Dead Letter (24 page)

“
No. Our time of arrival was by fortuitous chance. I was
coming to ask you about the earlier heist and ran into the middle
of this one. I gather that they are the same men as last
time?”

“
They had masks. Humans look so alike to me, even when I can
see their flat faces. I suppose these were the same men. Their
calls were the same, and the tattoos of course.”

“
Their calls?” asked Lanuille.

“
Yes. Their sound. Their awkward Calimskan
speechsong.”

“
If you have trouble recognising their faces, were any of
their voices familiar to you? Do you think they worked for you? Or
were customers?”

“
No. They were no brood of mine.”

“
What was the explosion?” asked Kettna.

“
After the last heist, I paid for some advise on how to better
secure our stones. I had a fellow come in and install a black
powder trap on the vault door. I guess that lad won’t be bragging
about his black hands now. I hope it sends a strong
message.”

“
I imagine so. What was stolen the first time? The record only
described ‘precious stones’. What exactly did they
steal?”

“
Last time they took moondrops, every last one.”

“
What else?” asked Kettna.

“
Just our moondrops. Everything else was accounted
for.”

“
How odd,” said Lanuille. “Moondrops are worth a lot to a
mage, but I don’t see many set in silver or gold. They aren’t
stones desired for their beauty. A thief would be hard set to fence
them unless he already had a buyer lined up.”

“
Were there other gems in the vault?” asked Kettna.

“
Come and have a look yourself.”

Lapidary
Schon led them with his tentative birdy gait into the charred room
with the vault. The trap had exploded on the lock picker and at the
same time blown open the safe. Through the torn metal opening, a
glittering rainbow of precious stones lay scattered out of their
small shelves. “Diamonds, emeralds, rubies. We keep something of
everything for our customers in Calimska. Gems are much lighter
than gold.” The Akiri reached in and took an empty velvet lined
case. “But this gang only has eyes for moondrops. I used to store
them in a separate vault in another room, but since the last
robbery, I moved all my stock into this vault. I thought is was
more secure.”

And yet
the Black Hand Boys knew just where to look. Kettna studied the
beaked face of the Akiri. She had no idea how to read the birdman’s
expressions. She couldn’t determine a lie from a truth. “I know you
said that none of the thieves were from your guild, so how would
they know where to find these gems if you changed the location? Do
you know of any guilders that have reason to give out that
information?”

“
We’re well paid in our guild and proud of our craft. I don’t
know anyone who would want to harm that.”

“
Any guilders left recently? Outcasts perhaps?”

“
We’ve not outcast a guilder since I took the leadership.
There was one of our apprentices who left us recently, for family
reasons.”

“
Where did she say she was going specifically?” asked Kettna,
thinking of the slumper with gemstone tattoos.

Lapidary
Schon tilted his head, perhaps in recollection. “I received message
by courier that she had travelled to Brigadell to care for her sick
mother.”

“
I see,” said Kettna, doubting the authenticity of the
message. “You’ve been very helpful, Lapidary Schon. I’m sorry for
the damage done by this gang.”

“
Damage can be repaired. Lives cannot. If it weren’t for you
our entire guild would have perished.”

Kettna
bowed to the Akiri, acknowledging his kind words. “I’ll leave you
to the cleanup and see these brigands to prison.”

It was
all coming together in a tight circle. With every clue uncovered,
Kettna thought these crimes were related. The stolen lockbox, the
pilfered alchemical shipment, and the moondrop heist; everything
circled back to the Courier Guild and Rix.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Bloody
Agnus

A pair of stalwart draft horses hauled the prison wagon with
sure strides up the hill to the fortress. Two guards with spears
walked in the lead, clearing the way along High Street, so the iron
cage on wheels didn’t have to stop. Four more guards had their
swords drawn and walked beside the wagon with wary looks down the
side streets. The mages walked with the procession too. Kettna
questioned the prisoners as they went, but none of them gave up
anything to locate where their hideout was. The Reik decided to
vent his frustrations in his mother tongue, which neither the mages
nor guards understood. The language barrier didn’t hinder Kettna’s
understanding of what was going on. The frustrated swordsman
flailed his arms around, berating the warrior woman and admonishing
the injured Black Hand Boy. The warrior woman swore back at the
Reik in several languages and were it not for being chained to the
wall, she would have silenced him with violence. She thought the
gang member she had saved would be grateful and talk. Instead he
bottled up and crouched in the corner, hiding his face from the
other two prisoners.

Before
they got to the gatehouse, Lanuille excused herself. “If you don’t
mind, I’m going to find something to eat. We’ve missed lunch and I
need to rest my tired legs.”

“
Lunch? Now that you say it, my stomach begs for the same. I
need to see the Constable about all of this first. Could you get me
something too, and I’ll meet you at the gate when I’m through
here?”

“
You’ll need a good meal after hitting bottom like that. Don’t
take too long.”

Kettna
directed the twins to go for a walk and proceeded through the gates
and straight to the Constable’s office.

He stood
waiting for her on the small balcony of his building clapping his
approval and grinning broadly. “My, my. Three arrests on your first
day! You don’t waste any time, Inspector.”

“
It is not as good as you imagine. They refuse to speak and I
am without a clue of what to do next. None of my investigations are
knitting into any sense that could solve the mystery of who the
mastermind is. I am just moving pawns around.”

“
Come inside and have a seat. Tell me what you
know.”

The
Constable had a tray of tea and biscuits upon his desk and poured
Kettna a cup. It was sweet and floral and Kettna drained it before
she reported the day’s investigations. The Constable was attentive
and absorbed what she had to say, remaining quiet for all but minor
questions of clarification. Kettna was honest except for the
omission of anything to do with Rix and the small detail of her
poaching. Her own criminal behaviour wasn’t pertinent to the facts
of the cases that needed to be solved. Rix on the other hand, she
feared was the very key to it all, but how could she defame her
love without the proof. No. She wouldn’t say a word against Rix,
not unless she heard it from him.

“
So as you can see,” explained Kettna. “I am still without
hard evidence for a clear prosecution. All I’ve collected are holes
in a tapestry and I can’t even understand what the larger picture
is, let alone who the weaver might be. I need your help,
Constable.”

“
I disagree. You have quite a deal more information than I had
acquired, so let us outline the facts to established a clear
pattern of theft which links all of these crimes.”

“
Blaze was planted on the dead man in the alley and when I
went to investigate, a lapidary guilder was high on blaze. The dead
man was their dealer and likely involved with the jeweller for
information. The stolen glassware could be utilised to make the
drug. That links blaze to the merchant theft, the jewel heist and
the glaziers’ stolen shipment. Blaze links the crimes, but I cannot
arrest Bloody Agnus; she’s a ghost.”

“
Many people assume that Bloody Agnus is behind the influx of
blaze in Calimska because she runs nectar and paff and every other
exotic condiment in the city, but I have interviewed many who claim
to serve her, and they are just as interested as I am to know who
the true maker is. Blaze runs rife in Jando. It is much worse in
that morbid city than here and the rumour on the street is that it
is Jandans who are sneaking it into Calimska. Whoever is dealing
blaze has cut Bloody Agnus out of the equation and I doubt she is
happy about that.”

“
It might appear counter intuitive, but for the same reasons
you say Agnus is not the main source of blaze, she is more likely
to be behind all of these particular crimes. She has the motivation
to be putting together a rival lab to manufacture the one dubious
substance she doesn’t control. I think she is using the Black Hand
Boys. Perhaps they are not rivals. They could be a specialised crew
working for her?”

“
If this is your hypothesis then you have only to prove it.
All crimes link back to the criminal. You know that the lapidary
heist was done by the Black Hand Boys,” offered the Constable. “Can
we link them to each of the crimes?”

“
We know that a Black Hand Boy was murdered and planted with
the Merchant Guild’s chain of office. I know Ginny is responsible
for that murder, but to what end? Maybe for blackmailing Merchant
Guillan or maybe to discredit the Guildmaster. The lockbox is still
missing and I have no idea what it contains.”

“
Don’t get caught in a tangle of maybes,” suggested the
Constable. “They will grow into certainties in good time. We must
stick with what we know.”

“
I don’t know who is behind the heist of glassware. I suspect
it was the Black Hand Boys.”

“
Why Bloody Agnus and not the Jandans? You’ve not spoken with
them yet.”

“
No, but I will this evening. The Jandan buyer will be at The
Outpost Inn.”

“
That is an unsavoury place where many foreigners gather. Be
careful.”

“
I will, Constable. I still don’t feel like I understand
everything that is going on. All I can say is that the Black Hand
Boys are involved and make a guess that Bloody Agnus is the
mastermind. That doesn’t recover the missing glassware or return
the lockbox to Merchant Guillan. I have no way of finding
them.”

“
Maybe so. You have made progress, but you don’t see it yet. A
good investigation is thorough, and you must be patient. There
comes a tipping point at which things will fall in your favour.
That point is only reached when you know enough about everything to
know what you actually need to look for. An investigator circles a
herd of possibilities trying to establish which of them broke the
fence, sorting out the black-faced sheep from the white, the rams
from the yews, the shorn from the unshorn. Blood stains the broken
fence, so you check each head for injury. The rams are more likely
the culprit, thus you begin with them, yet find not a scrape on
their thick heads. Next, you check the yews and again there is not
a scrape on any head. But one old mother kicks you when handled and
you see a bite on her leg. So you look carefully at the other yews
and notice many have nips at their heels. Worried that it’s the
work of a wolf, you count your lambs and find one missing. The
crime was not the broken fence; it was the stolen lamb. Now you
know to hunt a wolf. Understand the true crime and you will find
the criminal.”

“
What is to become of the prisoners from the jewel heist? They
are three wild dogs who won’t point me to the wolf.”

“
They will stand trial and face due punishment,” said the
Constable. “I will make recommendations and the High Council will
decide.”

“
If they would give over the location of their sanctuary, we
could solve all the cases in one hit.”

“
They know that the gallows await them for their crimes. I
will offer an alternative for their assistance and let them have
some quiet time in separate cells for the night. By morning, at
least one of the three will be ready to talk. A carrot works a
treat when they have had time to fear a stick they’ve not felt. Men
like this will protect their own interest over the pack every time.
Their selfishness can be relied upon.”

Kettna
poured more tea. “I’ll speak with the Jandan trader tonight and
report back here tomorrow morning. I don’t have high hopes of what
the interview will uncover. I believe the only thing the Jandan is
responsible for is being a foreigner.”

“
You might be right, but don’t be so certain. I’ve never met a
Jandan I trusted; they hate us and envy us in equal measure. They
are motivated by preachers of a false god and would claim our city
for the glory of their Lord, if they had the strength to do
so.”

“
My parents say the same thing, but surely trade and diplomacy
have changed the conflicts of the past.”

“
Never forget the sacrifices our heroes made to keep this city
great. Jandans are anything but blameless and if you ask me, we are
fools to trade with dogs hungry to bite off our hand. Sorcerers of
the Order should understand this better than most.”