by Devyn Jayse
How?
And why?
Before long, a couple of men appeared. I recognized them as part of Blaze's crew from the tavern corner.
"Harris told us we'll be walking you back," the shorter one said.
I gave him a nod. I didn't mind the extra company.
They didn't say much after that, taking up their posts and waiting for Penny to reappear.
We didn't have to wait long for Penny to step outside. That's when I realized I had taken more time than expected at the site. As soon as she glimpsed us, a small frown crossed Penny's face, but she erased it quickly enough.
"Learn anything useful?" I asked her when she reached us.
"I won't know now. Time will tell if it will be handy in the future," she replied, her eyes asking me the question she didn't voice.
"Harris had to leave, so he sent them instead." I half answered her question, not knowing how much I could share and wondering if the news of another killing would scare her.
"Has there been another?" Penny asked, reaching the correct conclusion.
I nodded without further comment.
A look of pity crossed her face, and I realized she was thinking of the victim's family. They hadn't even crossed my mind because I had been so wrapped up in trying to understand the killer's methods. A tinge of guilt passed through me.
"I'm guessing Vin will be pretty busy today. I may as well head home instead of having lunch at the tavern."
"I think that's the right decision."
We walked back to The Rebel Hare as we always did when Penny had to continue home. The men took her the rest of the way. I looked at her walking away and wondered which family she would be consoling later.
Shaking my head, I decided to go into the tavern to see if Penny was right.
I had to talk to Blaze.
15
As I stepped into the tavern, the first thing that got my attention was the sight of Blaze and Ragum huddled together with another two men. They looked up when I drew near them. The men withdrew, leaving Blaze and Ragum at the table.
"So have you seen the body? Do you know her name?" I was bothered that I knew her but not her name.
Blaze frowned at me. "Which body?"
"The one I found."
"You found a body?" Blaze's eyebrows almost flew off his face.
"Harris didn't tell you?" I looked back and forth between the two. "Then why are you looking so grim?"
Blaze's mouth set in a thin line. "I haven't seen Harris today. We've been busy."
"He left the school earlier and sent two men to accompany Penny and me back to the Rebel Hare. I would have thought the tavern would be the first place he'd check for you."
"We only just stepped into the tavern," Ragum explained. "What body are you talking about?"
"I went to the killing site you told me about and found a new body."
Blaze and Ragum exchanged dark looks.
"Did you recognize her?" Blaze demanded.
"She was at Miss Ruby's," I replied. "I don't know her name. But she was one of the three girls standing at the door when I first walked in. She had red hair and green eyes."
Blaze and Ragum exchanged another glance.
"Tara," Ragum said.
"Why do you two keep looking at each other?"
Ragum's features twisted in frustration.
Blaze raised his hand and ran his fingers through his hair. He made an incoherent sound before he said, "You found a second body."
"Second body?" I needed a while for the words to sink in.
The killer had murdered two women that day.
"We were busy because we found one," Blaze continued. "We had just informed her family and made the arrangement for her body to go to the funeral parlor."
"Who was she?" I had a feeling I knew the answer to the question.
Blaze's face darkened, and he confirmed my suspicions. "Another of Miss Ruby's."
"Surely that can't be a coincidence." I looked back and forth between the two of them. "The killer must have a vendetta against her for him to kill two of her girls."
"It's beginning to look that way," Blaze replied.
"Does she have enemies?" I asked. "Is that who it is? Or is it really just a client who has decided to go through her girls and pluck them off one by one?"
"Her line of work has a lot of competitors. One of them may have decided to eliminate the competition," Ragum mused.
"Do you think it's that or a disgruntled client?" I asked. "Which one is more likely?"
"Why would a client start murdering women? Especially the way he's mutilating the bodies afterwards. It's not natural," Ragum said.
"I don't know, but it might be a good idea to ask her for the names of her clients," I replied, not adding "like I told you to."
"You won't have her sharing her list," Ragum told Blaze. "I've talked to her, and she won't do it. You know how Ruby is. He could set her house on fire, and she still wouldn't breathe a word about who's a client."
"She'll have to if she wants to help stop the killings." I looked at Blaze. "Or do you intend for this to continue?"
Blaze's eyes burned with frustration and anger. "No, I do not."
"Can I see the body you found?"
"No," Blaze replied, shaking his head.
"Why not?" I demanded.
"It's not a clean killing. No one should have to see this."
I frowned. "I know. I told you I saw the other body. I want to understand what Ragum meant by 'mutilating the bodies.'"
"The killer slices up the women. It's not a pretty sight. You've already seen one. You don't have to see the other."
"But it may help me understand the killer. Are the wounds similar or different?"
"Why do you want to understand him?" Blaze asked, latching on to the first thing I had said.
"By understanding him, I get closer to knowing how he works, and that will offer insight on how he chooses who to kill and why. Isn't it worth a try? We know nothing about him."
"We know he's a sick man," Ragum muttered.
I locked gazes with Blaze. "I can handle seeing whatever this man's done to the victim. Help me help you."
Blaze blinked. Then he turned to Ragum. "Take her to the body." Blaze turned his gaze back to me. "Don't tell anyone about what you see. You understand? About both bodies."
I gave him a nod in understanding.
Ragum tilted his head toward the door and smoothly got up and walked to it. I followed him but gave Blaze one last glance. He was sitting at the table, staring at its wooden top and brooding.
Ragum and I walked down the street. "Where have you taken her?"
"To the funeral home and parlor. It's where we take all the bodies."
Ragum took me through a crisscross of alleys. Children scrambled out of our way while drunks just lay there, staring at us.
"This is the shortest way," he explained after we'd moved through the sixth such alley and emerged on the other side. The funeral home stood in front of us. Instead of being another nondescript building, it was painted black and looked foreboding.
I followed Ragum through the doorway with a deep sense of unease. The first thing that caught my attention was the cloying smell of the place. It smelled... not unpleasant but unnatural. A woman wearing a faded gray dress the color of the walls greeted Ragum with a simple nod. He returned the nod and continued through the room and down a set of stairs. I hesitated briefly, watching as Ragum was engulfed by darkness, then followed him. The smell grew stronger as I descended. A lantern hung at the far end of the room, offering light.
The air was cooler down there.
"Stay here," Ragum said.
I stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched him as he made his way around dark shadows toward the lantern. Once he picked it up, he turned back to me, and the light spilled on the dark shadows, showing bodies lying on tables. A shudder went through me at the sight.
Ragum came to the one closest to me and beckoned me over.
"Come here if you'd like to see the body."
Half regretting what I had insisted on, I moved toward him. Ragum lifted the lantern higher and used his other hand to pull back the sheet covering the body.
She was a young woman with a thin frame. Her stomach was slashed open in long lines. Her face had an almost peaceful expression, not one I would imagine someone would have, with the wounds on her body.
"She was alive," Ragum said, startling me enough to make me jump. "When he made the cuts, I mean. She was alive."
I didn't understand. "How?"
"Deidre, the woman you saw upstairs, makes a study of bodies. She says from the blood, it was clear that she was alive when he cut into her. She could have been restrained, but we didn't find any marks on her hands or legs to indicate she was held down."
I nodded. That fit into a pattern with the redheaded woman I had seen--no signs of resistance, just that vague look of surprise.
"Who can keep you still when you're being cut up like this?" I asked aloud.
"She may have been on stalroot," Ragum said.
Stalroot was an herb that would calm the mind to the point of lethargy. Those who consumed stalroot were slow-witted and prone to lying around. Even if they were in danger, their reaction times were slow.
"Could the effects of stalroot have kept her still enough for him to do this?" I was skeptical.
Ragum shrugged. "If the amount consumed was strong enough, I don't see why not."
I shuddered, unable to imagine being on so much stalroot that I wouldn't notice someone carving me up.
"Did all the women found so far have the same wounds?" I studied the long slashes, which were the same as I had seen on the other victim.
"No, they didn't," Ragum replied, to my surprise.
"How do you know it's the work of the same person?" I asked with a frown.
"The first two women had similar slices but a little less controlled. Victim by victim, the killer is learning how to take life with more finesse. Look here, how he's sliced her skin neatly? It's almost as if he's using the women to learn how to use the blades on them."
"So he's getting better at killing them?"
"He may be, but it doesn't also explain why he takes out their innards. When we saw her, we found most of her innards by her side, with small cuts on them."
I swallowed hard at the image. Then I looked down at the body and immediately regretted my decision. Seeing the gaping hole in her stomach was not helping the matter.
"If you need to get rid of what's in your stomach, there's a bucket over there." Ragum gestured with the lantern.
I saw it but shook my head carefully. "No, I'm fine. The smell doesn't help, but I'm all right."
If he was surprised at my control, he didn't show it. He didn't need to know that I had been around dead bodies before, other than the one I had seen that morning.
One of my governesses had an unconventional background and thought it was right to teach my sister and me about the natural order of the world by taking us to the castle's medical rooms and showing us people who were at death's door or had reached it. My sister had not appreciated those lessons, so the governess did not last long, but I learned what ailments could take a healthy body and destroy it in a short amount of time and what kind of wound could prove fatal even if it appeared nonthreatening or small.
I found it interesting that the wounds inflicted on this woman seemed very similar to the ones I had seen on the other victim. The killer was consistent in his methods, almost as if he was searching for something. I wondered if he was getting closer to finding an answer, how long he would continue his attempts to get one.
I knew of only one place to get an answer to my question.
16
"Oy, where are you going?" the woman by the door called out to me as I breezed into Miss Ruby's and down the hall without stopping to acknowledge anyone.
I ignored the woman and reached Miss Ruby's office. After pushing open the door, I stepped inside. Miss Ruby glanced up at me in surprise, her hand reaching under her desk. Then her expression changed to one of boredom. "You're back, are you?"
A couple of women came up behind me, and I spared them a glance. They glared at me, angry. I looked back at Miss Ruby.
She waved them off. "It's fine. Call off the guards."
I frowned. Of course she'd have protections in place. She couldn't have angry clients bursting in on her. The door closed behind me.
"Have a seat." She gestured at me to sit down.
I made my way to the plush chair and sat.
"Well?" She raised a thin painted eyebrow as her fingernails tapped a rhythm on the desk. "Have you returned to ask me the same questions again?"
"You've heard, haven't you?" I didn't expect her to be weeping with grief, but she seemed unfazed that two women who had worked for her had met their deaths.
"About poor Elena, yes, I heard. It's the most distressing news." Her fingernails still went tap, tap, tap on the desk.
"Tara, too," I added. Doesn't she know?
The tapping stopped, and her eyes widened, but then she forced her features to remain still. If I hadn't been watching her carefully, I would have said she had no reaction. She licked her lips.
"I hadn't heard about Tara," Miss Ruby admitted. "When was this?"
"Earlier today. I discovered her body."
"Did you, now?" Miss Ruby watched me, her eyes sharp. "Where did you find her?"
"In an abandoned alley, same as the others." That could have been anywhere in the Blights.
"And had she been subjected to the same treatment?"
"If you mean sliced and slashed and innards pulled out, then yes," I said more harshly than I'd planned.
She swallowed and withdrew her hand from under her desk. I realized then that she had still kept her guard up, viewing me as a potential threat.
Miss Ruby pushed back her chair and turned around, walking over to a high table by the wall. She had her back to me as she fixed herself a drink.
"Want one?" She glanced at me, her hands busy pouring. She took a long sip out of her glass.
"Yes, please."
She put her glass on the table and went back to make me one. After sliding it across the desk to me, she sank back into her chair. Her long lashes fluttered as she watched me drink. It was smooth and just what I needed after all I had seen that day.
"You're back for my list, aren't you?" she finally asked. "That's why you're here."
"Yes." I waited.
Miss Ruby took another long sip of her drink. Her eyes glittered as she watched me over the rim of the glass. "You're not getting it."
"Your girls are getting slaughtered. How many have you lost, now?"
She waved her hand holding the glass. "Girls are always being replaced."
"Is that what you tell them out there?" I pointed at the door. "Is this how you keep their loyalty? Girls are always being replaced? Do you tell them that to their faces?"
"I do, actually," she replied, her voice heated. "I let them know that they can't think too highly of themselves, that no matter how many times a client asks for them, he will just as easily move on to the next girl if she's not available for his pleasure. All the girls are replaceable. Including myself."
I searched her face. "But you know this is something different. You could be of help here. You could stop a killer by letting us know who has visited on the days and nights the murders happened. You could find a pattern."
Miss Ruby shook her head. "I've already done that. There is no pattern. I've gone through the clients that have patronized the house on those days, and none are repeating."
"How can that be?"
"I'll tell you how. It means that the girls who were killed made plans to meet outside the house in order not to give me a cut. The same goes for the girls who were killed and who didn't work for me. The man might have seen them here or seen them leave the house or just known from asking around which of the women did the sort of work we do here.
He doesn't have to be one of my clients to get access to my girls."
"So it's a coincidence that it's chiefly your girls who have died?" I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
She bristled at my tone. "It's no coincidence that it's the ones who thought themselves above safety that wound up dead. Most of the girls have learned to go out in pairs or groups when returning home. The ones who thought they could handle the danger were the ones who wound up dead."
"I still think it's one of your clients."
"I've told you I've looked into it myself." Miss Ruby drew herself up. "If it is one of my clients, he is not showing up on the days of the murders, and he's not on the ledger."
"You've checked?"
"Several times, I assure you." Her kohl-lined eyes narrowed. "The girls are replaceable, but I'll have you know that I do not take their safety lightly."
"You could be the one who has the key to identifying the killer," I said finally. I knew I was losing the battle, but I kept grasping at straws in order to find anything that would convince her to share information.
"If I notice a name that draws my suspicions, I will inform you immediately. Other than that, I cannot compromise the privacy of my clients. I'm sure you understand."
"Not really, but you're the one who has to go to sleep at night." I got up from my seat. "Thank you for the drink."
"Anytime," she replied, her tone meaning anything but that.
I strolled down the hall, where the same women who had followed me stood by the entrance. They gave me dirty looks.
"Don't go out on your own," I advised as I left Miss Ruby's behind.
17
For the second time, I made my way into town with the purpose of leaving Garren a message at the Honeycomb Inn. As soon as I stepped in, I asked for Alice.
Alice turned out to be a short girl with a plain face but a sweet demeanor. I asked her if she could pass along a message to Garren to meet, and she gave a shy nod. I thanked her and left.
I wondered how long I would have to wait until Garren came to see me.