Crime scene investigations

[Atrice]

Alexius gave Jason a look, when the other said he'd count to a hundred. He was that good? Alexius could count, but the higher the number, the harder it was, at least for him. He wasn't good at such things, he never went to any kind of school and didn't begin learning such things until he was freed and became a lanista. And that was a brief career, so the fact that Jason could just count to a hundred... that earned him a bit more admiration from Alexius. Alas, he could not think too much about it now. He followed the other slave inside.

"She's in there." The slave said, as they entered a small domus, not very wealthy judging by its appearance. It was a bit dark, but there was a lamp lit in another room and there sat a young woman, she couldn't be twenty yet, curled up on a bed against a wall, "She says a Senator saved her... and then we heard a Senator was murdered..." The slave told Alexius over his shoulder and Alexius entered and carefully crouched down by the bed. The girl stared at him with wide eyes, but he gave her a soft smile in the faint light of the room and asked into the incident. A Senator saved her from what? Some sort of assault... she showed him a cut from a knife on her throat. The blood had begun to dry, but it was about an inch long. Now it was Alexius' turn to look at her with wide eyes. Ovinia's throat had been cut like that and hadn't Pinaria's too? And others they heard about... Alexius inhaled a breath, "What is your name?" He asked her, "Minthia." She replied and Alexius nodded, "Thank you. You've been a great help. Don't worry. We'll find your attacker... and the murderer." He promised, it was a great promise to make, but he was quite sure he'd not stop until the maniac had been caught. Poor girl.

Alexius left the room and hoped Jason had not managed to count to a hundred yet, but he didn't know how fast the other counted or how long it might take. Soon he emerged from the house to the street again, looking for his current partner looking for crime.

@Sharpie @Chevi

[Sharpie]

Jason noticed the look and shrugged. He had been born the son of a chieftain, he could count to a hundred in Sarmatian and (once he'd figured out the number system) in Latin - though he didn't find that so easy because he still had to think what the names were for some of the numbers. He'd give Alexius the count of two hundred if he needed to, once in Latin and once in Sarmatian... Except it didn't take nearly that long.

"duodeoctoginta... undeoctoginta..." He was just about to count eighty when Alexius emerged from the house, looking.. Well. He looked worried.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked, preparing to fetch Lucius and the medicus, or any other sort of help that might be needed, the moment Alexius gave the word.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Luckily Jason was still there when Alexius emerged and he must have looked more worried than he felt, judging by Jason's reaction and the look on his face. Alexius looked around, assuming the people in this house didn't want this story to spread. The young woman had not worn a slave tag around her neck, so she must be freeborn. Probably just a plebian, but no matter, such an incident with an assault was bad for your reputation, especially when you were a young woman. 

"There's a young woman in there... she's been cut. Not very long ago. At the throat. It's not deep or anything, but it's there. She says a Senator saved her from an assault. You think we should bring her to Lucius now? Or wait? She's... a bit scared, to be honest." Alexius said and hoped Jason had something clever on his mind to do. 

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[Sharpie]

"I could talk to her, maybe? See if she remembers anything, or can add something we don't know already?" Jason was a little hesitant to suggest it, though there was nothing to say that Alexius couldn't listen to the conversation. Roman law meant that, probably, it was a good idea for him Alexius to listen in to the conversation, in fact. And probably the very patrician-sounding Lucius would scare her more in a different way. Some people got tongue-tied around people who were a lot higher in social rank, after all - or who seemed to be, even if they weren't really.

"I mean, if she's really scared, I don't look like I might be a threat." He was on the shorter side of average for a Roman, and had a slave tag around his neck - that might be more helpful than anything because slaves weren't really a threat, were they?

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Jason suggested he should talk to the young woman in there and Alexius nodded, that was a good idea. Jason probably knew just what to say to her, he seemed like a more casual and down-to-earth kind of guy. Alexius could be intimidating sometimes, he knew that. Even when he didn't want to be, but it's not like he could hide his size or his shape very well. There was a reason he'd been a good and popular gladiator and a reason why he was a good guard now, after all. Jason went on, seeming to agree with Alexius' thoughts.

"You don't, and I mean that, in the best possible way." Alexius said with a smile to Jason, "I think you should talk to her. Come." He led the way into the building and into the faintly lit room where the young woman sat, "I'll wait here." He said and waited outside the doorway, not wishing to interrupt, but only to keep them both safe.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"Thank you - I think," Jason replied and followed Alexius into the building, passing him to go into the dark room where the girl was.

He took a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness - the lamp helped dispel the darkness a bit and Jason crossed the room to get a bit nearer to the bed, whose occupant was watching him with large eyes in a pale, scared-looking face. He smiled, and sat down on the floor, drawing his legs up to sit comfortably cross-legged.

"Hi. I'm called Jason, I'm friends with Alexius who you were just talking to," he said, adopting the same soothing tone of voice he'd used when talking to Ovinia. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to ask you to tell me what happened, if you think you can."

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Alexius waited patiently and quietly while Jason spoke to the young woman. He leaned against the doorframe, attempting to appear casual although he was in a strangers house. Meanwhile Jason had sat down on the floor to speak to the girl, but he spoke with a soft voice and while Alexius did eavesdrop a bit, he didn't hear everything. He only hoped she'd tell them enough so they might be able to catch the murderer soon. It had to be the same as the previous attacker. It made sense, somehow. And they had to catch him. 

He inhaled a breath, again upset by the thought. So maybe he didn't always like Romans, but no one deserved to die like that! Murdered in a public street at night! 

Thoughts went on about what he would do to the man if he caught him first. And while Alexius was thinking, Jason would finish talking to the girl so they could soon return to Lucius.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"All right," Jason said, still talking quietly and calmly, as if to a spooked horse. "We're part of a group who are looking for the man who did this to you. If you can tell us anything about him, it will help."

She just nodded, her eyes never leaving his face. He kept his hands where she could see them, aware from Azarion and Ovinia of the fact that the man had a knife concealed under a cloak. He didn't want her to be any more terrified than she was, which was more than enough.

"You're very brave," he told her. "Can you tell me what happened?"

She began to tell him, speaking very quietly and in fits and starts, of being accosted by the man, of the knife and the look in his eyes, of the threat to kill, of the interruption by the senator dressed in his white tunic and toga, appearing like a saving god. Jason couldn't tell her that the Senator had been the one to end up dead in her place.

The only description he could draw from her matched what he had gleaned from Ovinia and Azarion - tall, dark-haired, with a dark-coloured cloak and a knife. The quiet hissed commands and threats in a voice something deeper than Jason's, more like Alexius' without the accent. Maybe even a bit deeper than his.

"You've been very brave. Thank you," Jason said, once it was clear she had nothing else to say. "Have you got anyone outside Rome you could stay with? You'd feel safer there, I think."

Apparently there was an aunt in Ostia. She could go tomorrow, with a slave. Maybe she'd never come back to Rome - that could only be a good thing. He got up to return to Alexius, glad to note that the slave immediately went to her to comfort her. She would be all right, in the end, he thought.

 

@Atrice @Chevi - I thought I'd posted here but it looks like I lost my original reply without sending it. :(

[Atrice]

Alexius didn't say anything. He just let Jason talk to the young woman, because he obviously knew what he was doing. The way he sat down and the way he spoke to her, with such a soft tone... well Alexius guessed he could do that too, but his size alone was intimidating to some and might especially be to someone who'd just been attacked. So he just stayed put. Eventually, Jason finished and got up to return to Alexius.

"Everything alright now? Or... as good as it gets, at least?" He asked, glancing at the young woman and then back to Jason, "I guess it's time to return to Lucius. You can tell me more on the way." He didn't feel like talking about what the young woman said right in front of her. It didn't seem right. Better to get some distance between them before they discussed what Jason learned and what to do next.

@Sharpie @Chevi

[Sharpie]

"It's not good, but I think she'll be all right," Jason said soberly, pulling his cloak tighter around himself as they left the house to meet the colder night air outside. February in Rome wasn't as cold as February on the steppe but it still wasn't the warmest time of year. "She's going to go to stay with relatives in Ostia - it'll be good for her to get away from here after all this, especially while he's still loose. I didn't think to ask whether she'd be willing to come back to testify in court but I don't think she's in a good place to think about that right now - maybe in a few days."

He sighed. "She couldn't add anything else to what we already know, except that he's got a bit of a deeper voice than you maybe."

They should probably go and find Lucius Whatever-it-was and the others, but Jason really didn't know what else they could do to find the man doing this.

 

@Atrice @Chevi

[Atrice]

Alexius followed Jason out into the cool evening of Rome, it still wasn't all that warm, but at least it wasn't the worst part of winter anymore. Not like it was like the winters he did recall from Germania, with snow and rain and real cold, but it was cold enough. And he'd spent most of his adult life here. So this was not cold anymore. Jason said things were not good with the young woman, but he thought she would be. Explained that she would leave Rome for Ostia and Alexius nodded.

"I'm glad for her, that it wasn't worse for her. She could have been dead instead. Or... just... hurt badly, like Ovinia." Alexius said. Ovinia pretended she was better now, and she probably was a bit, but it was still not entirely good with her. She'd suffer from that experience for a long time to come, he thought. And he felt bad for her. Jason said the woman he just spoke to had not added much new, except for a voice. Alexius shrugged with a sigh, "That's still not much to go by." He said, "Well maybe the others have more information for us. And at least we found something." He added and led the way back towards his insula, where they were going to meet up with Lucius and maybe also Theo. He hoped they'd been able to find out more and wondered if the body had been removed now. It probably had. He didn't know. He just hoped that they could find the murderer and send him straight to Hades, sooner rather than later.

@Sharpie @Chevi

Edited April 30, 2022 by Atrice

[Chevi]

Lucius and Theo were sitting in Alexius' apartment. They discussed the murder in detail, going over the details and the information they had, again and again, until they grew tired and sunk into silence. They had food and wine on the table, and neither of them felt like they could sleep anytime soon. Not until the other members of the team returned. Hopefully with useful news.

As the door opened and Alexius and Jason walked in, Lucius rose and filled two more cups with wine. He handed them to the men, trying to tell from their expressions if they had had success in their investigation. He was a little impatient to know.

"Did you find out anything?"

@Sharpie @Atrice

[Sharpie]

"She was pretty scared, which was only to be expected," Jason said in his accented Latin, glancing at Alexius in case he'd rather take the lead in answering. This group of people was rather odd, but Jason was still a slave surrounded by free people. He accepted a cup of wine. "It was dark, she couldn't really add anything that we don't already know, except his voice is a bit deeper than Alexius'."

He sighed. "She's going to stay with relatives in Ostia. I didn't think to ask whether she'd be willing to testify if - when! - we catch the bastard, but I don't think she was in a good place to answer that right now anyway."

 

@Chevi @Atrice

[Atrice]

They returned to Alexius' flat where Theo and Lucius were waiting. Lexus didn't seem to be here, hopefully he was with Didia or something. He seemed to really like her and she took such good care of his son. It was a pity she wasn't interested in Alexius like that, she would be a good mother to Lexus he thought to himself. But he pushed the thought away, currently they were dealing with the murder of a Senator in a street of Rome and he and Jason just met that young woman whom the Senator apparently saved from a maniac. A maniac that ended up killing him.

Lucius quickly poured wine for both of them while Jason did the talking, explaining what they learned from the woman. Jason glanced at him, but he was saying it all just fine so why should Alexius intervene? He just gave Jason a nod and the other went on.

"We will catch him." Alexius said and sat down, gesturing to a stool that Jason should sit too. Then he looked at the other men present, "Did you learn anything new from the body? And who is he... if you know?" 

@Sharpie @Chevi

[Chevi]

"So, you found the witness?" Theo perked up. He had been hoping that they would manage; a live witness, one who was not patrician and could talk... that was going to make the investigation easier. This team might actually get some results. "Is she a free woman?"

Alexius traded the question for one of his own.

"Lucius Semponius Atratinus" Theo nodded. Lucius had said the name sounded familiar, but couldn't put a finger on it. It didn't mean anything to Theo. "Senator. It will be all over the city by morning."

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[Sharpie]

"Yes, a citizen - a plebeian," Jason said, dropping tiredly onto a nearby bench. He'd still have to attend his master after he got back to the Palace after all this.

He committed the dead Senator's name to memory; he might get a chance to ask Tiberius about him without raising suspicion. Maybe.

"I don't think he was a magistrate," he said thoughtfully, and downed half the cup of wine. "I don't think I've heard Tiberius talk about him at all - though I'm pretty sure he will once the news of his death gets out."

 

@Chevi @Atrice

[Chevi]

Lucius Sempronius Atratinus. The name was stuck in Lucius' head, but he could not quite put a finger on where he had heard it before. Probably from Gaius. There were so many senators in Rome...

He sighed with relief, finding out that Alexius and Jason had located the witness, and she was not a patrician. Her reputation was still on the line, for sure... but she may still be able to help.

"So we have been right. He killed, because someone stood between him and his prey." Lucius noted. "He had to be desperate, to attack a senator. I don't think he's that dumb. Maybe he's getting careless."

@Sharpie @Atrice

[Atrice]

Alexius didn't know the name of this particular Senator, but he'd make sure to remember it, should anyone mention it. If the name could lead to why the man had been murdered and by whom... it was worth remembering. And everyone in Rome would know anyway. Maybe it would help them.

He had nothing more to add to that and then Lucius sighed and said they'd been right as to why the man had been killed. And he suggested the attacker had been desperate. Or careless. That could be it, but Alexius couldn't help but think of another reason why the attacker would suddenly murder a Senator...

"Or cornered." Alexius said, "Like an animal that can't escape, it'll bite you instead. I hope he's not onto us." If that was the case, they really had to hurry. Something had to be done... "I think we have to be more... persistent in our chase." 

@Sharpie @Chevi

[Chevi]

Theo frowned, listening to the conversation. He didn't disagree with the others: the senator's murder would be news by morning all over the city, and if the killer felt cornered before, he'll really feel hunted now. Time was running out on apprehending him before he felt the city. Or killed again.

"We need to find him" he agreed, nodding to Alexius. "But how? If we tell everyone what we know about him, he'll flee. He'll go into hiding by tomorrow if the praetorians start knocking on doors..."

@Sharpie @Atrice

[Sharpie]

Jason was almost out of ideas how they could find this one man among the vast crowds of Rome, until something occurred to him.

"The places where these attacks happened," he said slowly, once he was sure he wouldn't be interrupting anyone. "Are these places that this man knows well - he's not likely to cross from Transtiberina to the Subura to kill in somewhere he doesn't know. There must be some connection - he doesn't wander all over Rome to do this, he keeps to streets he knows."

Which didn't help Jason piece any more together, this whole way of living and thinking was still foreign to him. Ask him to train a horse or track a wolf and he could. Ask him to track a man on the steppe and he could do that, but find one man among a city full of people and he was out of his depths.

 

@Chevi @Atrice

[Chevi]

Lucius was pacing as they talked, too nervous to stay still. Time was running out. A senator had been killed, and by morning, half the city was going to be looking for the killed. He could go into hiding, he could flee. Or he could get smarter. Or he could get cornered, and more violent, like Alexius said. Lucius swore under his breath. They had been too slow.

He looked up as Jason spoke up. The Sarmatian had been quiet in their meetings, aware of his status as a slave among free men. But he was clever, and observant. Lucius nodded.

"You are right. We need a map." he walked over to the table, clearing space on the wooden boards and dipping his fingers into the wine to draw. "If the Forum is here... and the Amphitheater is here... and the Tiber is here... the Circus is here... the Esquiline is over here." he muttered, sketching up the crude outlines of the city. 

@Sharpie @Atrice 

[Atrice]

They all wanted to catch the attacker and murderer. They all wanted to do it now rather than tomorrow. They all wanted him gone. But how? No one seemed to know. Theo was frowning, thinking the man would either flee or go into hiding. That was very likely too. But then Jason said there had to be a connection between where the attacks had happened. And Lucius said they needed a map. Yeah, like any of them were map-makers...

But it would seem that Lucius was! At first Alexius frowned when Lucius dipped his fingers into the wine, but then he began painting on the wooden table, a very simple layout of Rome. Alexius watched him, he had never thought of that! He tried to make sense of it. He'd seen maps before, but never really tried to understand them much. Alexius knew his way around Rome like it was the inside of his purse, but a map was different.

"Something happened here. Azarion and his friend, who was killed." Alexius pointed out the circus, at least he could do that. Then he turned to look through some jars on a shelf and found some raisins. He placed one at the Circus and then the next, "And around here..." He pointed out the Forum and thought it over, "He also came to the Elysium... that must be... here?" He pointed at an empty spot near the Esquiline, hoping he got it right. If they could find a connection, this must be the way! What else could they do? Besides asking around for barbers once they'd narrowed the area down...

@Chevi @Sharpie

[Chevi]

Theo watched curiously as Lucius drew a crude map on the table. He knew some about maps, due to the military service, although that had never really been his area of expertise. He could follow the basic idea. Alexius grabbed some raisins, marking out spots they knew about.

"Well, the senator was killed here..." he pointed, adding a raisin "And Didia was attacked somewhere here..." He had talked to her about it before. He looked up at Jason. "The one you knew... where did that happen?"

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[Sharpie]

Jason was not used to maps, although he grasped the idea quickly enough - it was like looking down on the city if you were a bird flying over it. So if that was the Forum and the long shape of the Circus was there, that meant the Palatine was there and the Esquiline there... Why they couldn't actually orient the thing properly so their east was east, he had no idea... but then, Romans couldn't find east unless they saw the sun rise. Whereas Jason could just point in that direction.

"The patrician girl... I found her about here," he said, reaching for a raisin and placing it where the lower slopes of the Esquiline would be. He thought it had been in Regio III but the boundaries of the various regions weren't clear and the boundary of Regios III and V ran along the side of the Esquiline before curving to the south. She had been in a room of one of the more dilapidated insulae to be found on the lower slopes to the south of the Esquiline Hill, near the boundary of Regios II and III. It hadn't been a long walk to carry her home, but any vigiles who would have spoken to her about what happened would have been from a different jurisdiction because bloody Romans.

"I don't know where she was attacked the first time, though," he added, looking at the cluster of raisins. So far, a number of them were clustered around the Esquiline and more clustered around the Aventine, with the outliers being the attacks on Azarion and his friend near the Circus, in that narrow alley outside the White stables complex. There were several near the Forum Romanum, too.

"Well. He knows Rome - but look where most of these are." There were three or four raisins in a heap together in the Subura, several on the Aventine or between the Aventine and the Forum... "It does rather look like he concentrates on the Aventine. But he knows the Esquiline, too - I only found Ovinia by chance, it's a pretty run-down place where he hurt her."

He'd run when Azarion fought back - did he know a bolt hole down there? Probably not, but on the Aventine... he'd know the alleys there, if Jason's theory was right.

"What's this group all about?" he asked, pointing at the four raisins almost on top of one another.

 

@Chevi @Atrice

Edited May 8, 2022 by Sharpie
Did a better map

[Chevi]

Everyone clustered around the table, looking at the makeshift map. It was not the most exact thing Lucius had ever done; then again, maps of Rome were hard to come by, with the ever-shifting clusters of buildings and insulae and whatnot. Lucius was just learning to navigate all of it himself, as a vigile.

The raisins were forming something a pattern, however. Lucius placed another one for Pinaria. 

"Those four... that's the Elysium. He likes to cut prostitutes." Lucius frowned. "I doubt he'll go back there now, since we asked around. But he might try another brothel." Lucius made a mental note to warn Vibia. He did not seem rich enough to go to the Venus, but at least she could put the word out.

"Well, that narrows it down a bit, at least" he sighed, looking at the map. "So we have a description of the man, we suspect he is a barber... and he knows the Aventine and the Esquiline well." Lucius looked up at the others. "The urban cohorts and the vigiles will be looking for him by morning."

@Sharpie @Atrice

Edited May 8, 2022 by Chevi