A Murder in Alvedara - Chapter 24 - Fools All Around

[Kane]

Quick note: I'm on holiday next week so the next post will be after the new year. The Serial ends on Chapter 30, so only six more chapters after today. Kane

A Murder in Alvedara – Chapter 24 – Fools All Around

Even knowing that there’d likely be another dead body by the next dawn, I awoke in a reasonably good mood. Something was going to happen today and either I’d catch the killer or hopefully get a solid lead that I could follow. I wasn’t thinking about the consequences if another important figure died, all I wanted was to solve the mystery and find the killer. Nothing in my life had been so challenging, so deadly, that it captivated me every minute of every day. In many ways I felt more alive the longer and more dangerous the murders became. Was I feeling what the killer felt; the same rush, the same feeling of being alive?

Grabbing a light breakfast, I walked up to the city map.  The city with its districts neatly laid out was like a game board. It was time to move my pieces in position and wait for the killer’s next move. I called the duty Corporeal into the office and gave him orders to relay to the guard teams. I sent four separate teams to potential victims and the rest to locations leading into or inside the bridge district. Everyone had to be in place before it got dark. I wanted the people in the street to see my men and sense what was coming; to be aware that a murder was about to occur. Even if I couldn’t stop it, there would be more eyes on the streets and someone would talk.

The morning dragged by and I was sitting with Sergeant Bashar as my day and my mood came crashing down. One of the patrols I’d sent to the Vashar family came back with news that the eldest Vashar son; a brute of a man, hadn’t been seen by the family in days. The family thought he was still in the south visiting a foundry, until the foreman arrived and said their son had left for the city days ago.

Damn them and me for being fools. The Vashars for thinking they wouldn’t be a target for this madman and damn me for thinking the killer would wait until I was ready before taking his next victim. The killer has likely had the Vashar boy for days; storing him up for tonight’s sacrifice. How can the killer and I play out our game if he won’t play fair?

Was the victim already in place? How can I stop the next sacrifice? If the Vashar boy isn’t in the bridge district yet, the killer will have to move him. The boy is large, like Corporeal Mehan, probably bound and drugged.  He’ll need a wagon or another means to move the body. I yelled for Sergeant Bashar. I didn’t give him time to get all the way into the office before I issued my orders.

“Have the patrols stop every wagon entering the district and have them searched. Get someone down by the water and do the same for the boats. The killer already has his victim; he just has to move him.”

I was angry but also excited. For once, we knew who the next victim was before the sacrifice. If I guessed right about the bridge district we had a chance to catch our killer.