The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

“What do you think it says?”

“That they’ve got something to hide?”

Enid reached out and knocked again.

“Coming!” a voice inside said.

Enid shrugged, and Teeg seemed almost disappointed. So much for intrigue.

An older man opened the door. He seemed distracted, looking over his shoulder, his soft face flushed. When he saw two investigators on his porch, he stepped back, his mouth open in shock, as if they were monsters. With a deep breath the man managed to settle his expression. He turned stony.

“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” he asked, with forced disinterest.

Enid’s brow furrowed. “Is Kellan here? We sent him back home.”

“Yeah, he’s here.” Then nothing.

Enid paused, waiting for him to fill the silence. But the man didn’t fall for the trick. “He didn’t tell you what happened?” she asked.

“He’s upset, and he doesn’t talk much when he’s upset. He hasn’t been able to get a word out. What’s happened?”

She was both surprised that Kellan hadn’t said anything, and not. “There’s been a murder, down on the mud flats. Kellan found the body. Can we come in and talk?”

He stammered, “Murder? What? Who—”

“Are you Mart? May we come in? It’ll only take a moment.”

Still, he didn’t step back. “This happened just now, yeah? Today? There wouldn’t have been time to send for investigators. How . . . we haven’t done anything wrong, I don’t know what the others told you, but there’s nothing wrong here.” His wall-like demeanor slipped, and politeness and panic vied for control of his voice. “Why are you here?”

Enid frowned. “I’m sorry—you didn’t know? Erik at Semperfi requested an investigation about that old house, the one sitting on top of a mudslide. We were handling that, and then Kellan found the body. We got sidetracked.”

“You didn’t know that we were here at all?” Teeg asked the man. “That an investigation had been requested?”

Everyone had known, Enid thought. They’d all fallen over themselves to tell Enid and Teeg just what they thought of the house at Semperfi.

The old man gave a quick, wry smile. “We—we don’t talk to the others very much.”

The time it took for Semperfi to request an investigation, for the message to be delivered—by foot, horse, and solar car—and the time Enid and Teeg took to travel all this way, would have been a couple of weeks at least. In all that time, the area’s gossip hadn’t reached the Last House folk? They hadn’t traveled down the path to Semperfi and Bonavista and the others to hear the news? Had they not even been part of discussions about the dilapidated house?

Not if they wanted nothing to do with it, Enid supposed.

She tried to sound reassuring. “Let’s start over, then. I’m Enid, this is Teeg. We’re talking to everyone. Originally it was about the old house at Semperfi. But, well, now we’re talking about a murdered woman. May we come in?”

Relief softened the man’s features. “That explains why Kellan’s so upset. Maybe he’ll talk to you.”

“Thank you,” Enid said, still finding her own balance, trying to see where Last House fit in with the rest of the settlement. Maybe it didn’t . . . and maybe that was fine. Then again, there was the old investigation from years ago. The finger pointing. Everyone thought the folk at Last House knew something. Did they?

Stepping aside, the man opened the door for them.

Much like the outside, the interior was plain and functional rather than comfortable. The wide space was left open, with a sitting area by a fireplace. A basket of mending sat beside one chair, some carving tools rested on another. Beyond the fireplace was a kitchen—pump and sink, open shelves holding dishes and mugs, pots and pans. And beyond that, a door that led to a screened porch. Wooden steps on one side led upstairs, presumably to bedrooms.

Records from the area, collected and updated by the medics during their semiannual rounds, said four adults belonged to Last House. Enid took the usual quick inventory of the property, glancing over the interior, seeing if what she saw matched the records she and Teeg had reviewed before they came.

“You’re Mart, yeah?” Enid asked, moving through the house. Mart was listed as head of house.

“Yeah, I am. Sorry. Was just a shock, seeing you—the uniforms—at the door. Been a while since we saw uniforms around here.”

“Almost twenty years, I think. That’s a good run without trouble.”