"What do you have for me, Clovis?" - sir Malachi demanded irritably as he stepped out of the carriage.

"A double murder, Grand Inquisitor." - sir Zade reported dutifully - "By the looks of it, robbery too, but I have ordered my men to steer clear of the carriage. No reason to stomp all over the potential traces and risk losing something important before you can take a look, right?"

"Fair enough. Any witnesses?" - Malachi demanded as he strode towards the inner yard, where the deed happened. Zade fell in step with him easily, shrugging as he went.

"Lukewarm, sir." - he admitted - "Innkeeper does remember the victims checking in and he was able to tell us one of them was fussing over the chest he has. He also mentioned they had someone appearing to be a servant along with them, but we were unable to find the man. He might be our culprit, frankly, but so far we can not find out much about him."

"Anyone recognized the victims?" - Malachi requested, as he strode close up, and whistled - "Nevermind, I recognize them myself."

He crouched next to the body with the knife stuck in his chest and shook his head. "Fancy meeting you here, Konistan. Then again, I guess your whole life was leading up to exactly that kind of finale." - he muttered, peering at the handle of the knife intently - "Hrm... That's well-worn... But not in a way a craftsman's knife would be."

He stood back up and shook his head - "Right then. Let us see if there are any good traces on the ground... WHAT IN THE DAMNATION?" As he lifted his hand to cast a Searching Light upon the scene, the ground lit up in a variety of colors. The deep red of blood under both bodies was expected, but he did not expect to see the mix of white and yellow right next to the furthest body.

"What is it, sir?" - Zade inquired, staring at the colors with interest - "Blood is blood, obviously, and I know the yellow is piss, which is not that odd in the inner yard, but... white?"

"Man's seed." - Malachi spat, as he let the spell dissipate - "I'll let you guess what it means, Clovis."

Zade's forehead creased as he thought over the implications. "I would assume that stains are actually unrelated to each other, but... They were all left in roughly the same time, given the intensity of light, right?" - he began slowly - "If not for that, I would simply presume someone urinated and fornicated at that spot before the murder. Possibly two someones."

"Keep going." - Malachi proffered simply, as he leaned over the other body - "Well, damn. That's Gileas Hardlock. What in the dickens an Academy teacher was doing this far out of Parsee? Especially right in the middle of the week? Does he not have the lessons to teach?"

"Ah, actually, he was fired." - Zade proffered - "Dean Ambercrombe needed city guard assistance to remove him from the premises. Apparently, he was exposed as a fraud by one of the students."

Malachi whirled around. "OOoh? Do tell." - he drawled curiously - "Would that student be lady Gillespie, out of curiosity?"

"How did you know?" - Zade retorted with surprise - "And yes, apparently she took issue with the way Hardlock was teaching dueling, called him out to the piste and beat the tar out of him. Literally, according to the people present. Squire McGregor had described the bout as "She booted him in the face, then choked him out with her hands."."

Malachi snickered. "Well, that explains why he was fired." - he remarked cynically - "First year student managing to get close enough to actually strike him?... Then again, lady Gillespie seems to be on pretty amiable terms with violence. Alright, back to our muttons. The mixed spot was left roughly in the same time as the bloodstains, give or take half an hour. Moreso, I will give you this hint - the stain was left in one go. Your conclusions?"

"Hrm." - Zade mused - "The culprit is a pervert who beat his meat to the sight of fresh corpses? No telling if they were made by the culprit in question or not, either..."

Malachi winced. "I keep forgetting you're fairly young." - he groused - "There hadn't been many slow hangings in recent years."

"Slow hangings, sir?" - Clovis repeated, confused.

"There are, generally speaking, two ways to hang a man." - Malachi began explaining gruffly - "The usual is to let them drop from about half a touse before the noose tightens. That breaks their necks. A reasonably quick death, all things considered. Drop, crack, done. Slow hanging is when instead of dropping them down, the rope is slowly pulled up. Neck does not break, instead strangulation happens. Much slower, could take up to half an hour to die."

"Fascinating, sir, but what does it have to do with a mixed stain of seed and piss?" - Zade inquired.

"Hangman's wood." - Grand Inquisitor retorted - "If you strangle someone with a piece of rope, some men, well... expel seed and piss in their death throes. No one knows precisely why, but it's a common enough problem that in the past brigands who were condemned to slow hanging had their lower halves tied up into a sack to keep the indecency covered."

Zade winced. "Then I should be glad that his highness does not order such executions anymore." - he remarked.

"Oh, it's still in the books. His highness just restricted the method for brigands who were ringleaders, rapists or childkillers." - Malachi retorted - "The rest get the drop. As though why you haven't seen it happen? Mostly because brigands have better sense than prowl around Parsee. Still pretty common in the provinces. But we digress. This stain? The most likely theory is that someone was strangled on that spot. Let's check the bodies properly, knife wounds might have been just for show."

He quickly examined the neck of each corpse and stood up again, frowning. "Have people search the inn, Clovis. There should be a third corpse somewhere." - Malachi demanded.

___

"So?" - Grand Inquisitor demanded. Sir Zade shook his head slowly. "No luck, sir." - he reported - "My men had found nothing worth attention in the inn or in immediate surroundings. The rooms those men rented are untouched entirely, it appears that neither had time to visit. The innkeeper did recall something, though. According to him, Hardlock was told by the presumed servant that his chest was knocked over, and he immediately went out to the yard to check. Presumably, he was stabbed in the back while he was checking on his chest. I would guess that Konistan went out after them, saw the stabbing and tried to raise the alarm and was stabbed in the chest for his troubles. Hardlock's chest is unlocked and the key is still in the lock. Someone rifled through it pretty thoroughly, it is clear there was a number of items taken out. By the way, both of the bodies have been frisked too. Whoever killed them took care to remove the valuables, given that both men are missing cufflinks and presumably other trinkets. No coins were found in either's pockets, and several of them were turned inside out."

"Hangs together, except for one detail. Who got strangled, and why? And where is his body?" - Malachi grumbled - "Someone else coming upon the scene, strangling the murderer and carting off the valuables and body to throw off the trail?"

"Unsure, sir. I believe at least one bedsheet from Hardlock's chest was removed, given the state others are in. Possibly used to wrap up the valuables or body. Or both." - Zade proffered - "According to the stableman, Konistan had two chests of his own, but only one is still in the carriage. It is open and rifled through, but there were no further clues within. Whoever did this was after valuables that are easy to carry... Which brings me back to the idea that they were attacked by the man innkeeper presumed to be the servant."

"There is something odd about it all, though..." - Malachi mused - "Wait. Idea."

He strode off into the inn and came back with the innkeeper a few moments later. Portly man was not at all glad to be near the corpses, but nonetheless bent over the Konistan`s body and peered into his face intently.

"...I don't think so, your grace." - he hedged - "Many pardons, but that servant man? He had the looks of a man deep in the bottle, if you pardon the crudeness."

"Imagine this man being deep in the bottle, as you put it, my good man." - Malachi rumbled impatiently - "Would he look like the servant then?"

"...I... I do not know, your grace. Maybe? Thousand pardons, but I never bothered to look at the servant's face all that well. Drunkards are all the same to me." - innkeeper whinged - "Excuse me, your grace, may I leave? I'm sorry I can't help better."

Waving off the innkeeper impatiently, Malachi frowned. "Well, there goes one theory." - he grumbled - "This man has a brother who is a known drunkard, but even so, people often comment on how close they look. Kaste is a brigand and a murderer many times over, I could easily see him... Hrm. Hm. No, even if he was the servant and got strangled after the double murder, why would his own killer remove his body, but not the other two?..."

"Perhaps he was not the servant, but the person who strangled the servant?" - Zade offered - "Imagine. Servant lures Hardlock out to get into his chest, waits until Hardlock opens it and stabs him in the kidneys. Starts rifling through the chest. Vole Konistan comes out, sees the scene and tries to subdue the servant only to get a knife in his chest for his troubles. The servant continues to collect all valuables, ties them up in the bedsheet and prepares to escape and this is when Kaste Konistan happens upon the scene, strangles the servant as revenge for his brother and drags the body off somewhere?"

"Why would Kaste be here?" - Malachi objected reasonably.

"To meet with his brother? This inn is pretty remote from just about any other place, a perfect spot to have a pow-wow with your criminal relative." - Zade continued to build his theory.

"Granted. But what does Hardlock have to do with them, in that case?" - Malachi continued sedately.

"Well... Perhaps he knew Konistans have connections with brigands? He was just fired ignobly from the Academy, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to hire some brigands to exert some sort of revenge." - Zade retorted.

Sir Malachi mulled it over. "That... might have been what had happened." - he eventually proffered - "However, there is one person we need to talk to to get the full picture. Well, as full as we can get."

"Whom might that be, sir?" - Zade requested - "We have already questioned everyone who was present in the inn."

"Lady Gillespie, Clovis." - Malachi sighed - "You don't know it yet, but the word is, Konistan had a meeting with her just the other day. Then he left Parsee in a great hurry."

"That... might get complicated, sir." - Zade hedged cautiously - "If she is involved somehow..."

"Don't you worry about that." - Malachi interrupted him irritably - "This is above your ken. I'll talk to her myself."