Buried Too Deep

by Jane Finnis

  “We can’t find him,” Quintus answered. “We think he’s run away.”

  “Run away? Yes, I suppose he would, if he murdered my uncle and realises his lies have been found out. Well, I’ll catch him, never fear. He can’t have got very far. Nobody accuses me of murder and gets away with it.”

  Quintus said, “Ferox, I’d appreciate a private word with you. Can we go to your office please?”

  He settled behind his untidy desk as if he’d never been away, and for the first time in our acquaintance, I found something to admire in him. Strange he might be, bad-tempered, haunted by evil dreams and convinced his home was about to be attacked, but physically he was still as resilient as in his army days.

  “Well?” he barked. “I hope you’re going to start by apologising.”

  “We do apologise,” Quintus said. “We made a mistake. But we wouldn’t have made it if you’d told us where you were yesterday morning, and that you’d seen Balca while you were there. Then we’d have realised you couldn’t have been with Magnus, and we wouldn’t have believed Rinacus’ accusation.”

  “Vividus believed it too!” he exclaimed angrily. “My own brother! How could he? He just accepted Rinacus’ word, he never even came to talk to me himself. And he didn’t let me attend Uncle’s funeral…yes, maybe I’ll have it out with him first of all. A man shouldn’t behave like that to his brother. Where is he? Will you send for him, please?”

  “He’s disappeared too. He’s been missing since dawn at least.”

  “Disappeared?” He stared at Quintus as a possible reason dawned on him. “Then was he the one who killed our uncle?”

  “We think that was Rinacus,” Quintus said.

  “Then why has he gone away just when I need him here?’ He made a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl. “Gods, is there nobody who’ll help me?”

  “We will,” Quintus answered. “We’ll do all we can, but we’re only a handful, five of us in all. Not enough to make a thorough search quickly. If you can use your men to check that neither of them are in the Fort, we’ve got a couple of other bits of business to attend to. If you don’t find them, we’ll put our heads together to plan the next move. All right?” He stood up, and so did I.

  “All right. First I’ll check to see that all the others are here, then I’ll organise a search room by room.” We left him to get on with it.

  Back in our tiny office, Titch was sitting at the desk with a tray of bread and cheese and a wine-skin. “You’re here just in time,” he told us cheerfully. “I might have scoffed the lot.”

  “Where did you get this?” I asked warily. “Someone tampered with our supper last night, Rinacus presumably, so we’re avoiding the kitchen’s offerings.”

  “It’s not from here. Balca made me up a bag of food, enough for a cohort.”

  While we all ate and drank, we told Titch what had happened in his absence.

  “I’m ever so sorry I wasn’t here,” he said. “I’d have come, storm or no storm, if I’d known you’d be in danger.”

  “Well, you’re here now.” Quintus smiled at him. “And you and Balca have prevented a serious injustice. What we have to decide next is why Rinacus tried to put the blame on Ferox like that? Was it his own idea, or was he under orders to protect Vividus?”

  “He was protecting himself, surely,” Titch said through a mouthful of cheese. “He wasn’t happy here, he wanted to leave, but Magnus wouldn’t let him. Or maybe Magnus threatened him with all sorts for chasing after Niobe. Either of those would be enough of a motive for a murder in a man like that.”

  “But we know Vividus had a motive as well,” I put in. “He thought he’d stand more of a chance of marrying Clarilla without his old uncle offending Clarus and his ancestors. What if he ordered Rinacus to do the killing, and in return he’ll let him leave the Fort, probably with a handsome nest-egg.”

  “Or Vividus stabbed his uncle, and Rinacus found out after,” Titch suggested. “He agreed to say nothing, provided he got well paid and was allowed to disappear without a fuss.”

  Quintus looked at us, and I recognised the sparkle of rising excitement in his eyes. “So the two of them were working together? They’re both guilty? That makes sense. And they’ll both be punished, whichever of them actually stabbed Magnus.”

  “I think,” I said, wiping breadcrumbs from my tunic, “that I’m going to have a chat with Niobe. That girl sees and hears most things, and she must have some kindly feeling towards Ferox, the way she looked after him last night.”

  “Right. Titch, I’ll give you the message for Albia, then you ride over there as fast as you can.”

  I climbed the stairs to the upper storey, but Niobe wasn’t in her spacious sitting-room. Through its half-open door I could see a tray with the remains of a sumptuous breakfast on it.

  I looked along the corridor, which was wide enough to have rooms on both sides of it, and examined the doors opposite me. One of them was Niobe’s bedroom, and she’d mentioned that it was positioned almost above the main house door. I tried to work out where that was, gave up, and decided to try a more direct approach.

  “Niobe!” I called softly. “Niobe, it’s Aurelia. I need your help. Are you here?”

  For a few heartbeats nothing happened, and then a door further along opened, and Niobe’s face looked out. She was pale and drawn, and her finger was to her lips. I nodded and tiptoed along to the barely-opened door, and into a large and over-furnished bedroom. There wasn’t time to admire the surroundings. Niobe, still signalling silence, motioned for me to move across to her window. It was open, and as I drew closer I could hear voices below.

  I ventured a quick peep over the sill, and saw Rinacus. He was looking in through a downstairs window to our left and addressing someone inside, someone I couldn’t see, but whose words were clear enough. Not that he spoke much. The chief guard did most of the talking.

  “I’m getting out of here. I don’t know what’s gone wrong, but they’ve released Ferox, which must mean they know I never saw him. You’ll cover for me, as we agreed?”

  “Of course. But it’s as we agreed. Money up front.”

  “I know, I’ve got it.” There was the chink of coins, and when I peeped over again, I was in time to see Rinacus handing a small leather bag through the window. “Ten gold pieces.”

  “You said fifteen.”

  They started haggling. As I listened, a detached part of my mind was desperately trying to think how to stop Rinacus escaping. Hearing what was in effect a confession was all very well, but I couldn’t reach Quintus before Rinacus made his run, and if I yelled from here, that would simply make him run faster. I looked round the room and saw a big water-jug on a table, heavy and solid. I stepped carefully towards it, but Niobe, guessing my intention, pointed under the bed, and I realised there was an even better weapon there.

  I bent and picked it up just as more money was handed over down below, and the invisible man said, “That’s more like it. You can rely on me. Where will you go?”

  “Somewhere safe where I can hide till all this has blown over. I’ll get the blame for Magnus, but they won’t know about Vividus. When he’s got the gold, he knows where to find me, and he’ll see me right.”

  “Good luck then.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t need luck. I’ve got it all worked out.”

  I raised my improvised weapon. Niobe grinned hugely, and leaning out from the window, murmured, “Rinacus, aren’t you coming to say goodbye?”

  He looked up just as I upended the chamber-pot over him. I let out a wild triumphant yell as its contents hit him first, and then I dropped the pot squarely on his head.

  He jumped to one side and flung it from him, and his howl of protest was drowned by a shout from Quintus as he raced out of the house. I didn’t see the actual capture, because I’d collapsed onto Niobe’s elegant bed, helpless with laughter.

  Chapter XXVII

  I soon stopped laughing.


  Quintus was swearing like a centurion when we got downstairs. He was still outside the door, standing over Rinacus, who lay dead, a knife gripped in his hand and the broken pot near his head. Quintus’ own knife was red to the hilt. “I didn’t mean to kill the bastard,” he growled. “He drew his knife on me, and I hadn’t time to think, I just hit back. I wish I could have taken him alive. There are a lot of questions I’d like to have asked him.”

  “We can answer most of them, I think, thanks to Niobe.” I smiled at her. “Thank you for helping. But first hadn’t we better dispose of the body?”

  Vividus gave orders for Rinacus’ corpse to be removed and the blood cleaned up. Then he sent for the deputy guard captain, and informed him he was now in charge of the Fort’s security. “Rinacus was involved in murdering Lord Magnus,” Quintus told the man. “When we found out and confronted him, he attacked me.”

  The new guard captain didn’t seem either surprised or particularly upset. “Rinacus got up to all sorts, sir. And he always had a foul temper. I hope you weren’t hurt?”

  “No, thank you. I need to discuss this with Vividus straight away. Is he back yet?” Of course this was merely for show. None of us expected Vividus to come back till much later.

  “No, sir,” the guard answered stolidly. “I’ll make sure he’s fully informed about it when he returns.”

  Once inside the office, Niobe and I told Quintus what we’d overheard, and he nodded in satisfaction. “Thank you, Niobe. You’ve been an enormous help. If you hadn’t let Aurelia hear that conversation…”

  “It was lucky she was there, but I’d have reported it anyway.”

  “You would? Why?”

  “Because when you let Ferox go this morning, I realised how Rinacus had lied to make Ferox look guilty. I asked myself why, and of course the reason must be that he killed Magnus himself. I was scared, realising that, but I was angry too. I wanted justice for Magnus. So I went looking for Rinacus, but the lads in the guard were very cagey and secretive when I started asking for him.” She smiled slyly. “One or two of them owe me a favour, and eventually I found out he was still in the house, waiting his chance to make a run for it. I was up in my room by then, and I was wondering how to warn you, when I saw Rinacus large as life almost under my window. Another piece of luck, that his brother was in one of the rooms near the main entrance, so when he went to say goodbye…”

  “His brother?” I exclaimed. “He has a brother living here?”

  “Yes, he’s one of the guards. No, don’t bother even trying to catch him,” she said as Quintus sprang up. “He’ll be long gone by now, and good riddance. He was an unpleasant oaf, and drunk as a senator most of the time. And,” she added, giving me a sudden smile, “he had a couple of nasty bruises on his face this morning. Now I wonder how he came by those?”

  “So you heard someone came calling on me last night?”

  “I heard. And you,” she smiled at Quintus, “came galloping to her rescue, didn’t you?”

  “Gods,” I grinned at her, feeling a flood of surprise and relief. “I’ll never know how you manage to be so well-informed about everything that happens here.”

  “I was going to tell Ferox to give him a good flogging,” she said. “Now he’s run off and saved everyone the trouble.”

  Quintus said, “Well, at least before he went, Rinacus as good as admitted the murder. Presumably his reason was that Magnus wouldn’t let him leave here and set up on his own?”

  She nodded. “He resented that, certainly. He never stopped moaning about it. I suppose he thought once Vividus was master he’d be free to go as soon as he liked. Those two were always as thick as thieves.”

  “He must have had some sort of understanding with Vividus,” I agreed. “We overheard him saying that Vividus would protect him, and see him right later on. What was it now: ‘I’ll get the blame for Magnus, but they won’t know about Vividus.’ The two of them were involved together somehow.”

  “As you suggested earlier,” Quintus said. “Vividus put Rinacus up to the murder, and offered him protection afterwards.”

  “Well, we know he had his own reasons for wanting Magnus out of the way.”

  “What reasons?” Niobe asked.

  “He was desperate for the marriage with Clarilla to go ahead, and he thought Magnus was spoiling his chances. He was right there, of course, but I don’t know…”

  “Marriage?” Niobe looked shocked. “Vividus was planning to marry?”

  “Didn’t you know?”

  A stupid question, given her reaction. So we told her how Magnus and Vividus had visited Silvanius and made an offer for Clarilla. She was angrier than a fighting tigress, not only because of the proposal, but because she hadn’t been told about it.

  “Merda,” she growled, “so that was his big idea. Kill his uncle, get a new wife…and where would that leave me? Would he have deigned to inform me about the new mistress of the Fort before the wedding day, I wonder, or would she have arrived in her wedding veil, and I’d have been expected to serve wine at the party? Gods, I’ve always known he was a devious bastard. Now it seems he’s a coward too.”

  We reassured her that neither of the Silvanii would want the marriage now there’d been a murder in the Ostorius family, but her fury hardly lessened. I thought, I wouldn’t be in Vividus’ sandals when he comes back to the Fort. If he comes back.

  “We really ought to be on our way,” Quintus said, getting up. “I must just see Ferox to tell him about Rinacus, and then I must take Aurelia to her sister’s.”

  “There isn’t time to get to Albia’s first, Quintus. I think we’d better go direct to Bodvocus’ feast. I’m sure Ferox will lend us a raeda. I’d have liked to change my clothes, but it can’t be helped.” I glanced down at my tunic. It was a serviceable russet-coloured wool, clean enough, but not what I’d have chosen for a party, even an outdoor one. “In this fog it probably won’t be seen, I’ll be wearing my thick cloak all day.”

  Niobe, as so often, knew what I was thinking. “I can lend you an over-tunic for warmth. You’re right, it’ll be bleak and cold at Bodvocus’.”

  “Could you? Thanks, that would be wonderful.”

  “I’ll go and talk to Ferox,” Quintus said. “But don’t spend too many hours going through Niobe’s entire collection of clothes. Even if we don’t go by way of Albia’s farm, we’re going to arrive late.”

  “Spoilsport! Don’t worry, I won’t be long.”

  “Thank you, Niobe. This is really good of you,” I said as she led the way upstairs and into the room next to her bedroom, which proved to have several racks of beautiful clothes in it.

  She laughed. “You may not thank me when I tell you I feel I owe it you. I was the one put the sleeping-stuff in your wine last night.”

  “You!”

  “Vividus asked me to, and I didn’t see any harm. He said he and several of his boys were having a meeting to make plans for some escapade they’ve got lined up, a raid on a farm—one of Bodvocus’ peasants I assume. He thought you or your Antonius might be tempted to spy.” She shrugged. “If I’d known he’d be sending that drunken lout to check up on you…well, I didn’t. I hope a party tunic will pay my debt. Now, let’s see. With your fair hair, you can wear almost any colour, you lucky thing.”

  I hadn’t time to revel in all her beautiful clothes. I picked a lovely peach-coloured linen over-tunic with white trimming, and two silver brooches to fasten it. When I gazed at my reflection in her bronze mirror, I knew I looked good.

  Niobe nodded. “You’ll do, Aurelia. And don’t worry about returning it. If you like it, keep it as a memento of your stay at the Fort.”

  “Niobe! Are you there, Niobe?” a strident male voice called from below.

  “I ought to go,” I said. “You’re wanted down there, and so am I. Why, whatever’s the matter?”

  She was standing rooted to the floor, pale and frightened.

  I went
to the window and looked out. “It’s only Ferox, down by the door.”

  “It sounded like Magnus,” she breathed. “Just for a heartbeat I forgot…you know. They sounded so alike, those three. I used to tease them about it. All of them looked alike and spoke alike. And he used the same words.”

  “The same words.”

  “Those were the words Magnus shouted at me when I came into the bath-house yesterday. ‘Niobe! Are you there, girl?’”

  “But Ferox didn’t say that.” I felt a stirring of excitement, and tried not to show it. “He didn’t call you ‘girl’, he said ‘Niobe’.” Did the brothers all call you by different names?”

  She sat down heavily on a stool. “Jupiter’s balls, Aurelia, I never thought of that. The only one who ever called me ‘girl’ was Vividus. Magnus and Ferox used my name. So the voice that shouted out to me yesterday…it must have been Vividus. He must have gone in to see Magnus, and didn’t want to be disturbed…because he was about to kill him.”

  “Or because he had already stabbed him,” I said, “and thought that he’d killed him.”

  “But Magnus was still alive then, and I don’t mean in the sad state he was in when I got there. I heard his voice.”

  “Tell me again exactly what you heard.”

  “I heard Magnus shouting at someone. ‘By the gods, I’ve had enough of this, do you hear? It’s time I taught you a lesson.’ The I knocked, and he shouted, ‘Niobe! Are you there, girl?’ And I called, ‘Yes, it’s me, my lord.’ ‘Well go away and come back later. Gods, can’t a man have a private conversation in peace even in his bath?’ So I went away, back to my room.”

  “And you heard more shouting as you left?”

  She paused, remembering. “More or less the same as before. I think the exact words were, ‘I’ll teach you a lesson once and for all.’”

  “And what did the other man answer?”

  “I don’t know. I hurried away to the outer door. Magnus in one of his rages was like a wild animal. You’d best keep out of his way.”

  “Was there any answer? Think carefully.”