Page 8 of The Dark Hiss of Magic
I didn’t recognise him; despite my good memory for faces, I couldn’t recall ever seeing this slack face at the market. I peered more closely at the bite marks on the right-hand side of his cheek and the ravaged flesh around his neck. His body was surprisingly intact, suggesting that he’d fallen in not longbefore Quentin Hightower and had received the same magical protection from the river beasties’ sharp teeth.
The Redcap who’d shouted at me stomped forward. ‘Who are you?’
I straightened up and gave a professional smile. ‘Kit McCafferty.’ I extended a hand, only belatedly realising that there was a streak of dark sticky mud that stretched from my ring finger to my elbow. The Redcap declined to shake it.
I dropped my arm. ‘Who areyou?’ I asked with a false air of authority to stave off any further questions and encourage him to believe that I was supposed to be here.
‘Fitz,’ he said. ‘Fitz Williams.’
‘And you’re transporting the body to the Resthaven Mortuary?’
He shook his head. ‘Mathers Street.’
That gave me pause. The Mathers Street establishment was some distance away and Resthaven was far closer. ‘The victim is from that area?’ I asked.
‘We don’t know where he’s from. That’s where we’ve been ordered to take him.’ Williams’ eyes narrowed suspiciously and he folded his arms. ‘Are you with theColdstream Courier?’
‘No. I’m not a journalist,’ I said pleasantly.
My answer didn’t put him at ease. ‘Do you know who he is?’ He nodded at the body.
I jerked my head in what could have been construed as a nod but Williams wasn’t fooled. ‘You need to step aside.’ He sniffed. ‘We’ve got a job to do and we don’t need you getting in our way.’
I stayed where I was. ‘Doyouknow who he is?’ I countered.
Williams had had enough. His eyes narrowed and he raised a small silver cone that was dangling around his neck to his nose to inhale its contents. It was a nosegay, probably a useful tool of the trade when you were dealing with the dead. Iwouldn’t know; I’d never stuck around my own crime scenes long enough to worry about malodorous corpses.
‘Step aside.’ He yanked the white sheet across the poor man’s face, then he and his companions lifted the body onto the wagon with practised ease. They turned it in the opposite direction and trundled off.
As I watched them go, I wondered if I should have played it differently and acted less like a professional. Although the Redcaps weren’t pushovers, they were experienced at dealing with distraught family members and I might have learned more if I’d put on a display of grief. I wasn’t a particularly skilled liar, though, and pretending to be a grieving relative wasn’t exactly respectful.
I glanced at the few remaining onlookers. A few looked slightly nauseous but none of them were overly upset. ‘Do you know who that was?’ I called. They all shook their heads.
‘Never seen him before in my life,’ a tall druid answered.
‘Was he with Quentin Hightower?’
There were a few uncertain shrugs. Hmmm. I pulled Trilby’s blanket tighter. If the victim had any identification in one of his pockets, somebody from the Magical Enforcement Team, the MET, would inform his family. Probably.
My shoulders sagged. The poor man was already dead. There was nothing I could to do save him. Not now.
Chapter
Four
‘Ishouldn’t have to tell a woman of your age not to go swimming in the Tweed,’ the doctor told me as he cleaned the wound on my ankle. ‘You’re lucky to have escaped with your life.’
I wondered if I’d ever reach a point where medical professionals stopped lecturing me. Probably not. I felt a glimmer of nostalgia for the days when I used to limp into the EEL doctor’s office after I’d completed a contract and be forced to listen to an hour of finger wagging about how I ought to engage in less risky behaviour. That had been easy for her to say when she wasn’t an assassin, and she’d never listened when I’d tried to point out that risky behaviour came with the job.
‘Quentin Hightower might be capable of surviving a dip in that river,’ the well-meaning doctor said. ‘But we’re not all high-powered witches like him.’
I gazed at him. ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘What happened to Mr Hightower is all over the city. He did incredibly well to escape.’
‘What about the man who didn’t escape?’
The doctor looked at me blankly. ‘Huh?’
‘Another man fell into the river. He didn’t make it.’
