Finished Business by David Wishart

same job?’ I said.
    ‘More or less. I’ve moved up the ladder a notch, mind, since old Curio got his wooden sword, but yeah, more or less.’ He took a swallow of the Massic. ‘How about you? Still bumming around with the sleuthing?’
    ‘Off and on.’
    ‘Which is it currently? Off or on?’
    ‘On, as it happens. Old guy had his head flattened by a lump of falling masonry.’
    He set down his cup. ‘Naevius Surdinus?’ he said.
    ‘Yeah, that’s him. You heard?’
    ‘Sure I heard. But I heard it was an accident.’
    ‘Yeah, well.’ I took a swig of the Massic. Beautiful. ‘It wasn’t. Most definitely not. Even so, I’m surprised the death is common knowledge. From all reports, he’d been out of the loop for years.’
    Secundus shrugged. ‘He was an ex-consul, Marcus,’ he said. ‘Suffect, sure, only for six months and that ten years back, but a consular none the less. A consular’s death gets noticed, and when it’s as unusual as Surdinus’s was, it gets talked about as well. And out of the loop the guy might have been, but when old Aulus Plautius told him it came as a real shock to his ex-colleague, at least, I can tell you that.’
    ‘Ex-colleague?’
    ‘In the consulship. Cassius Longinus.’
    ‘I thought Longinus was Asian governor at present,’ I said.
    That got me a sharp look: Secundus might not be the brightest button in the box, but he wasn’t stupid by any means. Despite having made it, in his time, to city judge’s level.
    ‘You developed a sudden interest in who’s who in current politics, Marcus?’ he said. ‘Or does Longinus figure somewhere in that case of yours?’
    ‘Neither,’ I lied: friend or not, I wasn’t going to tell him about Cornelia Sullana’s little admitted indiscretion. Besides, it was probably just coincidence: bed-hopping, in the circles people like Sullana and Longinus moved in, was pretty much taken for granted as a fact of everyday life. ‘I just happened to know, that’s all.’
    ‘Mmm.’ Secundus swallowed some of his wine. ‘Yeah, right. He was, certainly.’
    ‘Was what?’
    ‘Asian governor. Not any more, though. The emperor recalled him ahead of time, so as of ten or twelve days ago, he’s back in Rome.’
    ‘Recalled him? Why would he do that?’ Governors were governors; they were fixtures, at least until their term of office expired naturally. Plus, Asia was one of the senatorial provinces, in fact the plum appointment. Oh, sure, ever since Augustus’s day the emperor has had overriding proconsular authority where appointments and removals are concerned throughout the empire, no matter what kind of province is at issue, but it’s not been used all that often, certainly not blatantly, and never without a reason in the case of a senatorial governor. Senatorial provinces are the concern of the senate; imperial ones – where most of the legions are – are the concern of the emperor, and neither treads on the other’s toes. At least in public. If Gaius Caesar had shoved his oar in and removed one of the senate’s prime appointees from office ahead of time, then he must have given a reason. A bloody good one, too.
    Secundus shrugged again. ‘Jupiter knows,’ he said. ‘No cause that I’m aware of. Or anyone else, for that matter. Including – or so he claims – Longinus himself. All he got was the order to get his arse back to Rome asap, and that’s been that.’ He moved his head closer and dropped his voice. ‘Mind you – and naturally I’m not implying any criticism here – Caesar’s been acting a bit … well, a bit arbitrarily these past few months. Longinus is just another example.’
    Arbitrarily
. Oh, sure: like
tired and emotional
was a euphemism for
pissed as a newt
. Yeah, well, there were no surprises there: in my long and not inconsiderable experience of the neurotic, overbred bugger who was currently our emperor, he’d always been several sandwiches short of a picnic. In many ways, he couldn’t’ve mustered