Oracle of the Dead(76)

“I see. Well, why don’t the two of you come join me for lunch.”

I sent word to Julia that we had a patrician guest. She wouldn’t want to miss this. She arrived with a small crowd of her servant girls, greeted Pedarius and Cordus, and set about arranging an informal lunch, which on this occasion included placing the guards where they would be unobtrusive but effective. Pedarius regarded these precautions with some apprehension, for which I could not blame him. Lunch with the praetor doesn’t usually mean a visit to the war zone.

“Then it’s true that your life is in danger, Praetor?” he said.

“Everybody is in danger around here,” I told him. “I’m rather surprised to see that you are alive. Here, have some of this cured ham. It’s excellent.”

“Are you serious? Not about the ham, about my being alive. Am I in personal danger?”

“Serious as the gods’ displeasure,” I told him. “Can you tell me the circumstances of your father’s death?”

Julia was annoyed. “Must you broach such a subject when we have just begun eating? Surely after lunch is the time for serious talk.”

“Time is what we are running short of,” I told her. “My apologies for my rudeness, but these are quite literally matters of life and death. Was there anything suspicious in the circumstances of your father’s death, Lucius Pedarius?”

“Well, my father was in his fifty-sixth year, not young by any means, but quite vigorous and healthy. He rode and hunted most days when he was not preoccupied with overseeing our land. About three months ago, he began to complain of pains in his chest and abdomen. Very soon he could no longer ride and took to his bed. The physicians couldn’t determine a cause for his decline and prescribed the usual purges, poultices, herbal infusions, and so forth. None of it did any good. His decline continued, slow but steady. This is why he could not call upon you as he wished to, and with his situation so precarious, I could not come in his place. Again, I extend my apologies.”

“No need to,” I assured him. “When did your father die?”

“Fifteen days ago. He had been getting weaker and thinner for some time, and could only take a little wine or broth. In time he lost consciousness and never regained it. Within one day of lapsing into unconsciousness, he was dead.”

“I see. Tell me, did any new slaves join your household just prior to your father’s illness?”

“Slaves?” He frowned, thinking. “Well, yes. My father came home with a slave woman just a few days before he fell ill. Why?”

“It’s part of a pattern I’ve worked out,” I told him. He looked at me the way people usually do when I say things like that. “Did he say where he bought her?”

“He said that he had acquired her from a neighbor.”

“And this neighbor’s name?” I asked.

“He never told me. He was not a very communicative man. I know there was a neighbor he visited from time to time, but he never took me with him, and he never mentioned names.”

“Did that not seem odd to you?”

He shrugged. “Men often go visiting people they’d rather not talk about. I was too discreet to press the matter.”

“And this slave. Was she young and pretty?”

“No, my father never bought slaves for decorative purposes. This was a stout, older woman. She was put to work in the kitchen.”

“In the kitchen,” I mused. “That is a strategic location. Is she there now?”

“Ah, no, Praetor,” he said, his face flushing with embarrassment. “She disappeared a few days ago. I thought she was just another runaway. I hired slave hunters, but they have not turned her up. It never occurred to me to be suspicious. My father was poisoned, wasn’t he? And the woman did it.”

“I fear that is so. But don’t feel that you are alone in being deceived. The person behind this is an expert in these matters.” I looked to Cordus. “How is it that you came here with Lucius Pedarius?”

“After I found the slave sale document you wanted, I searched for records of the priesthood of the Hecate cult. I could find nothing in the public records, but it occurred to me that, as hereditary patrons of the Temple of Apollo, the Pediarii might have something. So, I went to call upon them and found a house in mourning, but Lucius Pedarius very kindly let me come in and look at his father’s papers.”

“I had just been going through them,” Lucius said. “My father never took me into his confidence concerning business matters and rarely said anything about the temple, other than to complain about the expense of its restoration.”