The King's Gambit(80)

“You are living in the wrong generation for that, Decius,” Pompey said. “The courts are well enough for civil matters, but you have involved yourself with foreign affairs.”

“It was my belief that foreign policy was the province of the Senate,” I said.

“It still is,” Crassus said, “but the Senate votes as we direct now.”

“If that’s true,” I rejoined, “then why do you operate in such secrecy?”

“For some time now,” Crassus said heatedly, “your life has hung by a thread. You have pulled that thread apart one strand at a time. You are down to your last strand and it ill behooves you to tug very hard just now.”

Pompey raised a hand in a calming gesture. “Decius,” he asked mildly, “just what do you think you have on us? Quite aside from the absurdity of a mere commissioner attacking not one but both Consuls, I fail to see that you are in possession of any evidence against anybody. Perhaps you could explain.”

“Murders were committed in my district. I sought justice.”

"And apprehended the perpetrator,” Crassus said. “Most commendable, and I congratulate you. The woman Chrysis made a full confession of her crimes, how she committed them and at whose behest.”

“Then I wonder that Claudia Pulcher has not been taken into custody,” I said.

Pompey expressed amazement as exaggerated as that on an actor’s mask. “Claudia? Surely you are under some delusion brought about by your detestation of the lady’s brother. Chrysis told us she acted under the orders of Prince Tigranes of Armenia, something about sorting out some pirate business, apparently.”

“The prince, it seems, has fled the city,” Crassus added.

“I want to question her myself,” I said.

“You are in no position to make demands,” Pompey said. “In any case, you are a bit late for that. The wench is dead. She was being kept in a cell in the old barracks down by the Campus Martius. Hanged herself with her own hair.”

“I see,” I said. “Resourceful to the last.”

“Wasn’t she?” Pompey agreed. “Unfortunate, but by then we had the whole story out of her. We made our report to the Senate this morning.”

“I take it that you conducted the interrogation?” Both nodded. “And was there a praetor present?”

“Certainly,” Pompey said. “All was done according to the law. Marcus Glabrio presided.”

Glabrio was one of Pompey’s clients and a military subordinate when Pompey was commanding. “And who was the court torturer?” I asked, suspecting that I already knew the answer.

“Marcus Volsinius,” Crassus said. “One of my old centurions, a most competent man.”

"He’s certainly qualified by experience,” I said, “having supervised six thousand crucifixions.”

“We wouldn’t employ an amateur,” Pompey said. “Anyway, the case is closed. The woman came to Rome from Delos in the household of Paramedes of Antioch. When Tigranes came into Rome incognito and resided in the house of Paramedes, he suborned her, first with the awe of his birth and rank, then with temptations of wealth. Apparently her talents were well-known among the pirate brotherhood and Tigranes was anxious to have them at his disposal. At any rate, when he went to live in the house of Publius Claudius, she went there with him.”

“And why did he go to Claudius?” I asked, knowing that they were closing the doors on all of my investigations.

“Decius, you shock me!” Pompey said. “He couldn’t very well murder a man while living under his roof. That would be immoral. Even a greasy Armenian princeling has more respect for the sacred laws of hospitality than that!”

“He went to Claudius because I sent him there,” Cras-sus said, unexpectedly. “I knew the boy slightly from when I had to deal with the pirates during the Servile War. He came to me a while ago and asked if I knew of a suitable household where he might reside in Rome. Obviously, considering the delicate state of relations between the Republic and his father’s kingdom, he could not very well beg hospitality of a Consul and did not want his presence officially recognized. I knew that Publius had the run of the town house since his elder brother and sister were in the East. Lots of room in the house, and the Claudians always love to hobnob with royalty. Seemed perfectly innocent at the time.”

“Nothing about the Claudians is innocent,” I said.

To my amazement, both men burst into laughter. “They are a difficult lot, to be sure,” Crassus said.

“And now Publius is to be your cat’s-paw in Lucullus’s army, to sow dissent and mutiny among the troops.”