He turned to me. ‘You know yourself, what safeguards and systems were put in to guard the imperatrix and the state against a repeat.’
I’d used one of those same protocols seven years ago to prevent another bunch of would-be rebels.
‘So where does this leave us, Quintus Tellus?’
He drew his gaze back and looked at me, startled at my formal tone.
‘She is indubitably Conradus’ daughter and I couldn’t refuse to acknowledge her.’ He studied his sleeve, his fingers flicked non-existent dust off. ‘Much more serious, she is the only female Tella born within the past hundred years in the direct line who is still alive.’ He glanced up at me, as if waiting for my reaction. I couldn’t move or speak; I was frozen with horror. The four family aides stopped talking between themselves and stared in our direction. They couldn’t hear us; it was as if they sensed something hovering in the air.
‘You can’t possibly mean what I think you’re saying,’ I managed eventually. The Tellae had no female heir within four degrees. Quintus had once suggested formally adopting Tonia, our second daughter – she had Conrad’s genes and blood – but I’d said she was far too young for such a step. Maybe when she was older and could decide for herself. Quintus was now floating the idea that Nicola could claim to be his heir. Hades’ teeth!
‘I will watch her, Carina, and attempt to check any developing tendencies. If she starts acting like Caius, she’ll use a mixture of relentless charm and attrition.’ He looked up and smiled, but the rest of his face didn’t mirror it. ‘We may be being overly pessimistic. Perhaps she may settle now she has family around her.’
Don’t kid yourself, Quintus.
‘Can you give it a little while to see what unfolds?’ he asked.
‘All I want is my husband back. He looked so angry in court.’ I waved my hand in a vague backward movement. ‘She’s sucking the life out of him. Why can’t he see it? He’s sharp enough.’
Quintus looked away, and spoke to the marble column. ‘I think he’s feeling guilty over what he thinks is neglect of this lost child.’
‘And she’s playing it for every solidus.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Well, lock up your money, Quintus,’ I urged him, ‘as well as your virtue.’
Part II: The Furies
XII
The annual fitness–for-task exercise kept my department fully occupied for the next few weeks; training the visiting arms and preparing tasks, logistics and staffing for the whole thing. Almost the entire four hundred strength went out on this exercise. The worst thing was having the regulars move in as caretakers in our facilities. This year, I sprang a surprise and changed the location on the second day; we went up to the mountain tactical area. I’d found training in the pine woods with the British a rewarding challenge earlier in the year. It had sharpened up the skills of the whole detachment. Interesting to see how the rest of them took it.
At six thirty the first morning after the move, the teams had all gone out and I paused in the chilly air in front of the thick canvas staff tent, a hot bacon and egg roll in one hand and a mug of strong tea in the other, drinking in the diamond-sharp morning sunshine coming up over the pine forest. Gods, it was cool at this altitude, around zero degrees up on this mountain shoulder. But so pure and clear.
‘Jupiter’s balls, Carina, what possessed you to drag us all up here?’
Daniel, his dark brown eyes almost hidden by the fur round the hood on his parka.
‘Ha! Can’t take a bit of cool weather?’
He rubbed his gloved hands together. ‘I’m a desert boy at heart.’
I grinned back at him ‘I thought it got cold at night in the Negev?’
‘Yeah, but that was over fifteen years ago. I’m old now.’
I chuckled.
He didn’t say anything. I sensed him gazing at me.
‘What?’
‘Lovely to hear you laugh again. It’s been a while.’
‘Yeah. It hasn’t gone away, Daniel, just buried a little further. And it’s good to keep busy.’ I turned to him. ‘This is where I should be, in the middle of my people, working with them, caring for them, bollocking them if necessary, but with them.’ I made a face. ‘Gods, I sound like something out of a TV soap. Slap my face if I start again.’
‘I wouldn’t dare!’
I burst out laughing at his mock-horrified face, tapped him on the chest with the back of my hand. He laughed back.
‘So pleasing to see my officers enjoying their work.’
A shutter fell abruptly on our happy mood. Senior Legate Conradus Mitelus had joined us. Disapproval on his face contradicted his words, combined with the now-familiar guarded expression he wore when he came near me. He hadn’t stopped treating me like any other member of his team, but now his manner had an edge and no intimate smile ever burst through. It was like skimming over a large bowl of Jell-O. So far the surface tension hadn’t broken.
‘Cup of tea, sir?’ Daniel said, seeking to break the mood.
‘No thank you, Colonel. What time are you checking the sub-command posts?’
Daniel recognised his exit cue, saluted and went.
I snuck a sideways look at Conrad. His eyes were red and puffy and I saw from this close distance he’d gained a few more white hairs sprinkled over the whole of his head. That damned girl. According to Junia’s contact, Nicola had settled into her new life like some Scarlett O’Hara, irritating the hell out of the whole household, provoking them into subtle retaliation against her imperious and unreasonable demands. And Conrad was caught in the middle.
‘Every team get off without problem?’
‘No problem at all, sir,’ I said. ‘All in good spirits, a few grumbles at the cold, but I’d be worried if there weren’t.’
‘Good, good.’
Juno, he wanted to talk and he didn’t know how to start. He really was losing his confidence.
‘Is there anything you wanted to discuss?’ I tried.
‘Why? Do you have a train to catch?’
I stared at him. ‘Not at all. I just had the impression you wanted to say something. I—’
‘I’ll let you know if there is,’ he said curtly and stomped off.
Misery washed over me. Would we ever be able to talk without snapping or bickering?
*
The week after we arrived back from the exercise, I found a meeting request from Pelonia, the DJ inspector who’d handled the case against Nicola Sandbrook. Nicola Tella. Damn. I hated calling her that.
‘Colonel Mitela here. How can I help you, Inspector?’
‘I wanted to run something past you, ma’am, given your unique experience and connections. Could we perhaps meet outside or here at my office, if you didn’t mind?’
What in Hades did she mean by ‘experience and connections’? She didn’t want to come here, that was obvious. Her tone was tense, but diffident, so I’d be doing her a favour.
‘Sure, no problem. Or we could meet informally for some lunch, maybe? What about tomorrow, at Dania’s, off the Via Nova?’
‘That would be perfect. I’ll see you there.’
*
Dania was one of my protégées; I’d given her seed capital years ago and now she had a thriving business. When she’d started up, it had been a plain bar providing good food and personal services. Unknown to almost everybody, Dania had played a pivotal role fourteen years ago in my Operation Goldlights, to defeat organised drug criminals. After that had finished, she’d relentlessly driven her business further upmarket each year and now ran an exclusive restaurant which needed at least two months to get a reservation. I never had that problem.
I arrived early and stamped my feet on the entrance mat to shake off the icy slush. Snow had fallen steadily during the night and had turned into charmless sleet. Dania greeted me warmly, with a tight hug, but appraising eyes.
‘How are you, Bruna? Is it any better yet?
‘Getting there.’
Since
she’d stopped colouring her hair and gained a few pounds, she’d taken on a gravitas that could intimidate the shallow and callow. She had to be in her early fifties by now.
She smiled. ‘Glad to see you out of black. I’ve put you and your friend in one of the private rooms. Go up, there’s a bottle on ice.’
Pelonia arrived promptly, in designer jeans and leather coat which revealed a cashmere sweater and silk scarf looped around her neck. No way did she look like a cop. I poured her glass of Brancadorum champagne which she sipped carefully. Dania brought up our food herself and left discreetly.
‘So how can I help you, Inspector?’
‘I’ve received a piece of information which if true is explosive. Unfortunately, it’s more likely to be malicious gossip. But—’
She stopped, glanced at me almost furtively. I had the impression she was embarrassed.
‘Pelonia, you don’t know me very well. If you have something to say, however trivial, I’m all ears. I work a lot on instinct. I respect others who do the same. But I react badly to time-wasters, so go.’
‘Since Operation Goldlights, we’ve been able to keep a tight control on most of the drug trade,’ she said. ‘We’ll never stop them all, but—’
She shrugged, eloquently, and dug into her food.
‘I wasn’t aware you worked in narcotics.’
‘I don’t. My remit is special investigation.’ Ah, one of Lurio’s personal hunters. I hadn’t known that when we’d first met at Nicola’s arrest. Unkind colleagues and the ungodly called them ferrets, but they pulled in results.
I ate in silence waiting for her.
‘A piece of trash we swept up a week ago claimed he’d seen a new dealer, a foreigner. She was accompanied by another girl, whom he thought he recognised. He was seriously fried, shouting his head off, so the uniforms sent him to the public detox unit to get stabilised. I followed it up a few days later, but he’d expired. We ID’d him, I ran him, but he only had minors. Nobody claimed the body, so it went to the public crem.’
‘Why your interest?’
‘The custodes who picked him up wrote up a full report and passed it to the Senior Commander’s office.’ She slipped a bunch of folded A4 sheets out of her bag and slid it across the table.
I flicked through the crime report, to the doctor’s piece: death by narcotic overdose, subject verbal, but incoherent, until unconsciousness shortly before death. When I read the description of events and the junkie’s description of the two women on the incident form I almost had a cardiac arrest.
Pelonia looked at me steadily. ‘If it hadn’t been for the previous case, I’d have put it down as pure gibberish. Now I wonder.’
I read the report again. I could hardly believe it. I had no doubt it was Nicola. She had wealth and position, and had Conrad tied up in emotional barbed wire, isolated, separated from me and our children. She was extracting revenge on a daily basis. So what in Hades was she doing dealing on the street? If it was her.
Yeah, right, Carina. Like you don’t know it’s her.
‘Okay.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Stepping back a bit, there’re a lot of tall blonde young women around, some with criminal records, drugs included.’
‘Agreed, but this one’s foreign, unknown on the street,’ Pelonia pushed. ‘And her companion – nobody could fail to recognise Stella Apulia.’
‘That’s quite a leap, Inspector. And all from the ranting of a stoned junkie who’s now dead.’
‘I see.’ Pelonia said. She stood up, reached over for the report, and said, ‘Sorry to have wasted your time, Colonel.’ The look she shot me was contemptuous and angry, but she quickly stifled it.
‘Sit down, Pelonia. I didn’t say I didn’t believe you.’ I sighed. ‘Unfortunately, I do. I just don’t want to.’
Her face relaxed.
‘I understand it may be difficult, but the Senior Commander thought you should be informed.’ She looked down at the table, nearly smiled, as if remembering something else he’d said. ‘He also thought you might have a unique insight on the problem.’
‘Ha! He did, did he?’ I paused for a few moments assembling my thoughts. Pelonia would have been cleared up to a very high security level; Lurio would never have sent her my way otherwise.
‘Nicola Tella lives with her father at Domus Tellarum. I haven’t seen her since the trial.’ I looked over Pelonia’s shoulder at the wall. ‘Her father appears to have separated himself from my household, so I only have hearsay about her activities. I was under the impression she was enjoying the benefits of her new-found prosperity and position. I have no idea personally about her social circle.’
I brought my gaze back to look her straight in the face. ‘But if that junkie was telling the truth and Nicola Tella has contaminated her half-sister, the imperial heir, and dragged her into criminality, there’s very little I won’t do to bring her down.’
*
We promised to liaise and Pelonia left, quietly closing the door behind her. I listened to the sound of her footsteps fade down the stairs. I bowed my head into my hands. Gods. Everything was coming apart. I was just about keeping the everyday in balance: the children, the wider family stuff, business meetings, the Senate. Oh, and sometimes I grabbed some sleep. Now this. I felt like running away from it all. With Nonna gone, I had no wise counsellor, with Conrad gone, no clever, sharp and witty companion. I loved Daniel dearly, but he was no comparison. Tears trickled between my fingers down the back of my hands. This was so lame. I thought I’d stopped crying.
My phone pinged – a routine check – but it pulled me out of my self-pity. I had to get a grip. This was no ordinary danger. The source was inside and had not only split our family, but also now threatened the state. I was a Praetorian, for Jupiter’s sake. I had to get off my butt and do something about it.
I left Dania’s, took a taxi to the staff entrance of the palace. Flashing my ID at the guard detail on duty, I made my way through the admin area, upstairs into the private family quarters. Another guard stood there solemn-faced and checked me in. Silvia’s private secretary materialised after a few minutes and looked a little disconcerted to see me, but he recovered quickly. He ushered me into an alcove with blue velvet easy chairs and a coffee table. After ten minutes I stood up to greet my cousin. And fellow mother. She was frowning.
‘Carina? Is something wrong?’
She hovered by the double doors and didn’t come forward immediately. I bowed and she eventually moved into the room. In response to her outstretched hand, I sat down again. She fidgeted; I guessed I’d interrupted something.
‘Silvia, I apologise for butting in but I have just received some disturbing information.’
‘Yes?’
‘How much has Stella been around Nicola Sandbrook, I mean, Tella?’
She looked baffled. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Exactly that.’
‘Would you care to elaborate?’ Her tone was distinctly frosty.
‘It may be nothing, but the DJ have reported a woman resembling Tella making what looked like a drugs deal down in the Septarium area.’ Not a pleasant place. I doubted, and hoped, Silvia had ever been there.
‘And how does that concern me?’
‘She had a companion whom the informant recognised instantly. He couldn’t fail to, I guess. Stella.’
‘Impossible.’
I shrugged.
She stood up and disappeared though the door. After a few minutes, she returned and focused on me like a scientist on an exciting new specimen.
‘Details, please.’
I ran through the report. ‘It’s inconclusive, but enough to cause the head of the Urban Cohorts to send in a special investigator.’
‘Very well. I’ll have a word with Stella. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.’
I knew I was dismissed, but I couldn’t leave it there.
‘Would you mind not doing that?’
‘Why ever not?’
‘Because if Nicola Te
lla has had the face to drag the imperial heir into the dirt, I want the chance to nail her hide to the floor and stomp all over it.’
‘Oh. I see. But I won’t have Stella put in danger, in any way.’ She sighed. ‘I know she can be difficult. I was as disappointed as Conrad when she didn’t pursue her career in the PGSF. She’s been at a loose end ever since. Yes, she does some public appearances if she has to, but she’s not really interested in any of my charities or foundations, nor in shadowing me.’
Silvia looked away. She was a hard-working decisive leader. Deprived of the luxuries of security and leisure of her early life, she’d had to grow up quickly in the aftermath of the wreckage left by Caius Tellus’s dictatorship.
‘I don’t know what she wants, Carina. I thought she might like to go to the university – she’s always got her head in a book – but she gave that up after a semester. She goes along with things, she’s pliable despite the sullenness but she’s got no staying power.’
She turned back to me, with a carefully bright smile. ‘Well, that’s my problem. How dangerous is this?’
‘Have you met Nicola Tella?’
She shook her head.
‘Look, Silvia, will you trust me on this?’
‘You’ve only saved my life and my country twice, so I think I can cut you a little slack.’
I stared at her. How could she joke in this situation? I could never be so strong. No, it was gallows humour, a kind of protective irony.
I reminded her about Allegra’s trial and gave her a summary of Michael’s input. But when I repeated what Quintus had said, she shuddered.
‘But what’s Conradus doing about her? Surely he can see through her?’
‘Have you seen him recently?’
‘Not since after Allegra’s trial. He came to eat with us one evening. Oh, Juno, Stella knows all about the trial. Conradus was very open about his anger at this “Zenia”. Of course, he didn’t know who Zenia was at the time. He wasn’t too happy either that night at Stella giving up on the PGSF and he struggled to be understanding about it.’
‘Before she died, Aurelia thought he might be going through some sort of emotional crisis. Something reaching back into his own childhood that was triggered by guilt over Nicola.’ I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. ‘Nicola was not deprived as she likes to claim. Sure, she didn’t have a wealthy background, but her mother had a good job teaching.’
Successio Page 13
