To Aleta’s amusement, Dannee wrinkled her nose the moment they crossed the River Walk. “This is really horrible.”
“You get used to it.”
“How?”
Aleta chuckled.
They arrived at the Dancing Seagull. A large crowd was gathered around, barely held in check by three guards, Lavian, Kass, and Jax.
People were grumbling.
“When we gonna get to go in?”
“Oh, shit, the Cloaks are here.”
“Need me a drink f’Wiate’s sake!”
“Me bruvver’s in ’ere! Need t’see ’im!”
Ignoring them, Aleta walked up to Lavian. “Hello, Fran.”
“Aleta. Sorry, Lieutenant.” Lavian grinned at that. “An’ hey, you must be Ocly. Congrats.”
Dannee’s nose was still wrinkled. “Thanks. Does it smell better inside?”
“Better than what, exactly?” Lavian turned to Aleta. “We’ll keep the hordes back, but you may wanna get a move on. They’re gettin’ ugly.”
“Shouldn’t we summon the magickal examiner?” Dannee asked.
Jax said, “I sent for ’im when I asked for you two an’ a healer. But he sent a mage-bird sayin’ he was busy with somethin’ involvin’ a pirate ship?”
Dannee nodded. “Lieutenant Tresyllione and Lieutenant ban Wyvald’s case.”
Aleta sighed. “Of course, the so-called ‘senior detectives’ get use of the M.E. over us.”
Then she shoved the door to the Seagull open only to find a huge crowd of people. Filbert was standing near the bar, several people were sitting at various tables, grumbling to themselves and looking very uncomfortable, and a healer was in the corner, treating the arm of a human woman.
Dannee said, “But their case involves the Pirate Queen, doesn’t it? She’s kind of important. And besides, they are the senior detectives.”
“That was just an excuse to give them a pay raise for being in the Guard so long without a promotion.”
“Yes, but look around.” Dannee indicated the tavern with her hand. “The peel-back needs to be in a space with no living creatures in it. What are we supposed to do with all of them?”
With a sigh, Aleta said, “That’s true.” Mostly she just wanted to be cranky at Tresyllione, but that was unfair, and mostly out of habit. Torin and the half-breed were really good at their jobs, and Aleta had to admit that working with them the past year had taught her a lot about being a detective. She and Tresyllione had even worked together and put a couple of cases down, starting with the lothHanthra murder.
But she still didn’t like Tresyllione, and took a certain pleasure in being angry at her.
In this case, though, Dannee was right. She counted upwards of a hundred people in this tavern, and they needed to interview all of them, which meant keeping them in the tavern. That would take hours, so there was no point in even summoning Boneen until then.
“Besides,” Dannee said with a smile, “with all these witnesses, I’m sure someone saw who did it.”
That comment made it much easier for Aleta to believe that Dannee had never set foot in Mermaid before. Witnesses tended to mind their own business and remain tight-lipped on the docks.
She walked over to Filbert. “Everyone still here?”
Filbert winced. “Can’t guarantee that. By the time Jax and I got here, the body’d already dropped. I can tell you that nobody’s left since we arrived.”
The healer, a dwarven woman, wandered over to the detectives. “Excuse me, are you in charge?”
“I’m Lieutenant Aleta lothLathna, and I’m in charge of this investigation, yes.”
“Good, then you can pay me.”
“Um…” Aleta stammered. “That’s not my—”
The dwarf held up a hand. “Please don’t tell me it’s not your department. The Castle Guard owes me eleven silver from the last three times I healed people at one of your crime scenes. I used to get paid regularly, but the last year or so, it’s taken forever! Now I’ve treated seven people here, so that’s another seven silver, so you now owe me eighteen!”
“I, uh—”
Dannee stepped forward. “I’m sorry, it’s been such a pain, hasn’t it? It’s all because of Lord Albin dying. You see his son, Lord Blayk, he instituted a new accounting system, and Lord Doval has kept it intact. It takes forever for bills to be paid now, and it’s all because of the stupid guilds. They kept not billing properly or paying properly and money kept getting misplaced and lost, and so Lord Blayk put in this new system and we have to pay for it. It’s been how long since one of your bills was paid?”
“A month.”
Nodding, Dannee said, “That’s about right. You should get the next one soon—it’s been taking about a month lately, because there’s been such a backlog, what with all the new construction contracts for the docks and for New Barlin.”
The healer shook her head. “Stupid shitbrains in the castle—don’t they know that us normal folk have bills to pay?”
“It’s been my experience,” Aleta said, “that the upper classes rarely give normal folk any thought whatsoever.”
“At least,” Dannee added, “until tax time comes around.”
That got the healer to laugh. “That’s the truth, as Xinf is my witness.” She sighed. “All right, thank you.”
Aleta asked, “How badly were people hurt?”
“Honestly, it wasn’t that bad—just some scrapes and gashes and such. I’ve been to brawls that have been much worse in this very tavern. Well—” She hesitated, then indicated the corpse on the floor with her head. “—except for that.”
After the healer left, Aleta turned to Dannee. “I wasn’t aware that there was a new billing system.”
Dannee smile brightly under her beard. “There isn’t. I just wanted to get her to leave without raising a fuss.”
“You were right about one thing,” Filbert said. “My cousin’s in charge of one of the construction crews for New Barlin, and they’re way behind on gettin’ paid.”
Aleta’s respect for her new partner had just gone up a notch. “All right, do we know who our victim is?”
“Name’s Soza Lambit. Lives in New Barlin, came to Cliff’s End ’long with everyone else.”
“How’d you get that much information?”
Filbert pointed at a human standing nearby. “That’s his brother, Ditha Lambit.”
For a moment, Aleta stared at the brother. “Keep him here. I want to talk to him last, after I’ve heard from everyone else. Let’s start talking to all the other witnesses so we can get them out of here so Boneen can cast the peel-back, if he ever shows up. If we’re lucky, one of them saw something—and if we’re even luckier, one of them will be willing to share.”
Now Dannee sounded confused. “Why wouldn’t they be willing to share?”
Filbert actually burst out laughing at that, and then stopped when he saw the hurt look on Dannee’s face. “Wait—that was a serious question?”
“She’s never been to Mermaid before,” Aleta said by way of explanation to Filbert, then turned to Dannee, whose respect just lost that notch. “This isn’t Unicorn, Dannee. The people here aren’t civic-minded, they’re working folk who just want to live their lives and not get involved.”
“That’s madness.”
“That’s life on the docks. And in Goblin, for that matter, and most of Dragon. Like I said to the healer, the folks in the castle don’t care about regular people, and the feeling is very mutual—and to them, we’re the folks in the castle.” She turned to Filbert and pointed to the corner of the tavern nearest the door. “I’m going to sit in that corner. Dannee, you take that corner over there.” She pointed at the opposite corner. “Bring one person at a time to each of us and let them go when we’re done.”
Filbert nodded. “And the brother’s last?”
“Yes.”
Aleta then headed over to the corner she’d indicated and steeled herself for a litany in selective blindness. Sh
e was not disappointed.
“Didn’t see a thing.”
“No idea what happened.”
“I think somebody hit somebody else. Not sure.”
“I was just drinkin’ an’ then everyone was fightin’. Dunno what started it.”
“People were yelling and then I hid under the table.”
And on and on.
But some people’s blindness was leavened with anger.
“It was probably those bahrlans.”
Aleta winced at the mangling of her native tongue. In Ra-Telvish, bahrlan was an adjective, not a noun. “Filthy what?”
“No, I mean the people from Barlin.”
“You call them bahrlans?”
The witness nodded. “It doesn’t surprise me that they’d go ’round killin’ each other. Buncha shits who shoulda stayed in where they belong. Stupid bahrlans.”
Aleta heard that term several more times throughout the interviewing process.
“This used to be a great place to come in the daytime. Then the bahrlans all started showing up. I’m glad one of ’em’s dead, maybe now they’ll go drink somewhere else.”
“It was someone arguing with a bahrlan over those shitty drinks they always order.”
“The damn bahrlans were all over the place. I couldn’t even order a drink, there were so many of them.”
“I don’t even know why I come here anymore. All I see is these damn refugees from Barlin. I’m sorry he’s dead, but I’m not surprised. Those people are just asking for it with the way they behave.”
“They’re just bargin’ in here all’a time, makin’a mess’a things. Not surprised one of them got their fool selves killed.”
It wasn’t until the interviews were almost finished that she actually managed to get something resembling a fact.
“So there was these three bahrlans, right? An’ they ordered themselves some stupid bahrlan drink. Poofer Sunrise or some nonsense.”
“Prefarian Sunset?” Aleta asked.
“That was it, yeah. So they order the drinks, right? An’ some shitbrain asks why they can’t drink a real drink, right? An’ they start yellin’ at each other an’ then they start pushin’ each other, right? And then I get hit in the head, so I don’t know what happened after that.”
“Did you see who started the fight?”
“I dunno who they were, right? One was an elf, one was a human, but I ain’t seen much besides that. ’Specially after I got hit inna head, right?”
The next witness was a young human woman. “How much longer do my mother and I have to stay here?”
“As long as this interview takes. And the one with your mother.”
“She’s talking to your partner.”
Aleta glanced over and saw an older woman who bore a resemblance to the woman she was interviewing talking with Dannee. “Then you’ll be out of here sooner. What’s your name?”
“Jaim.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Not exactly. There was an elf and a human pushing each other after one of them ordered one of those bahrl— one of those Barlin drinks.”
Heartened by Jaim’s decision to not use the slur, Aleta asked, “And then what happened?”
“I’ve no idea. The person next to me got hit in the head with a mug, and then Mom and I hid under the bar stools until it was over.”
“Do you know what the fight was about?”
“A drink, I think. Look, my Mom and I have been coming here since I was a little girl. It’s never been this bad before. You lot have to do something about it.”
“Like what?”
Jaim shrugged. “I don’t know! Get rid of the stupid bahrlans! They’re the ones causing all this trouble.”
Finally, with all the other witnesses taken care of, Aleta called Dannee over and they sat down with Ditha Lambit.
“My brother and I were just sitting at the bar, minding our own business,” Ditha said. “We were drinking, talking about where we’d go to look for work tomorrow.”
“What kind of work?” Dannee asked.
“We just finished a job hauling cargo for the Dekird, but it’s sailed off for Saptor, so we need to find more work.” He glanced over at his brother’s body. “Well, I do. I guess. After I deal with that. For Temisa’s sake, I can’t believe he’s dead.”
“So you were drinking and talking about work...?” Aleta prompted.
Ditha shuddered a bit. “Right, yes. Someone walked up to the bar from the back of the tavern. I thought I recognized him from around the neighborhood. He ordered three Prefarian Sunsets, so I knew he was from Barlin also. I was about to ask him something when this elf started yelling at him. They started shoving each other, and then the next I know, everyone was beating each other up. I hid under a bar stool, and Soza did the same.” Ditha wiped tears from his eyes. “After it was over, I got up, but Soza didn’t. He was on the floor, dead.” He started crying.
Dannee stood up and put an arm around him. “It’s okay, Mr. Lambit. We’ll find out who killed him.”
Aleta winced. It didn’t do to make such promises. Well, unless you were Manfred and Kellan and could apparently solve any case that came your way. Absent that, this was going to be a hard one to crack, unless the peel-back told them something useful.
“Th-thank you, Lieutenant.”
“We don’t have any more questions,” Aleta said as she rose to her feet. “We’ll take care of the body and let you know when you can make arrangements.”
“There’s—there’s no arrangements to be made. His soul is with Temisa now, and I don’t care what happens to his body.”
“Right.” Aleta had always had trouble keeping track of the different death rituals of the various religions of the people of Flingaria. She herself didn’t believe in any of them. The only higher power she’d seen any evidence of were wizards, and they certainly weren’t worth worshipping. None of the other beings she’d heard so many invoke—Wiate, Xinf, Ghandurha, Mitre, Temisa, and the others—were ones she had any proof of the existence of. “We also may have further questions,” she added as Ditha headed to the door.
“Of course. Thank you, Lieutenants.”
Finally, Aleta went over to look at the body, which she preferred to do with the tavern now cleared out. She knelt down next to it and looked the corpse over. “He was strangled.”
Dannee stood next to her, and her eyes went wide. “How can you tell that?”
Pointing at the victim’s neck, Aleta said, “You can see the impressions of the fingers. Also look at his eyes.”
Nose scrunching the way it had when she’d smelled fish, Dannee said, “I’d rather not.”
“When people are strangled, their eyes get red. I’ve seen it before.”
“When you—um—” Dannee hesitated.
Aleta stood straight. “When I killed people for the Shranlaseth?”
“Um, well, yes.”
“It’s all right, Dannee, I don’t mind talking about it. I did kill people, yes, and when I strangled them, this is what they looked like.”
“I guess that’s useful? Investigating deaths when you know so many ways to kill people?”
“It’s come in handy.”
Filbert had gone outside for a moment, and walked back in.
Upon seeing him, Aleta said, “Filbert, can you get a detail together to bring the victim’s body back to Boneen’s lair in the castle?”
“Me an’ Jax can do it. But you need to open the tavern back up.”
“Why’s that?”
“’Cause Fran and Kass just got sent to the docks to help Mannit with crowd control.”
Aleta frowned. “Why are there crowds on the docks that need controlling?”
“Pirate Queen’s ship is in dock. Well, in the new docks they’re buildin’, anyhow. There’s gapers, so Sarge needs help to keep ’em back.”
“Wonderful.” Aleta knew intellectually that she was more angry because that was Tresyllione’s case, but it was still annoying
. “But we can’t reopen the tavern, the M.E. will have to—”
But Filbert was shaking his head. “Mannit said Boneen teleported his tiny ass back to the castle after he was done doing whatever it was he was doing to the Pirate Queen’s boat to keep ’em in place.”
Aleta sighed and repeated, “Wonderful.”
“Can’t he just teleport back?” Dannee asked.
Shaking her head, Aleta said, “If Boneen teleports from a crime scene, it means he’s going to take a nap as soon as he arrives in his little sanctum in the castle basement. We won’t be hearing from him again until tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Dannee said, “then we’ll figure out a way to clear out the tavern tomorrow when he’s awake!”
“Perhaps.” She looked at her partner. “What did your interviews tell you?”
“Well, you’re right about people not wanting to get involved. Several of the witnesses obviously saw something but just as obviously didn’t want to tell me anything about it. And a lot of them just said awful things about my fellow Barlin natives.”
“So did a lot of my interviews. But no indication of who did it?”
“No. I mean, an elf and a human got into a shouting match, but it wasn’t even the victim who was part of that.”
“It was probably just someone using the brawl as cover.” Aleta sighed. “And it was definitely personal.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he was strangled. If you’re killing someone because you want them killed quickly or efficiently, especially in a situation like this, the last thing you want to do is strangle them, as it takes several minutes. But it’s also very up-close and personal—you’re using your hands and you’re on top of the victim and watching as they die slowly.”
“You—you know a lot about this.” Dannee sounded somewhat revolted.
“Killing was my job for a very long time. I take my jobs very seriously.” She sighed. “All right, Filbert get the body out of here and then let them open back up. We’ll figure out a way to get Boneen to do the peel-back tomorrow.”
“You got it.”
TEN
Danthres still remembered the day the Captain brought Rodolfo to Sorlin.
Mermaid Precinct (ARC) Page 7
