The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

Their instincts were at battle. Enid’s gut told her they were still missing something, that none of this fit together. Teeg’s gut wanted to solve the case, right now.

She said, “The last murder I investigated, the one in Pasadan—you know what the easiest solution to that one was? The simplest? That the victim just fell. Tripped and fell i

n his own workshop. Easiest thing there would have been to say it was an accident and walk away.”

Teeg had read the report. He knew this. “So you’re saying the simple solution isn’t ever the right one.”

“I’m saying, be suspicious of anything that comes easy. It makes you blind. At Pasadan, one more walk around the scene showed the smear of blood on the wall that meant someone else had been there, that someone had witnessed what happened. And we almost didn’t find it.”

He frowned. “What if it’s impossible? What if there’s no possible way to find out what happened? We can never really know, can we? Without witnessing a thing ourselves.”

“Hmm, wouldn’t that be something? Be omniscient? Able to witness everything we ever wanted? Get the answers to just about anything, then, couldn’t we?” She’d been born long after the Fall, but what if, somehow, she could see what the world was like before. The way it really was, and not the way they all thought it was from the stories, the cautionary tales handed down about waste and corruption. Despite how much she’d read—and she’d read so much in the Haven archives—she always wanted to know more.

“I’m serious, Enid.”

“We’re not omniscient. We can’t do it all. Maybe we just walk away.” It wouldn’t be the simplest decision in this case. No, walking away might be the hardest thing to do here. But they might not have a choice.

Pointing back at Last House, Teeg said, “Mart won’t tell us anything he finds out. He’ll protect Kellan; that’s what households do.”

“We’ll just have to risk it.” She spit out the words. Part of her thought walking away might be the best thing. But no—they’d already picked out too many threads. Had to clean up at least some of their mess. Enid straightened, rearranged her mental to-do list, and readied herself to go back into the fray. She nodded down the road. “You go. I’ll see what else I can do here, if anything.”

Teeg glared hard at her, but did as she asked.

Chapter Thirteen • the estuary

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Evidence

Enid met Teeg for the first time at the start of the Semperfi case. She’d known his name; investigators sent one another updates about who was in training, who was thinking of training, and who was almost finished training, and shared advice. Their little cohort was close-knit; that helped with the job. Enid hadn’t been paired with a new partner since Tomas died. Instead, she’d been picking up nearby cases as she was needed. If she and Teeg worked well together, he might become her new partner. She’d been looking forward to working with him. It was part of why she took the case when she might have bowed out to stay home with Olive.

When Enid had arrived at the committee house and investigator station in Morada, the young man was already there, going over records and prepping for the case—his first. He’d spread out ledgers and notebooks across the whole length of a table by a window, sunlight illuminating his work. She’d pulled up a chair next to him, and he’d immediately started talking.

“I think I’ve got everything,” he said, showing her both his notes and all the records he’d reviewed. “Do I have everything?” He’d seemed like a kid, and she wondered if that meant she was getting old, if he looked too baby-faced and optimistic to be doing the job.

She went over it all again and didn’t find anything wrong with his work. “Been six months since anyone’s been out there, so we might need to update some of this. We’ll see how it looks when we get there.” He eagerly added that to his long list of notes.

“What about the old case, with the implant? That going to have a bearing on this one? If so, how do we handle it?” He pointed to the page in his notes that discussed Bridge House, Neeve cutting out her implant, the whole distant mess of it.

“Ideally we won’t mention it at all. Happened a generation ago, shouldn’t be relevant to a construction mediation.”

That was the first time he’d frowned. “But the woman cut out her implant. Doesn’t that mean something? About what she’s like, what the whole place is like?”

“Not if she hasn’t done anything wrong since, so unless someone brings it up, it’s done. One case at a time, Teeg.” Enid tried to be gentle and mentor-like. Who was she, to be offering advice on anything? She’d barely gotten out of training herself, felt like. Some days she still felt off balance, especially without Tomas there to steady her. She didn’t feel ready to do that for someone else.

At least this case was supposed to be easy, a simple mediation. A good one for a newly minted investigator to partner on.

They finished their research, headed outside to a small yard at the front of the building. Noontime, the crossroads town was bustling with work and traffic.

“We leave in the morning, yeah?” Teeg asked.

Enid shook her head. “No reason we can’t leave in an hour. There’s a way station just a couple of hours out; we can get there by nightfall. The sooner we start, the sooner we can wrap it all up.” And the sooner she could get home to Serenity and the expected baby.

Teeg ran off to finish his preparations. She was already packed from the trip up from Haven, and so had a few moments to herself.

A man in a brown tunic joined her in the yard—another investigator, Teeg’s mentor. Enid didn’t know Patel well, but had crossed paths with him a few times. A big man, serious and thoughtful.

“What d’you think?” he asked her, nodding after his student.