The Accusers

XXXIV

T HAT NIGHT we reviewed the case thoroughly. Time was short. We decided to opt for a trial of Calpurnia Cara now, and hope to discover more evidence as we went along. This was dangerous. I did realise that – though at the time I failed to grasp just how dangerous it would be for me personally.

`You have no direct evidence to link Calpurnia with the killing,' Helena pointed out. `This will not be easy. She is not a woman to confess.'

`Trials are not decided by evidence, but arguments,' said Honorius, playing the expert. `All we have to do is suggest strenuously that Calpurnia did it.'

`And I thought you were an idealist! Can this be why most people hold the law in contempt?' I asked him.

The two Camilli, who were with us for this case review, sniggered. `We still have to persuade a jury that she did it,' said Justinus.

`Careful!' exclaimed his brother. `Clear guilt in the accused only gets prosecutors a worse name – for indulging in the profit motive when they make charges.' Aelianus' new satirical mode was alarming.

`Well look at us!' I was angry at us myself `We have ganged up on this woman, we are conspiring to accuse her – and we targeted her in order to make money. If the jury decides to despise us, we may yet lose votes.'

`We are saving Metellus Negrinus,' Honorius objected.

`By making him live with the knowledge that his father slept with his wife and his mother killed his father?' Helena was unimpressed.

`What we need,' Honorius fretted, `is not just a violent dose of poison – that usually convicts women, for some reason – but to be able to say Calpurnia used spells.'

`All she did was sell her jewellery and consult a fortune-teller,' I said. `Plenty of women do that.'

Honorius threw back his arms above his head and let out a wild cry. 'Aah! What fortune telling? Tell me! A bonus! Magic practices? Astrologers? We've got her then! Falco, this is the most important evidence we could have.'

I recoiled from his excitement. `Maybe she just wanted to know her own future?'

`Never mind what she wanted,' Honorius said, his teeth clenched. `The court will know what to think – and it's entirely in our favour.'

I handed out queries for investigation. I would try to interrogate the banker, Aufustius. I took Justinus to help. Aelianus was to ride down the Via Appia, find the Metellus monument, and check any memorial to Metellus senior. Helena volunteered to attempt entry at Saffia Donata's apartment. Honorius would try to track down the horoscope-seller, Olympia.

First thing, however, we obtained an appointment with the praetor. Work must have been slack; he saw us within a couple of hours, the same day. We made our denunciation of Calpurnia. He was unimpressed. We mentioned the will. We alluded to Saffia and incestuous adultery. We said Calpurnia was angry. We said she used a fortune-teller. We emphasised that her husband died days before she had said he did; we claimed that she had now burned Saffia's coverlet to hide the evidence.

`It seems a hygienic precaution,' the praetor objected. He had fastened on the least important aspect, naturally.

`The precaution had been omitted for a whole three months, sir,' I pointed out. `Calpurnia Cara only ordered the destruction of the coverlet once I had seen it.'

`Oh well. We cannot have a Roman matron, a mother of three children I notice, being a bad housewife,' grinned the praetor. This was a snob who believed a woman should work in wool and keep the home, earning that sweet lie, `She never quarrelled' on her epitaph; the swine probably kept three mistresses and stinted his wife on her food budget. No question, he was allowing us more leeway with a case against a woman than he would tolerate in a case against a man. He fixed a date for a pre-trial where Calpurnia could hear our evidence, and we rushed off to gather some.

Justinus and I took the banker Aufustius to lunch.

He was cautious and defensive, but then people were constantly complaining about his interest charges and pursuing him for loans. Nobody ever treated him, because his clients all thought his fees were steep enough and they did not want to look extravagant. Giving him lunch was a cheap investment. He was delighted with a plate of grilled fish and a wine chaser.

He told us the Metelli had been a well-set-up family until a few years ago; then he realised they had eaten into their reserves and were spending prolifically.

`A thought strikes me,' Justinus mused. `After they lost the corruption trial, Silius told us his compensation as the accuser was assessed at a million and a quarter sesterces. Isn't the going rate about a quarter of the condemned man's estate?'

`It is.' Aufustius nodded. `The figure was based on their Census return.'

`That was two years ago then.' I had been involved with the Census – a pleasant commission, and lucrative. `Most people tried to undervalue their worth to avoid taxes. As a banker, you would know!' Aufustius sucked a fishbone and gave nothing away. `In order to put Negrinus into the Senate the family had to have a million's worth of land – that's just to qualify. Election expenses would have been substantially more,' I pointed out. `Nowadays these folk are at rock bottom. So where did it all go, Aufustius?'

`People do lose everything,' the banker sighed.

`True.' Justinus refilled a beaker for Aufustius. We toasted our guest, but then put down our cups. Justinus listed possible disasters: `Volcanoes, earthquakes, ships that sink in storms, seedy confidence tricksters who run off with the deed boxes…'

`Their cash went down to zero,' Aufustius said. `I assumed it was the trial.' I told him they had not paid the compensation yet. He looked puzzled.

`What about their landed estate?' Justinus asked him.

`I don't see that side. Well, except for the income. Rents and product revenues seem to have dried up. Maybe they have sold the land.'

`Who would know?'

`They had a land agent, a freedman, last I heard. What's his name… Julius Alexander.'

Justinus sat up slightly. `Lives in Lanuvium?'

`Yes. That's where they came from originally.' Interesting.

Justinus looked annoyed. `I didn't connect him directly. Why is he called Julius, not Metellus?'

`Julia was the grandmother. She must have freed him. The rest seem very fond of him.'

`Ever met him?'

`No.'

`I was impressed.' Justinus swallowed wine. `He was organised, pleasant, good to deal with. I would think if he runs an estate, he runs it well.'

`During the son's tenure of his aedileship, did you see any of the bribes?' I asked Aufustius.

`No comment.'

`Oh go on.'

`Well, I wouldn't tell you if I had – but I never did. I was very surprised to hear about the case. I had no idea all that backhanding went on. I can't even guess where they stashed away the "gifts". It makes no sense to me. All the time, their bankboxes here were debouching coins like flood-water running off a mountainside.'

Justinus asked the waiter to refresh our bread basket. We sat in silence while he went behind the counter and returned.

With the new crunchy rolls we changed the subject. `What's the history with Lutea?'

`This is not to be repeated, right, Falco?' Oh no. Only in court. `I don't know what he's up to, but he thinks he's riding high. I haven't seen much coming in yet, though he keeps promising. This is a change for Lutea, understand. He knows how to bluff socially, but he was once on the verge of bankruptcy. His debts made me feel faint. I couldn't bear to tot up the damage. He and Saffia were a promiscuous couple!'

`What?' It was my turn to be startled, though with other people's sex lives, you should be prepared for anything. `Lewd practices?'

`No, no. Well, not as far as I know!' Aufustius laughed coarsely. `What they got up to in the bedroom wouldn't bother me. I meant they had no self-control -' He was enjoying himself. I looked at him sideways. `On the bills side!'

`They spent well?'

`Oh shocking.'

`And that was why Saffia's father divorced her?' Justinus asked. `They were in such trouble moneywise? Her papa blamed Lutea?'

`Oh she was as bad as Lutea – and Negrinus was all her idea, if you ask me. I saw the downfall happen. Her father kept her on a tight rein at home; she married young, got her hands on the dowry, then she and Lutea just ran through it.' The banker shook his head. `Saffia always hopes for a financial miracle.'

`She seems to have found one,' I muttered. `Her new apartment is stuffed with loot. And your client Lutea is hovering close. So now he tells you he's looking to be more solvent…'

`Saffia has a big legacy coming. Lutea says he intends to remarry her.' Aufustius suddenly looked troubled by his indiscretion. `That may be confidential -'

`Or glaringly obvious! They stayed close?'

`Well, they had the boy… I never knew why they separated. The Metelli were very well off, but Saffia was losing all her independence with the new marriage. The wife of an unemancipated son in a household that was governed by strict and suspicious parents couldn't hope for much. Calpurnia Cara must have curbed Saffia's love of lavish shopping.'

`How about this,' I proffered. `The Metelli lost their funds because – for some strange reason – their cash moved swiftly to the interesting Saffia?'

`But why?' asked the banker, quite baffled.

`She has some hold over them. It has to be something very big.' I was working up slowly to our solution.

`She could have known about the corruption,' Justinus offered. `Blackmailed them over that?'

`Everyone knows about it now,' I argued. `Yet Saffia has still got them. No, I think Saffia made herself a sweet little friend to Metellus senior.

The banker was thrilled. `That's rather unsavoury!'

`Especially if Lutea put her up to it.'

`A pimp?' Aufustius pulled a face; he almost seemed fond of Lutea as a client. `Oh he's not that bad!'

I grinned. `Then Saffia must have thought of it all by herself.'

`Better ask her then. But do me a favour,' pleaded Aufustius. `Penurious clients are agony. Don't stop whatever is due to come to Licinius Lutea!'

Nothing was due to him, in my opinion. That did not mean he was not intending to take a great deal.

When we left the banker, Justinus ran a hand through his straight hair. `We need a talk with the land agent. Someone needs to go to Lanuvium.'

`If you were not a new father, I'd be sending you.'

He volunteered anyway. He assured me that Claudia Rufina was a dear girl who would understand.

I doubted that. But Justinus was reliable and if he was daft enough to leave his wife I would let him go.

Helena had failed to wheedle admittance to Saffia's apartment. The baby was still not born, after an already very long labour. This did not seem the moment to walk in and ask who its father was.

`Saffia must be exhausted.' Helena's voice was subdued. She meant the struggling mother was now seriously at risk.

Honorius attended the pre-trial hearing. Not trusting him, I went along too. The praetor agreed the case must be answered. Calpurnia had appointed Paccius to defend her and be her spokesman.

`Oh by the way, praetor,' Paccius murmured, just when it seemed all over. `The plaintiffs are alleging that Calpurnia sold her jewellery and went to an astrologer. Since magic practices are involved, may we seek trial in the murders court, please?'

The praetor glared. He was aware that he had heard this request from our side, on behalf of Negrinus, and that he had crisply denied it. This time he was not defending the right of a senator to trial by like-minded nobility. Calpurnia was merely the daughter, wife and mother of senators.

I could see why Paccius Africanus had taken up our ploy. The Senate had a long history of voting against women accused of murder by poison with mystical overtones; these sorceresses were packed straight off home to cut their wrists in a hot bath. While it was entirely in our interests that our accused should be put before the Senate, whose members would be outraged that one of their illustrious number had been slain at home by his wife, Paccius wanted to avoid it.

`Oh yes. Magic belongs in the murders court,' the praetor announced.

The chief magistrate in Rome may be a blithering incompetent, but when the magistrate makes a pronouncement, there is no appeal. We were stuck with it.

Aelianus came back cold and angry from the Via Appia. It had taken him hours to find the Metellus mausoleum in the strung-out highway necropolis. When he did identify his goal, the door was locked. Breaking into a tomb is a serious offence. By the time Aelianus, a terrible burglar, managed to effect entry, it was dusk, he was scared he had attracted notice, and he had cut his hand. Inside, he was thwarted: no proper inscription had yet been provided.

`Why, what did you see there?'

'Nothing. It was bloody dark.'

`Afraid of ghosts?'

`No, robbers. And spells. That vicinity is famous for witches and perverts. I wouldn't hang about as prey. I had a quick look. There was nothing that named Negrinus – nor his mother, come to that. I identified the glass urn that contains the ashes of Metellus senior. Over it, there was just a marble tablet erected by the two daughters. I guess the proper plaque is still lying in some mason's yard. Either poor old hopeless Birdy has forgotten to organise it, or more likely he can't pay for it and the mason refuses to hand it over.'

It fitted. We knew the impoverished son had had to beg for last minute inclusion on a freedman's plaque. Julius Alexander, who as a land agent would be able to afford a memorial to a patron, had allowed Negrinus to be tagged on to his own inscription. It must be hard for Birdy to see an ex-slave now prospering when he was so completely luckless.

Was there something else dubious here? Julius Alexander, the mystery man in Lanuvium, could be yet another uppity one-time household staff member who was preying upon this family. I made sure that Justinus was primed to investigate when he rode off there next day.