Chapters tagged detective

by pwizdelf

Chapter 2

**===1 Wintertide 1377==========** Curry's grandmother was several inches taller than me, a bit on the stocky side, with salt and pepper curls cut in a bobbed style, and sharp eyes that made me worry she already disliked me on sight. She was dressed simply, in linen tunic and tr...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 20

All in, the bell tolled for a half hour before it finally stopped. By that point we'd already been at the castle a good ten minutes or so, which with the two pints I’d guzzled too quickly was enough time for the sound to lodge in my consciousness as a semipermanent background ins...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 21

Standing between Baggett and Curry, I heard the sharp intake of Baggett’s breath, and the barely audible sound of dismayed surprise from Curry, and wondered distantly what they had observed about my own reaction. I felt the odd pricking sensation of hairs standing up all over my...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 23

===82 Summer 1380========== “How did it never occur to us that they’d place watch wards here?” Curry lamented as we stood in the hall outside Lamb’s door staring in stupid dismay at the glowing watch wards that if crossed would tell the real guards we’d been here without...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 24

“What is that?” Curry asked, as he and I moved over to look. Anton shook his head and passed him the sheet. “Public house menu.” He knelt and began gathering up the others. Curry stared at the page, then turned it over and studied it for a moment before holding it out to me. “T...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 25

Curry had reconstructed the material substance of Lamb’s mad-looking string map on paper, better than I ever could have, and wanted me to attest that his two dimensional replica was faithful enough that he could now pull down the real thing and transfer it into our possession. I...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 28

===81 Spring 1382========== “Victim’s body can’t be identified in the first twenty-four hours and description matches no missing persons alerts,” Curry read aloud from the study sheet he was using to quiz me on watch guard recall policies, swinging one leg idly off the side of t...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 29

“Some things are the same… a DNR order filed by the victim still takes precedence, assuming a city magistrate doesn’t overturn it for some reason. But that’s not very common,” I added, which we both well knew because if it were at all common for magistrates to rescind a DNR, they...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 30

“Children,” Nan interrupted us politely in Csoglaran after I’d finished explaining to Curry’s satisfaction what Watch Guard recall policy said must be done for a week-old body found in the harbor. “Not that your graphic talk of rancid corpses isn’t delightful, but—” she motioned...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 31

===85 Spring 1382========== In the end, the detective examinations week was one of those strange times that made me feel as though I had never done anything in my whole life but prepare for and take exams, and never would do anything else, while at the same time, concluding itse...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 32

It took me a moment to catch up enough to parse all of that, and then I was horrified. “You think I cheated on my detective course examinations?” There was a long, deflating silence during which she didn’t speak, or at least, one that felt long to me, and when she still didn’t sp...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 33

“I think you should retake the oral section of the examinations,” she said, “in a written format. The purpose of the oral examinations is to observe the student’s ability to respond to certain thought exercises on demand. Typically the more expedient approach is oral question and...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 35

===27 Harvest 1383========== “Hey,” Curry whispered, leaning over several stacks of papers and knocking his boot against mine where our two desks were pushed together. When I looked up from my busywork he grinned happily at me. “Guess what. It’s Fourthday afternoon, and we’re de...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 36

“Soo… hey,” Curry said, coming back from the bar and leaning on our high table some hour-or-so later. “Hey, you. Want another pint?” I asked. “Or… do you want to go?” I was pretty sure Baggett and I were both fine with it if we just all left and then resumed our aggravating, not...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 37

I was still mulling over what the evening might hold in store, glancing around the taproom to see if anybody caught my eye—or if I’d caught anyone else’s—when someone slid into Baggett's seat next to me, cheerfully drumming their fingers on the table. I’d already half-turned, thi...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 38

“I don’t know if there’s any sight quite so joyful,” Baggett said in a dreamy sort of voice, passing me the hash joint he’d just rolled, then leaning on the boardwalk railing, “as a bird so absolutely determined to eat a piece of paper that once had a fish pie wrapped up in it. I...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 39

I tiptoed upstairs, knowing Nan would be long asleep by now. Curry’s door was shut same as it had been when we left that morning, and I didn’t know if that meant he hadn’t come home yet, or had been home for a while already and was asleep or reading or something. I was quiet, but...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 41

“Wait—wait—wait! What do you mean, Bag thinks Barty’s suspect for Khan is the same as ours for Ethelbanian?” I asked, sitting up all the way from where I lay sprawled on the garden settee next to him, and eyeballing Curry. “Same suspect as in coincidentally knew both women, or sa...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 42

“This looks far more insane than I imagined from the description I was just given,” Baggett said when I came downstairs some fifteen minutes later, having struggled a bit with the unwieldiness of the large corkboard on which Curry had recreated Lamb’s city map. But his eyes had a...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 44

===8 Spring 1386========== “I don’t follow, he thinks the green string means what, again?” I asked Curry, puzzled, then drew in a sharp gasp when I accidentally drove the needle I was using to resew a button on my cloak straight into my thumb. A bright spot of blood beaded up im...