Chapter 2.4 "Murder in the Alley"

Both images in this post are purely inspirational and come from the works of Maurice Leloir


From the Journal of Misteline

16th Augustus, Evening:

We got back to the bar of the Eel and Spindle, then decided to examine the Officers' Tower (mostly to see where the various windows overlooked).
As we awaited permission to enter (our pretext was to visit Captain Dogmoss, but he was officially not at home), we noticed 4 of Beauforque's men watching us. We were let in anyway. Perhaps I should not dwell on our examination of the tower, but in summary:

§ The ground floor is a stable, with Tomas Fennel smoking a pipe in the corner (and dozing when we decended).
§ The first floor is a common room and refectory.
§ The second floor (there is no access to the walkway on the wall, but there are arrowslits) is the main kitchen and pantry; the domain of Bess, the cook.
§ The third floor is the main hall, Captain Leander Quartermoon's official command post (but he doesn't use it), a meeting room, and sometimes doubles as another refectory. Tomas Fennel probably filched his beer bottle from here (I suspect that bottled beer is intended for officers).
§ The forth floor is divided into 4 rooms; the stairway with the window from which we had been watched, Captain Dogmoss' appartment (from which the grumpy old man appeared, twice, on the second time as I picked the lock to the other appartment, that of Captain Woodrow, though I concealed this. This appartment included an office with apparently untouched papers from when he ran the tower.
§ The fifth floor is an attic, with a moldering archive of official accounts.
§ The sixth floor is also an attic and general store of old (ancient) junk.
§ The seventh floor is a lookout post from which we observed the Marrow house through a telescope. It was well lit, with candles and lamps blazing (through house plants) from every window, but no sign of movement inside.

We returned to the inn.
I wanted to find out more about what was going on in the back of the Marrow house, so Silas and Drake went around, taking a long route, via the warehouse and wheelwright.

Meanwhile I returned to our suite and examined the document that Augustus Marrow had given me. I felt that something was wrong and employed all manner of subtle chemical tests, to no avail.
The document appeared to be for a loan of 20 000 crowns, secured, but not specified against what, and with some unknown witnesses. I doubt if it is in any way legal.
Then it struck me; the date is old, but the ink is new. The whole thing is a fake, and a desperate one. Marrow was merely buying time, but for what?

Silas and Drake got as far as the warehouse, pushed the chain at the back door aside and sneaked in. They discovered recent footprints on the muddy floor, an office with interesting papers on the first floor (which Silas started removing), a smell of spicey food, a concealed cellar, and... movement in the attic.

They returned and we examined the papers; dossiers on many important people, including ourselves. Marrow (he owns the warehouse) may have been looking for business opportunities, but I suspect politics, or possibly blackmail.

We decided to use Silas' authority (I had sought to hide my investigation behind his, but it seems that he is hiding his official status behind mine) and search the warehouse.
Suffice to say that there were 6 Southerners hiding in the attic. Silas challenged them. They fought. Rufus proved particularly effective and we prevailed, killing some and taking some prisoners with minimal alarums.
I suspect that the prisoners died at Silas' hand as we left the building.

The cellar had a door leading to a storm drain. Across the drain was another door to the cellar of Bartholomus Pyle. There was also a way to another door to a cellar beneath the Banker's house, from which we heard whipping, feminine screams, and other unsavourary sounds. Whilst I fetched and loaded crossbows (from the Southerners), the noises stopped.
I picked the locks, but no one remained in the room.
There was a bloodstained bed with manacles, etc.
We stormed into the next room, seeing Augustus in some sort of leather pants, his torso a mass of festering blisters, with Beauforque and Bartholomus, also with blistered palms. They resisted at once, although only Beauforque put up any sort of a fight (and unfortunately roused everyone else in the house). Rufus prevailed again (which was, I am sure, an ambition of his).
We subdued the others and locked them in a cell. We freed the unconscious woman from the other cell.
There were also a torture chamber and, beneath Consuela's house, a shrine with a strange piece of dark stone (which I took for further analysis; it is not magnetic, but I suspect it is a stone that fell from the sky, or something).

Aurore set the remaining guards on Rufus, but he (and Drake) killed or captured most of the household, whilst I started searching the house.
I found a great many plants, an alchemist's workshop (apparently never used), a library... and that Aurore, at least one guard (and from the warehouse, a Southerner) had escaped.
We summoned the guard, who were already roused, and Silas produced some sort of credentials to prevent them entering the house, and to seal it.
It is clear that the people in the house are guilty of something (if only forgery), but it is not proven that they had anything to do with any of the murders.
I suggest that someone goes back, via the drains, to the apothecary.

This image is from' The Three Musketeers' by Maurice Leloir