by Paul Kater
"He is informing the police," the other man said. "We are your witnesses, sir, we saw that you were attacked by this person. Do you have any idea what this ambush was for?"
Daniel shook his head. He now looked at his carriage and saw a thick branch stick from between the spokes of one of the wheels. The reason why the carriage had stopped was obvious.
About a quarter of an hour later, two black and yellow carriages had arrived. Policemen assessed the situation, and a medical examiner was kneeling on the ground next to the body of the assailant. The pointy rock that the unfortunate man had landed on, and the ground around it, had turned red. A nasty smelly kind of red.
Daniel made his statement to the police, and the two other men added theirs to that. One of the officers held the knife in a hand. "Do you have serious enemies, sir?"
"I am not certain," Daniel said.
"Well, it looks like it. This kind of knife," the policeman said, "is usually carried by murderers. Do you see this little tube?" He pointed at what looked like a slit in the blade. "If you get stabbed with this knife, pressing a little switch will inject a lethal dose of poison into your body which goes through this tube." The man showed Daniel where the switch was, conveniently located at the far end of the handle. It could be operated by the pinky.
"This is one of Dogom ko Tzuy's men," the medical examiner said, from his kneeling position. "You'd better be careful, sir, Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy is a powerful person. If he is indeed after you, then you are in trouble."
Daniel wondered how the examiner knew the killer had been with Huajo. The medical examiner showed him a tattoo of a ship, with the word 'Tzuy' beneath it. "Do you think I should file charges against Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy?" he asked one of the police officers.
The man shook his head. "I would advise against that, sir. There is no evidence. You do not know on whose orders this man really acted. And he won't tell us anymore."
The policemen then asked for Daniel's hydger identification, so they could get in touch in case they needed more information from him.
The two gentlemen who had witnessed the battle also presented their hydger information to one of the police officers. After waving away Daniel's gratitude, they boarded their carriage and went on their way.
The medical examiner was done with what he could do out in the street. Together with one of the officers he packed the body in a large sheet and hoisted that into one of the police carriages.
The number of people who had stopped their carriages and were observing the proceedings had grown to such an amount that a proper traffic jam was starting on the road. Once once of the policemen had left with the medical examiner and the corpse, the other officer start directing the people to move on, while Daniel worked on removing the branch from the wheel of his carriage.
"Will you be alright sir?" the policeman asked.
"I think I'll be fine, thank you." Daniel got into his carriage.
"Sir," the policeman said, leaning inside, "I do recommend that you do not take matters into your own hands. Someone has committed a serious crime against you. We do not want to come after you, the victim, for making the same mistake. I wish you a good day, sir." The policeman touched his hat and stepped back as Daniel told the carriage to take him home. And this time for real.
43. Blood shed
At home, Daniel showered and put on different clothes. The fight and the encounter with the knife had left more marks than he had originally thought. He frowned at the sleeve of the jacket. That probably was damaged beyond repair, but he would take it to a tailor anyway. These people here were amazing with repairs.
Then he tried to decide what his next step would be. He was trying to locate a missing woman that hated him, who was the daughter of a man who hated him, and apparently now there also was a contract out on him, put out by someone who seemed to hate him with a vengeance. But that could not be Huajo. The man had been ever so friendly to Daniel when he visited Huajo in his house.
"And you're the idiot who falls for friendly again," Daniel commented to himself. "Don't, stupid." It was as if everyone on this planet who was even slightly important was working with hidden agendas. There was no honour in that, according to Daniel.
After going out to the tailor's with his torn sleeve ("this is no problem, sir, it will be brand new"), Daniel tried to talk to Stroro and Darigyn. Darigyn answered, Stroro was nowhere to be found.
Darigyn was quite surprised about the call. "Daniel, how are you?"
Daniel told him what had happened during the carriage ride. His sailor friend was appalled about what he heard.
"And what are you going to do? Do you need some bone and muscle to make an impression on Dogom ko Tzuy?"
"I'm not sure. Not yet anyway. I have this wild idea though..." Daniel explained what he wanted to do.
"Oh. Yeah. I like that. I can get to Stroro, he near never has the hydger with him, but I probably know where he is."
The men arranged when and where they'd meet. Daniel lay down on his bed after that, while Darigyn went out to locate Stroro.
-=-=-
Daniel was hardly recognisable. He wore original sailor's clothes and a wool hat was pulled over his ears. With his hands in his pockets he walked towards the entrance of the harbour, slightly bent over to mask his height. Darigyn and Stroro were already there, leaning against the wall next to the gate and looking around at the business that was never ending.
"Hey, guys, I really appreciate you coming here on such short notice," Daniel greeted them.
"That's okay, Daniel. The new ship is not ready so there is not much for us to do," Stroro grinned. "Having a little job like this on the side is always a nice change. Keeps us out of trouble."
"Out of other trouble," Daniel said with a wink.
"Ah, don't worry. If we get caught we pretend to be drunk and lost," Stroro said, with stars shining in his eyes and a hip flask showing from his pocket for a moment. "A swig of this each and we can fool anyone." The three men laughed.
"Come, let's go and see what we can find. If there's anything to find," Daniel said. Just to be on the safe side, he wanted to search some of Huajo's ships. Maybe Rayko was on one of them.
"There is always something," Stroro predicted as they walked through the small entrance gate and proceeded down the long part of the quay where the smaller boats were moored.
Daniel asked himself how much he wanted to tell the men. He knew he could trust them quite far, even with his life in circumstances, but the things he was facing now... that probably was not something to share. No. What they knew now was enough for this moment.
The three walked along the gigantic warehouses, watching out for the heavy carts with goods that could be rolling out of there. Then they went through a small alley to reach their destination: the area where some of the ships of Huajo Dogom ko Tzuy were. There were two of them in port at that moment, both relatively small four-masters.
The time they had picked was perfect. There was no one around. The large warehouses were silent and dark.
"Where do you want to start?" Stroro asked, eyeing the ships one after the other.
Daniel looked at them also. The ships looked entirely deserted. They picked one. Stroro and Darigyn strolled up to the gangway and made their way to the deck.
Daniel saw how they inspected the deck shortly, and looked out over the quay. The sailors waved shortly and started sauntering over the deck the way the guards would do, while Daniel quickly made his way on board. He knew they were breaking at least a handful of laws with this.
"Go do your search, Daniel. We'll make noise if something happens up here."
Daniel nodded and headed for the stairs to the below-deck cabins. It was open and deserted. He searched all the cabins quickly as far as they were unlocked. He knocked on the door of the few that were locked, asking if someone was in there. No sound had to mean nobody in; he was making enough sound in the corridor. As it was a small ship, there were only relatively few cabins he had to search, so
he was on deck again quickly. "Nothing," he said.
"The cargo bays are down there," Darigyn pointed at a hatch. "Maybe she's in there somewhere."
"Great, thank you," Daniel said. He opened the hatch and stumbled down the ladder that was there. It was dark down in the cargo bay. "Hello?" he said, not letting go of the ladder. He was certain he'd be lost after a few steps into the blackness. "Hello, is someone here? Make some noise if you can hear me."
Daniel waited, holding his breath to catch even the weakest sound. There was nothing but the sound of the small waves lapping at the hull of the ship. This was not getting him anywhere, he knew, so he went up to the deck again.
Darigyn and Stroro looked at him as he reappeared. Their faces were hopeful, but that changed as they saw Daniel shake his head. "Damn. That sucks."
The three left the ship and moved on to the other one where the search and watch routine was repeated. It was an exact copy of the previous one: also on this ship there was literally nobody. Rayko was not on board of either of the ships. Daniel, Stroro and Darigyn went onto the quay again, at least there they were not trespassing. They stared at the warehouses.
"Do you think..." Daniel asked.
Stroro looked around. "I think," he confirmed. It took some walking around, but in the end he found a small window that broke easily and allowed them access to the building. But also the large building did not give any clues about Rayko. It looked like a lost cause.
"I get the feeling that Dogom ko Tzuy has nothing to do with this," Daniel said as they sat on a few sacks after their extensive search. "That this all is just a confusing mix-up of events, and that the policeman was right."
Stroro had handed his flask around. "Yeah, could be. Let's get out of here then..."
They left the warehouse through the for now permanently open window. As they walked around the large building, at the back of it they noticed a tow of four small sheds. The trio stopped as one. "Hmmm..." Then they walked towards the sheds.
"The Seigner has some of those also," Darigyn said, "to store tools in and stuff like that. Small stuff."
The locks that were on the doors of the sheds did not present a lot of problems to Stroro. Daniel wondered if this man had been a burglar before he had taken to the sea. Stroro opened the lock on the first shed as if he had a key. Inside they found nothing but stacks of empty crates, discarded and forgotten rolls of rope, and lots of dust.
Stroro was already on the second lock while Daniel and Darigyn checked the crates. "Daniel... come here."
The two quickly went to see Stroro. The sailor was looking at the inside of the second shed.
There were crates, neatly stacked. One had fallen down though, and its contents lay scattered over the dirty floor.
"Oh, shit," Daniel whispered. He recognised the stuff. It was TSD, the Toxic Shit you Die of. He stepped into the shed, avoiding stepping on the drugs. He kneeled down and looked at it closer. "Yes, drugs," he confirmed, as if the other two had not recognised it as well.
"Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy is going to be in a lot of trouble," Darigyn said. "I had not expected this of him."
Daniel scanned the floor and something caught his eye. There was something... he leaned over and pushed a basket to the side...
There was a shoe. And a piece of cloth that looked like a improvised and discarded bandage. Daniel picked up both things, got up and walked out of the shed, the two sailors right behind him.
"What you got there, Daniel?" Stroro asked.
"Boys," Daniel said, "I don't want to say what I am thinking... but this could be a shoe of the Seigner's daughter." He was not certain. The rag he had in his other hand made him worry. It was not just a bandage: it was a piece of cloth that was stiff with dried up blood. And there was a lot of it.
The two sailors looked at Daniel. "That looks bad, Daniel. Really bad. Do you think the blood is from the girl also?"
"I don't know. I hope not. But this is..." Daniel turned and walked into the shed again. Behind the basket and the crates he found a small sack, partly filled with straw. Someone had been lying on that. And there were traces of blood on that too.
This could be a coincidence, Daniel told himself. It could be. His brain screamed at him that he should not pretend to be such an idiot. And still it could be a coincidence. Idiot!
"Stroro... can you close the locks so it looks that nobody was here?"
The sailor nodded and a few minutes the locks were back in place. Daniel stood with the shoe and the bloody bandage still in his hands as the man finished his handiwork.
"Do you want to have a look at the other sheds also, Daniel?" Stroro asked.
"Yes. Since we're here, we might as well do that."
The other two sheds brought nothing shocking to the light that streamed in through the open doors. They contained lots of old stuff, ropes, crates and broken tools. Daniel found a bag in one of the sheds, he took that to put the shoe and the blooded rag in it. That way they would not cause much suspicion as he was going through the streets. The locks were put back and then the three people went back to the street, leaving the harbour behind them.
"So what are you going to do now, Daniel?" Darigyn asked.
"I am thinking of a visit to Dogom ko Tzuy. And taking this stuff with me. I am curious what he will say when he sees this. And I want to find out if this shoe is one of Rayko's, but I am not sure if asking someone of her family is the proper way to do that."
"Good luck finding someone else for that," Stroro remarked, touching the sore spot Daniel was so aware of.
44. An unexpected encounter
The sailors had left for their homes. They had thanked Daniel for an entertaining afternoon. Daniel, the sack in his hand, was walking towards his apartment. Thoughts and memories haunted him as he was on his way. Some of them were so bad that they made him shiver; he wanted to shake them away.
After reaching his apartment, he placed the sack in a closet. The things inside it were the first tangible objects that might provide a clue about Rayko's fate, and the blood was not a good omen. He also was not sure if going to Huajo was the best plan. Perhaps he should contact the police about this. Or Warlem and his mother.
Daniel took a quick shower, then he dressed for supper and left his apartment again. Perhaps being away from the sack would help him get his thoughts under control and his plan in some kind of perspective. As he walked along the street he grinned at himself in self-mockery. What plan are you thinking of, Daniel Zacharias?
As he was sitting at his meal, he had the hydger near him on the table. He secretly hoped that someone would contact him and hand him some more ideas. Some more pointers he could follow. The device however remained silent. Daniel was so occupied with his thoughts that he hardly tasted what he was eating, and before he really knew it he was walking the streets again, with no real aim. He just had to move, hear the noise of people talking, get away from it all for a while.
As he was walking down one of the streets, he thought he saw a glimpse of Melia, the music teacher. He wasn't sure if it was her, and she apparently did not see him. He stopped for only a moment, then walked on. His head and feelings were all in a jumble.
"Daniel?"
Hearing his name nailed him to the ground. This could not be true. Slowly he turned around and he saw her stand. It was indeed Melia. She had gotten off her chair, her hand touching her lips as she looked over at him. He felt like a fool as he just stood there. He smiled. "Hello, Melia."
The woman walked over to him, slowly, as if she was still doubting if she was doing the right thing. "I hope you do not mind addressing you like that, here in the street, Daniel. I just happened to see you and..." There was a blush on her cheeks all of a sudden.
"That is very much okay, Melia, really. I am glad you called my name." As he said it, he could kick himself. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Oh. I am glad about that then." Melia smiled, her blush deepening. "You are alone, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am."
&n
bsp; "So I see. That is..."
Daniel could almost hear her think the word 'good'. Or was that wishful thinking?
"Would you..." Melia hesitated as she looked over at the table where she had been sitting. "Would you perhaps like to join us?"
"Only if I am not inconveniencing you, Melia. I'm afraid that I left a rather poor impression on you, the last time we saw each other."
"You are not inconveniencing me, Daniel, nor will my friends feel that way." Melia slowly put her arm through his. She was not sure of how he would react, but as he did not pull away, she held on to him and they walked over to the table.
Melia introduced Daniel to her friends, a young lady called Ophy Dill ko Zerba, and a young gentleman called Wenston Drossle ko Maire. They were still having supper, but they did not mind at all that Daniel joined them.