A big mistake, I fear.' I leaned forward. `Paccius had to be told the reason for the gift to Saffia? So two years ago, when you were first running for aedile, Paccius Africanus learned that you were illegitimate?'
Negrinus nodded and said weakly, `Paccius has always been professional.'
`Oh I am sure he kept it confidential!' I mocked.
Verginius Laco also sat forward. `I am with you, Falco. In retrospect, I believe Paccius told Silius Italicus – who then lay in wait until he could institute corruption charges. It was calculated.'
`And callous.' I asked Negrinus slowly, `Did Paccius actually suggest to your father that he use your post as aedile to make money?'
Negrinus was surprisingly astute about that: `You mean, can we mount corruption charges against Paccius? No. Father never said where the idea came from.'
`Nor, for that matter,' Laco added, `can we prove that Paccius informed Silius of the situation.'
`You lose all round,' I told the victim.
`I do.'
Aelianus, frowning, wanted to go back a step. `I don't understand,' he asked, `why Paccius had to be told the reason for giving money to Saffia?'
His sister shook her head at him. `Think about it, Aulus. Experts say the will is open to contest. Paccius had to know why the Metellus children would not make a claim against it. He had to be told that the daughters would hold off to protect Negrinus – while Negrinus himself had no real claim in any case.'
`Your illegitimacy -' Aelianus never knew how to be sympathetic to a loser – `bars your inheritance?'
`What inheritance? There is nothing left,' Juliana's husband snorted. Then Rufus leapt up and stomped out. His wife briefly covered her mouth in distress.
People had called him bad-tempered; I could see why he might be. His respectable marriage to a daughter of a wealthy family had turned very sour. He had probably even lost financially. He had tolerated the scandal until now. But he had had enough. I caught sight of Juliana's face. She knew she was heading for divorce.
I breathed slowly. `So will you now admit the truth about Negrinus?'
`This was my father's wish,' replied Carina. `After the corruption charges, Father decided to take a stand.'
`It made my mother very angry,' said Juliana, `but my father really did refuse to commit suicide. He said he would pay the compensation to Silius Italicus, and he would publicly declare the truth.'
`Your mother must have hated that. It was her deceit. When your father died anyway -'
`Mother was a very determined character. She said we had to rally round and back her up,' Juliana said. I was starting to think it was not so much Negrinus who was pushed around in this family, but her. She had carried the main burden of the `suicide', with her elaborate fake story of sitting with Metellus on the day he died.
Helena clasped her hands, absorbed by the revelations. `Your father's decision to reveal the true story caused Saffia to leave. She then had no reason to stay. And she knew she would lose her source of plunder?'
`She left at last. But then she decided she would murder my father,' said Carina bitterly.
`She had had so much -' Juliana agreed bitterly. `She wanted her bequest, and she refused to wait. She wanted everything.'
`And she got it!' Negrinus growled.
There was a pause, as we all considered this.
It was Camillus Justinus who tackled the next aspect. `You had defensive measures in place, however? Money that went missing has been quietly put into land – in Lanuvium, and perhaps other places?'
I turned to the freedman, Alexander. `We had wondered whether you were among the blackmailers -' Julius Alexander heard this dispassionately. He was one of those solid ex-slaves who are held in great regard, close to the family who freed him, and in command of himself.
`But no,' Justinus corrected me, with a smile. `I think Alexander remained loyal to a remarkable extent – and if I am right, he has positioned an estate where Negrinus can restart his life.' It made sense. The Metelli had come from Lanuvium, only a few generations ago; Negrinus would go back there, then retrace the procedure that had brought them wealth and status. He had probably gone to Lanuvium to make final arrangements, when Metellus senior died. `Is that so?' Justinus insisted.
The freedman deliberately folded his arms. Calmly he refused to speak. All the others were silent too. Well, most of them were used to keeping secrets. What was one more? Justinus was wasting his time; nobody here would own up.
If Rubirius Metellus had been the defiant character they said, I could believe that he had surreptitiously removed money from Saffia's grasp and invested it where the son he had loved could benefit. It would be untraceable, no question. If it was the proceeds of the corruption, he would have had to make sure even the Treasury could not unravel his dealings and reclaim the cash. It would have been cash, of course. Backhanders are.
Aelianus now joined in with his brother, addressing the freedman in a haughty tone: `People will think that you are Negrinus' father. Are you?' he badgered, always blunt.
`No.' Julius Alexander had long mastered self-control. It was the first time he had spoken. He might as well not have bothered.
`You should be prepared for people to believe it!'
`If it helps,' Alexander smiled.
`But why must you leave?' Justinus rounded angrily on Negrinus. `Why not admit there is a question mark over your origins, and just brazen things out? Rome is stuffed with men who have suspect paternity. Some great names, starting with Augustus, have been subject to rumours.'
Helena touched my arm. `Leave it alone,' I ordered her brother.
She stood up and went over to him. `Quintus, imagine it. For thirty years Metellus Negrinus had thought he belonged to a family -'
Justinus was beyond stopping. `Yes – and if his parents and his sisters had all turned their backs when they found out, Negrinus would have lost everything, including his identity. But he has their support. He's lucky. It's clear his father – even though he was not his father – loved him.'
Rubiria Carina now went to Negrinus. She put her arm around him. `We all love him. He grew up with us. He is part of us. Nothing will ever change that.'
`You were the angriest,' Justinus reminded her. `You even caused a scene at the funeral.'
`That was before I knew the truth,' Carina retorted. Though she was a charitable woman, as she remembered being left out of the secret, her face darkened. `All I saw for several years was bad feeling and inexplicable financial mismanagement.'
Helena continued with Justinus. `Allow him a new beginning, Quintus. He will take his young children and make what he can of the world. I believe he will do it stalwartly.'
Justinus capitulated. He had always been a decent sort. We could trust him not to inflict unnecessary pain on people.
Verginius Laco made the formal speech to finish – or so he intended.
`We are most grateful for your discretion. We all feel you have acted in a most supportive manner to Negrinus. He will be leaving Rome shortly with Julius Alexander, and in due course as you surmise, he will begin a new life under a new name, we hope in far happier circumstances.'
He had not reckoned with my two young associates. They were still boiling over. `But Negrinus cannot leave Rome. What about the court case?' demanded Justinus, finding a new reason to argue.
Laco quietly had the answer: `It was announced today that there will be no court case.'
`Silius and Paccius have withdrawn?' Aelianus exclaimed eagerly.
`Reason prevails!' Laco remarked drily, before adding, `The Senate will not allow the charge to proceed. The grounds cited in the Daily Gazette will be that the Senate will not permit the pursuit of public wrongs for the purposes of private vengeance.'
`This makes no mention of Saffia killing Metellus? So it appears,' I said, `as if everything relates to the original corruption case? Paccius and Silius are being reprimanded for hounding the Metelli -'
`As they have done,' said Laco, rather curtly. `Everyone can see that.' I began to suspect his influence in this Senate vote. In fact, he looked tired. I wondered if he had been spending hard effort on lobbying colleagues. He admitted frankly, `It is of no interest to us to have it made known what Saffia did.'
