Free Finished Business by David Wishart Page B

sized him up when she was doing her act, reckoned he was a likely prospect, and took it from there.’
    ‘Marcus, that’s nonsense. If that had been the case there would’ve been no reason to make the swap in the first place. Men who can afford to hire musicians and dancers for their dinner parties are all likely to be wealthy – positively rich by someone of Tarquitia’s class’s standards. If she were simply planning to hook a wealthy protector, one set of customers would offer as good a chance as another. And Surdinus wasn’t even the one giving the party. She might conceivably have known the host’s name in advance, but not the names of his guests. No, the plan was aimed at Surdinus from the beginning. It had to be. But, as I said, I can’t see how she could’ve managed it.’
    ‘You’re assuming she
didn’t
have another reason for making the swap. A good one, not connected with Surdinus.’
    ‘Well, did she? You talked to her husband. What did he say?’
    Bugger; she was right, of course. As far as I remembered, Otillius hadn’t said in so many words that Tarquitia
hadn’t
had a reason for getting the other girl to switch gigs, or at least offered one, but that was definitely the implication. And Otillius himself had called the whole thing ‘queer’.
    ‘Yeah, OK, lady,’ I said. ‘Point taken. Still, puzzle or not, manage it she did. And from there on in, she managed things pretty neatly. Oh, sure, according to Gallio everything was done perfectly legally, with Surdinus himself calling the shots, but six gets you ten that whatever he thought was the case himself, the idea behind the transfers came from her. And the upshot is that Tarquitia is now one seriously rich lady.’
    Perilla frowned. ‘How could an intelligent man like Surdinus
do
that?’ she said. ‘He was very wealthy, yes, obviously, but half a million sesterces is a huge amount of money. It must represent a significant part of the estate. And to make a gift of it in the course of a single month to someone who’s only been his mistress for a year, with the promise of more to come … frankly, Marcus, I find it incredible.’
    ‘Yeah, well, from all accounts the guy was completely besotted.’ I topped up my wine cup. ‘Besides, there are contributing factors. Sullana told me that he looked on Tarquitia more as a daughter than a mistress. And he’d certainly far more time for her than for his real family. Wife divorced, one son estranged and the other, to his mind, mostly a waste of space.’
    ‘Hmm.’ Perilla was twisting a lock of hair. ‘You have thought in terms of him, haven’t you? Surdinus Junior?’
    ‘As the killer? Or at least the one behind the killing?’ I set down the jug. ‘Oh, yeah. I’m not stupid, lady. In fact, after what old Gallio told me, I’d say he was a pretty good bet. Certainly far and away the best we’ve got at present. Tarquitia – well, she’s a con artist seriously on the make, and for her to have Surdinus murdered just when the con is beginning to show a real profit wouldn’t make any sense. Even if he’d woken up to what she was doing and told her he was pulling the plug, he’d be too late; all the transactions had already gone through, she was legally half a million up and sitting pretty, and if she knew about the will she could afford to forget about that side of things. Murdering him just wouldn’t be worth the effort, and she’d be taking a terrible risk for very little reason. Surdinus Junior, now, he’s another kettle of fish altogether.’
    ‘Damage limitation,’ Perilla said.
    ‘Sure. Gallio told me he’d kept the guy informed about what his father was doing, and was planning to do. In effect, Surdinus Senior was giving away the family fortune hand over fist, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. Junior was down a cool half million of his inheritance already. The only way he wouldn’t be down a hell of a lot more was if his father were suddenly to die. And