“Thank you. What can you tell me about him?”
“I only saw him the once, sir. Eight or nine years old, I should think. Brown hair, gappy front teeth.”
“When did you see him?”
“When we searched the house, sir.”
“Do you have any personal connection with the family?”
“No, sir.”
“You would have no reason to visit them except on official business?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you have any official business there yesterday morning?”
The muscle above the jaw twitched again. “No, sir.”
“So why were you there?”
Daminius blinked and swallowed. Nobody else moved.
Ruso, who liked Daminius and had very much been hoping that he was wrong, said, “You were aware of orders not to go onto native property unaccompanied?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So?”
Daminius looked him in the eye. “I wanted to go and apologize, sir.”
“Apologize?” demanded Fabius.
“I wasn’t happy about the way I’d led the search the day before, sir. Not after I found out what really happened with Regulus.”
Ruso said, “But you didn’t apologize, did you?”
“I saw you coming, sir. I wasn’t supposed to be there and I didn’t have time to wait till you’d gone.”
Accius said, “Even if you had been allowed there, you had no authority to apologize on behalf of the Legion.”
“No, sir. Only on my own behalf.”
Fabius sighed. Ruso reflected that if this was true, then Daminius had more courage than he had himself. If less sense.
“May I speak, sirs?”
Accius leaned back against the wall. “Please do.”
“I’m sorry to be wasting your time, sirs. I swear I don’t know what’s happened to the boy. I’d like to help look for him.”
Accius glanced at his fellow officers. “Any more questions?” There were none. “Thank you, Optio. That will be all for now.”
When the man had been taken back to join the others, Accius said, “Well?”
Ruso said, “The apology story is plausible.”
“Well, we know he was hanging about there for some reason. Why didn’t you mention that before?”
“It was a lucky guess, sir. I thought I caught a glimpse of someone in the woods when I went to try and smooth over this business of the raid with the old man; I didn’t know it was him.”
Accius grunted. “What about the run in the countryside?”
Fabius said, “He’s very clear about the route.”
“He would be,” said Ruso. “It’s one of the standard circuits for training runs.”
Accius shot Fabius a glance. “Is that correct?”
Fabius agreed that it was, although since Daminius dealt with all that, Ruso assumed he was guessing.
Ruso said, “I think the run sounds a bit odd, sir. Especially since nobody’s supposed to be wandering about on his own out there. But that doesn’t mean he took the boy.”
Accius nodded. “I’ll see if I can find his old centurion. See what he thinks. Let’s look at the others for a moment. Fabius, show him the list. Ruso, I’ll need you to help with checking their stories.”
“Yes, sir.”
Fabius passed a wax tablet to Ruso, who read:
Daminius running alone to Vindolanda and back
Mallius to brothel LARENTIA and DELIA then sleeping in barracks.
Maternus Vindolanda with H and F and PEREGRINUS CONFIRMED
Liber to snack bar VIRANA then to brothel blonde girl mole on left buttock
Festus To Vindolanda baths with H, P, Mat then woman TOTIA lodges with leatherworkers
Quintus on duty
Habitus Vindolanda with MATand F and P CONFIRMED
Pollio on duty
The others should be easy enough to check, although it was a pity Mallius had decided to sleep off his afternoon’s exertions, presumably alone.
“I’ve sent to Vindolanda for someone to question this Totia woman,” Accius said. “With luck we’ll be able to cross Festus off the list soon.”
“I’ll talk to Virana,” said Ruso. “She’s part of my household.”
“Call in at the brothel while you’re out there,” Accius told him. “Fabius is having Mallius’s messmates brought in to see if anyone saw him asleep.”
“My clerk is making sure we have no men unaccounted for,” said Fabius, “and that anyone off base was where he was supposed to be.”
Ruso noted that the presence of the tribune seemed to have cured most of Fabius’s ailments, including the inability to do anything.
“Let’s hope we get somewhere with one of them,” said Accius.
He did not need to say why. If no other obvious culprit came to light, they would very urgently need a better story out of Daminius. Soldiers were supposed to be protected from professional questioners, but if there was any question hanging over the optio, Accius would have to decide whether he was going to uphold the law or get some answers.