Seven

Zasi Tontop and I walked to the crime scene in complete silence. I had a feeling she didn’t like small talk unless it had something to do with her job.

We finally approached a crammed alleyway and Zasi came to a stop.

“He was found at the back of the alleyway there. A halfling by the name of Dabble found the body. Dabble immediately contacted us and I was sent out to investigate.” She said everything so matter-of-factly, there was no change in tone of her voice. This was someone that took her job very seriously.

I took a few steps into the alleyway and found myself immediately wet once again. Zasi approached me and dried me again.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Sorry, it has a short range. You want to see the back of the alley?”

“Yeah.” Zasi and I walked to the back of the alleyway together. The alley ended in a red, brick wall. Finally, something in this place that was similar to home.

Some trash cans littered the alleyway, and there was even a dumpster bin. There was still a glowing outline of where Heston’s body had been.

“Did you find anything down here? Or come to any theories?” I asked. I pulled out my notebook once again and made a new page. Taking notes was something I was proud of.

“No, not really. This alleyway prey much looks the same as it did when I came to Heston’s body. There are four options that I can think of for where the attacker could have come from.”

“Oh yeah?” I raised my head and looked around the alleyway. I had my thoughts, but I let Zasi talk.

“Yeah. The murderer could’ve come out of either of those doors there.” Zasi pointed back a bit. There were two doorways, slightly off being perfectly opposite of each other.

“What kind of businesses are they?” I asked.

“One’s a butcher. The other is a factory of some sort.” I made more notes, I was going to hafta talk to the owners of each of those buildings.

“What else were you thinking?”

“They could’ve hidden in that dumpster over there.” She pointed at the dumpster.

“Have you had a chance to check it out?”

“No. It was a bit of a whirlwind in securing the body before it all went sideways. Because he was a human.”

“Yeah, I get ya.” We approached the dumpster and with a little effort, I flipped open the lid. There was a deafening clang as the lid crashed into the body as it landed on the other side. “Were there any journalists at the time you were dealing with the body?” I peered into the dumpster but couldn’t make out much in the lack of light.

“Yeah, that Dabble had contacted some journalists too, before he had contacted us. Probably hoped to make some money out of it. Two were humans from Edge City and one was a gnome from here.”

“You have journalists here?” I asked. It was something I’d never given much thought.

“Yeah. Most of us read too.” Her voice was deadpan, like she was annoyed.

“Didn’t mean to come across as rude.” I put on the glasses that Grob had given me, and I climbed into the dumpster. I flicked my metal lighter and looked around.

Even though everything had a green tint to it, these glasses were amazing. I could make out all of the details within the dumpster.

It had an underlying, pungent smell. A smell that always lingered around, no matter what was done to the bin. It made me queasy at first, but it was quickly gone, thanks to my smoker’s nose.

The dumpster was mostly empty, save for a few bags of rubbish. I kicked the bags around but found nothing loose. I argued silently with myself if I should tear any of the bags open.

I decided I had to. You never know, the murder weapon could’ve been right here. I ripped open the bags and only found general waste. I gave a quick look at each of the sides and still found nothing. I pulled myself back out of the bin.

“You stink,” said Zasi. She gave another flick of her wrist, and the smell was gone.

“I need to learn some of that magic,” I said.

“Quite a few humans have. Quite a few of us fairyfolk will sell lessons to you lot. Great way to make money. Though we only ever share the small stuff. Nothing that can be weaponised against us.” She had returned to her unwavering tone.

“Yeah, right?” I’m gonna look into that.”

“Some of your lot sell your guns to us, too. Violence in here has gotten so much worse since that started.” For the first time, I detected a hint of emotion in Zasi’s voice. She was not happy.

“That’s not good.”

“No, its not. The fourth option that I could think of is the murderer came down the alleyway with the victim. Either someone the victim knew, or they rushed down into the alleyway and got the jump on the victim.”

“Hmm, either of those could work too.” I had a look at the brick wall and the rooftops. “You don’t suppose someone could have come down from those rooftops or the wall?” I asked.

“Possible, but I don’t reckon so.” Zasi was back to her toneless self.

“Oh, why’s that?”

“Just don’t.”

“Oh ok, fair enough.”

“Well, unless you need anything more from me, I’m going to retire for the evening. I can meet up with you again tomorrow if you need me.”

“Yeah, I may. How can I contact you?” Zasi threw a small, smooth, black stone and I caught it. “Thanks.”

And at that, Zasi turned and walked away. I found myself drenched once again. I gave a flick of my wrist, copying what Zasi had done, but nothing changed.

I made my way out of the alley and toward the only other place I knew by heart.

It was a fancy nightclub, the sort where I wouldn’t normally be allowed in wearing this outfit I had. Except I knew someone. I knew a few of the people here, and I was always allowed.

I went around the back entrance and was greeted by another ogre. He opened the door and let me in. I walked down a short hallway and watched from the side as Kipp performed. She shot me a quick look but continued to sing for the club.

Her voice was magical. I sat there and listened to the whole show.