Illegally Dead by David Wishart Read Free Book Online Page B

‘Unless you think there’s a better point.’
    ‘No.’ She wasn’t nearly as composed as she sounded, mind; I noticed she was gripping her fingers together, twining them hard, holding her hands close in her lap. They were big hands, but not mannish ones. The nails were bitten to the quick. ‘Although I can’t tell you very much about that, actually. Oh, I was with him when he died, but only because Scopas fetched me. We...Lucius and I lived separate lives for the most part. Not by my doing. You may have heard from Hyperion that he was...very difficult latterly.’
    ‘Fetched you from where?’
    ‘Only along the corridor. There’re two rooms that I use, a bedroom and a sitting-room looking out through the portico over the garden. I spend most of my time there, just as Lucius spends - spent - most of his in a sitting-room of his own.’ She hesitated. ‘It’s a big house, but I don’t...didn’t want to move too far away from him in case he thought I was...in case he suspected me of...’ She stopped and took a deep breath. ‘Forgive me. I’m trying to be frank and helpful, but being so is in itself embarrassing.’ I said nothing, just waited. ‘That was why I saw Cosmus coming out.’
    I straightened. ‘What?’
    ‘I’m sorry, I’m not being very coherent. The fact that my day room overlooks the garden explains why I saw Cosmus come out through the portico. There’s another door, you see, a little further along the corridor, between my rooms and Lucius’s. He must’ve come through that.’
    ‘Uh...what time are we talking about now?’ I kept my voice neutral. ‘The time when your husband died?’
    ‘Oh, no. Much earlier, about an hour after dawn. I’m a late riser as a rule, unlike Lucius, but that morning for some reason...anyway, I was surprised because Cosmus had no business in that part of the house. And I’d just heard Lucius’s footsteps in the corridor going towards the latrine. That’s the other way, to the -’
    I held up my hand. ‘Hold on, lady. Let’s get this clear. You’re telling me that the morning of the day your husband died you saw Cosmus - the dead slave-boy - coming from the direction of your husband’s room while your husband was out of it? Right?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Don’t you think that maybe you should’ve mentioned this earlier?’
    I’d deliberately kept my voice neutral and unthreatening, but her chin went up.
    ‘No, I don’t,’ she said. ‘Why should I? Until this morning when Quintus Libanius brought you round I’d assumed that Lucius died a natural death, and that was several hours later. Why should I think anything particular of it, let alone think in terms of - ’ She stopped at the word, frowned and tried again. ‘In terms of murder?’
    Fair enough. ‘Still, when you knew that Cosmus had disappeared -’
    ‘I did not know that!’
    The sharpness of tone made me blink. I stared at her. ‘Uh...fine, fine,’ I said. ‘No problem, lady, it was just a –’
    ‘I scarcely saw the boy! Not from one day to the next!’
    Upset was one thing, but this was something else. Maybe Hostilius hadn’t been the only one with a tile loose. ‘So Scopas, your major-domo, didn’t tell you?’ I said, still keeping my voice carefully neutral. ‘Or about the articles missing from your husband’s room?’
    She took another deep breath, and her hands twisted together in her lap. I could hear the finger-joints crack with the pressure. ‘No. No, he didn’t,’ she said. ‘Not at that point, anyway.’
    Uh-huh; not like a conscientious major-domo, and I hadn’t heard anything to suggest that Scopas was anything but. Quite the contrary. Well, that was something I could check with the guy himself later. ‘So when did he?’
    ‘I honestly can’t remember. Perhaps it was the day after, when we were clearing up, putting things in order. You’d have to ask him yourself.’ She paused. ‘Corvinus, I’m sorry, but my husband has died and I’ve just been told