Saturnalia

Ganna said Veleda had made up her mind to escape immediately and being both determined and ingenious, she did so. She went alone. It was very sudden. Ganna was left behind; in the hurried investigation that followed, she was terrified to learn that the Chief Spy intended to interrogate her, probably using torture. She took advantage of the confusion at the Quadrumatus house and also ran away, not knowing where she could find her companion or how to survive in a city. Veleda had told Ganna that there was one man in Rome who might help them return to the forest, giving her my name.

I like to be thought of as a man of honour--but returning these women to the wild woods a thousand miles to the north would be harder than Ganna seemed to realise. For a start, the logistics would be appalling. But I had no intention of allowing either to go back to the Free German tribes, carrying yet more stories of Roman duplicity. Even if I could manage it, if the truth came out here, I would be a traitor, crucified by a high road and d.a.m.ned to the memory.

There was more. With extra tears and entreaties Ganna wrung her hands and beseeched me to help with a desperate problem. She wanted me to find Veleda before harm befell her "This is a very serious request," I said gravely. Helena Justina glanced across sharply. I always loved having duplicate commissions, if they came with a double fee. "And for a private informer, perhaps it is inappropriate." Helena shot me another sarcastic glare.

It did not stop Ganna. She was determined that I was the man for the business--for much the same reason as Laeta had been: I knew Veleda. Ganna believed that would make me sympathetic towards her missing companion, for whom she expressed worse anxieties. With more of those entrancing tears running down her pale face from her delicate blue eyes, Ganna said that ever since Veleda had arrived in Rome, she had been suffering from a mysterious illness.

Veleda was sick? That really was bad news. Captives who are destined to adorn famous generals" Ovations are not supposed to pa.s.s away from natural causes first.

It was bad news for me too. "Abate the fee" was the Flavian emperors" motto: I would lose the extremely generous reward I had been promised by t.i.tus Caesar if, when I produced Veleda, she was already dead.

I told Ganna I was obliged to work for money and she a.s.sured me that she had it to give. She left her gold torque as a surety. I say "left" because I quickly moved her out; I was uneasy about keeping her at our house. Apart from Albia"s hostility, there was the coming problem of ten disgruntled brutes from the German legions. They would know who Ganna was and might report us to the authorities for harbouring a fugitive. Helena knew nothing about them yet, so I kept quiet about the soldiers.

I persuaded my mother to take in the blue-eyed forest virgin. Ma was suffering badly from cataracts; although she hated needing a guide around her own kitchen, she was in so much trouble with her vision, she admitted she could use help. Ganna knew nothing of Roman domestic procedure now--but by the time my mother had finished with her, she would. It amused Helena to think of her one day returning to the wilds of Bructeran territory, able to make an excellent pounded green-herb dip. In Free Germany, she would never be able to find the rocket and coriander to show off at the tribal feast, but she would spend the rest of her life dreaming of Ma"s egg white chicken souffle...

I wanted Ganna kept somewhere under my control. Apart from the fact that it would salt her away from Anacrites" clutches, I was not fooled by the tears and hand-wringing. This young lady clearly had something she was not telling us. Ma would keep her under strict guard until either I found out the secret for myself, or Ganna was prepared to tell me.

I was right about her hiding something. When I discovered just what she had omitted from her story, I saw why. She should have known I would find out, though. I was going to the Quadrumatus house next day.

VI.

The day opened on a cool, crisp morning with a bite in the air that would make your lungs hurt if you had anything of a cold. Most people in Rome did. It was the time of year when a visit to a public library was orchestrated by coughs, sneezes and snorts as constantly as the rattle of snare drums and rime of flutes at some dimly lit dinner party where your millionaire host"s parting presents would include the pretty serving boys. If you didn"t have a wheeze when you started the day, you would catch something by your return. I had to walk along the Embankment towards the meat market, where some snotty stallholder was bound to catch me with his filthy spittle as I pa.s.sed.

I was visiting a senator with consular connections, so I had dressed to a high standard. I was wearing a good woollen cloak, with oily waterproofing, my current best boots, which were leather with bronze tags on the laces, and a seductive Greek Mercury"s hat. All I needed was wings on my boots to look like a messenger of the G.o.ds. Beneath this striking outer ensemble was a triple layer of long-sleeved winter tunics, two of them almost unworn since the last laundering, a belt with only three buckle-holes ripped beyond use, an empty money purse attached to the belt and a second money purse, half full, hidden between the second and third tunic to thwart any thieves in the Transtiberina. If I wanted to pay for anything that cost more than a bruised apple, I had to show off my privates as I fumbled through these layers of clothing to reach my cash. The sw.a.n.kyouterwear was not because I am impressed by senators, but because their sn.o.bbish door porters inevitably reject anyone who looks remotely faded.

I was an informer. I had spent seven years tracing stolen art, helping hapless widows manoeuvre themselves into legacies their ruthless stepchildren coveted, pursuing runaway teenagers before they got pregnant by handsome delivery boys, and identifying the blood soaked killers of nagging mothers-in-law when the vigiles were too busy with fires, chicken races and arguments about their pay to bother. While carrying out this fine work for the community, I had learned all there was to know about the arrogance, awkwardness, inept.i.tude and prejudice of the b.l.o.o.d.y-minded door porters of the city of Rome. That was just the ones who decided at first sight they disliked my chirpy face. There were also plenty of sloths, gossips, drunks, petty blackmailers, neighbourhood rapists and other scallywags out there, who were just too busy with their personal careers to let me in. My only protection was to find out that a porter was having a pa.s.sionate affair with the lady of the house so I could threaten him with revealing all to his jealous master. It rarely worked. In general the debauched mistress couldn"t give two figs whether her antics were known, but even if she was terrified of exposure, the door porter was usually so violent the betrayed master would be scared of him. him.

I had no reason to think Quadrumatus Labeo had a porter who fell into any of those categories, but it was a good stroll to where he lived so as I loped along I amused myself with the lore of my craft. I liked to keep the brain active. Especially in cold weather, when my feet were so cold from tramping the travertine that thought became too tedious. The last thing an informer needs is to arrive for a big interview with his once-incisive mind frozen like a snow-sorbet. Preparation counts. No point in meticulous planning of penetrating questions if you lapse into a coma as soon as they give you a warm welcoming drink. The best informer can be lulled into uselessness by slurping an insidious hot wine toddy with a lick of cinnamon.

Don"t drink and delve. Hot toddy after a long walk goes straight to the bladder, for one thing. You"ll never persuade the guild treasurer to admit he defrauded the funeral club so he could take three girlfriends to Lake Trasimene, if you are absolutely bursting to relieve yourself.

Quadrumatus Labeo lived outside the city on the old Via Aurelia. I trotted out of Rome through the Aurelian Gate, and kept going until I found a finger post with red letters announcing that the right estate lay up the next carriage drive. It took less than an hour, even in the dead of winter when days are short so the hours into which they are divided are also at their shortest.

I supposed his home"s location was what had made Quadrumatus attractive as a potential host for Veleda. He had an isolated villa on the western side of Rome, so she could be brought up from Ostia and slid into the house without pa.s.sing through any city gates and without too much attention from nosy neighbours and tradesmen.

There was one significant disadvantage. The priestess was the responsibility of the Praetorian Guard. I considered it critical that the Praetorian Camp layoutside the city too--but on the eastern side. The captive and her minders were thus separated by a three-hour walk across the whole of Rome, or four hours if you stopped for refreshments. Which, in my opinion, you would have to do.

That said, there was not much wrong with the place. Since Quadrumatus was a senator, he had a decent boundary thicket to stop sightseers watching his summer picnics in the grounds. These grounds were stuffed with shady stone pines and much more exotic specimens, jasmine and roses, topiary that must have been maturing since the time of his grandfather the consul, dramatic long ca.n.a.ls, miles of triple box hedges, and enough statues to fill several art galleries. Even in December, the gardens were awash with groundsmen, so intruders looking for a priestess to s.n.a.t.c.h would be spotted long before they reached the house. If intruders came on foot, they would be weary anyway. I was, and my home was well placed for this adventure. I had only had to stroll along the Aventine embankment gazing at the muddy, swollen Tiber, nip across the Probus Bridge and head out through the Fourteenth District, the Transtiberina, which is the roughest part of Rome so you don"t linger. I had pa.s.sed the Naumachia on my left, the imperial arena for mock sea battles, then the Baths of Ampelidis on the right, and met the old Via Aurelia which travels into Rome by a shorter route than I had come on, pa.s.ses the station house of the Seventh Cohort of Vigiles, and crosses the Tiber at the Aemilian Bridge, close to Tiber Island. I mention all that because as I surveyed the house on arrival I was thinking, I bet the old Via Aurelia was the way Veleda fled on her escape.

The Villa Quadrumatus lacked imposing steps, though it had a white marble portico that fully made up for that, set with very tall columns on a circular centrepiece, covered by a pointed roof. Pigeons had behaved disrespectfully on the big finial. It was too high for the household slaves to get up there on ladders and clean off the revolting guano more than once a year. If the steward was safety conscious, he probably made them build a scaffold when they had to do it--which I guessed was when they held their annual party to celebrate the master"s birthday and invited half the Senate for a feast at which, undoubtedly, they had a full orchestra and a troupe of comedians, and served their own vineyard"s Falernian specially brought up from Campania in ten ox wagons.

You see their style: Veleda, fresh from the dark forests of Germania, had been placed where she could witness the cream of Roman society in all their insane wealth. I wondered what she made of it. In particular, what she made of it once she realised these ostentatious persons would also one day be holding a glamorous garden party with two hundred guests, to celebrate the Ovation where she she would be humiliated and killed... would be humiliated and killed...

No wonder the woman took her chance and escaped.

The door porter did not fail me. He was a thin Lusitanian in a tight tunic, with a flat head and a pushy manner, who spurned me before I had spoken a word: "Unless you are expected, you can turn around and leave." I gazed at him. "Sir."

My cloak, being my smart one, hung on a big brooch with a red enamelled pattern, on one shoulder. I threw the material back over the other shoulder in a nonchalant gesture, barely tearing any threads of the cloak. This enabled him to see me stick my fists in my belt. My grimy boots were planted apart on the washed marble. I wore no weapons, since going armed is illegal in Rome. That is to say, I wore none the door porter could see, though if he had any intuition he would realise that there might be a knife or a cudgel somewhere, currently invisible yet available to whop him with.

I had my civilised side. If he was a connoisseur of barbering, he would admire my haircut. It was my new Saturnalia haircut, which I had had two weeks early because that was the only time the decent barber at my training gym could fit me in. The timing suited me. I prefer a casual look at festivals. On the other hand, there was no point investing in a cripplingly expensive snip, with a slather of crocus oil, if porters still sneered at my locks and slammed the door.

"Listen, Ja.n.u.s. Let"s not get off on a bad footing unnecessarily. You just go to your master and mention that I , , Marcus Didius Falco (that"s as in respected imperial agent) am here on the orders of t.i.tus (that"s as in Caesar) to discuss something Marcus Didius Falco (that"s as in respected imperial agent) am here on the orders of t.i.tus (that"s as in Caesar) to discuss something very very important, and while you (that"s as in unmitigated ning-nong) are off on your errand, I"ll try--because I am a generous man--to forget that I would like to tie your scraggy neck in a double clove hitch knot." important, and while you (that"s as in unmitigated ning-nong) are off on your errand, I"ll try--because I am a generous man--to forget that I would like to tie your scraggy neck in a double clove hitch knot."

t.i.tus" name worked like a love charm. I always hate that.

While the porter disappeared to make enquiries, I noted that there were two very large cypress trees in four-foot pots like round sarcophagi, one either side of the twelve-foot-high double entrance doors. Either the Quadrumati liked their Saturnalia greenery to be very very sombre, or there was another cause: somebody had died. sombre, or there was another cause: somebody had died.

M. Quadrumatus Labeo, son of Marcus, grandson of Marcus (a consul), had a bulbous shape hung about with a flowing long-sleeved robe, embroidered all over with lotus blossoms, which carried unexpected hints of Alexandrian decadence. I reckoned the pharaonic cuddler was worn for warmth; he was of straight deportment otherwise. A couple of enormous gold rings forced him to hold his hands rather stiffly so people would notice the metalwork, but his general manner was austere. His personal barber kept his hair clipped like a boxer, shaved him until his cheeks were the colour of crushed damsons, then splashed him with a light orris water.

I knew from prior enquiries at the Atrium of Liberty records office, his family had been in the Senate for at least three generations; I had been too bored to trace them any further back. It was not clear how this family had acquired their money, but I deduced from their home situation they still owned pleasant quant.i.ties. Quadrumatus Labeo could well have been a jovial fellow who kept his household in st.i.tches with his witty stories, but when I first met him he was preoccupied and looked nervy.

The reasons for this emerged straight away. He was accustomed to business meetings, which he probably chaired with dispatch. He knew who I was. He told me what I needed, without waiting for questions: he had accepted Veleda into his house as a patriotic duty, though he was reluctant to have her for long and had intended to make representations for her removal (which I fancied would have been successful). They had made her comfortable, within reason, given that she had once been a ferocious enemy and was now a captive with a death sentence. His house was large enough to hide her away in a self-contained suite. There had been minimal contact between Veleda and his family, though his gracious wife had extended the courtesy of taking mint tea with the priestess in the afternoons.

He regretted that Veleda had overheard details of her fate from a visitor. (Of course this indicated that visitors had had been allowed to gawp at her.) If he or his staff could a.s.sist me in my investigation of her disappearance, they would do so, but on the whole, Labeo would prefer to forget the whole ghastly incident--insofar as that was possible. His wife would never get over it. The entire family would be forced to remember Veleda for the rest of their lives. been allowed to gawp at her.) If he or his staff could a.s.sist me in my investigation of her disappearance, they would do so, but on the whole, Labeo would prefer to forget the whole ghastly incident--insofar as that was possible. His wife would never get over it. The entire family would be forced to remember Veleda for the rest of their lives.

There were some odd circ.u.mstances, Laeta had warned me. Ganna had said nothing, but I had sensed her keeping things back. I had a grim feeling. "What happened, sir?" Laeta had warned me. Ganna had said nothing, but I had sensed her keeping things back. I had a grim feeling. "What happened, sir?"

Sometimes interviewees waffle; sometimes they conceal the truth. Sometimes they just don"t know how to tell a story straightforwardly. Quadrumatus Labeo was an exception. He wasted neither my time nor his. His manner was restrained, but his voice was tight: "When Veleda escaped, she murdered my brother-in-law. There is no doubt she was responsible. His decapitated body was lying in an enormous pool of blood; the slave who was first on the scene has had a mental breakdown. My wife then found her brother"s severed head in the atrium pool."

Well, that explained the funereal cypress trees. And I could see why Laeta and Ganna had omitted this detail.

VII.

I had walked through the atrium when I arrived, but now I knew it was a crime scene I asked Quadrumatus Labeo to show me again.

While we stood on the marble-clad edge of a twenty-foot basin of water, I took out my note-tablet and stylus. I sketched the scene and indicated with an arrow where the head was found. Behind me, the Lusitanian porter ogled from the narrow, curtained corridor that led in from the entrance door; seeing his master, the lanky creep busied himself looking officious. Ahead, beyond the pool and the square s.p.a.cious hall with its scatter of plinths bearing pompous fat-faced busts, I could see an enclosed garden. Clipped box globes and a fountain in the form of a clam sh.e.l.l. Two stone doves drank from the sh.e.l.l. A real dove currently perched on one of the stone ones, cooing for crumbs. Cla.s.sic.

Not many beauteous patrician atria have severed human heads staring up from their water features. The head was gone now, but I could not help imagining it.

"When did it happen?"

"Ten days ago."

"Ten days?"

Quadrumatus looked abashed momentarily, then became petulant. "I was not willing to have strangers barging about my home, upsetting my family even further, until we had gone through the nine days of formal mourning. I am sure you understand that."

I understood all right. Veleda had now been on the run for too long. The trail, if I could ever even find it, would be stone cold. This was why Laeta hadn"t told me about the murder. I would have spurned the job.

"I"ll be discreet." My reply was curt.

At my feet, clear water lapped almost imperceptibly against black and white marble. The atrium pool, peaceful beneath a cla.s.sic square rain-hole up in the elegant roof, contained a small base upon which danced a floral female deity, in bronze, about a foot and a half high.

She looked cute, but I knew my father would have said it was a bad statue. The drapery was too static to be interesting, and the flowers were badly moulded.

"We had to drain the cistern below completely, afterwards," complained the senator, talking of a water storage basin that must be fed from the atrium pool. His voice was low. "None of my staff wanted to volunteer... I had to supervise closely in person. I needed to be sure it was done thoroughly."

I was still angry, so I said, "You wouldn"t want to end up drinking your brother-in-law"s gore." Quadrumatus shot me a swift look, but did not rebuke me. Perhaps he realised the position on the ten-day delay. With his rank, he must have been an army officer and he would have held civil posts where he needed to handle crises. Now he ran who knows what kind of property portfolio, with who knows how many interlinked commercial businesses. I could tell from his neat, calmly behaved slaves, he had basic efficiency. When you are dealing with an idiot, you see it in his staff"s expressions.

"Was any weapon found?"

"No. We a.s.sume she took it with her."

"Did Veleda come here with companions?"

"A girl- Ganna."

"Yes, I know about her. No one else? And did the priestess have any visitors while she stayed here?"

"My orders forbade that." Did he mean the orders he had issued, or orders that had been issued to him by the Palace? Both, I hoped. "Her presence was, as I am sure you know, Falco, a state secret. I only agreed to give her houseroom on that basis; I could not have tolerated disruption and public curiosity. We are a very private family. But to my knowledge, n.o.body attempted to see her."

"And tell me about your brother-in-law, please."

"s.e.xtus Gratia.n.u.s Scaeva, my wife"s brother. He lived here with us.

He was a young man of exceptional promise--" Inevitably. I had yet to meet a senator who described his relatives in any but glowing terms especially ones who were safely dead. Given that most relatives of senators are talentless buffoons, a cynic might wonder.

"And before Gratia.n.u.s Scaeva died so tragically, what were his connections with Veleda?"

"He barely met her. We held a couple of formal family dinners to which the woman was invited as a courtesy; she was introduced to him. That"s all."

"No infatuation on one side or the other, a flirtation that you might have been unaware of at the time?"

"Certainly not. Scaeva was a man of spirit, but we could always rely on him for proper behaviour."

I wondered. The Veleda I remembered glowed with l.u.s.trous a.s.surance. We had looked at her and gulped. It It was more than a queenly figure and pale gold hair. To win the trust of suspicious, belligerent tribesmen took special qualities. Veleda made the Bructeri believe fighting Rome was their only destiny; moreover, she persuaded them they had chosen this for themselves. She used strength of mind and strength of purpose. She was cloaked in an aura that went way beyond the fake mystery of most fortune-tellers and charlatans. She was brilliant, enthralling--and, when I met her, she had been desperate for intelligent male conversation. If she had been a prisoner for months, she would have been desperate again. was more than a queenly figure and pale gold hair. To win the trust of suspicious, belligerent tribesmen took special qualities. Veleda made the Bructeri believe fighting Rome was their only destiny; moreover, she persuaded them they had chosen this for themselves. She used strength of mind and strength of purpose. She was cloaked in an aura that went way beyond the fake mystery of most fortune-tellers and charlatans. She was brilliant, enthralling--and, when I met her, she had been desperate for intelligent male conversation. If she had been a prisoner for months, she would have been desperate again.

Veleda had been quick to share her thoughts and dreams with a "promising young man" when we we provided one. The young man I saw vanish up her tower with her had cast aside "proper behaviour" without thinking twice. I did warn him to watch himself, but he rushed at the chance to be close to her. provided one. The young man I saw vanish up her tower with her had cast aside "proper behaviour" without thinking twice. I did warn him to watch himself, but he rushed at the chance to be close to her.

Afterwards, Justinus had carried the pain of leaving Veleda behind for five years, and I saw no reason to think he would ever be free of her. So had Scaeva been captured in the same subtle spider"s web?

Quadrumatus Labeo had finished with me, whether or not I had finished with him. His dream interpreter had arrived.

"Nightmares since the murder?"

The senator looked at me as if I was cracked. "Such consultations aid rational thinking. My man calls daily."

So the dream therapist governed his every act. I kept my gaze neutral. "And did you consult him about whether to allow Veleda to stay here?"

His expression sharpened. "I a.s.sure you, Falco! I maintained scrupulous security."

I took that as an admission.

The dream therapist had a cold. He was wiping his nose on the sleeve of his star-spattered knee-length tunic as he brushed past me, heading after his dignified client to the inner sanctum. We were not introduced. I would know him again, though. He looked straight from the Chaldees, right down to the long hooked nose, peculiar cloth head-dress and air of having caught a disease from over-friendly relations with his camel. As exotic enhancement, he wore soft felt slippers with curly toes that had foully moulded themselves to the shape of his feet; he was a martyr to bunions, by the look of it.

His name was Pylaemenes. The house steward told me. To my surprise the slaves here seemed indifferent to the man; I had reckoned they would be hostile to an influential outsider--especially one of distinctly foreign appearance whose robe hem needed tacking up but who was probably paid zillions.

"We are used to all sorts," shrugged the steward, as he took me to find the slave who discovered the body.

This was a distraught waif of about fifteen, now trembling in the corner of his cubicle, hugging his knees. When I entered the bleak compartment, a typical slave cell which he shared with another, he showed me the whites of his eyes like an unbroken colt. The steward picked up a thin blanket and draped it over him, but it would clearly slide off again.

As a witness the lad was useless. He would not speak. It looked as if he did not eat. If nothing was done soon, he was a lost soul.

What could anyone expect? The steward had told me about him. He had been a cheery, useful teenager who then found himself alone in a room with a headless corpse. Born and bred a house slave in a home of refulgent luxury, where the owners were obviously civilised people and he was probably never chastised by more than wounding sarcasm, this was his first meeting with crude death by violence. Pools of still-warm, spreading blood, in one of which he had accidentally stepped, had horrified him out of his wits.

He was the flute boy. His double flute sat on a ledge in his cell. He had gone to entertain Gratia.n.u.s Scaeva with music while the young master was reading. I guessed he would never play again.

"Does Quadrumatus Labeo have a personal doctor? Someone should take a look at this lad."

The steward gave me an odd look, but said that he would mention it.

Next, I was taken to meet Drusilla Gratiana.

The n.o.ble Drusilla was a typical senator"s wife: an ordinary woman in her forties who, because she was descended from sixteen generations of senatorial stiffs, believed herself exceptional. The only thing that made her different from a fishwife slitting open fresh-caught mullet was her spending budget.

Drusilla Gratiana had papery skin, a suspicious expression, a twenty-five-thousand sesterces pearl necklace bestowed on her by Quadrumatus, four children of whom one daughter was betrothed last month, a troupe of pet dwarfs, a corn warehouse she inherited from her uncle, and a drink habit. Some of this I had extracted from the steward, the rest was obvious. She was draped in red-purple silk, which two pale maidens kept tidy while a seventy-year-old wardrobe mistress constantly supervised. My mother would have made a friend of this black-clad crone. Her contempt for me was immediate. I did not imagine the malignant attendant had seen Veleda as an ornament to the household either.

"We are expecting Cleander," barked the wrinkled and beady-eyed creature. "You"ll have to be quick!"

I ignored her. I addressed her mistress direct in a cool, calm voice that was meant to establish my credentials as a man of refined manners. It irritated all the women in the room. "Drusilla Gratiana, I offer my condolences on your brother"s dreadful fate. I regret any disturbance I have to cause to your household. But I must confirm exactly what happened, so I can bring the perpetrator to justice."

"As Phryne says: be quick then!" Mistress and maid worked as a team. Just my luck.

"Who is Cleander?"

"My lady"s doctor." I was told this by the black-clad Phryne, angrily of course.

The n.o.ble lady and her freedwoman were bound by thirty years of complicity. Phryne had decked out Drusilla Gratiana as a bride; she knew all her secrets, not least where she kept the wine flagon; there would be no b.u.mping Phryne out of the way. She was owed too much. She wanted to control Drusilla; she would stick around.

I cleared my throat. "I"ll try to be brief, then... Were you close to your brother?"

"Of course." Apart from the fact that Drusilla spoke rather dreamily, with a husky toper"s voice, that told me nothing. Gratia.n.u.s Scaeva could have lived with his sister because they were devoted or because he was a social liability who needed to be kept under tight control. The relationship between the siblings could have been anywhere on a spectrum between incest and outright loathing. n.o.body intended me to find out.

"Yes, I a.s.sumed that--because he lived with you. Was he your only brother, by the way?"

"I have two others and two sisters. Scaeva happened to be unmarried." So now I had it: of his five married brothers and sisters, Drusilla Gratiana had the richest spouse and the most comfortable home. Gratia.n.u.s Scaeva knew how to sponge.