A Body In The Bath House Read online

  I had crossed the fiery brands in front of me. Ends out, I rammed them at his mouth. It did at least make him miss his aim. He crashed onto me; we both bowled over backwards, and I kept rolling. I hit a hot cauldron. The pain seared my arm, but I ignored that. I grabbed its two loop handles, tore it from its hanging hooks and flung the whole thing at the dog as he squirmed around. Either the heavy vessel hit him or the boiling liquor scalded. He turned tail for a moment, whining.

  A second's grace was all I needed. I was on my feet. When he leapt again, I had wrapped my cloak around my hand and torn down a spit that was roasting a rabbit over a fire. I speared the dog with it; he expired at my feet. No time for shame. I ran straight at the group of men who had brought the dogs as they tried to round up the others. They were too surprised to react when I kicked them aside. While they milled about, I broke free of the campsite.

  Back in the woods, I took a new direction. Stumbling, skidding and cursing, I ran headlong. Bushes tore at me. Brambles clawed my clothes. Desperation gave me more courage and speed than any pursuers. The ground underfoot was deeply treacherous and I was in darkness. A few near invisible stars served to show my orientation but offered no light. I lurched free of cover, and knew from the noises and the smells of dung that I had somehow reached the tethered beasts. I dragged a mule around by the head and cut his rope with the knife I keep in my boot. Judging direction from memory, I rode past the parked carts.

  'Helena!'

  She popped up, still holding the lantern. What a girl. Wasted as a senator's daughter. Perhaps even wasted on being my girl. I should have let this Amazon deal with the dogs. One look from those scathing dark eyes and they would have cringed into submission. Me along with them.

  Hoisting her skirts and tucking the loose folds of cloth well into her girdle, she stepped off the cart sideways, sliding behind me onto the mule's back as if trained in a circus act. I felt her arm around my waist. With her free hand she held out the lantern to glimmer faintly on the track ahead of us. Without pausing, I geed up the mule and set off back to the old house.

  'Wait, where's Aulus?'

  'I don't know!' I was not uncaring, but I had to save Helena. She was worried stiff about her brother, but I would sort him out later.

  Helena groused, but I kept the mule heading homewards. Security flares on the building site soon lit our way more safely. We arrived at our dwelling-place, shed the mule and bundled ourselves indoors. We were both shaking.

  'Don't tell me -'

  'You are an idiot, Falco. So am I,' confessed Helena with fairness as she shook out her skirts.

  I was wondering how in Hades I could find Aelianus, when Maia and Hyspale both appeared. We told them nothing was the matter, so they knew something was wrong. Anyway, they would have realised when we were then disturbed by violent hammering at the outside door.

  I opened up. I did it cautiously, sneaking a quick look out for dogs. Magnus and Cyprianus, the surveyor and the clerk of works, were standing there. They both looked furious.

  'What a surprise at this time of night, lads!'

  'Can we offer refreshments?' asked Helena weakly. I hoped I was the only one who would see trough the light in her eyes that she was nearly laughing with mild hysteria.

  They were not here to socialise. 'Have you been out just now, Falco?' Magnus demanded.

  'A gentle stroll...' My scratched arms and legs and Helena's wide eyes must have given us away.

  'Have you been by the delivery carts?'

  'I may have ambled that way...'

  'Intruders were disturbed by the guards from the depot.'

  'What? Your dog-keepers? How lucky they were on hand to prevent trouble! What do these intruders say for themselves?'

  'That's what we have come to ask you,' growled Cyprianus. 'Don't mess about, Falco. You were there; you were recognised.'

  I reminded myself I was the Emperor's envoy and had every right to investigate anything I wanted. Guilt undermined me, nonetheless. I had been wrong-footed. Now I had a burned arm, canine teeth had ripped my tunic, I was hot and breathing hard. Worse, in my search I had found nothing. I hate wasted effort.

  'I don't have to answer you tonight,' I said quietly. 'I have imperial authority to skulk - I could ask, what were you doing out there with a bunch of savage dogs?'

  'Oh why are we arguing?' raged Magnus suddenly. 'We are all on the same side!'

  'I hope that's true!' I scoffed. 'We can't have it out at this time of night. I suggest a site meeting with Pomponius tomorrow. Now it's late, I'm tired and before you go, there was somebody else on the prowl near the carts. What have you done with that young man who accompanies the statue-seller?'

  'We never got him. What's he to you?' demanded Magnus.

  I kept up the pretence that Aelianus was a stranger. 'He looks wrong. He hangs about. He seems to despise the artwork that Sextius is supposed to be selling - and if you must know, I don't like the colour of his eyes!' Neither Magnus nor Cyprianus looked fooled. 'I want him found, and I want to interrogate him.'

  'We'll have a look for him,' Cyprianus offered fairly helpfully.

  'Do that. But don't beat him up. I need him in a condition where he can still talk. And I want him first, Cyprianus: whatever his game is, he's mine!'

  It did no good. I found out next day they had looked half the night for him. There was no trace of Aelianus anywhere.

  I went out myself at first light, trawling all around the site. There was flattened undergrowth everywhere, but Aelianus had vanished. By then I had realised that even if Magnus and Cyprianus had found him, they would never have handed him over to me until they had knocked out of him anything he had to say. They would extract more than that too. They would want him to incriminate himself - whether he was guilty of anything or not.

  At least if he was dead in a ditch, none of us had pinpointed the ditch. Only as the site came alive in the morning did I make myself reluctantly try the last place where he might be. Slowly, I dragged myself to the medical hut and asked Alexas if anyone had brought him a new corpse.

  'No, Falco.'

  'Relief! Thanks for that. But will you tell me if you get one?'

  'Someone in particular?' the orderly asked narrowly.

  There was no point pretending any longer. 'His name is Camillus. He's my brother-in-law.'

  'Ah.' Alexas paused. I waited, with my heart sinking. 'Better look at what I have in the back room, Falco.' That sounded grim.

  I whipped aside a curtain. My mouth was dry. Then I swore.

  Aulus Camillus Aelianus, son of Camillus Verus, darling of his mother and dutifully loved by his elder sister, Aulus my sullen assistant was lying on a bunk. He had one leg heavily bandaged and a few extra cuts for emphasis. I could tell by his expression as his eyes met mine he was bored and in a bad mood.

  XXXI

  'Look who's here! What happened to you?'

  'Bitten.'

  'Badly?'

  'To the bone, Falco. I am told it could go seriously septic.' Aelianus was dismal. 'They have died from less, you know. Alexas patched me up. I have to keep off this leg for a while, but I'll be kicking people with it soon!' I could tell who he wanted to kick.

  'You're just angling to be sent home to your mother.'

  'I am damn well not! I'm in enough pain.'

  'Helena will come over and sort you out. She can bring you to the palace. Camilla Hyspale can nurse you.' Aelianus shuddered. 'No, all right. You are suffering enough. Helena will tenderly care for you. I'm so relieved to see you, I may even straighten your bed covers.'

  I sat on his bunk. He shifted away petulantly. 'Leave me alone, Falco.'

  'I have been searching everywhere for you,' I assured him. 'The thought that you had died on me was heart-rending, Aulus.'

  'Shove off, Falco.'

  'Everyone has been scouring the site. So how did you get here?'

  I was the only entertainment available. Aelianus sighed and gave in, prepared to talk. 'You went off one way
and I headed back up the track. The mosaicist ignored me when I banged on his shutter. I had legged it as far as the painters' hut when some of the dogs caught up. I just managed to scramble inside, but one got his damned teeth into my shin. I shook the fiend off somehow, and slammed the door closed. Then I sat with my back jammed against that door and my knees braced hard, I can tell you!'

  'I'm sorry I couldn't come for you. I was rescuing Helena.'

  'Well, I hoped you had her.' The way he said it meant, on the other hand stuff you, Falco! 'In the end the dogs were called off and taken away. I heard that mosaicist lambasting the men outside for the noise the dogs made. He was giving them a real earful - so nobody looked in the painters' hut, thankfully. I was not prepared to venture out again. I thought I wouldn't make it anywhere anyway. I must have drifted oft into oblivion then the painter lad came home.'

  'Your brother's pal?'

  'He was completely out of it.'

  'Drunk?'

  'Lathered.'

  'So no use?'

  'Oh I was just glad to have human company. I told him what had happened and he listened blearily. He passed out. I passed out. Eventually we both woke up. It was at that point we noticed how much I had bled.'

  Aelianus told this tale with rakish fluency. He could be a prude over women, but I knew that as a young tribune in Baetica he was one of the crowd. Even in Rome, with his fond parents watching, he had been known to roll home at dawn uncertain of how he had spent the previous night.

  'The painter brought you to be bandaged?'

  'It was still very early; no one was about. So he hitched an arm around me and I hopped here. We told Alexas not to mention me to anyone.'

  'The painter could have let me know.'

  'He wanted to go back to sleep in his hut. He was not a well boy.'

  'Alexas could have given him a draught.'

  'Alexas said he wouldn't waste good medicine.'

  'Does this fine toper know you are connected to your brother?'

  'He knows that Quintus is my brother.'

  'Then he knows everything by the sound of it.'

  'He's all right,' said Aelianus, usually no fan of anyone. He must have felt really lonely in that hut last night until the painter joined him.

  He closed his eyes. Shock had taken its toll. Dog bites hurt badly too. I patted his good leg. 'You've done enough. Have your sleep. I am truly sorry you were wounded to no purpose.'

  Aelianus, who had propped himself up when I first entered, lay down again on his back. 'Shall I tell him?' he asked the low ceiling. 'Yes I will! He treats me like shit, he abandons me to die and he jibes at me. But I am a person of honour, with noble values.'

  'You are warped.' In fact he sounded like his sister. It was the first time any likeness to Helena had revealed itself. 'Yet in a crisis you act responsibly. Spit it out then.'

  'The painter lad has a message from Justinus which were they not a pair of reprobates they would themselves be telling you urgently. Instead, my brother merely informed this adolescent painter, about whom we know absolutely nothing, and he deposited the vital facts with me, a drugged-up invalid. He did seem to think you would find me, Falco,' Aelianus mused with some surprise.

  'I'm glad someone has faith in me... What's the word?'

  'You're in big trouble.' Aelianus always gained too much pleasure from telling bad news.

  I glared. 'What now?'

  'When Justinus and his friend were drinking in their favourite piss hole in Novio last night, they overheard some men from the site. Have you had a bunch of urchins collecting names and writing up a chart?'

  I nodded. 'Iggidunus and Alia. Checking up who really works on site as opposed to the inventive wages records.'

  'The men started out laughing about it. Thought you a real clown, wasting time on official nonsense. I hear there were jokes, some cruder than others. I was not given details,' Aelianus said with regret. 'But then one labourer who must have a sliver of brain saw the implications.'

  'They realise I am counting them?'

  'You reckon there is a numbers diddle?'

  'And I'm planning to stop it.'

  'That's what they worked out,' warned Aelianus, no longer mischief-making. 'So be on your guard. Justinus heard them making serious plans. Falco, they are coming after you.'

  I wondered what to do. 'Has Justinus had his cover blown?'

  'No, or he would be here, petrified.'

  'You underestimate him,' I stated curtly. 'What about you?'

  'The painter says they all regard me as your spy.'

  'Well, donkey's dingalings, you must have been really careless!' For jeering at his brother, he was due some insults back. 'I'll move you over to the palace as quickly as possible. We should have the King's protection in the old house. I'll ask Togidubnus to supply me with a bodyguard.'

  'Can you trust him?' Aelianus asked.

  'Have to. The working presumption is that as Vespasian's friend and ally, he represents law and order.' I paused. 'Why do you ask?'

  'The labourers who are after you are the British gang.'

  'Oh brilliant!'

  Whether I could trust the King - when British tribesmen were against me - was indeed an unknown quantity. Would his decision to be Roman override his origins? Would completing the project take precedence?

  Suddenly it looked as if my personal safety might depend on just how much the royal homeowner wanted his new house.

  XXXII

  The british involvement was confirmed by a quick trip to my office. Alia and Iggidunus had handed in their list of named workers there last night. The clerk Gaius had already worked through it. The non-existent men to whom Vespasian was paying wages all belonged to the local group who were managed by Mandumerus.

  'You may like to know,' Gaius said heavily, 'Iggy refuses to have any more to do with you; he won't even bring us mulsum. And Alia has been kept at home by her father. She won't be helping you again either.' Fair enough. I had no intention of placing the young people in danger.

  'How about you?' I scoffed dryly. 'Want to bunk off school as well?'

  'Yes, I tried to get a sick note from my mother. Trouble is she lives in Salonae.'

  'And where is that?'

  'Illyricum - Dalmatia.'

  'She won't get you off, then.'

  Gaius stopped bantering. He spoke lightly, but underneath it he was tense. 'I've never exposed a fraud before, Falco. I take it those involved won't like us now?'

  'Us? Thanks for aligning yourself with me,' I said. 'But you'd better say in public, 'I know nothing about it; I'm just the clerk.' Let me be the one who exposes the fraud.'

  'Well, you are paid more than me...' He was angling to find out how much. Any clerk would want to know. I did not frighten him by saying that if I died here I would not be paid at all.

  I took a chance. There was no real alternative. I found Verovolcus and without giving reasons I told him that my position had become hazardous: in the name of the Emperor, I wanted the King's protection for me and my party. Verovolcus was not taking me seriously so with reluctance I mentioned the labour scam. He said at once that he would tell the King and fix bodyguards. I then confessed that the culprits were the British group. Verovolcus' face fell.

  I might be surrounding myself with more trouble. But if the King was serious about Romanisation, he would have to abandon his local loyalties. If Togidubnus could not do that, I would be in deep trouble.

  I was now overdue at the site meeting - the one I had called. As I walked briskly to the ramshackle military suite where Pomponius had his work area, I was aware of a sinister new mood on site. It confirmed the message from Justinus. The workmen had previously ignored me as some fancy management irrelevance. Now they took note. Their method was to stop work and stare at me in silence as I passed them. They were leaning on shovels in a way that had nothing to do with needing a breather and all to do with suggesting they would like to beat those shovels over my head.

  Remembering the battered
corpse Pa and I had discovered back in Rome, I felt chilled.

  Pomponius was waiting for me. He was too much on edge even to complain that I had kept him waiting. Flanked by his twin caryatids, the younger architects Plancus and Strephon, he sat chewing his thumb. Cyprianus was there too. Verovolcus turned up unexpectedly just as I arrived; I guessed the King had sent him speeding here to see what happened. Magnus followed a minute later.

  'We don't need either of you,' said Pomponius. Verovolcus feigned not to understand. Magnus, strictly speaking, had no direct management role. Of course he did not accept that definition. He was seething.