Danger in the Wind Read Online Free PDF

Lucius is legal owner of the Oak Tree, though I’m the one who runs it from day to day. We were both well aware that a mansio whose customers weren’t safe in their beds would soon have no customers at all.
    So I said, “I’ll stay. It’ll be easier with two of us.”
    “Thanks. It will. Right then, the sooner we get on with this, the sooner we can get out of here. Could you start searching the room? Collect all his belongings together and see if there’s a weapon or anything else useful buried under all this wool. I’ll help you soon, but first I must take a proper look at the poor man. As Quintus always says, ‘Start with the body.’”
    “Gods, I wish he were here now.” Quintus was an experienced investigator, and also my lover, when our paths crossed. If he were here, I thought, he’d know what to make of all this. But simply thinking of him cheered me a little.
    First I put Terentius’ few clothes and possessions onto the bedstead. Then I walked slowly round, using my feet to push the tufts of wool into one corner of the room. Finally I checked through the tufts by hand. I found a tiny bronze pin, and a couple of dry twigs that had been among the strands of wool since they’d come off the sheep. Nothing else.
    “No weapon,” I reported. “The killer still has it, presumably.”
    Lucius straightened up and turned away from the body. “The wound looks straight and deep, a professional blow, probably with a dagger. And there doesn’t seem to have been a fight. There’s only this one stab-wound, no other marks or bruises on him.” He swept his gaze round the room. “Someone’s done a pretty thorough search here, presumably whoever killed him. The servant seems the most likely, especially if he’s really disappeared.”
    “I agree, he does. I didn’t see much of them really, I only spoke to Terentius briefly when they arrived. I asked where he’d come from, and he said he’d just finished a three months’ attachment down south, mostly in Londinium, and was on his way to Isurium.”
    “Isurium? Did he say he was based there?”
    “He implied it. He said he was with a cohort of Batavian auxiliaries, but he wasn’t a Batavian himself, judging by his accent.”
    Lucius nodded. “Those auxiliary units usually have Romans as officers. Anything else you can think of?”
    “No, not really…wait, of course there is. His package. I was almost forgetting.”
    “What package?”
    “He asked me to lock away a small package in our own strong-box overnight. He said it was too valuable to leave in his room.”
    “Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere. What’s it like?”
    “Small, about the size of my hand, but oblong. It’s wrapped in a piece of soft cloth so I couldn’t see what it was. It felt hard, like a box, and something rattled when I moved it. Coins, I’d say, but not many, because it’s not very heavy.”
    Margarita appeared at the door, bearing a tray with a couple of wine-mugs and a jug that gave out a delicious spicy aroma. “I thought you could do with some, too,” she smiled, and I was relieved to see she was her usual calm self again.
    “Thanks, Margarita, we certainly could.” We drank gratefully.
    Lucius asked how the search was going.
    “We’ve looked everywhere in the house and stables. There’s no sign of the lad. The farm and outbuildings will take longer, but nobody so far has seen hide nor hair of him since late yesterday evening.”
    “Excellent, thank you.” My brother finished his mug of wine and poured himself another. “The boy had no business to be anywhere on the farm, so if he’s found there, it means he’s gone into hiding. But my guess is he’s taken the horse and fled. He could be heading anywhere, to the coast, to Eburacum, or into the country on one of the native roads. He’ll be miles away by now. There’s no point trying to follow him.”
    “Maybe Hawk…?” I suggested.
    He sighed. “We can ask him, but it’s a long shot. Still, I suppose the