Part 7 (1/2)

'I am afraid not.' She looked straight back at me. Was it a challenge?

'Do you know if he had any enemies?'

'Oh no. He was a much loved and respected man.'

Dear G.o.ds. Why do they never realise that informers and the vigiles have heard that claim a hundred lying times before? I managed not to look at Fusculus and Pa.s.sus, lest we all three collapsed with sidesplitting ridicule.

I folded my arms.

'So. You and Chrysippus lived here, blissfully married.' No reaction from the lady. Still, women rarely come straight out with complaints about men's habits at table or their mean dress allowances, not to a stranger. Well, not a stranger who has just seen the husband of the moment lying nastily dead. Women are less stupid than some investigators make out.

'Children?' put in Fusculus.

'Get away,' joshed Pa.s.sus, playing a well-worn vigiles routine. 'She doesn't look old enough!'

'Child bride.' Fusculus grinned back. It might work with a dim girl, but this one was too hard-bitten. Vibia Merulla decided for herself when she wanted to be flattered. She had probably done her share of encouraging men's banter, but now there was too much at stake. She endured the joking with a face like travertine.

'Leave off, you two,' I intervened. I gazed at Vibia benignly. That did not fool her either, but she did not bother to react. Not until my next question: 'As the examining officer in this case, you appreciate that I need to look for a motive for your husband's murder. He was rich; somebody will inherit. Can you tell me the terms of his will?'

'You heartless b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' shrieked the widow.

Well, they usually do.

She had been about to leap to her feet (very nice little feet, under the bloodstains and cedar oil). Fusculus and Pa.s.sus were both ready for that. One either side of her, they leaned kindly on a shoulder each, pinning her down on her stool with lugubrious expressions of completely false sympathy. If she tried to break free forcibly, the bruises would last for weeks.

'Oh, steady on, Falco!'

'Poor lady; it's just his unfortunate manner. Please don't distress yourself -'

'No offence!' I grinned heartlessly.

Vibia wept, or pretended to, into a handkerchief, quite prettily.

Fusculus went down in front of her on one knee, offering to dry the tears, which would be unfortunate if they were fake. 'Madam, Marcus Didius Falco is a notorious brute - but he is obliged to ask you these questions. A ghastly crime has been committed, and we all want to catch whoever was responsible, don't we?' Vibia nodded fervently. 'It would surprise you how many times people get themselves murdered, and we in the vigiles are then shocked to find out that their own closest relatives killed them. So just let Falco do his job: these are routine enquiries.'

'If it upsets you,' I offered helpfully, 'I can soon discover what I need to know from your husband's will.'

'Is there a will?' wondered Fusculus.

'I expect so,' Vibia fluttered, as if the thought had never occurred to her.

'And are you mentioned in it?' asked Pa.s.sus, with an innocent smile.

'I have no idea!' she proclaimed rather loudly. 'I have nothing to do with matters of money; whatever other women do, It is so unfeminine.' None of us commented. The remark seemed specific, and I for one filed it in my professional memory under unfinished business. 'I expect,' she declared, as suspects tend to do when blaming someone else, 'Diomedes is the main heir.'

Fusculus, Pa.s.sus, and I looked from one to another with knowing bright eyes. 'Diomedes!' said Pa.s.sus to me, as if this solved a big question. Maybe he was right at that. 'Well, of course.'

'Diomedes,' I responded. 'There you are then.'

'Diomedes,' repeated Fusculus. 'Fancy us not thinking of him straight away!'

We all stopped smiling.

'Young lady,' I said - although the raw calculation in Vibia Merulla's azure- lidded eyes belonged to an efficient nymph who was as old as the cold dawn on the Sabine Hills - 'I don't want to press you unfairly, but if he is in the square for this killing I suggest you tell us rather speedily where we might find him - and who Diomedes is.'

XIV.

'DIOMEDES IS Chrysippus' son.' Pa.s.sus was already consulting a list on his waxed tablets. He whistled a little tuneless phrase through his teeth.

'If he lives here, he's not in,' he then told me in a low voice.

'He lives with his mother,' announced Vibia coldly. So she was the second wife. With the first still alive, there must have been a divorce. Another nugget to file. None of us commented. No need. Even Vibia's expression showed she understood the implications.

'This lad is an infant?' asked Fusculus, a.s.suming that any older son would live with the father, in normal guardians.h.i.+p.

'He's certainly a spoilt brat who needs looking after!' Vibia snapped. The first wife's boy had definitely upset her somehow. I saw Pa.s.sus glance at Fusculus, both of them convinced that Vibia 'looked after' Diomedes in some s.e.xual way. She failed to notice the innuendo, luckily. It was too soon to hara.s.s her in that way, even if we later came to suspect a dalliance.

'He is an only child?' I kept it formal.

'Yes.' She herself had borne none then. She did not appear to be pregnant. Always a good idea to check; many a violent death has been initiated by an impending birth.

'How old is Diomedes exactly?' I had sensed what the scenario might be.

'I'm not his mother; I cannot say exactly!' She looked up at me and stopped playing about. She shrugged. A gauzy stole slipped from her neat little shoulders. 'Early twenties.'

'That's exact enough.' Of an age to become a suspect. 'When was the mother divorced by Chrysippus?'

'About three years ago.'

'After you came along?'

Vibia Merulla simply smiled. Oh yes; I had got the picture.

'So Diomedes went off to live with his mama. Did he continue to see his father?'

'Of course.'

'They are Greeks,' Fusculus reminded me. His loathing of the cultured folk from the cradle of philosophy was beginning to grate. 'Very close-knit families.'

'It's a Roman ideal too,' I rebuked him. 'Does Diomedes come to this house to see Chrysippus, Vibia?'

'Yes.'

'Has he been here today?'