Part 29 (1/2)

Light struggled to infiltrate through slits in the north- facing walls. I stood for a moment, accustoming my eyes to the half-dark of the small room. A faint rich smell remained from last year's olives. The confined s.p.a.ce was quiet, though we could hear the remote sounds of voices from theyard. The boy's body had been removed. It looked as if everything else had then been abandoned as it was.

'This is where the first crus.h.i.+ng takes place,' Optatus explained. 'The fruit is picked, and carried in deep baskets to the farm. It is washed, sorted, and stored in heaps on a sloping floor for a couple of days. Then it comes here for malaxation. The olives are crushed in this mill, to form a rough pulp, evenly mixed. After that they go next door for the oil to be pressed out.'

The crus.h.i.+ng mill consisted of a large circular stone tank, into which whole fruit would be dumped. A central column was supposed to support heavy wooden arms which ran through the centres of two vertical hemispherical stones; these were kept slightly apart from each other by a strong rectangular box into which the wooden arms were fixed. It was plated with metal and formed part of the pivotal machinery which turned and supported the grinding stones.

'Poles are attached through each stone,' Optatus explained in his steady, unemotional way. 'Two men walk around the vat and turn the poles slowly, churning the fruit.'

'So it's not quite the same as grinding corn?'

'No; cornmills have a conical base and cup-shaped upper stone. This is the opposite - a basin into which the stone rollers fit.'

'They move quite loosely?'

'Yes. The aim is to bruise the olives and free the oil, to make a slippery paste. But you try to avoid breaking the stones; they taste bitter.'

We fell silent.

The old worn grinders were propped against a wall, one flat side out, one convex, both stained dark purple and badly misshapen. Pale new concrete had been used to improve the basin. One new stone stood within it in position, already fixed upright to the central pivot though it was held fast on blocks. Both stones had been supplied withbrand new turning poles, their wood still white from the adze.

'You see, Falco,' my companion continued levelly, 'the roller fits fairly loosely. In use the pole acts merely as a lever to move the stone around in the vat. The stones revolve almost of their own volition, due to the pressure of the fruit.' Although the grinder still had wedges beneath it, he leaned on it to show me there was free play. Leverage on the pole would move the stone and tumble the olives against the sides of the basin, but not so tightly that the kernels were split.

I sighed, I fingered a collar, fitting tightly around the pole. 'And this washer - which I presume is adjustable - is fixed here on the outside to keep the stone on?'

'It should be.' Optatus was grim.

'Then I suppose I can work out what happened to the boy.'

'You will!' Presumably Optatus had already thought through events, and did not like the result.

The second grinding-stone lay on the ground. A pole had been partly thrust through it, but then smashed by a fall. Even in the dim light I noticed dark marks on the earth floor next to the stone; they looked like dried blood.

'So what do you reckon?' I asked Marius.

'The new grinders arrived two days ago but Licinius Rufius had not yet made arrangements for fitting them. I asked at the house, and apparently he intended to instruct the stonemasons who have been working on his new portico to do this job.'

'Why didn't he?'

'He had had a dispute with them about a column they broke, and they had walked off the site.'

'That's probably true. I saw the broken column when I was here before.'

Constans seems to have decided to surprise and please his grandfather. All he had said to anyone, however, was that he was coming over to inspect the new rollers before the bill from the supplier was authorised. 'Dear G.o.ds, Falco,if I had known his mind I would have helped him myself! I do wonder if he came over to ask me - but I had gone into Corduba to escape from Quadratus...'

'So they say he was alone - yet here we have the first new stone; already hauled into position.'

'I have talked to the workers, and none of them was involved.'

'This was some job to tackle! Rufus looked a st.u.r.dy lad, but he cannot possibly have moved the weight on his own.'

'No, Falco. That is why I rode over here today; I just cannot believe what is being said about this accident. It would take at least two men to manoeuvre and fix these grinding-stones - preferably four.' The concern in our tenant's voice convinced me his motives were genuine. Like me, he was a practical man. The flaws in the story had astonished and dismayed him so much he had had to see for himself.

'So what is the fixing procedure, Marius? Each stone has to be lifted into the basin - I presume you get it upright with a fulcrum, and use ropes to heave it in?' I glanced around. Now my eyes were more used to the light, I could make out discarded equipment.

Optatus confirmed how difficult the task would be: 'It's heavy work, but raising the stone in the basin is really the easy part. Then the grinder has to be held upright, raised off the bottom, and wedged.'

'To set it into position? It churns above the base of the tank?'

'Yes. Setting the height takes strength.'

'And courage! You would know if a stone like that rolled over your toe.'

'Or fell on your chest,' growled Marius, thinking of what happened to young Rufius. 'First you decide the position. Then somebody has to climb up and straddle the centre pivot to aim the pole into its fixing on the column - I have done that, Falco, and unless you get lucky immediately, it leads to some raw cursing. The man who is to guide the end into position soon hates the man who pushes the polethrough the stone. Making a fit is very difficult. You have to give clear directions - which your partner naturally gets wrong.'

Optatus painted a neat picture of the joys of teamwork. I wished I could see him trying to organise a couple of my brothers-in-law in some simple household task.

'Maybe Rufius and his helper quarrelled ... Rufius must have been the one on the ground.'

'Yes. The stone slipped, and fell out on him,' Optatus agreed. 'The estate workers told me they found him on his back with his arms outstretched, and the grinding-stone right on top of him. It had caved in his chest, and crushed his stomach too.'

I flinched. 'Let's hope he died at once.'

'He could not have lasted long. Even if the stone had been lifted straight off him, he would never have survived.'

'The point,' I said sourly, 'is whether he could have avoided being crushed in the first place.'

Optatus nodded. 'I inspected the pole, Falco.' He bent over it to show me. 'Look, the cap has not been fitted. It looks as if very few wedges were being used to position the stone in the basin either; whoever was doing this job must have been a complete amateur -'

'Rufius was very young. He may never have seen rollers installed before.'

'It was madness. Unplanned, unthinking incompetence. The grinding-stone would have beeu wobbling around on the lever, very hard to control. Once it started to lean out at an angle, the man on the ground might have jumped out of the way if he was quick, but more likely he found its weight too much to resist.'

'Instinct might have made him try to support the stone longer than he should, especially if he was inexperienced. Jupiter, it's ghastly - Wouldn't his friend up above heave on the top rim to pull the stone upright again?'

Optatus was blunt: 'Maybe this ”friend” pushed the stone out instead!'

'You're leaping ahead - But that would explain why the ”friend” vanished afterwards.'

Optatus became more than blunt; he was angry. 'Even if it really was an accident, the friend could have got the stone off Constans afterwards. He would still have died in agony, but he need not have died alone.'

'Some friend!'

A noise alerted us, too late perhaps, to the fact that Marmarides had just led in Helena and Claudia. Claudia's expression told us she had heard what Marius said.

Optatus straightened up at once and went to the girl. He placed both hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. The action was brisk and he released her immediately. Claudia gave him a half-smile, and unlike when Quadratus swamped her with condolences she did not burst into tears again.

Optatus explained in a few words what we had been discussing. 'There is no doubt; Constans cannot have done this work alone. Somebody - as yet unidentified - was here helping him.'