Page 15 of Roses and Murder
“You’re really going to make me wait until we get back to my tavern to talk to me?”
“We can talk about anything except what we just saw. You never know who is listening in public, Lance. Sometimes, it’s me and I have a code. It might be someone who doesn’t. The Ghoul hasn’t gone after Trevils because he’s mostly protected by the Barons but I’m betting he’d have no problem getting rid of two Guttertown brats who were looking into him.”
“Fuck, Neco. Way to be terrifying.”
“I meant to be. I get you’re scared for your mom, but you aren’t scared enough about the Ghoul. I know things went to shit, but if you’re going to do this, I want you to do it with me.”
I just grunted because it made sense. Ishouldbe scared. The tavern was deliberately hard to break into because desperate people were motivated. We shuttered the windows at night andit was much harder to kick our door in than it was the house I just left.
The tavern was also In a high tra”Iic’area of Guttertown and right next door to the brothel, where someone was always coming and going. It would be very hard to get to me, but we'd also only looked at one crime scene.
As far as I knew, Neco wasn’t kicking doors in because no one in the house knew he was there. The Ghoul kicked in the door ofthathouse, but he might have found another way in at other houses like Neco was doing.
Thanks, Neco, I was going to sleepsuperwell tonight.
We didn’t talk for the entire walk back. If you left Ollie alone and there wasn’t a ton of work to do, he was usually plotting something. I think I would have preferred ending up in the cells again because he had a meal and tankards set out for three people like we were having a meal with Neco.
“Thanks, I’m famished and could use a drink,” Neco said, strolling over to take a seat.
Did Petunia kick me in the head and I was dreaming all of this? The Barons switching things up so that if I did this, I’d be free and clear and could live my life slinging drinks the way I wanted was one thing. Neco letting me hit him twiceandbeing civil to me? Nah, I was having donkey-related hallucination dreams.
“It’s safe to talk now and you haven’t eaten all day,” Neco said.
MaybeNecowas the one who had been kicked in the head by a donkey. Because I could get him wanting to keep Mom alive because that was just who he was, but he was almost acting like he used to when we were best friends.ThatNeco paid attention if I got wrapped up in something and forgot to eat. He brought it up more often than Mom did when we were kids.
I really didn’t want Neco to act like how he did when I used to love him and then go back to hating me when this was over. I couldn’t go through that again.
Ollie had a plan because Lucy left him with no supervision and not a ton of work to do because Basselt was handling a lot of it. This was actually a good one that wasn’t going to piss off my mother because we ended up in the cells again. This one might actually reunite the little makeshift family we formed when we were kids.
We knew Neco wanted it. We just needed to be a buffer so Lucy didn’t fly off and assault him and we needed to coax it out the big guy that he was such a dick to her because he thought hewas lusting after his half-brother. Then, we needed to find a way for Lucy to tell Neco her secret.
Of course, the more minds involved catching the Ghoul, the sooner this was over. And we all brought different things to the table. They were already eating when Ronan and I got to the tavern and I wasn’t faulting anyone for that. Lucy and Neco both tended to get engrossed in something and forgot to eat.
Ollie wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to keep them therewithoutoffering them food and he wasn’t going to get between them and food while waiting for us to get there. Lucy might bite him and Neco killed people. I loved my friends, but I wasn’t doing that for them, either.
They’d barely gotten started when we got there and Lucy was already looking like she might want to stab Neco with the butter knife. Ollie was smart enough to sit between them, but Lucy looked like she might want to stab him, too.
Ronan and I rushed to grab a bowl and serve ourselves before someone started bleeding. Lucy pointed her spoon at Neco and I didn’tthinkshe could stab him with that.
“Talk,” she demanded.
“Eat,” Neco grunted.
Oh, we were doing this again. Neco usually got wrapped up in caring for other people in his own way and Lucy got wrapped up in feeding them or getting them drunk. When we were kids, they both called each other on forgetting to eat and refused to let them do anything until they put something in their mouth.
Lucy knew and remembered because she got this pained look on her face before she hid it. I was about to say something to get everyone’s mind on something more civilized, when Lucy shoved a massive piece of bread in her mouth and started chewing like she’d been raised in a barn.
“Oh, fine. I’ll tell you so you don’t choke to death being a brat. The Ghoul is a Baron or one of their kids. They either don’t know or they are bringing us in to pin it on someone else.”
“I thought you were just going to the house in Lower Cutwart,” Ronan asked.
“We did,” Lucy said. “I don’t know how he figured that out, either.”
“Because seven people died in that house. Two were women and one was a kid. If someone kicks your door in and you haven’t broken the law andexpectsomeone to kick your door in, then you’re going to get the women and kids out while the men take care of the interloper. The rest of the people in the house were sons who were either of marrying age or close, according to Trevils.
“The father and the sons would have protected their domicile and their family. It’s human nature, and they’d be within their right to in most cases. They’d also outnumber the Ghoul, so unless the Ghoul is more than one person, the Ghoul would be dead instead of that entire family.
“There was also no sign a fight went down like you’d expect. It looked like someone kicked the door down, they came out ready to fight and then just didn’t. They didn’t run, either. It was like they sat there andlethim kill them. I’m guessing he promised to spare the rest of the family and just lied.
