‘That’s right. Oh, I don’t do it often, I know, but Optima suggested it and I thought, why not? It wasn’t all that far, and it was a beautiful day, not too hot. I must say that when she arrived I thought she was going to drag me about on visits to the local society, but it turns out she’s more into old shrines and temples and local history. Surprisingly knowledgeable, too. I learned a lot.’
‘So who’s Arduinna, then?’
‘A forest goddess, more or less equivalent to Diana. The shrine was really quite quaint, very old and tucked away in a fold of the hills. I’d never have found it without her help.’ She lay down on the other couch. ‘So tell me. Anything exciting happen with you?’
‘Yeah, you could say that.’ I gave her the rundown.
‘But, Marcus, this is serious!’ she said when I’d finished.
‘You’re not kidding. No pressure, mind; Balbinus was pretty clear about that. So long as the case is solved before whoever zeroed Drutus and his servant has the chance to persuade the Treveri to throw off the hated Roman yoke and the emperor’s plans for Britain go down the tube, we’re home and dry. All we’ve got to do is find him, or them, before it’s too late, and there can only be a couple of dozen or so possible suspects to work our way through. Oh, of course there’s the Cabirus side of things as well, but since I haven’t the faintest fucking idea what’s going on there either that doesn’t matter all that much.’
‘Gently, dear.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ I sighed. ‘But it’s frustrating as hell. All we know is who it isn’t, and it damn well ought to be.’
‘Who’s that?’
‘My Burdigalan pal. Oh, sure, he was plausible enough, and what he said about himself and his plans makes perfect sense, as far as I can see, but the timing aside he’s just begging to be a prime suspect.’
‘Look, Marcus, just leave it, will you? There’s no use fretting. If you’re stuck for the present then you’re stuck, and that’s all there is to it. Something may turn up, you never know.’
‘Yeah, right. Fair enough. Of course it will. Along with the pink giraffe and the herd of flying pigs.’ I took a hefty swallow of wine. ‘Oh, by the way, I bumped into Optima’s husband in the market square earlier. Or rather, he bumped into me and introduced himself. Not a bad old guy, but he’s a bit of a Priscus.’
‘A bit of a what?’
‘A Priscus. Only in his case it’s antique Gallic silverware. He wants us to go round for dinner some evening and have a look at his collection. Optima will arrange things with you, seemingly.’
‘Oh, that’s fine. We’re meeting up again tomorrow. I can talk to her then.’
‘Another shrine, is it? You’re—’ Bathyllus oozed in with the tray, but also with his ‘I have news to impart’ expression. ‘Hi, sunshine. That dinner, is it?’
‘Actually no, sir, not yet. You have a visitor. Saenius Balbinus.’
I looked behind him. Balbinus was coming through from the lobby. If anything, the guy looked even more worried than he had before
‘I’m sorry to barge in like this, Corvinus,’ he said. ‘Lady Rufia. But I thought you’d better know right away. There’s been another murder.’
I stared at him.
Shit.
NINETEEN
The victim, it transpired, was another merchant, by the name of Trebonius Tarbeisus.
‘Sit down and tell us what happened, pal,’ I said. ‘Bathyllus, a cup of wine, please, a large one. Make it neat, OK? And hurry, I think the man needs it.’
‘Damn right I do.’ Balbinus sat.
‘Just take your time and start at the beginning.’
‘Very well.’ He took a deep breath. ‘He was found stabbed a couple of hours ago, in the commercial quarter – that’s the south-west part of town. The body was hidden in a disused warehouse, under a pile of old sacking. It could’ve been there for days, and it was a pure fluke that anyone stumbled on it at all.’
‘And no one missed him?’
‘Not that I know of. Certainly there’d been no report. Mind you, from the little information I’ve managed to glean so far he was in town on his own. Not even a slave or a servant.’
‘No reason for the death, presumably? I mean, he wasn’t another of Verica’s agents, was he?’
‘Not that I’m aware of, which isn’t saying much. He could have been, but if so then Hister didn’t mention him. He could even have been our friend X.’
‘Yeah?’ I looked at him sharply. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Absolutely nothing. Look, Corvinus, I just don’t know what’s going on any more, right? I’m completely out of my depth here.’
Bathyllus came in with the wine. Balbinus downed it in a oner.
‘So what information do you have on him?’ I said.
‘He was a merchant, like I say, from Caesarodunum – that’s a town in the west part of the Lugdunensian province – dealing in high-quality jewellery. As far as I can tell, this was his first visit to Augusta; certainly I’d never seen him here before, and neither had any of the few regular merchants I managed to talk to.’
‘But did they know who he was? From this time round, I mean?’
‘Two or three of them, yes. He was boarding at the inn just opposite the baths; that’s your accommodation of choice for the mercantile contingent, and even the ones who aren’t staying there use it as a place to network. He was a pretty sociable chap, seemingly, good company and not averse to pulling his weight where buying drinks was concerned.’
‘Even so, no one noticed he’d gone missing?’
‘Merchants follow their own schedules, Corvinus; they’re here today, gone tomorrow, most of them, sometimes without warning. He’d paid in advance up to yesterday for the room – the landlord’s been caught too many times by fly-by-nights to leave settling the bill until the last minute – and any meals and drinks were strictly cash up front. Oh, sure, the landlord knew he hadn’t been around for a few days, but that does happen on occasion.’ He glanced sideways at Perilla. ‘You can guess the circumstances for yourself. His belongings were still in the room, including his samples, and more to the point his mule was in the stables, so the innkeeper wasn’t too concerned.’
‘A few days, you say. How many would that be, exactly?’
‘Four or five. Maybe six. The landlord wasn’t absolutely sure.’
Jupiter! Score one for the guy’s powers of observation! Still, he’d know his money was safe, so if it turned out that Tarbeisus had been spending a bit of quality time tomcatting he wouldn’t be complaining. ‘So,’ I said, ‘that would take us back to shortly after the other murders, Drutus’s and Anda’s, yes?’
‘I suppose it would. You think there’s a connection?’
‘It seems a fair assumption, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes, I suppose so. But like I said I can’t see what that might be.’
Right; me neither, especially if this Tarbeisus was clean as far as background went. But that was for Balbinus to check on, as far as he could. ‘OK,’ I said, ‘I’ll need names.’
‘Names?’
‘Anyone he’d been in contact with before he disappeared and might be able to shed some light. His drinking cronies, for preference.’
‘I hadn’t got that far. The best you can do on that score is to go round to the inn yourself around the middle of the afternoon. That’s when most of the traders – locals and out-of-towners – get together to make deals among themselves and catch up on the latest news. Like I said, the place is near the western gate, opposite the baths.’
‘Fine. I’ll do that tomorrow.’
Well, it might be bad luck for the newly deceased, but at least it meant we might possibly be off and rolling again. There’s a lot to be said during a case for a fresh murder.
The inn, when I got there just after the ninth hour the following afternoon, was pretty crowded; the downstairs part of it, anyway, where Augusta’s trading fraternity obviously did a large slice of their all-merchants-together
dickering and insider-info swapping. Drinking, too: when I pushed open the door it narrowly missed a waiter with a loaded tray of beer mugs and wine-cups, and the place was going like a Circus wineshop on a race day. I pushed my way through the crowd to the bar counter and waited to be served.
‘Yes, sir, what’ll it be?’ the barman said eventually.
‘Surprise me, friend. A cup of anything you’d recommend that’s good.’
‘We’ve a nice Nemausan, just in. It’s just as good as most of the top names, and half the price. That do you?’
‘Sure.’ I took some coins out of my pouch and laid them down while he unlimbered the appropriate flask and poured.
‘You’re the gentleman from Lugdunum, right?’ he said as he set the cup down in front of me. ‘Looking into the Drutus affair?’
‘That’s me. More or less.’
‘Terrible thing, that.’ He took a few of the coins. ‘It came as a real shock, I can tell you; murder’s not a thing that ever happens in Augusta. Then of course there’s this other one now. It makes you think what the world is coming to, doesn’t it?’
‘It does indeed.’ I took a sip of the wine. Not bad; not bad at all.
‘Three killings inside of a few days, all merchants from outside town. It couldn’t be worse for business, that. I mean, who’s going to want to do their trading in Augusta, or spend more time here than they need to, if they think there’s a chance that some crazy bastard is likely to up and stiff them?’
‘Ah … are you the owner of this place, by any chance?’ I said.
‘I am indeed. Fifteen years, come the Winter Festival.’
Well, that made sense from what Balbinus had told me about the guy’s concern for his customers’ welfare. My heart bled. ‘Actually, that’s why I dropped in,’ I said. ‘The third murder. I understand the victim – Tarbeisus, wasn’t that the name? – had a room here.’
That got me a cautious look. ‘He did. What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘No sweat. It’s just that I’m interested in his movements up to the time he disappeared. Who he mixed with, whether he was involved in any particular business deals, that sort of thing. Any help I can get, really.’
‘Oh.’ The cautious look vanished. ‘Not much I can do for you there, sir. As you can see, we’re packed out and short-staffed, and it’s always like this. I haven’t got the time to think what I’m doing myself, if you catch my meaning, let alone watch the customers.’
‘Right. Right. Maybe someone else, then? One of his merchant cronies?’
‘You could try Frontus over there in the corner. The man with the eye-patch.’ He nodded in the direction of a middle-aged guy sitting at one of the tables chatting to another two punters with their backs to me. ‘He’s one of the big local retailers, in most days to check on who’s new in town and what they’re selling. He’d be your best bet. Yes, sir.’ He turned to another customer who’d come up beside me. ‘Same again, was it?’
I slipped the remaining coins into my pouch, picked up my cup and took it over to the one-eyed man’s table. He looked up.
‘Excuse me for butting in,’ I said. ‘You have a moment or two to spare?’
‘Of course.’ He smiled. ‘More, if you like. Pull up a stool, if you can find one.’
‘That’s OK.’ One of the other two punters stood up. ‘The gentleman can have mine; I was just leaving anyway. We’ve a firm deal on that consignment of Samian?’
‘We do. Delivery by the first of next month, yes? I’ll see you later, Tertius.’ The man left. ‘Now, sir, what can I do for you?’
I sat. ‘The name’s Marcus Corvinus,’ I said. ‘I’m looking into—’
‘Yes, I know. Poor Drutus. Anda, too. They’ll be sadly missed, both of them. They were well-liked, and they’d both been coming here for years. Mind you, I’m afraid if that’s what you wanted to talk to me about I know no more than anyone else.’
‘Actually, it was about the other guy. The one whose body was found yesterday morning down in the commercial quarter. Trebonius Tarbeisus.’
‘Ah. In that case, I can tell you even less. This was his first time in Augusta, and I barely knew him.’
‘You talked to him, though? Before he disappeared?’
‘Certainly I did. Made a point of it, in fact, as I do with every new face. But then a lot of other people did as well, Ruber here for one. That’s so, Ruber, is it not?’
‘Aye, that’s so.’ The other man – a few years younger, built like a wrestler but running to fat – took a pull at his beer mug. ‘He was good company, was Tarbeisus. His samples were good, too, what I saw of them, better than what I sell at present, and that shifts pretty smartly to begin with. We could’ve done a lot of business, him and me. Pity he got stiffed.’
Right. Well, there spoke the voice of healthy commercial enterprise. It was no wonder that trade was the life-blood of the empire and merchants its bone and sinew. ‘He wasn’t from anywhere near here, as I understand?’ I said.
‘No. Somewhere down south, I think,’ Frontus said. ‘I can’t recall exactly.’
‘So what do you know about him?’
‘Precious little, like I say.’ Frontus was drinking wine. He took another mouthful from the cup. ‘He arrived eight or nine days back, from Durocortorum, and he was on his way up north to Moguntiacum, or so he said. Travelling light, sussing out the local markets on the way for future use, the usual kind of thing, so he spent a lot of time in here chatting to various people, showing his samples, getting orders or promises of them. That’s about it, really.’
‘He’d no connections with Britain, at all, had he?’
That got me a sharp, monocular look. ‘Not that he mentioned in my hearing, no. What made you think he might have?’
‘No reason. Just a thought.’
Frontus chuckled. ‘Then it wasn’t a very intelligent one, if you don’t mind me saying so. You’re in the wrong part of Gaul for that, Corvinus. Oh, over in the west of the province near the Lower German border, certainly, but the traders you’ll meet around these parts, the ones who travel, anyway, mostly work the north–south route between Massilia and the Upper Rhine. Durocortorum’s about as far west as they go. Certainly things might change if the British market opens up in future, but that’s a long way off.’
‘He have much to do with any of the merchants here in particular? I mean, anyone who stands out?’
‘No. None more than any other. Like I told you, he did the rounds, professionally speaking, as any trader new to an area would. And he was a sociable sort in himself, fond of a drink and willing to put his hand in his money-pouch when his turn came to do the buying.’
‘So you can’t think of anything, well, out of the ordinary about the guy? Nothing he said or did that you noticed that was in any way unusual?’
‘Not a thing. He was just your ordinary out-of-town merchant, drumming up custom and doing a little useful networking before he moved on.’
Bugger. Well, I hadn’t really expected anything else, had I? Still, there had to be some reason why the guy had been killed. Drutus and Anda, fair enough, given that now I knew they’d been more than they seemed. But Tarbeisus? If he was as squeaky-clean and innocent as he was beginning to sound, then why the hell should anyone want to take him out?
Anda …
The tavern-keeper – his landlord – had said that what seemed to have excited the guy, and led eventually to his and Drutus’s deaths, was that someone was lying because ‘he’d never been there’. Assuming – and it was a fair assumption, given that Anda was well-travelled – that ‘there’ referred to a town or city …
‘One more question, pal,’ I said. ‘Anda. Drutus’s servant. Did he come in here much, by any chance?’
‘Anda?’ Frontus looked puzzled. ‘Of course he did, with or without Drutus. I told you, they’d both been coming here for years. He dropped in most days when the two of them were through from Durocortorum.’
‘So he’d’ve been in t
he bar when Tarbeisus was doing his networking?’
‘Possibly. That depends. It’s perfectly likely, though.’
‘Can you give me a for instance?’
The guy was frowning. ‘How do you mean?’
‘Any occasion when they were both in here at the same time. That you noticed.’
‘The afternoon of the day he was killed, as a matter of fact. Anda, I mean.’
And Tarbeisus himself had been murdered – probably – two days later.
Bullseye!
‘OK,’ I said. ‘This is important, so I want you to think carefully and take it slow. They were both here, right? Anda and Tarbeisus.’
‘Yes.’
‘Together?’
‘No. Tarbeisus was standing by the counter, Anda was sitting with friends at one of the tables.’
‘Which one would that be?’ He pointed, and I followed his finger. Uh-huh; practically slap-bang next to the bar counter itself. ‘And who was Tarbeisus with? You remember?’
‘I’m afraid not. The place was full to bursting. There were half a dozen people standing there who couldn’t get seats, and he was just one of the group. Besides, I wasn’t paying any attention; I’d business of my own to discuss with a customer. Ruber, you were there, weren’t you? Do you remember?’
‘Nah, you’re wrong, I wasn’t in at all that day. I’d the stocktaking to finish.’
Hell! I could have wept! So near, and yet so far: the odds were that whoever Tarbeisus had been talking to, Anda had noticed something screwy going on in the conversation. Screwy enough for him to cut things short and make a bee-line for his master to give him the news. I could ask my friend the barman, of course – at least he’d’ve been behind the counter, serving the drinks – and I would, before I left, but I’d bet now I’d be on a hiding to nothing in that direction.
‘You can’t give me any names?’ I said to Frontus. ‘None at all?’
‘One of them could’ve been Verus. He came in late that day, and he was round looking for a seat. I’m only guessing, mind.’
Hey! Great! ‘Who’s Verus? He here at present?’
Foreign Bodies Page 24
