Men at Arms (Discworld 15)

'It's Cumbling Michael, isn't it?' said Carrot, in his cheery way.

The door slammed.

'Well, that wasn't very friendly,' said Carrot.

'Stinks, don't it?' said a nasty little voice from somewhere behind Angua. While she was in no mood to acknowledge Gaspode, she found herself nodding. Although the beggars were an entire cocktail of odours the second biggest one was fear, and the biggest of all was blood. The scent of it made her want to scream.

There was a babble of voices behind the door, and it swung open again.

This time there was a whole crowd of beggars there. They were all staring at Carrot.

All right, yer honour,' said the one hailed as Cumbling Michael, 'we give in. How did you know?'

'How did we know wh—' Carrot began, but Angua nudged him.

'Someone's been killed here,' she said.

'Who's she?' said Cumbling Michael.

'Lance-Constable Angua is a man of the Watch,' said Carrot.

'Har, har,' said Gaspode.

'I must say you people are getting better,' said Cumbling Michael. 'We only found the poor thing a few minutes ago.'

Angua could feel Carrot opening his mouth to say 'Who?' She nudged him again.

'You'd better take us to him,' she said.

He turned out to be—

—for one thing, he turned out to be a she. In a rag-strewn room on the top floor.

Angua knelt beside the body. It was very clearly a body now. It certainly wasn't a person. A person normally had more head on their shoulders.

'Why?' she said. 'Who'd do such a thing?'

Carrot turned to the beggars clustered around the doorway.

'Who was she?'

'Lettice Knibbs,' said Cumbling Michael. 'She was just the lady's maid to Queen Molly.'

Angua glanced up at Carrot.

'Queen?'

'They sometimes call the head beggar king or queen,' said Carrot. He was breathing heavily.

Angua pulled the maid's velvet cloak over the corpse.

'Just the maid,' she muttered.

There was a full-length mirror in the middle of the floor, or at least the frame of one. The glass was scattered like sequins around it.

So was the glass from a window pane.

Carrot kicked aside some shards. There was a groove in the floor, and something metallic embedded in it.