Licinius had sounded fairly sympathetic, but I remembered Optatus" bitterness when he told me the locals had refused to become involved in his quarrel with his ex- landlord. I took a chance. "I gather Quinctius Attractus conducts business in a pretty ruthless manner?"
"He likes to be firm. I cannot argue with that."
"It"s a long way from the benevolent paternal style that we Romans like to consider traditional. What"s your opinion of him personally, sir?"
"I hardly know the man."
"I don"t expect you to criticise a fellow producer. But I would suppose someone as shrewd as you would have firmed up some conclusions after being the man"s guest in Rome and staying at his house!" Licinius was still refusing to be drawn so I added coldly, "Do you mind if I ask who paid your fare?" He pursed his lips. He was a tough old b.a.s.t.a.r.d. "Many people in Baetica have been invited to Rome by Attractus, Falco. It"s a courtesy he extends regularly."
"And does he regularly invite his guests to help him corner the oil market and drive up prices?"
"That is a serious accusation."
Rufius was sounding as prim as Annaeus when I interviewed him. Unlike Annaeus he did not have the excuse of guests to drag him away so I was able to press him harder: "I make no accusations. I"m speculating - from my own, maybe rather cynical standpoint."
"Do you have no faith in human ethics, Didius Falco?" For once, the old man seemed genuinely interested in my reply. He was now staring at me so closely he might have been a sculptor trying to decide if my left ear was a fraction higher than my right.
"Oh, all business has to be based on trust. All contracts depend on good faith."
"That is correct," he declared autocratically.
I grinned. "Licinius Rufius, I believe all men in business want to be richer than their colleagues. All would happily cheat a foreigner. All would like the running of their own sphere of commerce to be sewn up as tight as a handball, with no uncontrollable forces."
"There will always be risk!" he protested, perhaps rather drily.
The weather," I conceded. The health of the businessman, the loyalty of his workers. War. Volcanoes. Litigation. And unforeseen policies imposed by the government."
"I was thinking more of the fickleness of consumers" taste," he smiled.
I shook my head, tutting gently. "I forgot that one! I don"t know why you stay in the business."
"Community spirit," he laughed.
Talking to Licinius Rufius resembled the overblown jollity of a military dining club the night the pay-chest came - when everyone knew the sesterces were safely in camp, but the distribution would happen tomorrow so n.o.body was drunk yet. Maybe we two soon would be, for Rufius seemed to feel he had led me astray from my purpose so successfully he could now afford to clap his hands for a slave to pour him wine. I was offered more, but declined, making it plain I was only waiting for the nervous waiter to remove himself before I continued the interview. Rufius drank slowly, surveying me over the rim of his cup with a confidence that was meant to beat me down.
I dropped my voice abruptly. "So I met you in Rome, sir. We both dined on the Palatine. I then called on you at the Quinctius house, but you had gone. Tell me, why did you leave our splendid city so suddenly?"
"Family ties," he replied, without pausing.
"Indeed? I gather your colleague Annaeus Maximus suddenly developed pressing family ties too! And the bargeman, I suppose - and the negotiator from Hispalis! Forgive me, but for men of affairs you all seem to have made that long journey without enough forward planning."
I thought I saw him check, but the reaction was slight. "We had travelled to Rome together. We travelled home in one group too. Safety, you know." For the first time I detected a slight impatience with my questions. He was trying to make me feel like a lout who had abused his hospitality.
"I"m sorry, but your departure looks suspiciously hurried, sir."
"None of us ever intended a long stay in Rome. We all wanted to return home for the Parilia." Very rustic! And he had dodged a direct answer with the glibness of a politician.
"And of course this had nothing to do with Quinctius Attractus trying to promote a cartel?"
Licinius Rufius stopped answering me so smoothly.
We stared at each other for a few beats of time.
"There is no h.o.a.rding or price-fixing in Corduba!" His voice rasped so harshly it startled me. He sounded extremely angry. His protest could be genuine. He knew why I had come here though, so he had had time to prepare a convincing show of outrage. "There is no need for it. There is plenty for everyone. The olive oil trade is now flowering in Baetica as never before -"
"So once the trees are planted you can all just sit back and watch the fortunes flowing in! Tell me this then, sir: why did that group of you really decide to visit Rome?"
I saw him regain control of himself. it was a normal business voyage. We were renewing ties with our agents in Ostia and exchanging goodwill with our contacts in Rome. This happens all the time, Falco."
"Oh yes. Nothing unusual at all - except that the night your main contact entertained you all in the Palace of the Caesars, two men who had been in the same dining room were later brutally attacked!"
I could see he was forcing himself not to react. He chose to try and bluff it out: "Yes, we heard about that just before we left."
Twitching an eyebrow, I asked gently, "Oh? And who told you this, sir?"
Rufius belatedly realised he had walked into trouble. "Quinctius Attractus." A neat dodge, since Quinctius had enough importance in Rome to be well informed about everything.
"Really? Did he tell you who told him?"
"He heard it at the Senate."
"He could well have done," I smiled, "only the dinner forthe Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica was held on the last night of March. The Senate goes into recess from the beginning of April to the middle of May!"
Licinius almost gave away the fact that he was struggling now: "Well, I cannot say where he heard it. He is, after all, a senator and hears all the important news before most of Rome -"
"It was never news," I corrected him. "An order had been given on the highest authority that the attacks should not be made public. You people left the very day afterwards. At that time only a handful of people on the Palatine - a very small group in the intelligence service and t.i.tus Caesar himself - knew that killers had been at work."
"I think you underestimate the importance of Quinctius Attractus," answered Licinius.
There was another short silence. I sensed a worrying force behind his words. Ambitious men like Attractus always do carry more weight than they deserve.
Licinius felt a gloss was necessary: "The fact that we had dined with two men who died was, Falco, as you are suggesting, one of the other reasons my colleagues and I took our leave. The incident sounded a little too close for comfort. We decided Rome was a dangerous city, and I confess we fled."
He struck me as a man who would not normally run away from a spot of civic disorder.
Natural curiosity about the tragedy gripped him. He leaned forwards and murmured in a confidential tone, Did you know these two men?"
"I know the one who is not dead."
I spoke it very gently, leaving Rufius to wonder which one had survived; how well I knew him; and what he had managed to say to me before I left Rome.
I might have taken things further, though I doubt I would have been any more successful. In any case, it was my turn to be called away unexpectedly. An uproar disturbed us, then almost immediately a slave came running to tell me Ihad better come quick because my borrowed horse Prancer had wandered through the new entrance portico, and into the gracious peristyle garden with the beautiful topiary. Prancer"s yearning for foliage was insatiable, and he had lost all discretion. By the time he was spotted many of the clipped trees had ceased to look so elegant.
The Rufii coped with this accident in a terribly good- natured manner and a.s.sured me the lions would grow again. They just scoffed when I offered to pay for the damage. We all joked merrily that it was an act of revenge from their rivals the Annaei who had lent me the horse.
They could afford to replace the boxtrees and I couldn"t, so I thanked them quietly for their generous att.i.tude - then Prancer and I left, as fast as I could make him trot.
x.x.x
Helena Justina had very few clothes on. Any ideas this might have given me were soon banished by the fact that she smelt like a salad.
"I see you"re marinading the child!"
Calmly she continued to ma.s.sage neat olive oil into herstomach. "Apparently this will ease my stretched skin - and if there"s any over I can pour it on our lunch."
"Wonderful stuff. Want any help rubbing it in?" Helena waved a Baetican redware jug at me.
"No."
"Well, it should do you good."
"I"m sure! Like using oil in dough; perhaps I"ll be more flexible, and with a moist crust ..." Helena loved to collect interesting lore, but often had a hard time taking it seriously.
I threw myself on a couch and settled down to watch. Stricken with an odd quirk of modesty, Helena turned her back. Was there ever a more useful substance?" I mused. "Olive oil prevents burns from blistering and it"s good for your liver, it stops rust in iron pots, and preserves food; the wood makes bowls and it flames well in a fire -"
"In this country the children are weaned on a porridge made from olive oil and wheat," Helena joined in, turning back to me. "I"ve been talking to the cook. Baetican midwives smother a new mother with oil to help slide the baby out."
I chortled. "And then they present the happy father with a little dressed onion to name!"
"I"m giving Nux a spoonful a day to try to improve her coat."
Hearing her name, Nux looked up from a rug where she had been sleeping and thumped her tail enthusiastically. She had fur like rough turf; around her unpleasantextremities it stuck together in impenetrable dumps. "Nothing will improve Nux"s coat," I said regretfully. "She really needs a complete shave. It"s time you broke the news to her that she"ll never be a pampered lapdog. She"s a smelly street scruff, and that"s it."
"Give Marcus a nice lick for loving you so much!" Helena cooed at the dog, who immediately roused herself and jumped straight on the middle of my chest. If this was a clue to what kind of subversive mother Helena Justina intended to be, I was heading for more trouble than I"d thought. As I fended off a long, frenzied tongue, Helena disarmed me by suddenly saying, "I like it here. It"s peaceful in the countryside and n.o.body harangues us about our situation. I like being on my own with you, Marcus."
"I like it here too," I grunted. It was true. Were it not for the baby and my fixed intention to return Helena to our mothers" care in time for them both to supervise the birth, I could have stayed here for months. "Maybe we should emigrate to some far province away from everyone."
"You belong in the city, Marcus."
"Perhaps. Or perhaps one day I"ll set up home with you in some villa in a river valley - choose your spot."
"Britain!" she quipped wickedly. I returned to my original dream of a town house above the Tiber with a garden on a terrace with a view across to Rome.
Helena watched me as my thoughts idled romantically. She must know my situation was so disappointing all hope seemed pointless and all plans looked doomed. Her eyes sparkled in a way that made me push the dog aside. "Marcus, another thing the cook told me is that a diet rich in oil makes women pa.s.sionate and men softer."
I held out my arms to her. "We can easily test that!"
x.x.xI
Helena was asleep. Off guard and helpless, she looked more tired than when she knew I was checking up on her. I told myself some of her present exhaustion reflected my rampant skills as a lover, but her drawn face was starting to worry me.
I should never have let her travel so far. Bringing her to Baetica was stupid. I had no real hope of finishing my task before the baby arrived. The past two days had convinced me of what I should have known from the first: none of the suave local dignitaries was likely to admit what was going on. Exposing the conspiracy would take halfway to for ever - and finding "Selia", the dancing girl who liked attacking agents, might be impossible.
I had to allot more time to Helena, though I needed to balance this carefully with letting her help in my work; it tired her nowadays more than she wanted to admit. Another man with a different woman might have kept work and home separate. For us there was no choice. Helena became distant and unhappy if I left her out of a problem. If I encouraged her to help me, she tore in wholeheartedly - but was it wise? If not, how could I dissuade her? This was how we had first come to know one another and her interest was unlikely ever to diminish. Besides, now I was used to it I relied on her help.
As if she sensed my thoughts, she awoke. I watched the relaxed expression on her face alter to suspicion that I was up to no good.
"Don"t squash the baby," she murmured, since I was lolling all over her.
I roused myself and prepared to get up. "I"m taking advantage while I still can. You know Roman childrenexpect to start barging their parents aside from the moment they"re born."
"Oh, it will bully you all right," Helena laughed. "You"ll spoil this baby so much it will know it can do as it likes with you ..." Behind the banter she was looking concerned. I was probably frowning, thinking yet again that somehow we had to get it born first. Alive.
"Maybe we ought to investigate a midwife in Corduba, fruit. Just in case anything starts happening early -"
"If you will feel happier." For once she seemed prepared to accept advice. Maybe that was because it was me talking. I liked to think I could handle her - though from the first hour I met her I had realised that with Helena Justina there was no hope of issuing instructions. She was a true Roman matron. Her father had tried to create in her a meek, modest partner to some all-knowing male. But her mother"s example of quiet contempt for the opposite species was just as traditional, so Helena had grown up forthright, and doing just as she liked. "How did you progress with Licinius Rufius?" she asked sweetly.
I started pulling on tunics. "We were gossiping like foster-brothers until Prancer took to munching his clipped trees."
"Any results?"
"Oh yes, he cut them down to size 2." Helena threw a boot at me. "All right, seriously: Rufius takes the line that h.o.a.rding oil and fixing prices would be unnecessary. He says there is plenty for all. Like Annaeus he feigns shock at the suggestion that any upright Corduban businessman would be so greedy as to plot a cartel."
Helena slid on to the edge of the bed beside me so she too could dress. "Well, you"re used to being considered a crude slanderer of men with crystal consciences - and you"re also used to proving them villains in the end."
"Whether these two have actually joined the conspiracy I wouldn"t like to say - but someone has definitely asked them about it. I"m convinced the issue was discussed when they went to Rome."
"Would Annaeus and Rufius be particularly important in setting up a price ring?" Helena wondered, slowly combing her hair.
While she was trying to wind up a chignon, I tickled her neck. Being a rascal always helped me to think. "I bet they would. Annaeus is a duovir, for one thing; he carries clout in Corduba. Consider him first: from a great Hispanic family with extraordinary wealth. He could perhaps feel he"s above corrupt business ideas. He might even feel too much loyalty to Rome."
"Or too much to lose!" Helena commented.
"Exactly. But still he"s tinged with disgrace that was not of his making; he now belongs to a family of enforced outsiders - and he has his sons to think about. He looks a disaffected rebel in the making. Add to that his huge influence on the local political scene, and if I was recruiting for a cartel, I"d certainly be after him."
"He may just prefer to opt out," Helena argued. "His family have seen what happens to schemers. He may want the quiet life." I conceded the point as she pouted thoughtfully. "What about Rufius?"
"Different: a new man. Driven by ambition for his grandchildren," I said. "If he joins in, it will be because he wants a short route to power and popularity. If a price ring is set up, it would suit him to be known as the man who started it; other members would more readily support him in pushing his grandson. So I shall have to decide: is he honest or crooked?"
"What do you think?"
"He looks honest." I grinned at her. "That probably means he"s a complete crook!"
At last Helena managed to lean away from me long enough to skewer her hair with an ivory pin. She lurched upright and went to our bedroom door to let in Nux; I had shut out the dog earlier because she was jealous if we showed each other affection. Nux scampered in and shot under the bed defiantly. Helena and I smiled and sneaked out, leaving Nux behind.
"So what now, Marcus?"