenure of his aedileship, did you see any of the bribes?' I asked Aufustius.

'No comment.'

'Oh go on.'

'Well, I wouldn't tell you if I had - but I never did. I was very surprised to hear about the case. I had no idea all that backhanding went on. I can't even guess where they stashed away the "gifts". It makes no sense to me. All the time, their bankboxes here were debouching coins like flood-water running off a mountainside.'

Justinus asked the waiter to refresh our bread basket. We sat in silence while he went behind the counter and returned.

With the new crunchy rolls we changed the subject. 'What's the history with Lutea?'

'This is not to be repeated, right, Falco?' Oh no. Only in court. 'I don't know what he's up to, but he thinks he's riding high. I haven't seen much coming in yet, though he keeps promising. This is a change for Lutea, understand. He knows how to bluff socially, but he was once on the verge of bankruptcy. His debts made me feel faint. I couldn't bear to tot up the damage. He and Saffia were a promiscuous couple!'

'What?' It was my turn to be startled, though with other people's s.e.x lives, you should be prepared for anything. 'Lewd practices?'

'No, no. Well, not as far as I know!' Aufustius laughed coa.r.s.ely. 'What they got up to in the bedroom wouldn't bother me. I meant they had no self-control -' He was enjoying himself. I looked at him sideways. 'On the bills side!'

'They spent well?'

'Oh shocking.'

'And that was why Saffia's father divorced her?' Justinus asked. 'They were in such trouble moneywise? Her papa blamed Lutea?'

'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 unemanc.i.p.ated 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.'