Part 30 (1/2)

'So, Falco -' He was pretending to be friendly. 'You understand us now?'

I paused, then went with the theory that Negrinus was illegitimate. 'Around two years ago, Rubirius Metellus - who thought himself the father of a happy family, with a son moving up through the Senate - was shocked to discover that that son was not his own. I suppose this information had long been known to the wet-nurse who cared for Negrinus as a baby - Euboule. She somehow discovered his parentage from Calpurnia Cara. Over the years, she heavily blackmailed Calpurnia with the threat of telling her husband, causing Calpurnia enormous grief - not to mention the sale of her jewellery.'

As I unravelled the story, Laco and the others listened quietly. Negrinus had his chin up slightly, but he was taking it well - so far.

At my side, Helena moved slightly. 'In time,' she began conversationally, as if talking this through quietly at home with me, 'Euboule was not alone in blackmailing the family. It is obvious that she told her daughter Zeuko, who told the porter, Perseus. His demands must have seemed the final indignity. But long before then, enormous damage had been done by someone else - Saffia Donata.'

This time at the mention of her name, everyone tensed. I carried on the story. 'Rubirius Metellus was given the bad news when Saffia Donata began to squeeze. Saffia had found out during her first marriage to Licinius Lutea. She had placed their son Lucius for nursing with Zeuko. For Saffia, picking up an indiscreet remark from a wetnurse must have been a G.o.dsend. She and Lutea had money troubles. The Metelli were very wealthy. Saffia formed an audacious plan to divorce and remarry herself to Negrinus. Getting right in among the family must have helped her apply pressure - and it will have disguised from other people what she was up to.'

'It is shocking,' said Helena. 'We have rarely heard of such determined abuse. But once she had produced a child to tie her to the Metelli, Saffia began a vicious programme of extortion. Not just occasional payments; she wanted everything.'

Carina broke in: 'I want to make it plain, there was never any sordid relations.h.i.+p between my father and Saffia.'

'No,' Helena agreed gently.

Carina, once said to have been estranged from her family, seemed most keen to defend Metellus. 'My father was a man who stood up for himself. Some people found him aggressive - but he was just as strong in his loyalty to Negrinus. When he found out the truth, Father refused to reject him, you know.'

'We can see that,' I rea.s.sured her. 'And Saffia relied on it. Without your father's feeling for Negrinus, Saffia's plan would have collapsed. She needed the family desperate to cover up the secret. So Negrinus and his father were in shock together. Money flowed out of the coffers until Saffia's demands drove them to corruption.'

'We were desperate!' Negrinus himself spoke up. This was the first time we had heard him acknowledge what happened during his term of public office. 'Saffia had drained our coffers. As an aedile, you have to keep up your style in society -'

'You don't have to plunder the state!' I commented.

'There was nothing else we could do. Saffia was insatiable. Father even sold the land that had formed her dowry - he said it served her right.'

'Why on earth did you stay married to her?' I scoffed.

'One of her conditions for keeping quiet. Part of her cunning. She was always with us, making sure she kept up the pressure.'

'Besides, she pretended she was fond of you?'

Negrinus flushed and fell silent. I had only met her once, but she was memorably pretty. That explained the second child he and Saffia produced together. Whether it was his son or not, he must have reason to suppose it might be. At least the newborn stood more chance with him than with Lutea.

'And the will?' I asked. 'Furious and heartbroken when the truth came out, Metellus changed his will, disinheriting both you and your mother who had betrayed him?'

'Saffia made him do that,' Negrinus insisted, writhing with unhappiness.

'And that was when your father called in Paccius Africa.n.u.s to advise on how she could receive a huge legacy? A big mistake, I fear.' I leaned forward. 'Paccius had to be told the reason for the gift to Saffia? So two years ago, when you were first running for aedile, Paccius Africa.n.u.s learned that you were illegitimate?'

Negrinus nodded and said weakly, 'Paccius has always been professional.'

'Oh I am sure he kept it confidential!' I mocked.

Verginius Laco also sat forward. 'I am with you, Falco. In retrospect, I believe Paccius told Silius Italicus - who then lay in wait until he could inst.i.tute corruption charges. It was calculated.'

'And callous.' I asked Negrinus slowly, 'Did Paccius actually suggest to your father that he use your post as aedile to make money?'

Negrinus was surprisingly astute about that: 'You mean, can we mount corruption charges against Paccius? No. Father never said where the idea came from.'

'Nor, for that matter,' Laco added, 'can we prove that Paccius informed Silius of the situation.'

'You lose all round,' I told the victim.

'I do.'

Aelia.n.u.s, frowning, wanted to go back a step. 'I don't understand,' he asked, 'why Paccius had to be told the reason for giving money to Saffia?'

His sister shook her head at him. 'Think about it, Aulus. Experts say the will is open to contest. Paccius had to know why the Metellus children would not make a claim against it. He had to be told that the daughters would hold off to protect Negrinus - while Negrinus himself had no real claim in any case.'

'Your illegitimacy -' Aelia.n.u.s never knew how to be sympathetic to a loser - 'bars your inheritance?'

'What inheritance? There is nothing left,' Juliana's husband snorted. Then Rufus leapt up and stomped out. His wife briefly covered her mouth in distress.

People had called him bad-tempered; I could see why he might be. His respectable marriage to a daughter of a wealthy family had turned very sour. He had probably even lost financially. He had tolerated the scandal until now. But he had had enough. I caught sight of Juliana's face. She knew she was heading for divorce.

I breathed slowly. 'So will you now admit the truth about Negrinus?'

'This was my father's wish,' replied Carina. 'After the corruption charges, Father decided to take a stand.'

'It made my mother very angry,' said Juliana, 'but my father really did refuse to commit suicide. He said he would pay the compensation to Silius Italicus, and he would publicly declare the truth.'

'Your mother must have hated that. It was her deceit. When your father died anyway -'

'Mother was a very determined character. She said we had to rally round and back her up,' Juliana said. I was starting to think it was not so much Negrinus who was pushed around in this family, but her. She had carried the main burden of the 'suicide', with her elaborate fake story of sitting with Metellus on the day he died.

Helena clasped her hands, absorbed by the revelations. 'Your father's decision to reveal the true story caused Saffia to leave. She then had no reason to stay. And she knew she would lose her source of plunder?'

'She left at last. But then she decided she would murder my father,' said Carina bitterly.

'She had had so much -' Juliana agreed bitterly. 'She wanted her bequest, and she refused to wait. She wanted everything.'

'And she got it!' Negrinus growled.

There was a pause, as we all considered this.

It was Camillus Justinus who tackled the next aspect. 'You had defensive measures in place, however? Money that went missing has been quietly put into land - in Lanuvium, and perhaps other places?'

I turned to the freedman, Alexander. 'We had wondered whether you were among the blackmailers -' Julius Alexander heard this dispa.s.sionately. He was one of those solid ex-slaves who are held in great regard, close to the family who freed him, and in command of himself.

'But no,' Justinus corrected me, with a smile. 'I think Alexander remained loyal to a remarkable extent - and if I am right, he has positioned an estate where Negrinus can restart his life.' It made sense. The Metelli had come from Lanuvium, only a few generations ago; Negrinus would go back there, then retrace the procedure that had brought them wealth and status. He had probably gone to Lanuvium to make final arrangements, when Metellus senior died. 'Is that so?' Justinus insisted.

The freedman deliberately folded his arms. Calmly he refused to speak. All the others were silent too. Well, most of them were used to keeping secrets. What was one more? Justinus was wasting his time; n.o.body here would own up.

If Rubirius Metellus had been the defiant character they said, I could believe that he had surrept.i.tiously removed money from Saffia's grasp and invested it where the son he had loved could benefit. It would be untraceable, no question. If it was the proceeds of the corruption, he would have had to make sure even the Treasury could not unravel his dealings and reclaim the cash. It would have been cash, of course. Backhanders are.

Aelia.n.u.s now joined in with his brother, addressing the freedman in a haughty tone: 'People will think that you are Negrinus' father. Are you?' he badgered, always blunt.