Part 14 (2/2)

The young man with the neat haircut managed not to shudder. 'Since Saffia was out, I tackled Calpurnia -' This was even worse. Honorius had no idea of following orders or working in a systematic way as part of a team. 'She was at home, I'm certain. She just refused to see me.'

With a restraint that Helena would have applauded, I begged Honorius to do nothing with our suspects and witnesses unless I asked him specifically.

'Right. So you don't want me to interview the clown, I take it?'

'What clown?' I demanded through clenched teeth.

He looked huffy. 'The one who was intended to be the satire at the Metellus funeral. I obtained his address from Biltis, that woman mourner Aelia.n.u.s interviewed. Biltis,' Honorius repeated. 'Her name was in your original report to Silius. You know, before the charges we brought against Juliana... I'm trying to get things moving, Falco. I feel I am wasting my efforts, however.'

He finished whining, before I lost it and belted him. 'Any other suspects you've barged in on without consulting me?' I was livid. But it was good work to go back to the old report, and it was sensible to use the mourner, Biltis, to track down the clown. They were both marked up in Helena's notes as needing further enquiry. I myself had intended to look for the clown, when I got around to it.

Hurt, Honorius clammed up.

'Well, the clown was a bright idea.' Praise failed to mollify Honorius. 'Perhaps he'll know why Calpurnia upset her husband enough to be left almost nothing, and why Birdy has been written out too.'

'That's what I thought.'

I said I would go to see the clown tomorrow, row, but that Honorius could come with me. He quietened down.

'I wonder how funeral comedians do their research, Falco? If they just used the bland material that bereaved families supply to them, their performances would be pretty tame. At all the funerals I have attended or watched pa.s.sing by, the clowns have given the dead man quite a raw deal. They can really hit on a person's weaknesses, and the crowds respond to it. Do they have methods of finding out stories the family would prefer to keep quiet?'

I smiled. 'They do. They winkle hard.' He still looked puzzled. 'They use informers, Honorius!'

Helena came home, bringing the news that Claudia Rufina had been safely delivered of a son. 'It didn't take too long and there were no panics. Claudia is sleeping; Quintus is sobbing with emotion but he'll get over it. My mother wore herself out but she's fine now - father and she are collapsed in a salon with an amphora of wine. The baby has all its limbs, and a tuft of dark hair, and seems likely to live. You're an uncle, Aulus!' Aelia.n.u.s had overheard the news as he arrived. He pulled a mocking face, while presenting Nux with a large packet of skin-ailment ointment. Nux knew the scent, and hid under the bed. 'You and I have our first nephew. Be nice, and maybe they will name him after you.'

'Oh I hope not!' Helena was teasing, but her brother sounded horrified. 'I suppose now I'm expected to buy it a gold bulla to hang round its fat little neck?'

'No need, dear,' Helena told him sweetly. 'Mother has bought one to be your gift.'

Aelia.n.u.s contained his grumpiness. Maybe the thought that his younger brother's bachelor spree was over had cheered him up.

As he waited for the fuss over the new baby to subside, I could see he was elated. As soon as we could politely forget about his brother, I asked what was up.

'Just as well you sent me out, not young Quintus, Falco. I started at the Forum, and was intending to work over to the eastern side, moving towards where the Metelli live. I checked all the streets at the back of the public buildings on the western side first. Around there it's bookshops and jewellers mainly, but one or two other booths can be found tucked in under the Palatine. I thought there might be incense-sellers -'

'An entirely sane presumption, given the temples.' Honorius sounded unduly straight. Aelia.n.u.s shot him a surly look in case he was being sarcastic.

He let the pause linger, milking it. Then he came out with his big discovery: 'I found a man who admitted selling hemlock, last autumn.'

'Well done.' I was surprised.

'Mind you,' murmured Honorius, playing the sceptical advocate, 'was it the right hemlock?'

'It's our stuff,' smirked Aelia.n.u.s. He seemed unfazed by Honorius.

'Proving this is the dose used on Metellus won't be easy after all this time -'

'This was not a simple transaction; hemlock isn't a stock item,' said Aelia.n.u.s, suddenly the expert. 'You don't just turn up and pick your bunch of leaves from the bundles hanging on a stall. It was special order; the seller had to have the plant fetched from a market garden he owns out in the countryside.'

'So he had several meetings with the buyer?' I could see where Aulus was heading.

'At least two. Naturally I wanted to know more about this buyer,' Aelia.n.u.s emphasised heavily to Honorius.

Honorius had an ear for a witness who was about to make a dramatic statement. 'And?'

'The seeker of endless sleep was a man in his forties. Not patrician, not a slave, probably not a freedman either. Stocky, shorn head, heavy outerwear, could be a bruiser. Familiar?' Stilled, I glanced at him. Aelia.n.u.s knew I had recognised the description. Honorius nervously shook his head.

'Could almost be someone daft enough to settle up with a signature!' Aelia.n.u.s grinned. 'He wanted to pay with cash, but hemlock is an unusual request and the seller was an opportunist, so the price was exorbitant. The buyer fetched out his purse, but he hadn't enough money on him. Sadly, just as he was about to write a banker's draft on his employer's account, he changed his mind.'

'Now that would have been a piece of luck for us - and absolutely daft for him!' I said. 'He never did it?'

'No. He remembered some coins that he kept in his boot. My seller joked that he could identify him by his athlete's foot.'

'Sensational in court! Enough suspense,' I chivvied. 'Who was this poison-purchaser?' I already knew, of course. So when Aelia.n.u.s tried to squeeze more glory from the moment by dragging things out even longer, I myself said quietly, 'It was Bratta.'

Bratta was the informer used by Paccius Africa.n.u.s. He was on my mind today. For one thing, as I lay dreaming in bed I had become sure it was Bratta's voice that had ordered me to give up this case last night. Once I had thought of him, I had no doubt it had been Bratta's boot that kicked me in the eye.

XXVI.

WE TOOK stock.

'You have,' listed Helena, annoying both her brother and Honorius by the ease with which she took charge, 'an opinion that Calpurnia Cara must have offended her husband.'

'That can be built up well in court,' Honorius interposed.

'No doubt. Alternatively, Rubirius Metellus may just have been a mean old tyrant, who behaved spitefully to a wife of forty years who deserved far better!'

'But we make our point first.' Honorius smiled.

Helena shrugged. 'I see. You say, What husband would dream of removing from his faithful wife all the comforts she has enjoyed through their long marriage - unless he believes her affection is fraudulent - maybe he even suspects she is capable of murder if he will not act as she wishes...'

'Why did they not divorce?' I wondered.

'Easy,' Helena snapped. 'Metellus had written her out of his will - but Calpurnia did not know.' She gave me a long look and I made two mental notes. One, it was time I prepared a testament. Two, Helena Justina should feature in it.

'But if he hated her, why not tell her?'

'Scared, Marcus.'

'A man scared of his wife!'

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