Death at Pompeia

Eighteen

I had expected to see Helena Domna at the door but it was Livia who was shown into the room. She wore a long, dark-hooded cloak over her mourning robes, and beneath the hood the veil was double draped across her face — as befitted a new widow in a public place — so one could not see her features; but despite the drapery, the plump little figure was unmistakable. She was accompanied by her pageboy, and by Pulchra too — their tunics now bearing a dark band around the hem and neck. Minimus came in behind them, slightly out of breath.

‘This is the person that I spoke of, sir,’ the tribune said, as though the slaves did not exist at all — which I suppose they didn’t in his view of things.

The commander nodded. ‘Thank you, officer. I will call you if I need you. Wait below.’ And the poor fellow had to trot all the way downstairs again, looking as discomfited as a chastised child. I could almost feel a little sorry for the man.

Livia stepped forward, and lifted up the veil as if in this dim light she found it difficult to see. The action revealed that she had smeared her brow and hair with dust and ashes, as good widows did, but her face was still attractive, though it was strained and white. In fact, she looked so visibly distressed that even the commander was moved to a kind of awkward gallantry.

‘Madam citizen!’ He smiled encouragingly at her.

She gave an uncertain little smile in return, then bowed her head as modesty required. After a moment she said in a small voice, ‘Gentlemen, I understand that you have asked for me, and so in obedience to the law I’ve come — though I am in mourning for my husband, as I am sure you know, and by tradition I should not leave the house.’

Pulchra tutted. ‘The poor lamb only had an open litter too — all she could find in time — though perhaps it’s just as well. It meant I saw her passing, in the marketplace. It shocked me, dreadfully.’ She glowered at me. ‘I hope it’s important, now you’ve dragged her here. With her husband lying dead! You’ve only got to look at her to see that she’s upset.’

‘Hush, Pulchra!’ It was obvious that Livia was very close to tears. ‘I’m sorry, citizens. My servant means no disrespect to you. I’d sent her to the silversmith to buy this locket ring — ’ she held out her hand for me to see the ring that she was wearing on the fourth finger of her hand, the one that sages say connects directly to the heart — ‘and when she saw me she insisted on accompanying me here.’

I found it somehow touching that she should wear a mourning ornament like that. Granted that it was becoming the custom nowadays, that ring had been almost the first thing that she’d thought of sending for.

I smiled at her, and it seemed to give her heart. ‘So citizens, what is it that I can do for you?’

The commander said formally, ‘Libertus will explain.’

She turned to me. ‘Of course, I will help you in any way I can, but I am sorry I must ask you to be as swift as possible. I must return to take my place at the lament.’

She sounded so tearful I was instantly contrite. ‘I’m truly sorry to have dragged you here at such a time. I had expected to have Helena Domna come, if anyone. I was hoping that she would agree to testify on my account. There was a writing tablet which arrived for me today, while I was in your home. Your mother-in-law saw it, and read the message too — so she could have confirmed my own account of it. But I’m not sure you can. I hope we have not taken you unnecessarily away from the rituals which you should perform.’

‘My mother-in-law was not available,’ she said. ‘She has insisted on being the first at the lament, and of course it was impossible to interrupt her there. She will not be pleased to find I’ve come here in her stead, but perhaps I can offer the confirmation your require. I did not see the message, but I heard of it. Would that be evidence enough?’

I shook my head. ‘The real question is about what was written in the note. You see, Antoninus had invited me to visit him today and actually specified the time that I should come. I was found in what looked like guilty circumstances at his apartment, shortly after his dead body had been found.’

‘No one told me that.’ Suddenly she was standing very still. ‘But it is certain? Antoninus is dead?’

I nodded. ‘And not long before I got there, by the look of it.’

‘I see!’ She looked wildly around the room, and then composed herself. ‘It seems there was a curse upon our wedding feast! Well, citizen, at least I can confirm what you said about the note. Helena Domna made a point of telling me that Antoninus had invited you. You were to call on him at the ninth hour she said — and of course that was after the wedding was postponed, so you could not have planned beforehand to go and murder him. Is that what is required? I could even identify the writing tablet that was used, I think. I understand it was unusual, and my mother-in-law described it vividly to me.’ She gazed around the guardroom as if to look for it.

The commander shook his head. ‘That will not be necessary. You have said quite enough to verify that Libertus was telling me the truth. I do not think we’ll need to detain you very long. Just one question more. Can you confirm that your wedding guests were not required to bring a knife?’

She shrugged dismissively. ‘They would not have needed one. Our household makes a practice of supplying them. Why do you ask that? Did Antoninus have one with him when he died?’

The commander raised an eyebrow at me. ‘In a manner of speaking, you might say so,’ he observed.

Any irony was clearly lost on her. ‘Well, I suppose he would have eaten when he got home again. Few of our guests remained to take refreshment after my poor husband died — and Antoninus was amongst the earliest to be gone.’ Her voice was wavering,

‘Then. .’ The commander gestured to the door.

She pulled the veil across her face, as if to leave and beckoned Pulchra to accompany her. Then all at once she seemed to change her mind. She whirled around again. ‘Oh, Jupiter! I suppose, I shall have to tell the truth. It will only come out in questioning, if you speak to anyone. I was very foolish, I can see that now. But now he’s dead!’ She clapped both hands against her face. ‘Oh gentlemen, I’m very much afraid that I occasioned it. .’ She tailed off, and then said in some distress, ‘I’m sorry, citizens.’ She looked as if she was ready to collapse.

The commander took her arm and led her to the stool, poured out a little of his own jug of wine and lifted the pewter goblet to her lips. It was not until she’d raised the netting from her face and taken a good swallow that he spoke again. ‘You occasioned it, you say? What do you mean by that?’

She shook her head. ‘I think I might have. .’ She reached for the cup herself and took another sip. ‘You know he had private dealings with my husband, I suppose?’

I saw Redux stiffen, and he glanced at me. He was thinking about that statue, that seemed very clear. ‘What about?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘He never told me that. I only know that quite a lot of coins were changing hands and they would spend a long time closeted alone. Antoninus was always spoken of as though he was simply an ambitious friend and he always brought a gift of some kind when he called — as people do when they want patronage — but I tell you, citizens, I didn’t trust the man. My husband always seemed terse and preoccupied whenever they had met.’ She took another furtive swallow of the commander’s wine. ‘I sometimes wondered if Antoninus was actually a spy, whether for the Emperor or Honorius himself. He used to call on my husband very late sometimes.’

‘As he did last night, for instance,’ I put in quietly. I was not sure where this was leading, but I was interested.

She put the wine cup down and looked at me, surprised. ‘I don’t know how you know that, but indeed that’s true. GS I tried to find out what he’d come about, but he would not say. They were closeted together for an hour or two, and I confess I stood outside the door and tried to listen in, but I could only catch a muttered word or two. Then my mother-in-law found me and I had to go away. But he was there — and that’s the point, you see.’

The commander glanced at me. ‘I don’t see at all. What has all this to do with how he died?’

‘Well, when he came it seems he brought some garum as a gift — the most expensive kind that you can only get in Rome. The usual present for my husband, I suppose. I found a small container of it in his room today and knew at once it was not one of ours.’

‘You didn’t mention any such amphora earlier,’ I said rather sharply, ‘when I was asking about your husband’s death?’

She seemed to feel that I had been severe, because she rose and went to gaze at the goddess in the niche — as if to ask forgiveness from the deity. When she spoke her voice was quavering. ‘I did not really know of it, until you’d left the house,’ she said. ‘Helena Domna found it, and mentioned it to me. With all the preparations for the wedding feast today, I had not been in the room, but she went in to get some grave goods from his private chest to lay around his bier. She brought it out to me.’ She paused again.

‘And. .?’ the commander prompted.

She took a long deep breath before she said, ‘I have never cared for Antoninus, and I sent it back. I did not want to seem to be accepting gifts from him. Can you understand? It was a signal that I did not want him calling at the house when I was vulnerable and on my own.’ She turned to face us, and there were tears upon her cheeks. ‘But then when I heard that he was lying dead. . well, you can imagine what I thought. It would be a kind of dreadful justice, wouldn’t it, if Antoninus died from eating his own poisoned food. The same food that had poisoned my husband earlier?’

‘But Antoninus wasn’t-’ Redux had begun, but I interrupted him.

‘Surely the garum was unopened, though? You would not have sent it back to him half-used? And how could anything your husband ate last night possibly have affected him so suddenly today?’

She looked startled for a moment, then she gave a nervous laugh. ‘You are quite right, of course. It was stoppered, and it was obviously full. So Honorius could not have tasted it today — I wondered for a moment if he might have done. Well, there you are, I have confessed my foolish act — I thought that I should tell you at once, while I was here.’ She raised her limpid eyes to me and smiled.

I was still wondering if this might be relevant. ‘You are quite sure that it was Antoninus who brought it?’ I enquired. ‘It could not have been a gift from someone else?’

‘I’m as certain as I can be, in the circumstance. The doorman confirms that he arrived with it. And I am sure, Libertus, that he would tell you the same thing, if you care to come and speak to him again. And now. .’ She was visibly shaking with what might have been relief. ‘If there is no more that I can help you with, perhaps I might go home.’ She tailed off and broke into little breathless sobs, until Pulchra bustled forward.

‘There, there, madam. Do not distress yourself. This is not your doing. It will be all right.’ She patted Livia’s hand and murmured to her, as though she were a child.

The commander was clearly embarrassed by this emotional display. He was a military man, and not used to female ways. He gave an awkward cough. ‘Madam citizen, your servant is quite right. You obviously haven’t heard how Antoninus died?’

‘But surely he was poisoned? I thought. . That is, I supposed. . After Honorius. .’ She made a helpless little gesture with her hands.

Redux had been bursting to say something all along, and now he could contain himself no longer. ‘He wasn’t poisoned. He was lying dead across his desk. Somebody had stuck a knife into his back.’

‘Stabbed?’ Her voice was almost shrill with shock. ‘But who? How?’ She paused and with an obvious effort to regain her self-control, turned to the commander. ‘That’s why you asked about the knife?’

He nodded. ‘Though it is just possible the blade was poisoned, I believe. The tribune thought it was. Largely because the victim had clearly died at once.’

She got up abruptly from the stool at this. ‘So, it might yet have been dipped in that amphora?’ she began, pressing her hands against her heart again.

The commander looked at me. I shook my head. ‘I doubt that very much. The toxin would not be strong enough to kill him,’ I explained. ‘Not if it was diluted in the garum. Remember that it took your husband a little time to die — he stumbled and the servants thought at first that he was merely taken sick — and he would have swallowed quite a lot of poison in the wine. So it would be surprising if Antoninus died at once from the small amount of the same concoction that could be carried on a blade.’

‘Ah!’ She let out a little sigh and smiled tremulously at us. ‘So it was not my fault at all? You are quite sure of that? So you won’t be needing me?’ This time she did drop the veil across her face again.

‘I think it would be sensible to test the garum, though, if the commander could arrange that for us?’ I said. ‘I’m sure he could find a convicted criminal, who would be glad of a swift death — just in case there should be anything amiss.’

‘Of course. There would be several candidates — specially if I offered a pardon should the man survive.’ The commander seemed delighted that he had found a job to do. He turned to Livia, who was looking dubious. ‘Don’t worry about the fate of the criminal, my dear. He would have died in any case. And Libertus is quite right, we should do the test. Somebody poisoned your husband, after all.’

‘Perhaps we should test the other food as well,’ I said. I had been watching Redux all this while. He had lost his demeanour of effete, plump elegance and was twisting his fingers together like an impatient girl, as if he were uncertain whether to speak out. I decided for him. ‘Though I think we can ignore the wine jug on the window shelf, since Redux has already tested that for us.’

He had turned scarlet. ‘How did you know that?’

‘I wasn’t certain of it — until now — although I thought it possible. When the tribune came and was half-accusing you, you were ready to pour yourself a drink, though there were people watching and it was a very unusual thing to do. It all suggested that you turned to wine in moments of distress. When you found the corpse you were in the room alone. It must have been a shock. It seemed very likely that you would have had a drink — and when the tribune mentioned poison, you were quite alarmed. And you have just confirmed it.’

‘You can see why my master is so good at solving mysteries!’ I had forgotten Minimus who was standing behind us all this while. He and the pageboy must have heard all this. I turned to rebuke him, but the words died on my lips as the tribune reappeared with a clatter of hobnailed sandals on the stairs.

He stood at the doorway with my salver in his hand, and the soldier I had entrusted with it at his heels.

‘Your pardon for this intrusion, sir, I beg.’ The tribune looked flustered, and embarrassed, too. ‘But this soldier is wanted on parade and he refuses to part with this to anyone, until he has sight of the receipt. Says that he was half-promised a reward.’

‘This is insubordination, tribune. I shall see you later on. I made it clear that we were not to be disturbed.’ The commander sounded coldly angry, and the young man quailed. ‘But I suppose, that since you’ve brought the fellow here. .’ The commander opened the compartment on his desk and took the tablet out. ‘Is this what you require?’

I stepped forward to claim it, but it was the page who spoke. ‘But, madam, surely that’s your lost writing block?’