committed, you're in the clear.' The man moved his head, accepting that Petronius had a job to do, and that it had been done fairly. 'I've brought you your crony's kit; there's nothing we need as evidence. You gave us an affidavit. If you want to leave Rome to return to your unit, I have no objections. But I do have a few other questions,' Petro said, throwing it in unexpectedly as the centurion prepared to leave us. Laurentius sat down again.
His eyes went to me and I said, 'Censorinus had been staying with my mother.' Again he acknowledged the situation with a small turn of the head. I added quietly, 'Before he moved out to here.'
Laurentius glanced around the bar swiftly. If there was alarm in his eyes, it seemed the right sort of shock. 'Is this where:?'
Petronius nodded, staring at him steadily. Realising what was going on, the centurion returned his gaze with a cool, almost angry expression. 'I have never been here before.'
We believed him.
Released from the test, he looked around again. He was simply a man whose friend had died there, showing the natural sad interest. 'What a place to go:' His eyes fell on Epimandos, who jumped and darted away somewhere into the back room. 'Did that waiter find him?'
'The owner discovered him,' said Petro. 'A woman called Flora. She went in to ask for his rent.'
' Flora?' It was the first I had heard of this detail. 'I thought 'Flora' was a myth!'
Petronius said nothing, though he seemed to give me an odd look.
Laurentius was now becoming more upset. 'This trip of ours has all turned into a horror-I'm regretting we ever bothered.'
'Long leave?' asked Petro politely.
'I'm taking a break. I've asked for a new posting. The Fifteenth has been reassigned to Pannonia-I can't stand a tour in that tedious backwater.'
'Will you get a new legion?'
'Should do. I'm looking for action. I've asked for Britain.'
Petro and I, who had served there, exchanged a wry look. 'You seem confident.'
'Oh yes. The chance of a move is a bonus for those of us who held the fort in Judaea while the rest came home with Titus for his official Triumph.' Laurentius glanced at me with a slight smile. 'The Festus principle, you know-never volunteer for anything, unless you're volunteering to be left out!'
'I can see you knew my brother!' I grinned.
The military chat had relaxed the tense atmosphere. Laurentius turned back to Petro, asking confidentially, 'Have you no idea what happened to Censorinus?'
'None,' Petro said slowly. 'I'm beginning to think it must have been just one of those casual encounters that go wrong sometimes. We may solve it one day. If so, it's most likely to be solved by accident.'
'Pity. He seemed a good man.'
'Had you known him long?'
'On and off. He wasn't from my own century.'
'But you were in the same investment club?' There was no change in Petro's tone as he asked, and he appeared to be looking at his wine. But once again, Laurentius knew what was happening.
'This is about that?' He glanced from Petronius to me.
Petronius Longus adopted the frank approach: 'I asked Falco to be here because he needs the same answers as I do. Your pal had a fine old row with him, and we would like to know why. Falco needs to know, because the quarrel implicates him in the death.'
'Wrongly?' the centurion asked me in a light, easy tone.
'Wrongly,' I said.
'Nice to be sure of these things!' Laurentius folded his hands calmly on the table. 'Anything you want to know, Watch Captain,' he said. 'If it will help find the killer.'
'Right.' Then Petronius raised a hand so his trooper Martinus, who had been hanging about at the counter, came back into the caupona and sat down with us. Laurentius and I exchanged half a smile. Petronius Longus was doing things properly. Not only was he making sure he had a witness to his own procedure when he interviewed two suspects (one of them known to him), but Martinus brought out a waxed tablet and openly took notes. 'This is Martinus, my second in command. He'll be keeping a record, if the two of you don't mind. If what we talk about is shown to be a private matter which has no bearing on the murder, then the notes will be destroyed.'
Petro skewed round to ask the waiter to step out and give us some privacy, but for once Epimandos had discreetly disappeared.
LVII
Petronius asked the questions; at first I sat tight.
'Centurion, are you now prepared to volunteer what it was you and the dead man wanted from the Didius family?' Laurentius nodded slowly, though made no reply. 'You were trying to recover your stake money from an investment which Didius Festus had organised?'
'In effect.'
'Am I allowed to ask where the money came from?'
'None of your business,' Laurentius answered pleasantly.
'Well,' said Petronius, at his most reasonable, 'let me put it this way: the dead man's quarrel with Falco over this money has been cited as a possible motive for Falco stabbing him. I know Falco personally, and I don't believe he did it. I do know that we are talking about the price of a statue by Phidias, and it could be suggested that a group of centurions on active service in the desert might have found it difficult to come up with so much ready cash?'
'It was not difficult,' Laurentius informed him laconically.
'Resourceful fellows!' smiled Petronius. This was all extremely civilised-and it did not help.
The centurion had enjoyed dodging but was not, in fact, trying to be difficult. 'The money we are trying to replace now we had gained on a previous flutter; it would have been doubled by another sale which Festus was hoping to make. I came to Rome to ascertain what happened about that second sale. If Festus went ahead, we're well in profit. If he didn't, we're back level; we'll just have to give it the gambler's shrug and start again.'
I felt obliged to intervene. 'You sound nicely philosophical! If that is your attitude, why was Censorinus so desperate when he tackled me?'
'It was different for him.'
'Why?'
Laurentius looked embarrassed. 'When he first came into the syndicate, he was only an optio-not one of us.'
The trooper Martinus was grimacing at Petro, not understanding the reference. Unlike us, he had never been in the army. Petro quietly explained to his man. 'An optio is a soldier who has been nominated as suitable for promotion to centurion, but who is still waiting for a vacancy. It can take a long time for one to come up. He spends the waiting period acting as second in command in the century-much like yourself.' There was a slight edge in Petro's voice. I knew he had long suspected that Martinus was trying to encroach on his position-though he did not think Martinus was a good enough officer to push him aside.
'I'd better come clean on the whole story,' said Laurentius. If he had noticed the personal atmosphere, it was one he understood.
'Clarification would be appreciated,' I agreed, as mildly as I could.
'A group of friends,' Laurentius explained, 'found the money for an investment-never mind how-' I avoided looking at Petronius; this was almost certainly a reference to raiding the legionary savings bank.
'Don't write this down,' Petronius instructed Martinus. Martinus awkwardly lowered his stylus.
'We made the investment successfully-'
'And I hope you replaced your capital?' Deliberately I let him know I had guessed where they had taken it from.
Laurentius smiled demurely. 'Relax. We did! Censorinus was not part of our syndicate then, incidentally. On
