Chapter Nine

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By some fortuitous quirk of timing, Audgrim called me less than five minutes later, before I’d actually managed to find his phone number again. “I found something,” he said.

“And good morning to you too. Does it have to do with the bodies at the funeral home?”

There was a brief pause. “Yes, actually,” he said a moment later.

“Awesome. I’m going to make a series of guesses, and then you can tell me how close I am, okay?” I was grinning wide enough to look a little unhinged. Saori was too, and she’d turned down the music so she could hear the conversation clearly.

Another pause. Audgrim knew enough to just roll with it, but even for me, I had to admit this was an odd conversation. “Okay,” he said after a moment.

“Great! So, I’m guessing one of the corpses is weird. It’ll be a guy. I don’t know whether he has identification on file but if so it’ll probably be under the name Steven. The owner, Anthony was it? Yeah, Anthony will have taken this corpse with, ah, fewer questions asked than average. I don’t know whether he’s been involved in, uh, body-laundering I guess? Before, but it seems plausible. Either way, on this occasion it will have been odd, felt strange, but it was a lot of money. The body will not smell like acetone and will likely not have necrosis-related injuries, but will likely have some kind of injuries. If I’m remembering right and you have some kind of sense related to metals, you’ll have gotten a strong impression of silver on those injuries. Okay, how’d I do?”

Audgrim was very, very quiet. I was still grinning. Saori started laughing so hard she actually had to slow down. The werewolves were in a separate vehicle, which was good because I somehow doubted they would find this situation amusing. When Audgrim did eventually respond, it sounded like he didn’t either. “How do you know all this?”

“I will be thrilled to explain, but it’ll be easier in person. Mind meeting me at the funeral home? I’ll be bringing a few friends, just as a heads up. I think you’ll find chatting with them very…enlightening.”

There was another pause. “I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he said, and then disconnected from the call. Saori, still cackling, turned the music back up and went back to a speed that would have made a traffic cop very unhappy if they could have caught her.

Audgrim got a later start. But he was closer, and while I had the address, none of us actually knew the route. So we ended up getting there at about the same time. The funeral home was closed again, or maybe still, and the only vehicles in the lot were Audgrim’s SUV, the werewolves’ van, and Saori’s sedan. Given that the black SUV practically screamed “spooky organization,” the van was a large model with no windows beyond those mandated by law and no markings on it, and Saori drove like a madwoman and parked illegally across the lines for no apparent reason, it probably looked pretty sketchy.

Then again, if I was right, and it seemed like I was, that was likely par for the course for this place.

I wasn’t grinning anymore. Oh, the situation was still funny, in a macabre way. Getting to drop that many eerily accurate guesses on Audgrim had been really entertaining. But I was not blind to how serious and potentially dangerous this situation was, and the dry, bitter feeling of death and dispassion hanging around the funeral home was less pleasant with more context.

Audgrim and the wolves were clearly, distinctly wary of each other as they got out of their respective cars. Unsurprising, really. Neither dvergar nor werewolves were terribly fond of showing weakness to outsiders. And this would absolutely register as weakness to both parties, too. Security was Audgrim’s business, and wolves were protective, and all of them were currently being forced to admit they’d failed.

“Okay,” I said. “Uh. Introductions, this is–“

“We’re acquainted,” Audgrim said. He hadn’t looked away from Andrew. All three of the werewolves had insisted on coming along, and I supposed I couldn’t blame them. Audgrim’s tone wasn’t warm, but it was professional, so I was guessing “acquainted” wasn’t a euphemism in this case.

“Great. Well, uh, this is Saori, she’s the person I mentioned yesterday, Audgrim. Is Anthony here?”

“No. I told him to take the day off so that I could check on the security system.” Audgrim actually sounded colder when he mentioned Anthony than when talking to the werewolves. All things considered, that was probably good.

“Okay,” I said. “Can we go inside? I’ve got some bad news for all of you, I’m afraid, and it’d be better not to be standing around in the parking lot talking about it.”

“Right.” Audgrim unlocked the door, and waved us in. He locked it behind us, too. I did not miss that the sign on the door still said this place was closed indefinitely, and still didn’t say why.

I sat in the chair behind the receptionist’s desk. Saori claimed the one chair set out for clients. That didn’t leave any for the others, but I was guessing they’d rather stand anyway. “Alright,” I said. “So, I’ve got some more information. A lot of it is supposition, to be clear. In particular, I have very little idea about motives. I’ll try to indicate the parts I’m not sure of. Anyway, to start with probably the worst news.” I looked at the werewolves. “I’m pretty sure your friend Steven is dead.” I turned to look at Audgrim. “I’m pretty sure someone murdered a werewolf and effectively dumped the body at a business associated with you.”

I paused there in case anyone wanted to comment. Nobody did. I could have heard a feather drop in that room, never mind a pin. So I continued. “There was a recent disappearance. I was able to look at the scene and I can tell you a few things based on it. One, it was definitely similar work to what you’ve been dealing with, Audgrim. Human magic, sponsorship, I’d even be willing to bet it’s the same or a very similar sponsor. But it’s not the same person, I don’t think.”

“Why?” Audgrim asked. He didn’t sound disbelieving, as such. Just…curious.

“Different mechanisms and emotional resonance,” I said. “This trace felt calm, soothing, totally at odds with the sadistic glee I felt here. There was also no physical injury. One person passed out and woke up hours later with no memory of the time between; the other seems to have gotten up and walked out peacefully with the attacker. Took the time to grab his shoes and everything, no rush, no violence at all. Pretty sure he felt relaxed and peaceful while he did so, too.”

“Nothing like what happened here,” Audgrim said quietly. “But very much like what’s happened at our other places.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I caught that too. Human mages tend to specialize, they might have some breadth but…these are very different workings, with wildly different emotional resonance and slightly different signatures. Willing to bet it’s not the same person. Relationship between them is still unclear. Anyway, that’s the first point. Next: Like here, that location was soaked in acetone. I noted that the murder victim across town had no such scent, so there’s a mix of methods in that respect as well.”

“But the murder was, presumably, also violent,” Cassie commented. “No? So it more closely resembles the methods used here than at our person’s home.”

“Right. Mix of methods that doesn’t vary on the same pattern as the presumed perpetrator,” Audgrim said. They were rapidly putting connections together, more readily than I had, honestly. I was great at getting the raw data, but I was aware I was garbage at actual detective work.

“Yup,” I said. “So, there’s that. Here, Audgrim, I noticed that this place’s owner seemed shady. He didn’t want us looking at the bodies, and he was calm right up until he realized someone saw the accounting books that seemed a little out of place for his other patterns. Why use paper books rather than software? I bet, I just bet that they have some information he doesn’t put in the official books. This place might be mostly aboveboard, but he occasionally does business he’s not supposed to, disposes of bodies or something.”

“I notice,” Audgrim said, “that the acetone trail here led directly to those books.”

I grinned. “Didn’t it just. That’s what actually made me think there was one of the wolves here, which, I mean, we haven’t checked yet but I feel pretty confident. The acetone was definitely in part being used to mask their signature, but I can’t help but notice that it would also have led a werewolf straight to the suspicious material implicating this place in killing one of their own.”

“Why?” Derek asked. “Like…what’s the purpose of that?”

I shrugged. “Dunno. Like I said, motive is beyond me. But I’m sure you’d have gotten here eventually, you’re resourceful. And Audgrim would have looked into the cadavers on his own and found the link to you. You would have ended up talking to each other about it even if you hadn’t both for some insane reason decided I was a good person to ask about this shit. So that’s interesting.”

“And the injuries here were very similar to the murder across town,” Audgrim said. He sounded thoughtful. “Again, very clear relationship between them. But the trail there led straight to Saori.”

I sighed. “Audgrim, I already told you it wasn’t her. And I promise she has an airtight alibi for when Mike was taken yesterday.”

“I was in her bedroom,” Saori supplied helpfully. “Or possibly on the couch.”

Audgrim waved his hand vaguely. “I’m not accusing you of anything,” he said, not responding to Saori’s comment. He’d worked with me enough to get good at ignoring that kind of thing. “More just observing that…the trail from the necrotic assault led to you. And while I have no reason to think you’re capable of that, a kitsune would be a plausible suspect for the subtler attacks, the enchantments and dreams. I don’t know whether the mismatch is significant, but it’s there.”

Andrew grunted. “Okay then. Let’s go see if you’re right about Steven.”

I was right. It was, at best, bittersweet. One of the…coolers, for lack of a better word, had a body in it that was most certainly not supposed to be there. Apparently Audgrim knew something about how the paperwork went for this kind of thing, and this guy had none. He was also definitely Steven, because the other werewolves went very, very still when they saw him.

I swallowed, and discreetly moved a little further away from them.

“Definitely used silver,” Audgrim said quietly, looking at the corpse. I’d been right about dvergar having some awareness related to metals, then. “Heavily charged. Here, here, and here, at minimum.” He indicated two long cuts on Steven’s torso, and a deeper stab wound that pierced a lung. There were other injuries, but those were the worst of them.

When Audgrim said that, Cassie’s fingers twitched at her side. Andrew had a snarl very nearly as intimidating as if he’d been in fur. Even Derek had a different tension in his spine, a different sort of anger. Saori had sidled slightly away from them too, now. It wasn’t a conscious thing, I was guessing. More just…an awareness in the hindbrain of predators and imminent violence.

I didn’t know why silver hurt werewolves. No one knew, not that I was aware of. But I knew that it wasn’t as simple as silver preventing them from healing. It did do that; werewolves normally heal injuries absurdly quickly, and silver shuts that down hard. But it was more than that, an anguish not like other pain. Probably only a werewolf could truly know what it felt like, but their descriptions made it sound awful. It was a soul-deep pain that started out bad and could escalate to completely debilitating agony based on a number of factors.

Using silver on werewolves was pretty fucked up, but I thought that they could have overlooked it to a degree if it happened in a fight. They’d still kill someone for doing that, but they’d understand it. The simple reality was that with how tough they were, it was impractical to kill one without the stuff. You could do it, but it took a lot more work, especially for vanilla humans. So silver weapons, preferably charged with extra magical energy to amplify the effect, were standard issue against werewolves. The wolves were generally practical enough to accept that in a fight you sometimes had to do messed up things to people in order to survive.

But this hadn’t been a fight. The wounds really looked like Steven hadn’t been fighting back when they happened, and that made this torture, and that was utterly unconscionable. Seeing that someone had done this was sort of like finding out that someone was testing chemical weapons on prisoners. It was a qualitatively different kind of crime than simple murder. The werewolves had already been angry, but this…escalated that.

It occurred to me, watching this, that these attacks really seemed almost designed to make everyone hate the perpetrators as much as possible. They waltzed past the dvergar’s security over and over, repeatedly making their company look incompetent. They killed Saori’s personal friend in a horrific way, and left the body somewhere it was sure to be found. Specifically made the werewolves feel helpless to protect their own, and killed one of them in a way that was…fundamentally wrong. This was some extreme provocation all around.

“Kyoko, do you think you could get anything from him?” Audgrim was the one to break the silence. “I know it’s been some days, but…”

I sighed. “But this would be a particularly strong impression. And the body has effectively been quarantined for that time. I’m willing to try, I guess. But could you all please, I dunno, go back to the lobby or something while I do?” I was really not in the mood to look at that crowd too deeply. I supposed it would also push the noise-to-signal ratio in a bad direction, but I asked mostly just for my sake.

They left. Saori gave me an encouraging hug first, which was some consolation. “No way out but through,” I said, out loud since no one was going to hear me but Steven, and he wouldn’t mind.

The room felt really unpleasant without my normal filters. This was a place where bad things happened on a regular basis. Not necessarily evil, as such; I didn’t think it played host to things like this very often. But even at its best, this was fundamentally a place where bad things happened. It smelled like death. It smelled like embalming fluid, and hummed with a veneer of peace laid over a deeply horrible reality. I did not like this place, and that was while actively trying not to pay attention to it.

Steven himself wasn’t much better. It had been days, but there was an enormous amount of pain and fear in him when he died, and enough lingered to put me on edge, to make every shadow into something frightening and dangerous. I could catch the wolf-and-lavender feeling of a werewolf still lingering on the body. And very faintly, I got a glimpse of the shimmering, stained signature pattern I was becoming far more familiar with than I’d like. It was enough.

I staggered a little on the way back out. I didn’t normally do this so often, or with such vile energy patterns. It was starting to take a toll. Not all of the dread-pain-horror feeling had faded when I stopped scanning Steven’s corpse. The shadows felt threatening, angles seemed slightly wrong, the floor further away than it should be. I sat down again when I got to the lobby, but this time it was because I needed to.

“Whatever you people are paying me for this,” I said after a few moments, “it is definitely not worth it. Ugh. Very faint signature. Hard to be certain without a stronger one, but it’s the same kind of sponsor behind it, and I think it’s a different human pattern than either of the others.”

“It’s something to work with,” Audgrim said. He looked at the werewolves. “Common cause while we take these people down?”

Andrew nodded, a tight, carefully controlled movement. “On this hunt, yes. When I find them, I am going to rip their heart out.”

It was, I noted with a sort of dark, slightly hysterical amusement, good that there were multiple people involved. Between that and Saori’s pyromaniac inclinations, there wouldn’t be enough to go around otherwise.

“Good. No debt to either party. I think highest priority is your missing wolf, since he might still be alive.”

“We got nowhere trying,” Cassie said. “I think we might want to trade. You look for Mike, we’ll try scent tracking some of your locations. They might not expect that.”

Huh. That was…pretty clever, actually. The werewolves and dvergar had very different methods and resources to work with. It was possible they’d only covered one of those trails, not expecting the other to matter.

Apparently Audgrim agreed, because he was nodding. “I’ll get you locations and known information as soon as possible. Andrew, you still have my contact information?”

“Yes.”

“If you can send me information on Mike, I’ll get started on that immediately. Send as much as possible, I’m not sure what will be important. I may also loop the Tribe in as relevant, Jack Tar has the same agreement with me to cooperate during this hunt. I recommend we both also look into Steven and see if there’s anything in his recent activity that stands out.”

Huh. I’d never actually seen Audgrim in this role before. He had a considerable amount of personal presence, and he was very decisive with it. There was no hesitation in him at all, no feeling of doubt. Watching giving instructions to the wolves, practically giving them orders, it was easy to see why he’d been picked to manage the dvergar’s local interests.

“It would be helpful if you could get anything about the transaction here,” I added. I had thoughts, nothing concrete, but there was something…off, an intuition I wanted to check on.

“I’ll be having a long conversation with the guy who owns this place,” Audgrim said. “I’ll make sure to bring that up. And Kyoko?”

“Yes?”

“Try to get some rest. You look like shit.”

“And you look ridiculous with your jacket inside out, but I didn’t start bringing that up, did I?” I grinned at him, and left before he realized I’d made that detail up.

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