I began to study Helena's marginal notes, so I would be ready with viable ideas of my own tomorrow.

The Accusation against Rubirius Metellus: Helena Justina's Notes

Interview with Negrinus

Will formally read to close family and friends, including the original witnesses…

• Ask the senators what it says (any ideas on Saffia?) and what

happened at the reading!**

• Ask Birdy, while we've got him here.

Calendar of events…

• Check timings (very carefully)

• Date of will?

Interview with Euphanes, herbalist

Denied knowledge of Metellus senior's pills. Denied supplying them…

• But does he handle hemlock?

• If not, where did they get it? Who bought it? (Does Birdy know?)

Interview with Claudius Tiasus, undertaker

… mausoleum on the Via Appia

• Visit mausoleum?

Negrinus presided (at funeral), together with another man…

• Who? Lutea? (His friend, NB)

They had ordered the full ceremonials with flute players, a procession accompanied by mourners, masks of ancestors, and satirical clowns abusing the memory of the dead man…

• Find other participants, not just Biltis. Clowns?

Interview with Biltis

Overbearing friendliness…

• Did she make advances to my brother??? (Ask Aulus!) (Don't tell Mother!)

Comedians omitted

• YES! Find the chief clown – urgent! What was he going to say???

Biltis willing to give evidence if her expenses can be refunded…

• Wants the money! Unreliable.

Interview with Aufustius, money-lender

• Lutea and Negrinus are friends. Do they have the same banker?

• Re-interview Aufustius. Why was Lutea in financial difficulties? Ask about wilt. Is Lutea hoping to profit from Saffia's inheritance?

Interview with Servilius Donatus, father of Saffia

Donatus considering action against Negrinus re dowry

• The two children of Saffia/Negrinus are close together so presumably the marriage was short. Has the third instalment of the dowry been paid? If Negrinus successfully defends against compensation claim, what is the position?

• NB Did Metellus senior fully pay up the dowries of his own two daughters?

• Younger d. (Carina) has 3 children, so presumably hers was long paid. What about) Juliana though? (One child. Is her marriage recent?)

Unnamed source

Will contains certain surprises

• WELL WHAT??? More than Saffia? Ask my mother. Ask my father – he knows something. Did he get it from my mother – or is information about this will widespread?

Interview with Rhoemetalces

Admitted he sold pills…

• When were these pills bought?

It was at this point that Helena must have fallen asleep.

The proposed visit to the mausoleum would be fruitless. An urnful of ashes would not tell us much; in my experience, urns were taciturn witnesses. But the rest was all wise stuff. Her rank and sex debarred Helena from walking around Rome doing my work, but she knew how investigative informing should be done. If we did take on Negrinus, we would not start with the tale he spun, but with our own evidence. I made a few extra notes, based on today's and tonight's experience. They were people to interview:

• Calpurnia Cara (if possible) (O silly boy, you are joking!)

• Licinius Lutea (something whiffs)

• Saffia (something whiffs a lot)

• Perseus the nearly-dead door porter (knows he was fingered? Why was he fingered?)

• Rubiria Carina (doubtful: at least try her) Or husband. (Crucial: angry scene at funeral?* Why did she not attend last lunch with father?)

*in view of accusations at funeral, why was Carina not questioned at JuIiana's trial? (ask Paccius) (joke!)

Then, before I blew out the lamp and lay down, I wrote in a neat box:

?? WHO WILL DEFEND BIRDY IN COURT??

XIX

WE WERE taking the case. At breakfast, Falco and Associates all agreed: the thought of money clinched it. When Negrinus appeared, looking refreshed and more buoyant, we asked him for a deposit. To our surprise, he immediately wrote a request for a loan from Rubiria Carina, the younger of his sisters – who immediately paid it.

She and her husband then offered Negrinus a place of refuge. He seemed surprised when her messenger brought the invitation. I was just surprised we had not thought to send him there straight away.

`I heard Carina stayed aloof from your family,' I said, as I packed him off in Helena's litter. `That's where you gain when the rest of your family dumps you, I suppose. Tell me, had they dumped Carina too?'

`There was some trouble a few years ago,' said Birdy. `She disagreed with things. And her husband had a tussle with my father over money…

Rome seemed to be stuffed with people fighting over dowries. `Instalment of her portion not paid?' I was getting the hang of life at aedile level.

`You guessed.'

`Has it ever been handed over?'

`Yes. Verginius Laco gets his way.'

Such problems did not afflict my section of society. Helena did not bring a dowry; our children would be fed, clothed and educated out of my income and a legacy of hers. There must have been a dowry set aside for Helena once; she had been married to a senator. Given that Helena's parents were mortgaged up to their hairlines, I had done them a favour. By my forgoing a marriage ceremony, they had been able to forgo setting us up in life.

Negrinus went off to his sister's house, and I trotted into the city to research that other source of friction: the will. After they are read, wills are stored in the Atrium of Liberty. I spent a couple of hours there, growing frustrated. Eventually I was attended to by a sad-eyed public slave, some ill-nourished clerk with no hopes and no incentive. Since the Metellus will was recent, he did find it. If it had been an older deposition I would never have seen it. I had the impression I was the first member of the public who had asked for a viewing of anything.

Still, this gave me curiosity value. Finally I had access, while there was still enough light to read through the will quietly and find out its secrets. Or so I had thought.

The limp clerk laid the will on a table. It was a double-fold wooden tablet. It was tied up with legal thread – and it was sealed seven times on the thread.

`I can break these seals?'

`No, Falco!' He snatched it back and snuggled it against his tunic protectively.

I took a fierce breath. `Oh excuse me! I thought this document had been opened and read. I came here to study its provisions.'

`Keep your temper.'

`Am I missing the point?'

The clerk still clutched it. `This is the usual form.'

`It is the will of Rubirius Metellus?'

'Gnaeus Rubirius Metellus -' From a safe distance he showed me the label on the outside of the tablet. `Did they not read it?'

`Yes they did.'

`So why is it still sealed?'

`Resealed… Do you want to know the procedure?'

`Teach me!' I growled.

`Say you are holding a reading. You fetch the will from the Temple of Vesta, or wherever it was put in safe keeping. You break the seals, in the presence of all or most of the original witnesses.'

`They know what is in it?'

'Not necessarily.' The clerk paused, seeing me stare. `The testator was not obliged to show them. Sometimes as long as they are alive they really want it a secret.'

`If the bequests are likely to cause trouble, you mean?'

`Exactly. When people first witness a will, they are merely signing to say the outside of the document has been shown to them formally as the man's testament. That,' explained the clerk carefully, `is why they must then be present when he dies and the will is read, to see that their seals have not been tampered with. They can't vouch for the contents, you see.'