A dying light in Corduba

LXVI

This time fear had no hold on me. Old anxieties surged around as they always would do, but I was in control.

I found the quaestor very quickly. Nobody could mistake that handsome, wholesome appearance. He was standing, talking to a contractor; the other man looked grateful for my interruption and positively scampered off. Quinctius Quadratus greeted me with warmth, as if we were old dice- playing friends.

This was not one of the great underground workings, but virtually open-cast. We had met at the head of an entry to a seam, more of a cleft in the side of a slope than a real shaft. Below us open tunnels had been carved out like long caves with overhanging roofs. The constant chipping of picks reached our ears Slaves were clambering up and down an ungainly wooden ladder, ribs showing, all skinny limbs and outsize bony elbows, knees and feet. They carried the sacklike sagging weight of ore-baskets on their shoulders in a jostling chain while Quadratus Posed like a colossus at the top of their route, quite unaware that he was positioned in their way.

He had made no attempt to hide from me. In his eyes there could be no reason for him to act the fugitive.

'Do you want to talk indoors, quaestor?'

'It's pleasant here. What can I do for you?'

'A few answers, please.' I would have to pose extremely simple questions. His brain had the consistency of a slab of lead. I folded my arms and talked in a straightforward way like a man he could trust. 'Quinctius Quadratus, I have to put to you some charges which you will see are immensely serious. Stop me if you consider anything is unfair.'

'Yes, I will.' He looked meek.

'You are believed to have been the sole mover, or to have assisted, in tampering with an official report on corruption which had been written by your predecessor Cornelius; you altered it significantly while the document was at your father's house after being taken there by Camillus Aelianus.'

'Oh!' he said.

'You have also been accused of inveigling Rufius Constans – a minor who was under your influence – into supplying a dancer to the Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica. The girl subsequently attacked and killed an imperial agent, a man called Valentinus, and seriously wounded Anacrites, the Chief Spy. The charge is that you incited Rufius to join you in hiring the dancer to do the killings, that you took him with you when you arranged this, and that with him you hid in the shadows and witnessed the first murder. You then got drunk, and later lied about where you had been that night. Rufius Constans confessed everything to a witness, so there will be full corroborative testimony.'

'That's a tough one,' he said.

'There is evidence that you were with Rufius Constans when he was crushed under a grinding-stone, and that you then abandoned him alone with his injuries.'

'I should not have done that,' he apologised.

'I possess physical proof that you took my carriage to visit him. I ask you to tell me whether or not you engineered the apparent accident?'

'Ah!' he responded quietly. 'Of course it was an accident.'

'The dancing girl Selia has been found strangled at your father's estate near Corduba. Do you know anything about that?'

Quadratus looked shocked. 'I do not!'

Well, I believed that.

'There are those who believe you are unsuitable to be quaestor, though you will be glad to know that in my opinion mere ineptitude is not an indictable offence.'

'Why would I want to do these things you mention?' he asked me in a wondering tone. 'Is there supposed to have been some personal advantage to me?'

'Financial motives have certainly been suggested. I'm prepared to be persuaded most of it was caused by complete irresponsibility.'

'That's a hard verdict on my character!'

'And it's a poor excuse for murder.'

'I have a good explanation for everything.'

'Of course you have. There will always be excuses – and I believe you will even convince yourself that the excuses are true.'

We were still standing at the top of the exit from the seam. Quinctius moved aside abstractedly as a chain of slaves began to climb out via the ladder, each with his head down as he carried a basket of newly hewn rocks. I signalled the quaestor to walk further off with me, if only to give the poor souls room, but he seemed rooted to the spot. They managed to get past him somehow, then another lot descended the ladder, most of them going down like sailors, with their backs to the rungs and facing out.

'Thank you for your frankness, Falco.' Quadratus ran his hand through that mop of luxuriant, smartly cut hair. He looked troubled, though perhaps only by the necessity to interrupt his self-appointed mission to inspect these mines. 'I shall consider what you have said very carefully, and Provide an explanation for everything.'

'Not good enough. These are capital charges.'

He was still standing there, a sturdy, muscular figure with a bland expression but a Pleasing, good-looking face. He had everything that makes a man popular – not merely with women, but with voters, strangers, and many of his peers. He could not understand why he failed to win over his superiors. He would never know why he did not impress me.

'Can we discuss this later?'

'Now, Quadratus!'

Apparently he did not hear me. He was smiling faintly.

He stepped towards the wooden ladder and began to descend. Ever incompetent, he had followed the method used by the more practised slaves – facing outwards instead of first turning around to give himself a proper hold.

I had done nothing to alarm or threaten him. I can say that faithfully. Besides, there were plenty of witnesses. When his heel slipped and he fell, it was just as he said of what happened to Rufius Constans – an accident, of course.

He was still alive when I reached him. He had crashed down on to a ledge, and then fallen another ladder's height. People rushed up and we made him comfortable, though it was clear from the first he would not be recovering. In fact we left him where he was and it was soon over. He never regained consciousness.

Because a man has to stick to his personal standards, I stayed with him until he died.