by Guy Antibes
“Protect him, Emmy,”
Sam ran back down the stairs and found two men attacking Bentwick. He slipped beside the constable. Bentwick was a very good swordsman, but he was older than the other two, and Sam sensed that he was beginning to slow. Sam ran in under Bentwick's blows and brought down one of the thugs when he was distracted by the chief constable. With the other man down, Bentwick quickly dispatched the second.
“You took care of the better of the two,” Bentwick said. “Is Harrison alive?”
Sam nodded, a bit out of breath, but less so than Faddon Bentwick. “Emmy is guarding him.”
They walked upstairs. Harrison had tried to get out of his bonds, but he hadn’t met with much success. “I see the knights in soiled armor have arrived,” Harrison said.
Sam looked at the blood on Bentwick’s uniform and looked down at this own. “If we knew you were going to be kidnapped, we would have dressed for a fight,” he said.
Bentwick helped Harrison to his feet.
“I have a few extremities that are lacking feeling at present. They were experts at binding,” Harrison said. “I suppose their swordsmanship wasn’t as good?”
“Good enough that I need some of your talents to patch me up,” Bentwick said.
“Not here,” Harrison said. “Someone must have tipped off the opposition, whoever they are.”
“You’ll be staying in the constabulary tonight.”
“With Tom Elbow watching out for our welfare?” Sam said.
Harrison made a face. “Who is Tom Elbow?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
~
H ARRISON’S MEDICAL BAG WAS AT THE INN, so after checking in at the constabulary, the healer patched up Bentwick’s and Sam’s wounds at the inn. While he did so, both brought Harrison up-to-date.
“It is a gang filled with pollen virtuosos,” Harrison said. “The straw pouch, the house windows, the map, the bloodstains. There is a person or persons with a high talent for magic.”
Sam pulled out the straw pouch and tossed it to Bentwick.
“It’s starting to deteriorate,” the Chief Constable said, “but it is still a work of art. I’m having a hard time thinking this is all the work of a single person. I haven’t heard of a gang in Baskin who has a signature for using pollen so competently. Criminals use pollen all the time, but the pollen patch on the map was something else. We will show you. Sam noticed it, you know.”
“I told you he was my helper,” Harrison said. “I wish we knew more, though. We are gaining more evidence, but I don’t get the sense we are getting closer to the ultimate culprit.”
“Then let’s see if we can come up with something,” Bentwick said. “Maybe Elbow’s logs will show us the way.”
They returned to the constabulary and began to pore through the logs. Sam was given the miner records. It confirmed the efforts the gang had made to secure the shares of a certain mine, and Ralt’s constables had found two things that Harrison and Sam hadn’t the time to find out. The shares were all in The Fealty Mining Company when the constables were able to pry the information from reluctant miners. In Mount Vannon, the principal person offering money for shares of stock was a woman named Ionie Plunk.
“New information!” Sam said. He told them of his discoveries.
The shepherds log didn’t bring them any other new information. These were investigated as thefts, and as the interviewed constables said, they were likely undertaken by ex-gold miners lured to the mountains by phony rumors of a major discovery. Sam and Harrison had already found that they ended up in Worrier’s Flat.
“See if there is a correlation between the drug and alcohol deaths and the miners who owned shares,” Harrison said. He dropped that log on the table that Sam was using.
Sam took some paper and listed miners’ names and the deaths from the other log. They aren’t exactly the same, but all the miner’s deaths except two were listed a contagious disease identified by body sores.
“Let me see that,” Bentwick said. He examined the list and nodded. “So if you wanted your suspicions confirmed, here is that confirmation.”
“How much further are we?” Harrison said. “Our suspicions were correct, but this time we have a name and a company. I assume that the mining company is going to get back in business. That explains the miners’ deaths. The sheep are still a bit of a mystery, but do we need to solve that? I think we need to talk to Ionie Plunk. That seems to be the most concrete lead we’ve come up with.”
~
Ionie Plunk ran a tavern dedicated to providing gentleman with ladies and with alcohol. Harrison, Bentwick, Sam, and two constables walked into the bordello in the morning. The place might look better at night, but it looked very seedy to Sam during the day. He didn’t wear his spectacles. He put them on and the place transformed.
“A pollen-master worked on this place,” Sam said. “It probably looks nice to you, right?”
The others nodded as a washer-woman fetched the proprietress.
“This is a pollen painting,” Sam said. “Underneath it is peeling paint. There are lots of other examples. This place is the opposite of the house where the thugs held Harrison.”
Ionie Plunk was older than Sam’s mother. She appeared ancient in the morning light. She didn’t seem to look like a Toraltian, but from some other place in the world.
“How can I help the constabulary? I assure you I run my house according to the town’s rules, and I am caught up with my taxes,” she said with a hint of an accent.
“We aren’t here about your business. We would like to know your connection to The Fealty Mining Company,” Bentwick said.
Even in the dim light, Sam could see the woman’s face blush.
“I don’t know anything about a mining company,” she said after clearing her throat.
“Yes, you do. We have an ongoing investigation, and these twenty-three miners were approached by you in the last year asking to purchase their shares in the company. Do you deny that you solicited their shares?”
“Oh, the mining company. I didn’t know the real name,” she said.
“Did you know thirty percent of the men you made the offer to died shortly after, and their relatives were quick to sell the shares to you?”
“I didn’t get any money for selling shares.”
“Did you pay money for buying the shares?”
“I, uh.” She looked around. “Let me put some cosmetics on. It’s early in the morning, and you're confronting me like this is making me embarrassed.”
“You refuse to tell us whom you work for and where you got the money to purchase the shares?”
Ionie looked around. Even Sam could see her thinking about how she would escape.
“Come with us to the constabulary. Have one of your women bring cosmetics and more proper clothes. We will want to talk to you some more,” Bentwick said.
~
Ionie wasn’t a very happy person. Sam could tell she wouldn’t be telling them anything about miners and the mining company. So he asked her a question about her establishment.
“Who did such a wonderful job making your establishment look so much better? I can see pollen better than most,” Sam said, “and I was really impressed.”
“You were?” Ionie said, nearly smiling for the first time. “One of the men who frequent my house did it.”
“Can you give me his name? Harrison would like some decoration on his wagon. He and I are not artists, but the person who worked at your place was.”
“Oh, certainly. His name is Les Oakbrush.”
Sam wrote down the name. “He is here in Mount Vannon?”
“He works through the villages. Right now he is in…”
“Shovel Vale?” Sam asked.
Her face turned red, even through her make-up. “Perhaps,” she said.
“I suppose there isn’t anything else to discuss right now,” Bentwick said. “Don’t leave the town. If you do, you will forfeit your place of business. Do you understand?
”
Ionie pursed her lips, looking very unhappy. “I won’t lose what I have spent my life building.”
“I’ll have a constable escort you home.” Bentwick stood.
Ionie followed. “I’d watch your back if I were you,” she said to Bentwick.
“Chief Constable Ralt was killed from the front, so I will be careful who I allow in my presence. I do hope that wasn’t a threat. If anything happens to me, you will be the first suspect. There are three witnesses other than myself in this room.”
She left without saying another word, looking very concerned.
“Do you think she killed Ralt?” Sam asked.
“Perhaps, but I don’t think she could lug Ralt’s body across town. She just might be contacting whoever did kill him and plead not to do the same to me,” Bentwick said.
“So, maybe not one person, but more than one. What if Ionie killed Ralt, and she and this Les Oakbrush, if he really exists, worked together? Maybe with a third waiting outside with a wagon,” Harrison said.
“A gang. That is a consistent thread. There might be more than one pollen artist,” Sam said. “Are gang members less likely to be truthful?”
“They are,” Harrison said. “Our problem is we don’t have the name of the gang, and we won’t be able to identify the leader until we do.”
Sam didn’t think so. He thought that they didn’t need to arrest the entire gang, but they would have to find someone who would talk.
“I can’t imagine a gang the size of this one could go unnoticed within Toraltia. The gang has enlisted a lot of ex-gold miner rabble in Worrier’s Flat and in Shovel Vale,” Sam said.
“I asked Baskin about that,” Bentwick said. “We won’t get a return message until late tomorrow and more likely the day after tomorrow.”
“But you are certain the king will send soldiers.”
“That request was on all four birds that I sent.”
Sam and Harrison moved their things into the constabulary. Bentwick assigned two constables to work with Tom Elbow during the night.
~
“Are you going to see patients with your healers?” Sam said, as they walked downstairs to the foyer of the constabulary and proceeded to the inn for breakfast.
“I will, but only for a few hours each day. When I am free of my healing duties, we will work with Bentwick to discover what kind of gang we are dealing with,” Harrison said.
“I already know what kind of gang they are,” Sam said. “They are utterly ruthless, and anyone under their power may lose their life at the gang’s whim. They have been operating against the law, mostly, and if they are unleashed, they will be no better than the Gruellians.”
“How do you know how good or how bad the Gruellians are?” Harrison said in a pedantic way.
Sam could feel his face burn with the rebuke. “I don’t.”
“Then know this, my good Smith, the Gruellians are no better or no worse than Toraltians. This gang is not from a Gruellian tribe or faction. Don’t generalize unless you have the experience to back it up. Rumors aren’t facts.”
Sam didn’t want to leave it at that. “Then why do we have a fortress at Riverville?”
“There is a single Gruellian tribe that has invaded Riverville numerous times in the past and has taken over the general area to the north of the village in the past, prompting the king in Baskin to send troops. Before the troops could arrive and drive them back, whole villages were slaughtered. That is a fact. There are other parts of the border where there haven’t been such incursions. Why do you think the murdered shepherd could afford all that land? No one wanted it.”
“And the villagers feel safe enough to sell sheep to other tribes?”
“That is correct. Should we invade the peaceful Gruellians?”
“No,” Sam said. “We should treat each clan or faction or tribe or whatever separately?”
“Is that a question?” Harrison said.
“No, it is an uncertain statement.” Sam knew that his instant solution might still be wrong, since he had said it without any knowledge whatsoever. “Uncertain because it is a guess. Sometimes a person has to proceed forward with information he does or does not possess.”
“You would rather operate with bad information than no information at all?” Harrison looked at Sam with a smile on his face.
Sam never liked verbal tests in school, and Harrison was testing him.
“Yes,” Sam said. “but with caution. You just taught me to be flexible when confronted with additional information.”
“Caution, eh?”
“Unless your life is in danger.”
“What?” Harrison asked.
“I didn’t know who was in the house where you were abducted. Emmy barked, but it might have been because there was a side of beef inside, for all I know. If I didn’t act with imperfect information, Chief Constable Bentwick and I could have returned to the constabulary without finding you. But I knew you had gone missing, so we three decided to break into the house to rescue you. When I saw the pollen artwork to make the house look derelict, I was more sure that you were captured by the gang.”
“Oh,” Harrison said. “You have my belated permission to charge in and rescue me. You knew you would be putting yourself in danger.”
“And you might already have been killed. Why weren’t you?”
Harrison lifted the corner of his mouth in a lopsided grin. “They wanted me to leave the mountains and promise not to tell anyone what we saw.”
“You couldn’t hold to that promise,” Sam said. “We had already pretty much said what we had to say to the chief constable.”
“And if they had perfect knowledge that we had done that, I wouldn't have been able to tend to your wounds,” Harrison said.
“So what is the difference between Ralt and you?”
“Perfect knowledge that Ralt might have acquired. I suspect a constable is in the employ of the gang, if not a member. The constable didn’t know what we said, but he observed that we talked to the Chief Constable, so that makes us persons of interest, if you want a new phrase to learn.”
“You suspect. Is that a guess?”
“It is. We are making lots of guesses here, but how else would someone know about the three crime logs that Tom Elbow made?” Harrison held up his hand. “And you can’t accuse Tom because he took the time to put the duplicate logs together. I checked them against the master log last night, and unless our pollen master has done an incredible job on the master log, the new logs were as accurate as the old ones. I talked to Tom, and there was a constable who lingered after his shift and fetched some tea that they shared.”
“The gang’s employee?” Sam said.
“Probably, but I’ll share his name with you and Bentwick later today. I think he will strike again while we are staying at the constabulary.”
“So we could be murdered?”
“Something like that. All three of us represent a threat to their budding kingdom in the mountains.”
“Paid for with a gold mine? Why bother with the shares if they set up their own state? They could just seize them,” Sam said.
“That is a good question that needs to be answered. There are still plenty of holes in this situation. Maybe the gang doesn’t want to be a state on their own, so having title to the gold mine would give their operation certain respectability in Baskin. Now we are speculating without information.” Harrison said.
“So we should have our breakfast.”
“Good advice,” Harrison said, as they walked into the inn.
“Where do we go from here?” Sam said.
“You are the snoop. I’m just a traveling healer. You tell me.”
Sam laughed. “I’m no snoop. I’m your helper.”
“Tell me,” Harrison said. He kept quiet while the server came and took their order. “What should be our next step?”
Sam bit his lower lip and thought for a bit. “Trick the person inside the constabulary into making a mistake
,” he said. “If he is one of the gang members, then we can get more information. Right now, all we have are the dubious words of the woman, Ionie.”
Harrison smiled. “Why do that rather than question more people?”
“Because we haven’t gone high enough yet. When have we been able to talk to anyone in charge? Besides, if we move too quickly, it might become much too dangerous.”
“It already has,” Harrison said. “Can we do things differently?”
Sam did some more lower-lip biting. “We can make some guesses without much evidence as to who is leading the gang. Whom is Ionie working for? Who gets the share certificates? Can we identify the gang members? If we don’t get enough information, there will be hundreds of royal soldiers milling about Mount Vannon without a thing to do.”
Harrison raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think they will be idle. Chief Constable Ralt didn’t approve the change in constables at Worrier’s Flat and Shovel Vale. I am sure of that. There is more to do, but we need—”
“A strategy!” Sam said, a little too loudly, since he noticed a few people turn their heads towards them. “A strategy,” he whispered.
“Ah, that game again, eh?” Harrison said loud enough for others to hear.
“That’s right,” Sam said, back to talking at a lower volume. “We need to structure our game, and that means a comprehensive approach.”
“Good, let’s talk about something else,” Harrison said. “What do you think of the food here?”
Sam frowned. “I haven’t had enough of it to make a good decision about it.”
“I’m sure Emmy hasn’t had enough of it either.”
“Emmy!” Sam said. “I forgot about her.”
Harrison sat back and chuckled. “Then it is a good thing that I haven’t.”
Their breakfast arrived, so Sam kept quiet until they had finished eating and returned to the constabulary.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
~
B ENTWICK TOOK THEM TO A CONFERENCE ROOM on the second floor of the constabulary.
“We can use this room for our investigation.” He gave them both keys. “We will keep this locked up. If you see anyone here, let me know. That person will be questioned as to why they are where they shouldn’t be.”
