'Did you know?'
'Dead?' she repeated.
'Keep it up, Zotica! I teased insultingly.
Severina drew an indignant breath. 'Do you need to be so brutal?' She came into the room, putting hands to her face. 'What has happened? Tell me properly,'
'I found your intended tonight, face down in a lavatory. Poisoned, Severina. Don't tell me this is unexpected news.'
She bit her lip when I mentioned the details, but she was angry now. Excellent. She walked over to a couch and sat, apparently shivering. 'What time is it, Falco?' I had no idea. 'The question people always ask,' she murmured abstractedly, 'when time no longer matters anyway...'
The stricken look failed to convince me. 'Cut the pathos! What kept you from the dinner parry?'
Her face clouded. 'I was feeling unwell, Falco. Women's problems.' Her chin came up defiantly as she hugged her stomach. 'You know what I mean!'
'Or I'm supposed to be too embarrassed to ask? Forget it! I grew up with five sisters, Zotica. Victorina was the prize artist-she could make "a bad time of the month" last three weeks, especially if there was some boring religious festival she wanted to miss.'
'I did go up to the house this afternoon,' Severina said shortly. 'But in the end I could not face a long evening of strained formality among people who make no secret of their dislike for me-'
'Yes; you would need courage-to recline alongside your victim while he sampled the poisoned sauce!'
'That's slander, Falco!' she fought back. 'I went to reassure the cook. Novus has been fussing ever since he sent cut the imitations -' I noticed she used the present tense, the way people continue to do after a genuine bereavement: a delicate touch! 'It was a big responsibility for Viridovix -'
'Whatever possessed Novus to buy himself a Gallic cook? If a man must have a chef from the ends of the Empire, surely he turns to Alexandria?'
'You know how they are in that house-their captive "prince" is a novelty.'
'He's certainly a rarity: he makes the best of things.' I could see this temporary diversion was making no impression, so I abandoned it. 'Tell me about tonight's party. Why the grand performance? Who were the guests?'
'Appius Priscillus.'
For a moment I was at a loss. 'Oh the property tycoon! The beater-up of fruitsellers. What is his link with the Hortensius crew?'
'Same interests. Leasing; property; land use. Relations between their two empires had deteriorated badly. They were all acting against their own interests by prolonging the rivalry, so the dinner party was suggested to resolve their differences.'
'Who suggested it?' I asked, frowning. I already knew.
'I did. But, Falco, bringing them together was your idea originally... Excuse me a moment.' Severina murmured abruptly. She looked as if she was going to be sick.
She slipped from the room. I gave her a few minutes, then set off to look for her.
Intuition led me into an anteroom alongside the gracious triclinium where Novus and I had been given lunch. Severina stood motionless in the darkness. I held up a lamp I had carried in with me. 'Are you all right?'
'So much to think about.'
I stepped closer carefully. 'Zotica?' Her intense quiet and fixed gaze were signs of true shock. For a moment she stood with one hand to her forehead. Then she started to cry.
Restraining my annoyance, I said, 'The first rule of an informer is: women who burst into tears are up to no good.'
'Keep out of their way then!' Severina snapped. I put two fingers under her elbow and moved her to a couch. She sat down, without arguing, then turned away and sobbed.I perched alongside and let her get on with it. 'Sorry about that,' she murmured finally, bending forwards to mop her face on the skirt of her shift. I had a glimpse of knee, which I found oddly distracting.
She breathed slowly, as if coming to terms with some unexpected trouble. She was obviously acting. She had to be. I remembered the Praetor's clerk Lusius saying that Severina was naturally undemonstrative under stress, and friend Lusius had seemed observant enough. Vet I still felt that the need to release all this emotion had been partly genuine.
'I hope you've got your story composed for the enquiring magistrate.' She stared ahead, still in a kind of trance. 'Better still,' I suggested, 'why not tell your nice Uncle Marcus exactly what happened, and let him take charge?'
Severina sighed, stretching her minute feet in from of her. Her feet, and what I could see of her legs (more than usual), were freckled; so were her bare arms, 'Oh leave it alone, Falco!'
'You are not going to talk to me?'
'If I did poison Novus, certainly not!'
'Did you?'
'No. Juno and Minerva-if all I wanted was his money, what would be the point?'
'I had thought of that'
'Brilliant! So what twisted explanation have you come up with instead?'
'I feel certain that you killed him-but I have no idea why.'
She had jumped to her feet. 'Didius Falco, you have no reason to be here! Either arrest me, or go away-'
'What are you doing, Zotica?'
'I'm fetching a wine jug from the dining room-then I intend getting drunk!'
My heart was pounding out a warning-but I told myself this might be the only chance I ever had of persuading Severina to say something indiscreet. 'Oh sit down, woman!I'll get the jug. Take some advice from an expert: getting drunk is quicker, as well as much more cheerful, if you have a friend to help!'
Chapter XXXVII
Why do I do these things? (Why does anyone?)
I found cups on a sideboard, and a half-filled amphora of something which tasted brash enough for the kind of deliberate drinking which is bound to make you ill. Severina fetched a ewer of cold water. We did not bother with flavourings. Our mutual suspicion would provide a bitter spice if we needed it.
We ended up sitting on the floor, leaning our heads against a couch behind us. At first we drank in silence.
Even after five years as an informer, finding a corpse always unsettled me. I let the memory come surging in as it was trying to do: Novus, bare-buttocked in that undignified spasm. Novus, pressed face-down against the floor slabs, with that expression of stark terror...
'Are you all right, Falco?' Severina asked quietly.
'Murder offends me. Like me to describe the death scene?'
I noticed that her knuckles whitened as she gripped the stem of her ceramic cup. 'I can probably endure it!'