Tabula Rasa(33)

Ruso said, “I’m sorry, sir. But I’m still concerned about my clerk, and with Prefect Pertinax out of action—”

“If he weren’t, he’d have told you to stop interfering and leave the deserter to his own devices.”

“Yes, sir.” It was true. Ruso could see now how badly skewed his judgment had been. If Candidus had been a stranger instead of a young man commended into his care by an old friend, he would have behaved very differently. Still, perhaps there was something to be salvaged from the situation. “Sir, I know one of the native families in the area. They’re connected to my wife. It might help if I go and explain about the search.”

“Don’t say anything that could be construed as an apology.”

“It’ll be difficult to pacify them if I don’t, sir.” And even harder to pacify Tilla.

“Then get your wife to explain if you can’t, man. And tell her we’d like to know where the kidnappers are. By the time we got there, they’d cleared out.”

Fortunately there was no reason for Accius ever to know that the kidnappers had been potential guests at his marriage blessing. He said, “The locals don’t trust my wife, either, sir. They think she’s one of us now.”

“I’m not surprised, if you sent men to raid her people’s farm.”

“I didn’t think, sir.”

“I hope you wouldn’t have treated them any differently if you had thought?”

Ruso looked him in the eye. “Absolutely not, sir.”

For a moment the stare was like a challenge. Accius was no fool, and he had had dealings with Tilla before. Ruso had an uncomfortable feeling that the tribune thought he was lying. He was not too sure himself.

“You got yourself into this, Ruso. This is precisely why senior officers aren’t allowed to marry while abroad on duty.”

Accius did not want to be reminded that Ruso was not a senior officer, nor that he had married in Gaul when he was in between medical contracts with the Legion. He wanted to hear what Ruso now said, which was a meek “Yes, sir.”

This was met with an exasperated “Agh!” Evidently the stupidity that the tribune was forced to deal with this morning was beyond words.

Fabius cleared his throat. “Perhaps we could invite some of the local leaders to dinner, sir.”

The words to dinner were repeated with such contempt that Fabius lapsed back into silence.

“And now it seems we have another problem,” Accius continued. “Have either of you heard this ridiculous tale about a body?”

Suddenly Ruso stopped longing for the conversation to be over. “A body, sir?”

“The gods alone know who it’s supposed to be,” said Accius. “Or where. The point is, it’s slowing us down.”

“Sir?” Ruso was now completely lost. Fabius looked equally blank.

“You don’t know anything about a body buried inside the wall?”

“Inside the wall, sir?” Ruso asked.

“Don’t repeat the question. Do you or don’t you?”

“No, sir. Is there any chance it’s my clerk?”

“Of course not,” said Accius. “The body doesn’t exist. The patrols would have noticed. It’s just a malicious rumor. We’ve denied it, of course, but the chief engineer’s had two native transport contractors fail to turn up this morning and he thinks that’s why. We had patrols not wanting to go up there last night for fear of ghosts, and if it spreads further I expect we’ll have men trying to get themselves off the building crews.”

“I’ll tell my staff to look out for malingerers, sir.”

Fabius chipped in with an enthusiastic “Any man not reporting promptly for work will be flogged, sir!”

Ruso reflected on the irony of soldiers who were frightened of their own defenses. “Do we know where all this started, sir?”

Accius shrugged. The stacks of documents shifted a little more. “We’re making inquiries,” he said. “We have plenty of names to work through, but they may just be people the informers don’t like much.”

Realistically, they might as well hunt for the source of the wind. Any minute now Accius would ask the inevitable question. Ruso decided to anticipate it. “I doubt my wife can shed any light, sir. But I’ll ask.”

“Don’t tell her anything she doesn’t already know. Or anyone else. No loose talk.”

Ruso wondered how anyone could trace the source of a rumor without divulging what it was. “Sir, do you think it’s just possible that—”

“No, I don’t,” said Accius. “And you don’t, either.”