by Rik Hunik
"So you're really only sure that he killed the last woman?"
"Well, yes, but we're fairly certain he was responsible for the murder a couple of days before, and he was in possession of the weapon that killed Belita. That would have been enough to convict him in court if he had survived. All three cases are officially marked closed."
I took a deep breath. "So, now that The Skinner has been caught and dealt with, how much longer are you staying in Agrippina?"
Tiona said, "Another week at most. There's still lots of work to do in Agrippina, but that's for the local police to handle. Acastus is part of a task force to investigate the increasing number of young women disappearing all over the Republic so we have to move on to the next assigned city."
"Only a week? That doesn't give us much time. We better quit talking business and get down to the serious task of having some fun."
We danced, we drank too much, and we stayed up too late, making love for hours. She got up early because she had to go to work and I got up with her, but after she left I put my head on my arms on my desk and fell asleep.
My office door opened and I sat up before I woke up.
A woman poked her head in, I nodded, and she stepped all the way in, closing the door softly behind her, for which I was grateful because it shut out a lot of sunlight. I rubbed my eyes and took another look at her, saw the faded dress, the limp hair, and the desperation in her eyes, and recognized the type, another mother with no money. I wished for more blondes in blue dresses, preferably rich, missing a favorite trinket that had fallen in an inconvenient spot, and after I found it they would give me a special payment to show how grateful they could be.
"You've got to help me." With a start I turned my attention back to my present client. "She's been gone two days now and I just know something terrible has happened to her."
They all said that. "Who is she?"
"My daughter, of course."
Of course. Had she told me that while I was daydreaming? "Do you have any money?" I sort of hoped she didn't because she looked so bedraggled I'd feel bad taking it from her, but she dug out a ten-talent note and extended it to me. I hesitated for a bit too long before I reached out and took it, thinking that I needed to post my minimum in a prominent spot so I wouldn't be taken advantage of anymore. I seemed to be developing a soft spot for mothers with missing daughters. For the pittance she was paying me I felt like making her walk home to get me that personal item, but the missing girl's home was the best place to get a good impression and start looking, so I had to go there anyhow. The sun looked awfully bright out there but I heaved myself out of my chair and got ready for some legwork.
This mother was less talkative than most, answering all my questions but volunteering nothing. She lived in a wooden hovel attached to the side of a stone building and I could see how her daughter would be glad to get out of there. I got the feeling the girl had run away at least once before.
I waited outside the door, trying to ignore the smell of unwashed bodies and foreign cooking, until the mother came out with an earring, a cheap piece of costume jewelry the girl had liked to wear. As soon as I touched it I felt a strong resonance; she was definitely alive, and close, but I couldn't pinpoint her location.
I got the names of a few acquaintances from her mother, then went out to check the neighborhood. Nobody wanted to talk to me about her, and the little I did get was probably untrue, meant to mislead me. Fortunately I didn't have to rely on what people told me. As I went along I kept touching the earring, rubbing the smooth metal where it had touched her skin. Though my impression remained vague I could tell when I was getting closer and I narrowed the area to a hundred yard radius.
Looking up and down the street at the rows of dingy apartment houses, crammed together, four, sometimes five stories high, I rubbed the earring again and that's when it hit me and I looked up. Chances were she was in a cheap tenement on an upper floor of one of these buildings.
With that focus in mind I walked up and down the streets until I thought I knew which building she was in. There was no security of any sort so I just walked in and climbed the stairs. If I was in the wrong building I would be climbing a lot of stairs for nothing.
Spices from last night's dinners hung thick in the hot air, mingling with less pleasant smells. I reached the top floor, touched the earring, then walked to the door all the way at the back, the floor creaking at every step, and knocked.
A young man, dressed only in trousers, opened the door about a foot and stared at me. I stared right back for three seconds just because, then said, "I want to talk to Verda."
"She's not here."
"If that was true I wouldn't be here."
He frowned as he tried to work out a reply to that. A girl's voice called out, "Who is it? Can't you get rid of him?"
He turned his head, speaking over his shoulder, "Just some jerk that wants to talk to you."
"So I'll talk to him." She pulled the door open wide and stood there, still adjusting her dress. She looked me up and down. "Who are you and what do you want?"
I ignored her first question. "Your mother hired me to find you."
"Why doesn't that meddlesome bitch just leave me alone?"
"Because she's worried about you. Women all over the city have been dying and disappearing for weeks and she thought you were one of them."
"Well you can tell her I'm fine and she can stop worrying."
I didn't like her attitude, so when I smiled it wasn't because I was feeling friendly. I had been experiencing a lot of frustration lately, what with all those women out there I was unable to find, yet here was one I had found. I intended to deliver. "I'm afraid that's not good enough. I must insist that you accompany me back to her so you can tell her yourself."
Her boyfriend, nearly as tall as me but packed with much more muscle, chose this moment to intervene. "You better just leave now," he said, coming at me, trying to push me with both hands. I sidestepped, grabbed his arm and yanked it down and behind him while twisting his wrist in a way it wasn't meant to go, placing him in a simple but effective arm bar. He was bent at the waist, with his arm straight back. I set my other hand on his shoulder and steered his head into the wall. When he bounced off I pushed him away and gave him a spin. Arms flailing, he stumbled and fell.
I said, "You better stay out of this or I'll be forced to hurt you." He glared at me but he stayed down, already hurting and not wanting more. I turned to the girl. "Are you going to come peacefully or do I have to drag you kicking and screaming? Or should I just knock you out and carry you?"
The look in her eyes could have boiled water but she said, "I'll go quietly, but you can't make me stay with her."
I held up my hands. "That's fine with me. She paid me to find you and that's what I've done, I just need you to come along as proof."
"Give me a minute to finish dressing."
I nodded and waited. The boyfriend got up and edged past me into his apartment. When he tried to close the door I blocked it with my foot. He caught on and left it open.
Of course she took longer than a minute, but she was fast enough that I didn't complain, and her mother's apartment was only a few blocks away. Not counting walking time from my office I had spent barely half an hour on the case, which meant I had already been paid in full, so when I delivered Verda to her mother I left quickly to let them settle their differences. Their hostile attitudes to each other made this a less than satisfactory conclusion, but it felt good to me because I'd actually found the missing girl, making it a vindication of sorts, assuring me my talent still worked.
Back at my office I got out all the items I had acquired from the missing women and arranged them on my desk, handling every one in turn, but I didn't pick up a single hint of a useful impression from any of them.
When I did a low-intensity five elements spell on them, and handled each one again, all I saw was more of nothing, but it was the same nothing for each of them, and that's when I realized the nothing
I thought I was seeing was actually darkness. It was a subtle distinction and I sensed it's importance, but the instant I turned my attention to it to get a better impression I lost it.
I was still being blocked. My first lead and it was useless. Darkness could be practically anywhere and it revealed nothing.
As a bonus I got a headache.
I sat around the office, I did some reading (I was up to book 71, halfway through Livy's history of Rome). I worked out in the gym, sweated in the sauna and soaked in the baths. I didn't feel guilty about not working on the cases, but it did bother me that there was nothing more I could do.
I had a few people come in to have me find lost items. They went out as happy customers, raving about what was, to me, an increasingly routine matter.
One woman came in with something different. She started off even more distraught than any of the other mothers but in a few minutes I realized the girl she described was only six years old, far too young to fit the target profile of the mysterious kidnappers, and I didn't think even a sexual predator could be twisted enough to go after an undeveloped girl.
Like the other missing girls, my talent didn't pick up on her, but I found her by starting where she was last seen and searching physically until I got close enough for my talent to function. She had crawled into an abandoned basement and fallen into a metal barrel, which dampened most of my sensitivity.
That got me to thinking. Could all the other missing women be hidden in a similar way? It seemed odd that so many women could vanish without a trace, but even though I couldn't think of any place that had a metal container large enough to hide that many women there are other ways to block my perception, if you know some magic. Most likely dark magic.
Chapter 31
The next day I tried to spend some time on each of the six missing women I was paid to look for, but at the end of the day I still had no leads on any of them. Even though I wasn't being paid my regular rate I would have done even more, just to fill the time, if only I could think of something to do.
After Tiona departed that evening, leaving me sated but restless, I went to Caracalla's for a bath. Afterwards I wandered the streets for a while before I stepped into a tavern at random to have a few beers.
I headed for an empty table near the back but just as I arrived somebody got up from the adjacent table, staggered, and stepped directly in front of me. The collision stopped me in my tracks but unbalanced the other guy in the opposite direction but I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back to a vertical position.
"Thanks for the save buddy. I didn't see you coming."
"Think nothing of it." I slowly relinquished my hold and he stood on his own.
His bleary eyes focused and I saw recognition dawn in them. "Berk? Is that you, old buddy?"
"Yeah," I replied, with considerably less enthusiasm. "What are you up to these days, Lars?" We had both been in the same company for much of our stint, and we both had blond hair, but he was rather slow and he had a mean streak, so I had never considered him a buddy, although he thought we had a bond.
"Not a lot. I'm between jobs right now," and without pausing for breath he added, "Can you buy me a beer?"
I'd heard that line often enough, but it was better than drinking alone so I smiled and said, "Yeah, sure. Join me."
"Right. But first I gotta take care of some business."
While he headed out the back door I sat on the wooden bench and signaled for a couple of beers. The waitress delivered them and my eyes followed her as she walked away.
"She's a looker, ain't she?" Lars said from right behind me, making me start. He could move pretty quietly for a big drunk guy.
"Sure is. She has all the right curves in all the right places."
Lars was drunk enough to laugh at my joke as he sat down across from me. "I hope she stays on for longer than the last few."
"What do you mean?"
"I've been a regular here for a few months and it seems that every couple of weeks they're getting a new girl."
"That's not so unusual is it?" Places like this changed staff frequently, but on the other hand I already knew about several women who had disappeared, and I was sure there were a lot more, including some that nobody knew were missing, so, over the next few beers, Lars managed to convince me that this last girl's disappearance was more than a little bit suspicious. He did use repetition more than logic, but my consumption of beer made his argument more effective.
"Two women from this same establishment disappeared without a trace, two weeks apart to the day. To the day." He emphasized the last point by tapping his finger on the table in time to the words. He paused to swig from his mug, then leaned forward to deliver the coup de grace. "And do you know what day it is today?"
"Two weeks to the day." He had already mentioned that. About four times that I could remember.
He nodded once, but he did it slow enough that I didn't miss it. "Look at her, she's beautiful. We can't let anything happen to her."
She really was beautiful, more so than I remembered when I arrived. I must not have been paying proper attention. "You're right, we have to rescue her." I got up.
"But she doesn't need rescuing yet. This place doesn't close for another hour."
"You're right." I sat back down.
Over our next beer we came up with a plan, and that's how I ended up with Lars after closing time, sitting in a dark doorway across the street and a few buildings down from the tavern. Plans made while drunk generally have a few flaws in them and ours was no exception. "Are you sure she'll come this way?"
He hesitated before he answered. "Yes, now keep quiet or you'll scare them away."
He was right into this hero thing, rescuing the maiden and all, but I was beginning to think I was wasting my time tonight, staying only because we had waited this long, and he was so certain. While I was in the army I learned how to remain motionless and keep quiet, but that was when I was sober and under the threat of harsh discipline, so as the cold penetrated my clothes I began to wonder why I had agreed to do this. Lars fidgeted even more than I did but he stayed alert.
There were no streetlamps on this street and the lights in most of the buildings had been put out, but the moon, only a couple of days short of full, had already climbed high enough to shine down into the street, illuminating one side but leaving the other in shadow that much darker by contrast. On the shadowed side of the street a dim lantern flickered above the entrance of the tavern, barely illuminating the door. The last customers emerged and staggered away, never noticing us, and there was nobody else on the block to take any interest in their departure.
"She's not coming out," I said.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe she has to help clean up before she goes."
"Great. That could take half the night."
"You're right. We should have brought some beer."
I couldn't argue with logic like that, but it was too late to do anything about it so we subsided into silence. The lamp above the tavern door exhausted its supply of fuel and died. If I wasn't so chilled I could have fallen asleep.
The door finally opened, letting out more light than the grimy windows allowed to escape, and the girl came out. I nudged Lars and he grunted. The girl glanced our way but gave no sign she had seen us, then crossed the street at an angle that took her past us. As I stood up I realized that in order to be close enough to help her if she got in trouble we would need to be so close we would be scaring her more than any kidnappers would.
Lars on the other hand, hadn't thought it through but we couldn't talk now. He started following about fifteen paces behind her so I stayed right beside him, hoping she wouldn't turn around and scream, wondering how such a foolish plan could hope to succeed, more certain than ever that we were wasting our time. Well, it hadn't been a total waste because I did still have a nice buzz from the beer.
Without warning the girl let out a little cry and disappeared from sight right in front of us. Lars stopped dead in his tracks bu
t I ran past him to where she had been, just in time to hear the door slam behind her. When I tried it the door was already locked. A quick look at the front of the building showed me a couple of small windows with bars on them, and a glow of candle light behind glass too grimy to reveal anything more.
I delivered a swift kick to the door right beside the latch and something cracked. I kicked again and felt it give a little. The third time I kicked Lars rammed the door with his shoulder at the same time and it slammed open.
Across the empty, dusty room, lit by a single candle burning on a small table, four men looked up from trying to gag the girl, tie her, and wrap her in a cloak.
One of them said, "It's that big blonde asshole again." He dropped everything he was doing and ran out the back.
A pair of them drew knives and came at us. I whipped out my cudgel and adopted a defensive posture. My assailant slashed at me with his knife but I stepped back and the tip of the blade missed my chest by four inches. Before he could start his backslash I conked him on the elbow with my cudgel, he dropped his knife, I rammed the end of my cudgel into his stomach and his breath whooshed out. I was about to finish him with a conk to the skull but a startled grunt from Lars drew my attention.
Lars had managed to grab the man other man's knife hand and they were locked in a stalemate. I swung at the back of his assailant's head but I was shoved and my blow fell on his shoulder instead.
A punch rocked my head and I swung blindly but hit nothing. By the time my head cleared Lars and I were alone with the girl, who was sitting up and looking at us with wide eyes. "You're safe now," Lars said to her, pressing his hand to his side.
I ran through the door the kidnappers had left open, emerging into an alley in time to see their fleeing figures silhouetted against the light from the street. They outnumbered me and they had a considerable lead but I took off after them anyhow.
They reached the street and disappeared from sight. I heard horseshoes on cobblestones and a cab clattered away. By the time I reached the end of the alley all I could see in the distance in the dim light was an ordinary cab.
