Finished Business by David Wishart Read Free Book Online Page A

‘No. Definitely not.’
    I reached over and swapped the plates. Not wholly greed: Meton can take it really personally if the empties tray comes back with an untouched dish on it, and risking Meton’s displeasure is not something you do lightly.
    ‘What about Surdinus’s relationships outwith the family?’ Perilla said. ‘I mean, in terms of enemies?’
    I shrugged again. ‘From the looks of things, there isn’t much mileage there. Not if you believe Tarquitia, and if she were the guilty party, the chances are she’d be only too glad to bring out the dirty linen. He wasn’t involved with politics, which is the main area for a guy of his class where making enemies is concerned.’
    ‘Business relationships?’
    ‘Possibly. That’s one side of things I’ll have to check with his ex-wife. But the impression I got was that his mind didn’t run that way. He was a stay-at-home, for a start, and an interest in philosophy and astrology doesn’t chime too well with hard-headed business sense.’
    ‘You said he was a Stoic, dear. Stoics aren’t ivory-tower philosophers by any means, and they’re positively expected to involve themselves in business and politics. So if Surdinus kept clear of these areas he’s an anomaly rather than otherwise. And personally I think for a businessman a certain facility in making predictions about the future might prove a very useful skill.’
    I laughed and ducked my head. ‘Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. So when push came to shove, maybe he wasn’t a proper card-carrying Stoic after all. But I’m only repeating what I was told by his estate manager and his mistress: he didn’t go out much from choice, and he seems to have picked his friends and acquaintances for their ability to talk philosophy rather than business or politics. And they were exclusively that – friends. There were no enemies that anyone’s mentioned, either Manager Leonidas or Tarquitia. Oh, sure, again it’s something to check – I’ve got a few names for his regular dinner guests, so talking to them may open up an angle or two – but I’m not too hopeful on that side of things.’
    ‘So where
are
you hopeful?’
    ‘The gods know, lady. Nowhere, at present. Tarquitia … well, I take your point, all of your points, but I can’t really believe in Tarquitia being behind the murder. Like I said, all I can do is dig around and see what comes up, see what feels promising.’
    ‘Starting tomorrow?’
    ‘As ever.’

SEVEN
    I started, though, with Surdinus’s ex: mornings aren’t the best time to go visiting clubs, so I’d put that off until later in the day.
    Cornelia Sullana had a house up on the Pincian, between the Gardens of Pompey and those of Lucullus; prime hillside property, in other words, although not in the Vatican league. From the looks of the place – old, detached, rambling, in its own grounds and with a well-established garden around it – I’d guess it was part of the family estates, going back at least to her ancestor the dictator’s time. Which, of course, made complete sense: belonging, as she did, to a long-established patrician family like the Cornelii, she’d have property in her own right spread throughout the city and far beyond. Rome’s ultra-pukkah patrician families have always been a hard-headed bunch where making and keeping money’s concerned, and being banned from trade they’ve put all their efforts over the past five hundred years or so into land, stone and mortar. Or rather, in most cases, into the cheap lath, rubble and cement that the city’s tenements were built from, that bring a huge return in rents for a very modest outlay, and keep on bringing it year after year. Particularly if the expense of minor concerns like repairs and renovation is kept to a minimum, which it usually is. Even though she was no longer part of the Naevius ménage, Surdinus’s widow, or whatever you liked to call her, wouldn’t exactly be short of a sesterce or two.
    I gave my name to the