The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits Read Free Page A

unlikely.”
    “Noted,” I said. “Tell me about those other two people you just mentioned.”
    “Ah yes.” Scipio nodded. “Gnatho. Nasty piece of work, though you wouldn’t think so to look at him. You’re a Greek, so I’m assuming you buy into this beauty-equals-virtue idea that my teachers tried to beat into me when I was a kid. Don’t believe it. Gnatho’s a good example. Rich man, young, handsome; Calabrian, if I remember correctly. The short version is, Acer stole his boyfriend, so he got back by seducing Acer’s wife.”
    “Which means,” I interrupted, “Acer had a good motive for killing Gnatho, not the other –”
    “No, that was just the start of it. Since then, they’ve been at each other’s throats like Spartan hounds. In fact, I think the feud led to the seductions, rather than the other way about. They just didn’t like each other much, fundamentally.”
    “Well,” I said, “that’s a start. Who’s the other man? Licinius?”
    “Wealthy knight,” Scipio said. “Made a fortune buying prisoners straight off the battlefield in the Gallic war, selling them quick and cheap to the big Senatorial estates. Quite the inspirational success story, because he came out of nowhere, father was a blacksmith in Apulia, and suddenly he appeared on the scene with a purseful of money, and nobody knew where he’d got it from. Turned out some time later he was fronting for Acer – as I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, since a philosopher like yourself will undoubtedly have figured it out from first principles, Roman senators are forbidden by law to sully their paws with Trade, so what we all do is set up some likely character in a good line of business and quietly collect 60 per cent of the profits. As Acer did with Licinius; only he misjudged his man, because Licinius ran the business but quietly omitted to pay Acer his share; and of course Acer couldn’t sue or do anything about it, because he wasn’t supposed to be waddling about in the cesspit of commerce in the first place. So Acer had to use other methods to get his money.”
    “Such as?”
    “Such as sending a couple of retired gladiators to kidnap Licinius’ family, as a bargaining aid. But the boys he hired must’ve got clonked on the head once too often; they made a hash of it, Licinius’ houseboys started a fight, and the result was that Licinius’ father, brother and kid son all got killed. Well, Licinius paid up after that; but I’d call that a motive for murder, wouldn’t you?”
    “Sure,” I said.
    “And,” he went on, “Licinius has been following this whole campaign, buying prisoners at the pit head, so to speak; he hadn’t left last evening, waiting for half a dozen of his convoy escorts to turn up, and I’ll send someone just to check he’s still here in camp.”
    “Thanks,” I said.
    He shrugged.
    “So, that’s two strong leads for me to follow up,” I said. “I’ll go away and have a think about it, and catch up with you later today.”
    He grinned. “Don’t pull a muscle in your head,” he replied. “Like I told you, you’ve got till tomorrow evening.”
    “Thanks,” I said, “but it shouldn’t take me as long as that. Thought, you see; all I’ve got to do is sit down and think about it for an hour or so, and I’ll have the answer for you, smooth and warm as a hen’s egg.”
    I do say some stupid things, don’t I?
    But, like I said, I needed the job; so I waited till he was out of sight, then went straight to work. Solving mysteries is all about prepositions, the first being how? Acer had had his head bashed in, with spectacular thoroughness. First question therefore had to be, what with? No way a human fist could’ve scrunched bone like that; but there were no blood-spattered rocks, sticks, iron bars or heavy implements anywhere to be seen. Conclusion; the killer either took the weapon away with him, or hid it somewhere.
    Well, I could search the whole camp for a brain-speckled rock; but