AURELIA (Roma Nova Book 4)

by Alison Morton

  *

  After lunch, I kissed Marina on the top of her soft hair and left quietly, promising to be back for bedtime. I was pulled abruptly back into the hard practical world when I walked into Plico’s scruffy office. It looked as if he hadn’t touched any of the files since I was last there.

  ‘No news of that bastard Tellus, but the bank manager you bounced, Valeria Festa, seems to be unbending. Maybe she’s realised what a pile of shit she’s in. She’s finished with the Argentaria Prima whatever happens. I think you’ll find the report on the brother interesting. Read it in the car on the way over to the PGSF.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘I’ve had a request from them for you to go and help interrogating her “at your earliest convenience” as you were the arresting officer. And don’t forget to sign the damned paperwork.’ As I drew breath to retort, he said, ‘You’re looking better. I’m glad.’ He bent his head and resumed studying his file. I took that as my exit cue.

  *

  The PGSF headquarters had a bland exterior; the front public entrance resembled a standard government office with a small reception area. Five metres further along the street was the vehicle entrance, closed by solid metal gates with a pedestrian service door in the left one. You had to pass through a short tunnel which opened on to a courtyard parade ground strewn with sand. Access was controlled by photo and X-ray systems plus a battle-ready guard detail, so unless you passed all the checks plus the human one, you stayed out. If the guards were suspicious, not only did they sound the alarm, but shutters would crash down either end of the tunnel trapping the offending vehicle and releasing paralysing gas. When you recovered consciousness, you would wake in the cells with a thumping head, if you hadn’t been shot by an annoyed security detail.

  I opted for the safe choice and walked back to the public entrance.

  I gave my name to the clerk and two minutes later, a slim young woman almost too petite for her beige uniform, her black undershirt barely showing at the neck, came through the door at the back of the reception office. She strode up to the counter in a purposeful way and easily hefted the hinged part back.

  ‘Major,’ she exclaimed and saluted. Something stirred in my memory; I’d last seen this girl on the top of a freezing mountain, her uniform sleeve slashed open and blood dribbling from her arm on to the snow.

  ‘Mercuria?’ I spotted the gold eagle badge on her pocket and the double hastae collar badges. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon, Lieutenant Mercuria. Congratulations! How’s the scar from the knife wound?’

  Her eyes widened. ‘You remember that?’

  I touched my ear and smiled. ‘I never forget whenever somebody tries to injure me or mine.’

  ‘I was careless, but I know better now.’ She grinned. ‘Numerus gave me an imperial bollocking when I was back on strength and sent me off on a refresher personal combat course. Then he suggested I apply for officer training. I almost fell off my chair with surprise.’

  Numerus was a good judge of character. Mercuria must have become one of his protégées. I’d missed so much.

  ‘I’m hoping you can help us with this woman you arrested in Vienna, ma’am,’ she said. ‘She’s been carrying on as if she’s being brutalised in a Russian gulag, instead of being locked in a detention room with a comfortable bed and three meals a day. But she seems to want to talk.’

  *

  Festa glanced up as I entered the interview room. A quick blink of her eyes and a minute head jerk were the only signs of reaction, then she settled back into her chair and folded her hands. Her appearance wasn’t quite as polished as it had been in her Vienna office, but even in her yellow prison tunic her hair was neat, brushed into submission, and she sat up straight.

  ‘Good afternoon, Festa,’ I began.

  ‘Have you come to gloat?’

  ‘Gloat? Tell me why I would want to do that.’

  She didn’t reply.

  I set my buff file down on the table between us.

  ‘To be honest, I find it rather sad that somebody of your obvious competence and excellent record should have fallen to the criminal level. No doubt, we’ll come to this.’

  ‘You can’t make me say anything.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of forcing you to say anything against your will, but I understand from the case officer you wished to say something.’

  She gave a brief, almost unwilling nod.

  ‘I’m puzzled by your motivation. But let’s look at some history.’ I took a photocopied sheet out of the file and showed her. ‘This wasn’t a very good start to your financial career was it?’

  She looked at the twenty-year-old caution sheet, her expression aghast.

  ‘Where did you get this? It was cleared from my record years ago.’

  ‘Yes, on your personal civic record, but all criminal records, even the spent ones, are microfilmed and stored confidentially, in case we need to refer to them. It may not have come up when you were appointed the state silver agent two years ago for the Vienna job, but I think the Argentaria Prima would have been very interested in this when you applied to them as a graduate. I was under the impression they vetted all applicants very carefully. I would like to know how you hid it from them.’

  She looked away. The harsh white neon light accentuated the pink tinge below her cheekbones. She swallowed but said nothing.

  ‘Your brother seems to have had… let’s call it, a chequered career, faking school reports for other pupils to take home to their parents and passing dud bank drafts. Dear me, it must run in the family.’ I smirked at her. Her mouth tightened into a grim little line. ‘Interesting that his girlfriend worked in the vigiles records office in Aquae Caesaris at the time of your application to the AP, isn’t it? And even more interesting that her father was a member of the Tella family.’

  She shrugged. I stared at her for a long five minutes. After a minute, she fidgeted, shifting the weight of her upper body from one side of her bottom to the other. After three minutes, she was twisting her fingers together. She looked everywhere and anywhere but at me. In the silence, I poured water into a paper cup and took a good swallow and then another, keeping my gaze on her. She glanced at the cup when I’d set it back on the table, at the ribbed plastic jug and the spare cup on the tray, then at my face. She looked at the water again with longing, then down at her hands.

  I waited.

  ‘I’m thirsty,’ she said.

  ‘That’s unfortunate.’

  ‘Can I have some water?’

  ‘I think you’ll have to give me something first. Fair exchange, you know.’

  She wiped her hand across her forehead.

  ‘What do you want to know?’

  I pushed the empty paper cup across the table. ‘I want to know when you first met Caius Tellus.’

  ‘I can’t talk with a dry throat,’ she said with a spark of temper or was it truculence? I poured her a quarter of a cupful. She grabbed it and drank greedily.

  ‘Now you can talk.’

  ‘It was my brother. He was trying to raise money for me. I had some gambling losses and need to make a payment.’

  ‘You didn’t think to apply for a loan at your own bank? The staff discounts would be generous.’

  ‘Are you mad?’

  I frowned at her. ‘Don’t forget where you are, Festa, and why.’

  She shrugged. I signalled for her to continue.

  ‘It would have been flagged up straight away at the bank’s head office as my second loan. They would have required me to make full disclosure of the reasons for it. How long do you think I’d have lasted after that?’

  ‘And?’

  ‘My brother said he had a connection who could help me, no questions asked, he said, in return for a couple of favours. Anyway, my brother turned up the following day in Vienna at my flat. I’d barely stepped out of the lift when he jumped out of nowhere and grabbed my arm. My heart went into overdrive. I laid into him and told him never to frighten me like that again. He just laughed. Id
iot. As soon as I’d found my key and opened my door, he pushed me through and a stranger followed him in.’

  ‘A stranger?’

  ‘I asked him who the hell this was and my brother said he was the one who could help me. The stranger was tall and stood very close to me while he shook my hand. So close, I could almost smell his confidence. He held on to my hand and bent over me, staring down with his weird eyes.

  ‘At first, he scared me. I tried not to let him see it. He was quite scruffy, as if he’d borrowed the clothes he was wearing, but there was no doubt he was the one in charge. He ordered my brother to make some sandwiches and coffee and somehow I was sitting at my dining room table as if I were a guest in my own flat, receiving instructions on how to make trades.’ She gave a short laugh, but without a drop of humour. ‘Ridiculous, now, but he had such a natural air of authority.’

  ‘Is this the man?’ I pushed a photo of Caius Tellus across the table.

  ‘Yes,’ she muttered and looked down at the table.

  ‘His name?’

  ‘He called himself Caius Pius.’

  Pius? Caius the conscientious, righteous, the good? The gods give me strength!

  I filled her cup from the plastic jug. She drank in silence, but didn’t look any more at ease at having told me what I’d wanted to know. Most people who’d never been in custody before were first frightened, then relieved once they’d got their story out. Of course, the vigiles had hardened criminals to deal with and it was different, but our cases were more espionage, political and national security. I could understand Festa was embarrassed, but an educated young woman in a white-collar job, despite her shady brother and the early caution, should have shown considerable relief at this stage.

  She held on to the empty paper cup, tracing the rim with her index finger round and round. Her shoulders were curved inwards and her eyes darted all over the place. There was more.

  ‘What happened after that?’

  She looked at the opposite wall.

  ‘Festa?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she muttered.

  ‘I think there was, Festa. Now we’ve got so far, you’d better tell me everything.’

  Silence.

  ‘Did he come back another day?’ I prompted.

  Her fingers closed around the paper cup and tightened until the paper sides buckled. Her hand released the crushed remains which dropped on to the floor. She stared down at the table.

  Then it hit me. Caius had pulled his usual trick.

  ‘You slept with him, didn’t you?’ I said.

  She hunched over. ‘He didn’t have anywhere to stay, he said. And he was quite good,’ she added, the defiance in her voice plain.

  ‘How long did he stay?’

  ‘Ten days.’ She looked up, tears on her cheeks. ‘Ten days and then he buggered off. My phone bill went through the roof, I’d waited on him hand and foot. He said he’d come back for me but I haven’t heard a squeak. He left a pile of notes on the bedside table as if all I’d been was a whore.’

  *

  Still fuming at how easily Festa had been duped, I sat in Mercuria’s tidy office and wrote up my notes. Of course, she’d taped the interview, but notes added another dimension. Mercuria glanced through them before taking them to the typist.

  ‘Sad, really,’ she said. ‘But stupid. How in Hades did she think she was going to get away with it? Now she’s got sheltering an escaped murder suspect on her charge sheet. The Prussians may even want to extradite her for that.’

  ‘You’ve never met Caius Tellus, have you?’ I said and leant back in my chair and crossed my arms. ‘He’s charming, manipulative and a complete bastard. He has natural sexual charm and the instincts of a predator. Unfortunately, he’s intelligent with it, but somehow, the Fates forgot to give him the least sense of good and evil when he was born. They also forgot to tell him how to think beyond himself.’ I half closed my eyes for a moment. ‘His younger brother, Quintus, has drive and intelligence, too, but is a loyal and honest servant of the state. How those two had the same mother and share the same genes is a total mystery.’

  ‘At least we know where he disappeared to for ten days of the four weeks since he escaped,’ Mercuria replied.

  ‘Can you ask Licinia at the Vienna legation to request a record of long-distance phone calls from the New Austrian post office? And tell them it’s extremely urgent. We need to know who Caius had been phoning during those ten days.’

  Mercuria handed me a sheet. ‘We’ve compiled a list of all known movements and possible sightings. Senior Centurion Numerus telexed me two additions last night. It looks as if Caius Tellus has been making his way south from Berlin via Vienna. Now the nursery maid at the palace has ID’d him as the man in the park who disturbed your daughter, we know he’s arrived here in Roma Nova.’

  ‘Anything from the public CCTV?’

  ‘Not yet. I have a team looking through the tapes. Some cameras in the city centre have updated resolution, but none in the other towns. We’ve checked his family’s villa out near Brancadorum, but the steward swears he hasn’t seen him for a year.’

  ‘No, Caius is an urban creature,’ I said. ‘He hated the countryside even as a child.’ I stood up and shook Mercuria’s hand. ‘I know you’ll send a copy of Festa’s interview and my notes back to Secretary Plico, but let me know the instant you have even a hint of a sighting of Caius.’

  I shivered as I made my way back to the reception lobby despite the perfectly adequate heating. As I sat on the plastic-covered bench, safe behind the glass entrance door, and waiting for my car, I watched the snow outside. The dancing flakes reflected the yellow light from the building. But beyond the first few centimetres, I could see nothing but swirling darkness.

  But I knew Caius was out there, nearby and he was coming after me.

  XXVIII

  Reluctant to disturb Marina’s routine as well as take her out of her circle of protection, I moved back home by myself. Some inner instinct told me I needed to reconnect with my own household, my familia. The porter opened the side gate almost as soon as I’d rung the bell and welcomed me back with a smile. I hoped he’d checked the screen in his lodge first. I’d had one of the new CCTV systems with high resolution cameras each side of the gate area installed before I’d left for Vienna.

  As soon as I walked in I saw everything was running smoothly; every surface sparkling, windows clear, a smell of polish and fresh flowers. Perhaps the servant mafia at the palace had forewarned the one at Domus Mitelarum. But towards lunchtime I noticed little glances of anxiety from one or two of the younger servants and on one young man’s shoulder a weal was revealed when his sleeve slipped back.

  Milo had been my mother’s steward, and like her was old school. He’d known me since I was a child. Then, I’d been a little afraid of him. When he said ‘jump’, he considered the most appropriate reply was ‘how high, sir?’ Now, his upright figure stood straight and stiff in front of my desk. He never forgot he’d been a centurion before he came to work for the family. Perhaps it was time to remind him this was a civilian establishment.

  ‘Please, Milo, sit,’ I began. His hard face didn’t relax, nor did his spine touch the back of the chair when he sat. ‘I don’t need a detailed report,’ I continued, ‘more of a catch-up.’

  ‘Of course, domina.’ He passed a dozen sheets across the desk. ‘I’ve prepared this for you detailing expenses, stocks, percentage of home produced and other food, cellar, repairs and renewals, security and staff.’

  ‘Thank you. I’m sure it will be comprehensive. But tell me in your own words. How are the staff? Any new partnering or children? Are the pensioners all well?’

  ‘One of the assistant cooks is expecting a child, and my under-steward has left to marry a hotelkeeper in Brancadorum.’ He sniffed. ‘Good luck to him – she’s a tough one. He’ll be her third.’ He glanced away. ‘Apart from that, two juniors have gone, but we’ve replaced them.’

  ‘I see.’ I took a deep breath. ‘
Well, I sensed some tension in the air, and nervousness when the staff are around me. Yet they’re all ones who know me. What’s happened?’

  ‘Some became lax when you first went away to Berlin, but I tightened up the discipline and everything is now in order.’

  I wondered what in Hades he meant by ‘tightened up the discipline’. Discipline in the military was tough – that was normal – but it shouldn’t be hard in a civilian household. There hadn’t been a problem when I left. I picked up my pen and let it see-saw between my first and second fingers.

  ‘I presume you haven’t reverted to any form of corporal punishment?’ I said after a few moments. ‘Or has there been fighting? I would be extremely unhappy about that. Any form of physical abuse would be grounds for instant dismissal, of course.’

  He looked at me, his eyes balls of granite, but didn’t say anything. Slapping lazy female servants or whipping disobedient boys had persisted into this century. My mother had said there were worse things in the world when I’d noticed it as a child. She’d slapped me on occasion. But those times were finished in my house.

  He said nothing and continued staring at me. After a minute, I ended it.

  ‘Thank you for the report,’ I said at my driest. ‘I’ll read it and come back to you if I have any questions.’

  His dignity obviously offended, Milo gave me his most formal bow, turned and strode off.

  Damn.

  *

  I flinched at the cold jelly on my stomach. But as the nurse spread it, it warmed up. He concentrated on the black and white screen lost in a maze of wires, but relaxed as the image cleared.

  ‘This is the last test,’ he said and smiled.

  Thank Juno. I’d given liquids, been prodded, had cloth-covered bands and sensors on my limbs, breathed and stretched for the past hour and a half. Now the sickness had stopped, I felt completely well, only tired in the evenings. I hadn’t started thickening either.

  When I was dressed, Justina’s obstetrician frowned at me. I was sure she was a very competent specialist, but I preferred my own doctor. I’d only agreed to see this woman to stop Justina nagging me.