Chapter 1.29 - In which Lieutenant Robards begins to question

Calder

Month 12, Day 2, Wednesday 9:00 a.m.

Several days had passed since the latest appearance of the young woman people were now calling the Raven Queen—which was a foolishly dramatic code name to give an enemy. In Calder’s opinion it would lead to fear and respect, which, while perhaps appropriate, could also be counterproductive.

Calder was doing one last examination of the street and the buildings involved before they declared that all possible evidence had been gathered and took down the cordon keeping the commoners out.

As he walked the street where the battle between the Morrows, the Verdant Stags, and the Raven Queen had occurred, he flipped through a clipboard full of condensed reports and numbered references to evidence.

While the gang fight itself was large and coordinated, which suggested the possibility of future escalations, it was also, unfortunately, standard enough. It was the Raven Queen’s involvement and attack on the coppers that remained steeped in unanswered questions.

Calder stopped, re-reading a short line from the attempted recreation of the scene that the diviners had worked to build. He looked up, finding a warehouse with a busted door, and then back down to the report.

There were signs of a battle inside this building, two full blocks away from the warehouse where the main fight had taken place. Two to three people involved, and signs that one of them had been dragged, either injured or unconscious.

Most would have written it off as spillover from the gang fight, but it didn’t make sense to Calder. The Morrows had been attempting to damage a legitimately owned warehouse that was being converted to an indoor garden, a project funded by some local noble.

This indoor garden sat in territory that had been annexed by the Verdant Stag and employed civilians who lived in the territory. Apparently, the Verdant Stag had been making certain promises of protection to its people, even setting up ways for the civilians to contact them in an emergency.

The Morrows had planned to draw their enemy out and make a statement, a show of force and dominance.

And if not for the Raven Queen’s appearance, that might have worked.

So how was this second location involved? None of those they’d arrested had confessed to any altercations or involvement in this area. Of course, several of the criminals had gotten away, but something felt strange about this.

There were no reports that any of the civilian employees had tried to run and been chased down, which would have been Calder’s second guess.

He walked to the doorway, noting the fresh splinters where the door had been kicked in. To his eyes, the signs of someone being dragged, and two other people fighting, were clear, history written in the layer of dust that covered the interior. There were a few different spots of blood, signs of multiple concussive blast spells, and even, strangely, a shattered vial of a potion of moonlight sizzle. One set of footprints was significantly larger than the other.

There was a high possibility that one to two civilians had witnessed the battle but been attacked, subdued, and removed before the coppers arrived.

They were most likely either dead, their bodies dumped in the Charybdis Gulf, or beaten and cowed into silence.

But if they lived, maybe they would have some relevant information about the Raven Queen. It was a long shot, but every little bit of potential evidence could be important.

And so, Calder submitted a swab of the blood sample for divination. Sympathetic divination using blood would normally classify as blood magic, and indeed was illegal for those who were not sanctioned to perform such spells. But the coppers had legal authority.

This divination led him to a house in the center of Morrow territory, where a large, rough-looking man quite obviously considered trying to run from Calder and Shelleck when they approached.

But, perhaps realizing that the outcome of a chase was inevitable, the man settled. He allowed himself to be arrested, though he seemed rather confused when the listed crime was trespassing and not something more dire.

At first, the man refused to talk. But, after some persuasion, he finally revealed what had happened.

Calder and Shelleck both recognized the description of a slender, dark-skinned boy with glasses and a camera obscura.

As they left the interrogation room, Shelleck crossed his arms and jutted his chin out toward Calder. “Still so keen on defending Percival Irving? Isn’t it interestingthat, once again, the boy is involved in something that could be considered vigilante action?”

Calder couldn’t refute this pointed insinuation.

Was Mr. Irving really that good, to have fooled him both times prior? Calder requested the boy’s records—if there were any—to be sent over from the town where he’d lived before Gilbratha.

And then, after their shift ended and Shelleck went home, Calder made a house call.