Page 26 of The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
“I’m not sure I’ve seen you respond kindly to anything.”
Ms. Haas seemed genuinely wounded. “You shot me. In the circumstances, I feel I took it rather well.”
I cleared my throat, or attempted to, realising too late that the orifice in question was still occupied by a symbiotic worm. “If I might, we’re becoming a little distracted.”
“Quite right. Where was I?” My companion subjected Miss Reef to her steeliest gaze. “We have business with Enoch. You will take us to him. That is the end of it.”
She did. But it was not.
CHAPTER TWENTY
An Impediment
Miss Reef broughtus, by a labyrinthine path, to a building that may once have served some unholy and unknowable purpose but which now seemed to function primarily as a warehouse. It was here, Miss Reef informed us, that her brother held his ramshackle court. We entered, although Ms. Haas insisted that Miss Reef remain a few paces ahead of us, far enough forward that she would be first to trigger any booby traps, but not so far that she could easily flee into a den filled with her compatriots.
As we made our way through stacks of barrels packed with I knew not what illicit merchandise, it became increasingly apparent that something was very wrong. We found the first body, bloated and distended, knocking lightly against the ceiling. Miss Reef covered her mouth with her webbed fingers, recoiling in obvious horror.
“Interesting,” murmured Ms. Haas.
The next two corpses lay withered near the floor, their limbs twisted at grotesque angles.
My companion prodded one gently with the tip of her harpoon gun. “Most interesting. What do you make of this, Mr. Wyndham?”
Had my past been other than it was, I am sure I would have had no idea what could have reduced these people to such detritus. Unfortunately, I knew all too well the kinds of sorcery that desiccated theflesh and rotted the viscera. “Did I not know better, I would suspect the dread servants of the Witch King. Since he is dead and they are ashes, I presume our culprits are unrelated practitioners of similar necromancies.”
“It does seem that way, does it not.”
Miss Reef’s already wide eyes widened. “It’s the bank. It’s got to be. They’ve had it in for Enoch for years.”
“Take heart, dear lady.” Despite her recent attempt to murder us, I felt for Miss Reef in that moment. It is a difficult thing to lose one’s family. “Your brother may yet be well.”
“Come, Captain,” said Ms. Haas, with the merest trace of a sneer. “Do you really think the Ossuary Bank would send a team of mystically empowered assassins into the depths of Ven specifically to kill one person, and then let that one person get away?”
“There is always hope, Ms. Haas.”
“I have met Hope. It is a terrifying entity with altogether too many eyes.”
We progressed deeper into the warehouse, finding yet more bodies in similar states of distress, and coming at last to a small private office, where one last corpse floated forlornly behind a desk littered with meticulously inscribed wax tablets. Judging by our escort’s visible distress, this must have been the man we were seeking, Mr. Enoch Reef.
“Well.” Ms. Haas nudged her captive farther into the room. “I daresay that this piece of theatre has been more diverting than the last we attended. But if you do not cease playing games and tell us where your brother really is, then I shall stop being bored and start being angry.”
Miss Reef twisted her fingers agitatedly through her hair. “What are you talking about? He’s there. Poor Enoch. They’ve finally got him.”
“Word of advice: stick to shooting people. You’re a terrible actress.”
I glanced between the corpse, Miss Reef, and Ms. Haas. “I fear I’m quite at sea.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“Mr. Wyndham,” said my companion at last. “If that pun was intentional, you are a villain. If it was not, you are a fool.”
“I would probably rather be a fool than a villain, but I don’t understand why you are so convinced of this lady’s insincerity.”
Ms. Haas drifted over the desk and began sifting through the documents that lay upon it. “Various reasons. Firstly and most simply, it would be an extraordinary coincidence that Mr. Reef would happen to be murdered by a disinterested third party at the precise moment that we were visitingandthat a rival criminal power, unrelated either to us or to the individuals who purportedly carried out this crime, was launching an attack against him. That we would stumble into an underworld conflict is possible. That we and the Ossuary Bank would stumble into the same underworld conflict simultaneously without crossing one another’s paths is manifestly implausible.”
I turned to Miss Reef, to gauge her reaction to these observations, and found her curiously impassive.
“Secondly, as you observed, our companion exhibited obvious shock on discovering the bodies of her former associates. She, however, is clearly of the blood of the deep places and her kind are not like ours. They are slow to take fright and slow to anger, which suggests that this pantomime was entirely for our benefit.” My companion caught Mr. Reef’s body, drew it closer, and began a thorough inspection. “Thirdly, a direct frontal assault is not the modus operandi of the Ossuary Bank. After all, we are here because the last time that group quarrelled with dear Enoch they responded by bribing one of his associates to betray him. While they made a token effort to kill me, I don’t think their heart was really in it and I had just beaten one of their members in a magical duel. Their policy is normally to repay like with like, and while they could send an army of undead monstrosities tosuck the life force from any who stood in their way, we must remember that they are, ultimately, a pack of bean counters in silly costumes. And, finally, why don’t you take a look at this body, Mr. Wyndham? While I”—she readied her harpoon gun—“ensure that Miss Reef doesn’t try anything silly.”
