‘So the new man caved in?’
‘He got rid of her,’ agreed her father bitterly.
A ghastly thought struck me. ‘Don’t say she went back to Nobilis?’
Vexus pressed his lips together in a thin line. ‘Thankfully, I put a stop to that.’
‘But she was so frightened, doing what Nobilis said became a possibility?’
‘No,’ said the baker, with heavy emphasis. ‘She was so frightened it was never a possibility.’
That was all he would tell me. I left details for Demetria to contact me, if she would. No chance. I heard the tablet with my name on it thump into a trash bucket before I got back outside to the street.
I asked about Demetria around the neighbourhood. I met nothing but hostility. The atmosphere felt dangerous. I left before a riot could start.
XXVII
I had another lead to follow: Petronius and I had been told by the waitress at Satricum that Claudius Nobilis worked for a corn dealer called Thamyris. He lived outside town. I took Nux and Helena and drove out to his place, a scattered set of barns and workshops off the coast road that went south.
Thamyris was a wide, squat, shabby typical countryman, in his sixties, wearing the usual rough tunic and a battered hat which he kept on even though when we arrived it was the lunch break. He and his men were gathered on benches, a peaceful group. They had mastered the art of making their working day revolve around the time they took off. Some were eating, some whittling. There was easy-going chat. Nux jumped from our cart and went to sit with them. She guessed correctly they would pet her and feed her titbits.
Nobody showed any curiosity about us. If we had wanted to buy grain we would have had to wait. The men stayed where they were and carried on enjoying their break; Thamyris stayed put and talked to us. Helena was allowed to sit on one of the benches, which a lad willingly swept of straw first, using the back of a fairly clean hand.
I explained what I wanted. Thamyris replied slowly and thoughtfully, as if he had answered these questions before. I asked him; he said he was always being consulted these days about Claudius Nobilis. For years the man had worked in this labour gang unremarked, but now the local authorities had a definite eye on him. It might have been awkward, had he not already taken himself off somewhere.
‘Do you know where he’s gone?’
‘He said something about the family. Knowing what they are like, I kept my nose out of that.’
‘So who else has been asking about him?’
‘Men from Antium. A man from Rome.’
‘I’m supposed to be the man from Rome - - who was the other bastard?’
‘Someone like you!’ The grain dealer enjoyed the joke. I pressed him for details and came to the conclusion he had been visited by one of Anacrites’ runners.
While I brooded on that, Helena changed the subject pleasantly: ‘What was your impression of Nobilis when he worked for you?’
Thamyris summed up like an employer who noticed things: ‘He did the work, though he didn’t push himself.’
‘Did he fit in? Was he one of the lads?’ I asked.
‘Yes and no. He never said much. If we were all sitting around like this, he would be with us. If we went out for a drink together in the evening, he would tag along. But he always tended to move off a little distance from the group.’
‘Did he strike you as at all odd?’ Helena then wondered.
‘He had his obsessions. He liked talking about weapons. He collected spears and knives - nasty big ones. He seemed a bit too interested, if you understand me.’
I nodded. ‘Trouble?’
‘He never gave me any.’
‘But he came with a reputation?’
‘That I don’t deny. People said he had been accused of thieving as a child, and I did hear that years ago a woman said he had raped her.’ Thamyris seemed unconcerned. On the scale of country crime, rape tended to rank with shouting boo at chickens.
‘So why do you think he left?’ asked Helena. ‘We heard he was “going to see his grandmother”, whatever that means. What’s the mystery?’
‘A classic excuse.’ Thamyris gave a laugh. It was the irritating kind that suggests someone knows a lot more than you do and intends to take a very long while revealing it. ‘When people want time off.’
Helena asked, ‘So what was up with him? Was he upset? Did he have a quarrel?’
‘Better ask Costus.’ Hearing his name, a corn cockle on another bench looked over. ‘Nobilis!’ called his boss in explanation.
‘Oh him!’ The younger man exclaimed dismissively; then he just went back to whittling.
I raised my eyebrows. Thamyris dropped his voice. ‘Had a fling.’ I showed that I still didn’t get it. ‘Costus.’ The voice lowered even further. ‘With Demetria!’
I left Helena to draw out anything else she could from the dealer, and strolled across to Costus. He was a handsome chunk, who looked none too bright - - in fact, if he had moved in on the wife of the violent Nobilis, he couldn’t be. ‘You’re brave!’
‘Stupid,’ he conceded.
‘I’m looking for your war wounds.’ I could see no recent bruises, though his nose and one ear had a squashed look. Without a word, he pulled up the lower edge of his tunic to reveal a ferocious, fairly new knife scar running from below his hip to his belly-button. It was healed, but he must have been laid up and in some danger for a long time. I whistled through my teeth. ‘Very brave - - and no wonder you seem subdued.’ The Claudius women had told me it was three years since Demetria had left Nobilis. She must have already known Costus, through his working with her husband; were they lovers before, or was it only after she left that this young man had provided a consoling shoulder? ‘Did Nobilis stop working here because his wife left him for you?’
Costus shook his head. ‘She just left him. Then he went to pieces. He couldn’t accept it.’
‘You took her over afterwards?’ A couple of his workmates were now watching us quietly. ‘Do you know where she is now?’
‘Nope.’
I bet he did.
Costus lied to me, and his comrades impassively watched him do it. They were all in the cover-up. But I had seen that his lunch consisted of a variety of items, which had been folded up for him in a very clean napkin. The package was not bought from a food-seller. Unless Costus was living with his doting old mother, he had other female company. He was a duffer, in my view, but a woman might find him good-looking.
I thumped him on the back in a rueful gesture. Just as I had with the baker, I wrote my name and other details on the back of an old bill from my pocket, which I placed on the wooden table. ‘Better be off. We’re heading back to Rome tonight. Probably stop over at Satricum to admire the scenery …’
Helena and I thanked everyone for their helpfulness, then we left. We took the road that went across the marshes, stopping at the inn for a night in Satricum as I had mentioned.
We hired a room, and took our time settling in. Easier said than done; the rooms here might be tolerable to men on tough missions where each needed to show the others he was hard. As a husband and wife we would need to hug together very tightly, to keep the bedbugs out. We stuck it in the room as long as possible then went to find a meal.
I hid a smile when Helena told Januaria, ‘I hear you made friends with Camillus Justinus!’
‘He’s a bit of all right!’ agreed the waitress admiringly.
‘My brother.’
Januaria was taken aback, but briefly. ‘Is he married?’
‘Oh yes. He has two little boys.’
The girl sniggered. ‘I bet his wife curses him!’
How true.
We ate, then sat behind empty bowls regretting it. Night fell. We had almost given up when the gods smiled. Nux growled a warning in the back of her throat. Costus with the straight nose and biceps from the corn-supplies place sidled up out of nowhere. After shy negotiations, promises of confidentiality, and a small inducement in coinage, he wriggled back into the darkn
ess, then reappeared, leading by the hand a woman we knew would be Demetria.
The baker’s daughter was bolder than I expected. That probably meant her relationship with Nobilis had been tempestuous. Sometimes it works that way. Demetria had an ugly air of defiance, probably not caused by her past history. She came with it from the egg; her truculence was a symptom of social ineptitude. Had she ever gone to school, which I doubted, she would have been the awkward one on the back bench.
She was in her twenties, plain-faced with a snub nose, loose, flyaway hair and a faint sour smell as if somebody spilled milk on her several days ago. She wore a drab brown dress with one sleeve rolled and one to the cuff. It wasn’t a fashion statement. She was too lazy to notice it. Her girdle was a rope that would have doubled as a bullock halter. She wore no jewellery. I guessed she had never worked, so had no money herself, and the men she chose were never generous.
It was all a waste of time, of course. Demetria admitted she still lived with Costus, pretty well in hiding. He had dragged her along tonight to see us hoping there would be money in it. She might have had enough spirit to run away from Nobilis, but on the whole Demetria’s instincts were to do as she was told.
She would not talk about her marriage to Nobilis. She did not accuse him of violence against her, nor of battering her lover. Whatever pressures to keep quiet had been embedded in her by Claudius Nobilis, they were still firmly in place.
She had no idea what Nobilis got up to nowadays or where he had gone off to; she had no contact with the family - though when I said I had spoken to the other two women, she asked after Plotia and Byrta. She swore she knew nothing about what happened with Modestus and Primilla and since she hadn’t lived with Nobilis then, it seemed reasonable. When I asked if she had ever had reason to suspect visitors were vanishing at the compound, she denied it.
‘So why did you come to find me?’ I demanded in exasperation.
That was when she came straight out and said Costus wanted her to beg for money. I could hardly complain. As Helena sniggered afterwards, offering facts for a cash reward was what I did as an informer.
I replied that when I made the offer, facts did exist.
There was one outcome. I asked Costus if he had been there when the man from Rome that Thamyris mentioned had turned up. According to Costus, it was a couple of days before. The description he gave of peculiar eyes, greased hair and smooth-talking sounded suspiciously familiar; it could almost be Anacrites himself.
‘Did you hear what was said?’
‘He took Thamyris out of earshot.’
‘So you’ve no idea what he wanted?’
‘Oh yes!’ Costus seemed surprised anyone should think his employer would keep a city man’s secret. ‘He ordered the boss that if anyone came asking about Nobilis or the other Claudii, he was to say nothing.’
‘Did he reinforce that order?’
Costus laughed bitterly. ‘One or two suggestions. Just in case we forgot. Like - - he’d close down the business, crucify Thamyris, sell his wife into a brothel, send us as slaves to the galleys and cut off our goolies first. Do you think he can do it?’
‘Oh yes. It’s the regular tactic used by the Praetorian Guards.’
XXIX
On the journey home, Helena and I discussed the situation. Costus’ story confirmed all the rumours about the Claudii having protection. Whoever was looking after their interests must be powerful, if they used the intelligence network to do their dirty work. Anacrites had not dared threaten Petro and me; even he was not that stupid. But he had no scruples about intimidating members of the public. He assumed we would never find out. For us, this signalled ulterior motives. He would know that if we once became intrigued, we would latch on to him like rat-dogs.
He had slipped up. I for one would not rest now until I uncovered his real interest - and Petronius was the same. I was all set to tear into the spy’s office and threaten him with the same punishments he offered Thamyris - - especially the part about castration. Maia must have the old veterinarian tools her dead husband used when he looked after the Greens’ chariot horses; she would happily loan me his equine nut-crusher.
Helena urged me to play clever. ‘Don’t alert him, Marcus. Let’s carry on as normal, pretend his agent wasn’t spotted. I suggest when we get home, we see if he has invited us to dinner as he threatened. If he has, we should go along to his house, and sniff the air before you tackle him outright.’
‘I would rather sniff a heifer’s bum, after a week’s diarrhoea.’
‘Your rhetoric is so refined! … Listen to your wife’s good advice.’ Helena shook her finger warningly: ‘Find out just whose fixer Anacrites is. Who wants him to protect these marsh-men’s interests?’
‘You are right, as ever.’ It was time to address the point. ‘It must all be to do with these Claudii having an imperial background,’ I told Helena. ‘I sensed that Laeta and Momus know what’s going on. Some old influence has carried over … I don’t believe it’s the Emperor.’ Vespasian had a few close cronies; his cabinet of private advisers were men like Helena’s own father who had known him for years, long before he counted. He had never been regarded as someone who protected favourites.
‘Nor Titus,’ Helena decided. She and Titus viewed each other with admiration - more admiration than I liked. Still that just meant Titus Caesar was a fine judge of womanhood. Like his father, he was basically straight.
Helena was still ticking off candidates: ‘Domitian’s more questionable.’ I had a feud with Domitian. He didn’t scare me, but if he was in on this it was best to know. ‘Of the great and powerful at the Palace,’ Helena concluded, ‘there would only be Claudius Laeta. He would not have invited you and Petro to investigate Modestus, if his interests lay in a cover-up.’
‘Give the man credit - - he knows we’re too good!’ I grinned at her.
‘Laeta does not take stupid risks,’ she corrected me coolly. Helena had a wonderful sense of humour, though little tolerance for silly beggars’ backchat. ‘He doesn’t play with knives for a cheap thrill. He sees his role as protecting the administration, so the Empire can run smoothly.’
‘So what do you think?’
‘It could be some consul or ex-consul who has never crossed our path.’
‘Most of them!’ We kept out of general politics.
‘I can ask my father. Not that he tends to know strong-arm thugs. His friends in the Curia are benign. Men who read Plato over their lunch, philanthropists who think a commission should look into health issues among the urban poor.’
I said the Claudii were a health threat in Latium.
Helena was still considering the argument. While I ducked out if there were too many alternatives, she liked to be thorough, with no feeble ‘decide that later’ topics; she worked through every point. She would say I was a typical man; I thought her a highly unusual woman.
‘We ought to consider, Marcus, not just who this person of influence is, but why he supports the freedmen. It’s been a long while since mighty men in Rome aligned themselves with criminal gangs.’
‘People like Clodius and his terrorists? He provided himself with brutal enforcers; everyone was scared of them and together with his very patrician name, it gave him enormous power … Nothing like that happens in the city now.’
‘It cannot be about anything the Claudii offer to their protector,’ Helena said. ‘He may be ambitious, but he must be able to manage his career without their help. So why does he bother? What hold do they have over him?’
She was right and I agreed: ‘What’s he scared of? A bunch of second-rate ex-slaves, living out in a marsh, miles from civilisation, selling scrap and beating up their wives? I can’t see how they have any influence with anyone who carries serious weight in Rome. And he must have weight. It takes a real someone to make Anacrites jump.’
‘Could it be simpler?’ Helena suggested. ‘Could they be under the protection of Anacrites himself?’
We both laughed and a
greed that was totally unlikely.
Back in Rome, it emerged that the visitor who had threatened Thamyris could not have been Anacrites. The man who went to Antium must have been an agent. Petronius confirmed that the spy had been in Rome. The vigiles had seen him.
Things had moved on. While Helena and I were away, the Seventh Cohort had been called out to the necropolis on the Via Triumphalis. This burial ground was across the river, north of the city, unlike where Modestus was discovered. Passers-by had alerted a caretaker to what looked like a shallow grave, dug without permission close to the road. In it was a fresh, mutilated corpse.
XXX
Julia and Favonia had been playing quietly on the floor with their pottery animals. As soon as we walked in, they remembered they had been abandoned by us, their callous parents. They jumped up, grew red in the face and ran away screaming loudly, real tears streaming down their faces. It was a classic scam.
Helena Justina gave me a quizzical look. ‘Maybe two is enough?’
‘Agreed!’
Albia, too, refused to welcome our return but stalked off like an offended dog. That gave Nux the same idea, even though she had been on the trip with us.
The message from Petronius about the new murder was irresistible. I changed my tunic and boots, then washed my face. I thought about a comb-through but settled for the windswept look. Being back in Rome had fired me up enough; being neat would be too much excitement. Sometimes I needed to remember when I lived in Fountain Court and was a rough rascal.
At mid-morning I set out from home, with a knife down my boot and just enough money in my purse to cover emergencies. My mind was clear and my step spry. However, I had the faint edgy feeling of a man who needs to re-impose himself on his customary surroundings. Adultery and cart-crashes could have occurred without me knowing it. I might have missed the crucial capture of that balcony thief from the Street of the Armilustrium. Old Lupus could have gone on his long-promised cruise of the Mediterranean - for all I knew, taking that pudgy waitress from the Venus Scallop, instead of his miserable wife, the one with pigtails who was always cadging off Brutus from the fish stall. Once I reached Maia’s, she would fill me in on these essentials, but first my way took me to the Fourth Cohort’s station house.
Nemesis - Falco 20 Page 16
