“Look around,” Enid said. “It’s not anything that grows around here. She came from upriver.” Up the hill, past the settlement, where scattered trees marked the start of a forest.
“Ah,” he sighed. “So we need to go up the river there and look.”
Kellan hadn’t yet returned with the canvas. Enid glanced back at the crowd, but no one seemed inclined to make their way down into the marsh. The gulls, more accustomed to the presence of people now, grew bolder and began swooping in closer to the body.
“Stay here,” she said to Teeg. “Keep those birds away.”
This was going to be a really long day, Enid thought, trudging back through the mud. Her boots were already caked with the stuff, and from wiping off her hands, she’d gotten it on her trousers as well.
Back at the road, Enid surveyed the crowd. No one had gone looking for a sheet. Bear the dog was barking at Erik’s feet, and the man didn’t try to quiet him this time.
“Hola,” Enid said. Erik and Kellan looked like they’d been arguing—Kellan pleading with some amount of desperation, clutching his bag to his chest, and Erik shaking his head.
Enid was about to ask them what the problem was when Juni came forward, full of concern. “Kellan says there’s a body, that you found a body.”
“Yeah, ’fraid so. I sent him to find a sheet or something we can use to carry it up out of the marsh.”
Juni shook her head. “That can’t be right.”
“I think I know a body when I see one.”
“But . . . who is it?” Juni looked around at her neighbors, who shook their heads, murmured, confused.
“That’s one of the things we’ll have to find out. Lucky you’ve already got investigators here, isn’t it?”
Nobody smiled. Enid wondered whether they would have bothered to send for investigators, if she and Teeg hadn’t already been here. Or would they have simply burned the woman and pretended she had never washed up at their front door? Enid liked to think they’d tell. You didn’t just ignore a murdered body. Maybe this place wasn’t missing a young woman, but someplace was. It was no use trying to hide it—such knowledge would fester in a small community like this and come out one way or another.
One of the other women, Anna from Semperfi, said, “I think we’ve got some canvas up at our place, I’ll go get it.” She ran off.
“What’re you going to do?” Juni asked, her voice gone uncharacteristically small.
“We’ll try to find out what happened. Take care of the girl as best we can. Do you have anyone here in charge of pyres, or is that done household by household?”
Another long silence, folk waiting to see if someone else would answer. Finally Erik said, “Last House usually does pyres, since they’re closest to the timber.”
Most places had a household that did the more difficult jobs, the ones no one else wanted to do. Like tending to funeral pyres. Often, such folk lived on the fringes, didn’t fit in anywhere else, like the nervous Kellan. Enid was curious to meet the rest of the folk of Last House. “Kellan, can you go to your folk and see about putting together a pyre?”
He’d pulled off his floppy hat, was kneading it in his hands. The strap of his bag had ended up back over his shoulder. He looked disheveled, mud covering his boots, spattered on his sleeves. Enid was about to repeat the request when Kellan’s understanding seemed to settle in, and he mashed the hat back onto his head. “Yeah, okay. I can do that.” He raced off, seemingly relieved to get away from the marsh.
Well, that was a couple of things off the list. A good start. There’d be some momentum now, and Enid felt better equipped to start talking to everyone else.
“While you’re all here, I’d like to ask a few questions. The body, this young woman, was maybe eighteen or nineteen. She’s in a blue skirt and brown tunic, has a knitted kerchief. Brown hair, brown skin, slender, about this tall.” She put her hand at the level of her chin, just over five foot. “Does that sound familiar? Any of you recognize anyone fitting that description? Not necessarily from here—maybe someone from down the road. Someone you might have seen at the Everlast market?”
Blank stares answered her. Enid wasn’t surprised.
“Any of you who feel up to it, if you could take a look at her and see if you recognize her, I’d appreciate it. Finding out where she came from will be a big step toward learning what happened to her.”
“Maybe she drowned in the storm,” someone ventured.
“Ah, no,” Enid said. “Trust me, she didn’t drown.”
No one seemed to know what to say to that, resulting in an awkward moment of silence.
“Well then. If anyone thinks of anything, come tell me, yeah?”
Chapter Three • the estuary
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