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Chapter 40: A long walk to a dark alley
The board meeting had already started. That explained all the staff activity at City Hall, Trask thought. He should have wondered why so many staffers were there, working late. And why the board members had come by. Stupid.
“Why aren’t you at the board meeting?” Trask asked the newspaper editor.
“I sent someone to cover it,” Sidney said. “I was busy getting the paper out.” She waved her hand in the direction of the fire. “Then this happened.”
“Take me through the past few hours,” Trask said.
Sidney shrugged. “I came back to Krim. I had to go off-world to get backups, because of the newspaper fire — and to meet with Cyril and get his report. Anyway, when I came back, I assembled the copy, dropped it off with the scribes, then went and had dinner. I was on the way back to look over the final pages before having them go out for duplication, and saw the fire.”
“So the paper isn’t printed here?”
“No,” said Sidney. “There are printing presses on Krim, but they’re too slow and expensive for newspaper production. And they’re always short-staffed. No, the scribes make one clean copy of the whole paper by hand, then someone from KSL picks it up, takes it out through the commercial gate, and then they come right back again with a few thousand copies of it. The number of copies depends on the day and whether its a special issue.”
“You don’t need an export-import license?”
“Not for hand-written documents,” said Sidney.
“Ah, right, right.” Trask knew that, but all the merchant complaints about licenses had gotten into his head.
Sidney looked around and spotted a group of scribes clustered under a light post, staring at their place of work, a couple in tears.
“Maybe they managed to save something,” she said.
Trask was curious to find out what was so important in the newspaper that the griefer fire-bombed the building to keep it from going out, so he followed the editor as she located the scribes who had worked on AviNewz.
It turned out that one of the two scribes who’d worked on the paper had dropped the final copy into the outbox, but couldn’t remember if it was the box intended for final review, or the box that was for the shipping company.
“So KSL could have picked it up,” Sidney said. “I’ll head over to their office before they’re burned down as well.”
Trask lingered behind to talk to the scribe.
“So, what was in the paper?” he asked.
“The Lothbury Looters won the Shrovetide foteball match,” the scribe said.
“Did they beat the spread?” Matilda asked. Trask jumped. He hadn’t noticed her behind him.
“Yes, by two points,” said the scribe. “Oops. Don’t tell anyone I told you. I’d get fired.”
“Anything more interesting?” Trask asked. “Maybe about the investors? I’m trying to figure out why someone would burn the whole building to keep the paper from going out.”
“The sports scores are pretty interesting, boss,” Matilda said.
“But enough to commit arson,” said Trask. “Plenty of people who were at the game would know the results.”
“I don’t know about anything else,” said the scribe. “I don’t bother with the rest of it.”
“Don’t you have to read it to copy it?”
“I just worry about whether I can make it fit or not,” the scribe said. “I don’t pay attention to what I’m writing.”
“Hey boss, I found a body.” Joe’s voice came from just down the street, soon followed by the man himself. “Dragged into an alley and throat sliced. Or maybe the other way around.” Joe was holding a lantern he’d scrounged up somewhere.
Trask, Matilda, and one of the scribes followed Joe to the body.
“That’s the KSL courier,” the scribe confirmed. “I’ll go get someone to help with the body.” The scribe paused. “She should have been carrying a large bag.”
“I didn’t see anything like that,” said Joe.
Matilda peered down at the body. “If it’s the same killer, they’re getting better,” she said. “No hesitation marks. Nice straight slice across the throat.” She took Joe’s lantern and looked back towards the street. “Probably took her by surprise, sliced her throat, and dragged her here. At least an hour ago.”
“So at about the same time as the fire was set,” said Trask. “And if they picked up the paper, it’s gone.”
“She wouldn’t have been carrying the paper,” said the scribe. “That would have been picked up two hours ago.”
“If it was picked up.” Trask sighed. He was going to have to more working. “Let’s go to the KSL building then.”
The scribe left and Trask, Joe, and Matilda walked back to Chantry Street, then cut through to the Commercial Plaza, which was a twin of the Central Plaza on the south side of the Central Gate Wall. Except instead of tourists and merchant stands, this plaza was filled with small storage sheds and parked delivery wagons. And it wasn’t surrounded by retail stores, over-priced taverns, and City Hall. Instead, there were shipping company offices and warehouses.
One of those offices belonged to Krim Shipping and Logistics. In fact, the company was big enough to own its own building that included a wagon garage and horse stable.
Sidney was coming out as they got there, and she looked relieved.
“KSL picked up the paper,” she told them. “I wish I had a chance to review the final copy, but I’ll deal with that problem later.”
“So they have it now somewhere inside?” Trask gestured at KSL’s front door.
“No, it’s already been off Krim,” she said. “It went out through the gate, got duplicated, brought back in, and the driver is now delivering it to the distribution points.” She rolled her shoulders, then stretched her back and sighed with relief. “It’s been a long day.” She took a couple of steps away from the building, then turned around and pulled out a notepad. “Before I go, just a couple of quick questions about the status of the investigation…”
“No comment,” Trask said.
“I just want to know if you have any suspects or indications of a motive.”
“Stop by the Chamber tomorrow and ask for…”
“Osgar Sigeweard. I know.” She put away her notepad. “I’ll send someone to get a statement.” She turned and headed away.
Trask looked across the plaza at the large, dark opening of the commercial gate. The pedestrian gate on the other side of the wall was only nine feet high or so, but the commercial gate was several feet taller and at least twice as wide, big enough to handle two wagons side by side. If the griefer had a commercial license, they could have gone out through the gate to escape. He thought about the timing. If the griefer was a grid employee, they could have gone through the gate and teleported to the Gully Lab offices. Just in time for Lockton to show up and ask for printouts. Lockton was lazy. He wouldn’t have generated his own reports if there was someone there to do it for him.
Binkie said that there was going to be an audit. Trask made a mental note to follow up about that. Unless he kept reminding them, they’d probably forget.
“We done here, boss?” Matilda asked.
“Should we be heading out to patrol?” Joe added.
There wasn’t much point to it, Trask thought. There were too many targets to cover all of them, and Joe and Matilda weren’t much of a deterrent the night before.
No, actually…
“Yes, we need to be out there,” Trask told them. “The merchants need to see that we’re doing something. Joe, you can take Leadenhall Street. Matilda, you can go up to Baronet. The Docks sailors and the Knott’s Hollow mercenaries can handle themselves. The griefer wouldn’t dare to show up there. Talk with the merchants, find out if they’ve seen anything or heard anything. Check the taverns for any rumors, or anyone bragging about getting away with something big.”
Both guards nodded.
“But first, let’s check in with Osgar, see if he needs us for anything at the Chamber. And bring him up to date with the fire.” Did he miss anything? “I just wish I knew what was going to be in the paper,” he said.
“We can go to the King’s Armpit and see,” Matilda said.
“You’re right,” Joe added. “Jimric Skullcrusher usually handles the route, and he always stops by there. Everybody knows that.”
“Everybody?”
“Well, everybody who goes to the King’s Armpit,” Joe said.
Trask had heard bad things about the food at that tavern, if the name itself wasn’t enough to keep him away. He’d never even walked past the place in the evening. It was located on Lawless Alley. Geographically, it wasn’t that far from the King’s Arms and other higher-end establishments in the city center, but practically it might as well have been in a different universe.
“If we hurry, we could get there before the griefer burns down the wagon and all the papers,” Joe added.