The Master Executioner (The Executioner's Song Book 5), page 33
Finn took a deep breath, knowing better than to argue with him here.
Geldan leaned forward, and the rest of the jurors did the same. “The jurors have decided. In the matter of Roland Brevins, the jurors have found him guilty of killing his brother. He is sentenced to death by hanging, and only through your testimony, Master Jagger, was he saved from a more severe fate. There were some among the jurors who believed that he should have been quartered.”
Finn regarded Geldan, suppressing his irritation.
“The sentencing will be carried out in one day.”
“If he is to be hanged, we will need three,” Finn said.
“Why is that?” Ashal asked.
“The gallows need to be replaced. The wood has started to fail.”
“We don’t need to delay for the gallows,” Ashal said.
The others nodded along with him.
Geldan regarded Finn for a moment, and there was an unreadable look in his eyes. “Is this necessary?” he asked, looking to Meyer.
Meyer turned to Finn. “If Master Jagger believes the gallows must be replaced prior to a sentencing, then it needs to be replaced.”
“Very well. In that case, you have three days.”
Geldan got up along with the other jurors and nodded to Master Meyer before turning to Finn. “Master Jagger, I would appreciate a word in my office.”
The other jurors left through the back entrance, and as they did Finn watched them depart, one by one, until they were gone. Ashal was the last to leave, and his gaze seemed to linger on Roland, though it seemed as if he were concerned or disappointed.
Finn took a deep breath, turning back to Meyer. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Meyer regarded Finn for a moment. “Do you have the sense I’m disappointed in you?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Not at all. You are a master executioner now, so you have every right to speak as you see fit during a sentencing.”
“But this was your sentencing.”
“We both serve the king, and we both serve his justice, so in this case we are both acting on behalf of the kingdom.”
“I thought you might have said something more than you did,” Finn said.
“What did you think I needed to say?”
Finn shook his head. He looked over to Roland, and he continued whimpering, shaking his head as he did. “I thought maybe you would say something on behalf of him.”
“Your testimony was as useful as mine would have been,” Meyer said. “Especially given the warden’s report.”
“This is the second time the warden’s report has influenced Geldan. I know that they will take their testimony into account, but he can't have all the facts. The iron masters in the warden hear only part of the testimony, not what we find. They almost used his testimony to convict Bolgar.”
“Almost, but not quite,” Meyer said. “You were able to speak on his behalf, and you were able to use what you could to convince the jurors of the need to evaluate the testimony differently.”
“And this time?”
Meyer looked over to Roland. “Does the gallows truly need to be repaired?”
“It does,” Finn said.
“Would it have withstood one more sentencing?”
“Probably.”
“You have three days,” Meyer said. “You should be careful, Finn.”
“What do you think will happen?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve learned long ago to be cautious in my approach with the jurors and Geldan. They have their own agenda. The magister serves at the behest of the king, his arm of justice where the viscount is his arm of rule. The jurors are different. They serve their sections on behalf of their constituents, and each of them might be instructed to work for justice, but I have often felt they had an agenda. I just want you to be careful.”
Meyer took Roland by the arm, but he trembled even more.
“I can do it,” Finn said, nodding to Roland. “Besides, I need to visit with Geldan, anyway.”
Meyer nodded to him. “Like I said. Be careful.”
He departed the jurors’ chamber, moving more fluidly than he had in a long time. There was no limp as there had been before, and he glanced back at Finn when he reached the door, heading out.
Finn looked over to Roland. “Come along,” he said as gently as he could.
“I didn’t do it,” Roland said.
“I understand. I tried to testify on your behalf. I went to your home. I visited with Max.”
“Max was there?”
Finn shook his head. “Max wasn’t inside. He was outside. Did you see him when you came?”
“They don’t let me see anyone,” he said.
Finn sighed. He was going to have to talk to the Archers. They didn’t need to cover his face as he went through the streets. That was only going to frighten somebody like Roland.
“If you didn’t kill him, do you know who did? Max didn’t think your brother had any enemies, but somebody must have wanted him dead.”
“Don’t make me talk,” he said.
Finn looked over to him. “What was that?”
“Don’t make me talk. I can’t say anything.”
Finn frowned. “If you know something, you need to tell me. If there’s anything that can help you, we need to know what it is.”
“Don’t make me talk.”
“Why?”
“He promised to hurt them,” he said.
“He?”
Roland’s eyes widened. “Don’t make me talk.”
Finn turned and looked up at Roland. He was a large man, but there was a gentleness in his eyes. His entire body still shook.
There was part of Finn that questioned whether or not Roland even had any idea what it meant for him to have been sentenced. It was possible he had no idea what had befallen him, and that left Finn feeling guilty. A man should understand his sentence.
But he needed information. He didn’t know how to get it, but he had a feeling that Roland knew more than he was letting on. He studied Roland, trying to decide what the right approach would be with him. Scaring him or enhanced interrogation would only lead to this same trembling, the same fear that Finn had seen from him.
That wasn’t the approach to use. He had to continue to question him. He had to find answers. Finn didn’t know what that was going to entail, especially if he truly feared for others.
“Who was he going to hurt?” Finn asked.
“My family,” he said.
“Who?”
“A bad man. A dark man.”
“Dark?”
“Shadows. He comes on the shadows.”
Finn tensed. Everything within him went cold. It was too much of a coincidence to mention the term shadows, especially after what he had heard in Declan about Bolgar’s death, and the darkness of Esmerelda had described around Meyer.
“What happened?”
“I can’t say anything more,” he said.
“Listen,” Finn started, looking toward the door. He wasn’t going to have much more time before the Archers came in and pulled him out of the jurors’ chamber. Already Finn thought that he was taking too much time. “I can help. You just have to tell me who you are afraid of.”
“He knows.”
“How would he know?”
“He was here.”
Finn frowned and looked back toward the jurors’ bench. “Here? Was he one of them?” There was another possibility, and it was one that would make more sense. “Was he one of the Archers?”
Roland started shaking his head, and before Finn had an opportunity to get an answer, the door to the jurors’ chambers opened, the Archers strode in, Geldan standing in the hallway, waiting.
Finn would have to go back to Declan and question him.
He still needed answers.
“These men are going to bring you back to the prison. I will come by later to visit with you.”
“He knows,” Roland said.
The Archers nodded to Finn, grabbed Roland by the arms, and guided him out.
Finn stared at the jurors’ bench for a moment. Could it be somebody there? It didn’t make much sense, but then again he didn’t know if any of this made that much sense. Somehow, the cases were connected, if the comment about the shadows had anything to do with it. Bolgar, who was now gone, and Todd, who had the murder pinned on Roland.
Geldan waited, and Finn gathered himself, heading out into the hall, nodding to Geldan. “You wanted to visit with me?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Do we need to go to your office?”
Geldan glanced back to the empty chamber before turning to Finn. “I don’t believe that is necessary. I just wanted to better understand why you believed in his innocence.”
“I don’t know that he’s innocent,” Finn said. This wasn’t the time, and he didn’t think this was the right man, to reveal what he suspected. “But until I know, I can’t feel comfortable with his sentencing.”
“I’ve not been in the city that long. Is this how you approach every case?”
“Yes.”
“What about Meyer?”
“Yes,” Finn said.
“I noticed that Master Meyer did not speak.”
“He thought it only necessary to have one master executioner speak.”
“And not the master executioner of the city?”
Finn shook his head. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“Oh, I will.”
Finn nodded. “Is there anything else that you need from me?”
“Only for you to serve as you have claimed.”
Finn met his gaze. “I fully intend to.”
Geldan watched Finn for a moment before turning and heading down the hall. Finn couldn’t shake the feeling that Geldan didn’t care for him. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had trouble with a magister. Finn had survived that danger once before and would do it again. If it saved an innocent man, then that was warranted.
He didn’t have answers though, and it was time he did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
He found Lorvend’s home quickly. It was early in the day, and Finn was acutely aware of every moment that he had and how each moment led him closer to the deadline Geldan had set. Meyer would be rebuilding the gallows, and Finn should get there. Whether or not they would find useful answers, he needed to keep looking.
The streets were generally quiet, though on some of the main streets Finn had to push his way through crowds, ignoring the noise of the city. It was almost somber in Lorvend’s section, particularly close to his home. To find the answers he wanted, he had to return to Bolgar’s case. Finn was not convinced he had solved that satisfactorily and needed to understand the connection to witchcraft.
And the shadows that had killed him.
Todd’s death might also have been tied to witchcraft, especially given how much blood had been spilled. All of it was coming together, though Finn wasn’t quite sure how to piece it together in a way that made sense.
He knocked on the door, waiting a moment. There was no response.
Finn knocked again, watching the street, but again there was no response.
He didn’t have to call for Archers to force his way into the home. He was working on behalf of the king.
He tested the lock, finding it solid, before slamming his shoulder into the door and popping it open.
The smell struck him.
It was stale, and it stunk like rot. Decay.
It looked much the same as when he had been here with Lorvend before, only this time there was a certain hazy darkness over everything. Finn pulled open the curtains, letting light stream in, and looked around the inside of the house. The table had been upended, tipped on its side, and one of the chairs had been dragged to the back wall. The hearth looked as if it hadn’t been lit in several days.
Where was Lorvend?
Finn made his way to the back room. The foul, festering sort of stench told him everything he needed to know about what had happened to Lorvend.
He was here, and he was dead.
Lorvend was lying in the center of the room. Finn hurriedly checked on him, not expecting to find a pulse, and did not. The stench had been enough to tell Finn what he needed.
How had he died?
There didn’t seem to be anything obvious, though he took a step back, looking around the room. At this point, he was increasingly confident that witchcraft had been involved in what happened to Bolgar, but he didn’t know whether that was the same for Lorvend. If Roland was right, and if there were shadows involved there, then witchcraft had likely been a part of what had happened to his brother.
He carefully pulled back Lorvend’s shirt, peeling back the buttons, looking for any sign of injury but finding nothing. He pulled back his pants as well. Much like his upper torso, he found nothing there either.
If this was witchcraft, there was typically a purpose to the death. In this case, Finn didn’t know that purpose, only that he believed Lorvend’s death was tied to what happened to Bolgar and possibly to what happened with Todd.
Finn searched through his clothing, shifting through Lorvend’s belongings. He still needed the book Lorvend had, needing to know if there was anything he might learn about Bolgar’s clients. That was his only lead at this point. Until he had a chance to go through all of those clients, Finn didn’t think he would have an opportunity to uncover the truth. There might not even be time. Three days wasn’t a lot of time, certainly not enough for Finn to uncover somebody in the massive book that he knew Bolgar had. If only Bolgar had revealed the location of his journals, maybe Finn would have had a better chance of proving who was responsible for these crimes.
Shadows.
That thought kept coming to him. Shadows had to be witchcraft, but what kind of witchcraft caused the shadows to move the way they were described? What kind of shadows could kill a man?
What kind of shadows could conceal a murder?
Finn didn’t find anything on Lorvend’s body.
He looked around the room. There wasn’t anything here other than the dead body.
Finn got to his feet. Nothing even here to suggest he had been murdered. As far as he could tell, Lorvend had died of natural causes.
Finn headed back out to the other room. He would have to notify the Archers that there was a body here, and doing so would call attention to the fact that he had come searching for information. Finn would have to prepare for questions about that, and given that Geldan had made a point of saying Bolgar’s case had been put to rest, Finn knew they wouldn’t appreciate him digging around in details that might be tied to Bolgar’s case.
He looked around this area. If there was something here, and if Lorvend had been murdered, the killer had taken what they wanted. Likely it was reference to Bolgar’s money lending, though maybe they had overlooked something.
He checked the cabinets, looked through the bookshelves, and generally searched through everything to find the journal Lorvend, but found nothing.
There had to be something here he could use.
Lorvend had records. Finn remembered him saying that, and he had kept them partly to ensure his own safety, but partly because he had intended to buy into the moneylender business.
As Finn made his way around the inside of the home, not finding anything, he paused.
There was something on the floor.
He leaned down, checking to see what was there.
It was a small marker. It was a pin, a marker of sorts, made of silver and etched with a familiar shape Finn had seen before. He carried it over to the window so he could look at it more clearly in the daylight. The symbol on the pin told him where he needed to go next.
Briggs’s marker.
He looked around the inside of the room one more time before stepping back outside and closing the door tightly behind him. He would need to call the Archers to gather Lorvend’s body, but that could be done after he had finished with his search. There was still something more he could do.
He knew exactly where he was going now. He hurried along the street. Could it be that he had been close to the guilty person already and revealed his investigation?
Finn pushed that thought away.
Finding Jamison Briggs’s home was not difficult. It was early enough in the day that he didn’t feel as if he would be interrupting anything, but at the same time he thought that surprise might be beneficial. He was a master executioner now. He did not have to fear the same repercussions he would have before.
He made his way through the gate, up the long path, and to the arched double doors where he knocked. He waited, and slowly the door came open. The servant Tolsten looked at him, frowning for a moment.
“You’re the executioner,” he said.
“Finn Jagger, master executioner,” he said, emphasizing master. “I’ve come to speak with Mr. Briggs.”
Tolsten blinked. He glanced over his shoulder almost nervously. “I’m afraid Mr. Briggs isn’t speaking with anyone today.”
“You may tell Mr. Briggs that if he chooses not to visit with me then I will return with a dozen Archers, drag him to Declan prison, and question him directly.”
Tolsten took a step back. “Under what charge?”
“Murder.”
Tolsten’s eyes widened.
“Now. If Mr. Briggs could take a few moments, I’m sure he will find me much more agreeable in his home than he would within Declan prison.”
“You wouldn’t dare take a man of his stature to a place like that,” he said.
“I take men of all statures to Declan prison. When murder is involved, that is all that matters.”
Tolsten looked over his shoulder again. “I will escort you to his office, where you may wait until he finds time to visit with you.”
“I will not wait long before calling for the Archers.”
It would be interesting for Finn to see just how long Briggs made him wait this time. The last time, he had forced Finn to sit for an extended period of time, but this time he came with a different purpose and came with a different threat to him. When Finn had come before, he had claimed he was only there for information. At that time, that had been the primary reason behind Finn’s appearance. Now it was something more.
Geldan leaned forward, and the rest of the jurors did the same. “The jurors have decided. In the matter of Roland Brevins, the jurors have found him guilty of killing his brother. He is sentenced to death by hanging, and only through your testimony, Master Jagger, was he saved from a more severe fate. There were some among the jurors who believed that he should have been quartered.”
Finn regarded Geldan, suppressing his irritation.
“The sentencing will be carried out in one day.”
“If he is to be hanged, we will need three,” Finn said.
“Why is that?” Ashal asked.
“The gallows need to be replaced. The wood has started to fail.”
“We don’t need to delay for the gallows,” Ashal said.
The others nodded along with him.
Geldan regarded Finn for a moment, and there was an unreadable look in his eyes. “Is this necessary?” he asked, looking to Meyer.
Meyer turned to Finn. “If Master Jagger believes the gallows must be replaced prior to a sentencing, then it needs to be replaced.”
“Very well. In that case, you have three days.”
Geldan got up along with the other jurors and nodded to Master Meyer before turning to Finn. “Master Jagger, I would appreciate a word in my office.”
The other jurors left through the back entrance, and as they did Finn watched them depart, one by one, until they were gone. Ashal was the last to leave, and his gaze seemed to linger on Roland, though it seemed as if he were concerned or disappointed.
Finn took a deep breath, turning back to Meyer. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Meyer regarded Finn for a moment. “Do you have the sense I’m disappointed in you?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Not at all. You are a master executioner now, so you have every right to speak as you see fit during a sentencing.”
“But this was your sentencing.”
“We both serve the king, and we both serve his justice, so in this case we are both acting on behalf of the kingdom.”
“I thought you might have said something more than you did,” Finn said.
“What did you think I needed to say?”
Finn shook his head. He looked over to Roland, and he continued whimpering, shaking his head as he did. “I thought maybe you would say something on behalf of him.”
“Your testimony was as useful as mine would have been,” Meyer said. “Especially given the warden’s report.”
“This is the second time the warden’s report has influenced Geldan. I know that they will take their testimony into account, but he can't have all the facts. The iron masters in the warden hear only part of the testimony, not what we find. They almost used his testimony to convict Bolgar.”
“Almost, but not quite,” Meyer said. “You were able to speak on his behalf, and you were able to use what you could to convince the jurors of the need to evaluate the testimony differently.”
“And this time?”
Meyer looked over to Roland. “Does the gallows truly need to be repaired?”
“It does,” Finn said.
“Would it have withstood one more sentencing?”
“Probably.”
“You have three days,” Meyer said. “You should be careful, Finn.”
“What do you think will happen?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve learned long ago to be cautious in my approach with the jurors and Geldan. They have their own agenda. The magister serves at the behest of the king, his arm of justice where the viscount is his arm of rule. The jurors are different. They serve their sections on behalf of their constituents, and each of them might be instructed to work for justice, but I have often felt they had an agenda. I just want you to be careful.”
Meyer took Roland by the arm, but he trembled even more.
“I can do it,” Finn said, nodding to Roland. “Besides, I need to visit with Geldan, anyway.”
Meyer nodded to him. “Like I said. Be careful.”
He departed the jurors’ chamber, moving more fluidly than he had in a long time. There was no limp as there had been before, and he glanced back at Finn when he reached the door, heading out.
Finn looked over to Roland. “Come along,” he said as gently as he could.
“I didn’t do it,” Roland said.
“I understand. I tried to testify on your behalf. I went to your home. I visited with Max.”
“Max was there?”
Finn shook his head. “Max wasn’t inside. He was outside. Did you see him when you came?”
“They don’t let me see anyone,” he said.
Finn sighed. He was going to have to talk to the Archers. They didn’t need to cover his face as he went through the streets. That was only going to frighten somebody like Roland.
“If you didn’t kill him, do you know who did? Max didn’t think your brother had any enemies, but somebody must have wanted him dead.”
“Don’t make me talk,” he said.
Finn looked over to him. “What was that?”
“Don’t make me talk. I can’t say anything.”
Finn frowned. “If you know something, you need to tell me. If there’s anything that can help you, we need to know what it is.”
“Don’t make me talk.”
“Why?”
“He promised to hurt them,” he said.
“He?”
Roland’s eyes widened. “Don’t make me talk.”
Finn turned and looked up at Roland. He was a large man, but there was a gentleness in his eyes. His entire body still shook.
There was part of Finn that questioned whether or not Roland even had any idea what it meant for him to have been sentenced. It was possible he had no idea what had befallen him, and that left Finn feeling guilty. A man should understand his sentence.
But he needed information. He didn’t know how to get it, but he had a feeling that Roland knew more than he was letting on. He studied Roland, trying to decide what the right approach would be with him. Scaring him or enhanced interrogation would only lead to this same trembling, the same fear that Finn had seen from him.
That wasn’t the approach to use. He had to continue to question him. He had to find answers. Finn didn’t know what that was going to entail, especially if he truly feared for others.
“Who was he going to hurt?” Finn asked.
“My family,” he said.
“Who?”
“A bad man. A dark man.”
“Dark?”
“Shadows. He comes on the shadows.”
Finn tensed. Everything within him went cold. It was too much of a coincidence to mention the term shadows, especially after what he had heard in Declan about Bolgar’s death, and the darkness of Esmerelda had described around Meyer.
“What happened?”
“I can’t say anything more,” he said.
“Listen,” Finn started, looking toward the door. He wasn’t going to have much more time before the Archers came in and pulled him out of the jurors’ chamber. Already Finn thought that he was taking too much time. “I can help. You just have to tell me who you are afraid of.”
“He knows.”
“How would he know?”
“He was here.”
Finn frowned and looked back toward the jurors’ bench. “Here? Was he one of them?” There was another possibility, and it was one that would make more sense. “Was he one of the Archers?”
Roland started shaking his head, and before Finn had an opportunity to get an answer, the door to the jurors’ chambers opened, the Archers strode in, Geldan standing in the hallway, waiting.
Finn would have to go back to Declan and question him.
He still needed answers.
“These men are going to bring you back to the prison. I will come by later to visit with you.”
“He knows,” Roland said.
The Archers nodded to Finn, grabbed Roland by the arms, and guided him out.
Finn stared at the jurors’ bench for a moment. Could it be somebody there? It didn’t make much sense, but then again he didn’t know if any of this made that much sense. Somehow, the cases were connected, if the comment about the shadows had anything to do with it. Bolgar, who was now gone, and Todd, who had the murder pinned on Roland.
Geldan waited, and Finn gathered himself, heading out into the hall, nodding to Geldan. “You wanted to visit with me?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Do we need to go to your office?”
Geldan glanced back to the empty chamber before turning to Finn. “I don’t believe that is necessary. I just wanted to better understand why you believed in his innocence.”
“I don’t know that he’s innocent,” Finn said. This wasn’t the time, and he didn’t think this was the right man, to reveal what he suspected. “But until I know, I can’t feel comfortable with his sentencing.”
“I’ve not been in the city that long. Is this how you approach every case?”
“Yes.”
“What about Meyer?”
“Yes,” Finn said.
“I noticed that Master Meyer did not speak.”
“He thought it only necessary to have one master executioner speak.”
“And not the master executioner of the city?”
Finn shook his head. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“Oh, I will.”
Finn nodded. “Is there anything else that you need from me?”
“Only for you to serve as you have claimed.”
Finn met his gaze. “I fully intend to.”
Geldan watched Finn for a moment before turning and heading down the hall. Finn couldn’t shake the feeling that Geldan didn’t care for him. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had trouble with a magister. Finn had survived that danger once before and would do it again. If it saved an innocent man, then that was warranted.
He didn’t have answers though, and it was time he did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
He found Lorvend’s home quickly. It was early in the day, and Finn was acutely aware of every moment that he had and how each moment led him closer to the deadline Geldan had set. Meyer would be rebuilding the gallows, and Finn should get there. Whether or not they would find useful answers, he needed to keep looking.
The streets were generally quiet, though on some of the main streets Finn had to push his way through crowds, ignoring the noise of the city. It was almost somber in Lorvend’s section, particularly close to his home. To find the answers he wanted, he had to return to Bolgar’s case. Finn was not convinced he had solved that satisfactorily and needed to understand the connection to witchcraft.
And the shadows that had killed him.
Todd’s death might also have been tied to witchcraft, especially given how much blood had been spilled. All of it was coming together, though Finn wasn’t quite sure how to piece it together in a way that made sense.
He knocked on the door, waiting a moment. There was no response.
Finn knocked again, watching the street, but again there was no response.
He didn’t have to call for Archers to force his way into the home. He was working on behalf of the king.
He tested the lock, finding it solid, before slamming his shoulder into the door and popping it open.
The smell struck him.
It was stale, and it stunk like rot. Decay.
It looked much the same as when he had been here with Lorvend before, only this time there was a certain hazy darkness over everything. Finn pulled open the curtains, letting light stream in, and looked around the inside of the house. The table had been upended, tipped on its side, and one of the chairs had been dragged to the back wall. The hearth looked as if it hadn’t been lit in several days.
Where was Lorvend?
Finn made his way to the back room. The foul, festering sort of stench told him everything he needed to know about what had happened to Lorvend.
He was here, and he was dead.
Lorvend was lying in the center of the room. Finn hurriedly checked on him, not expecting to find a pulse, and did not. The stench had been enough to tell Finn what he needed.
How had he died?
There didn’t seem to be anything obvious, though he took a step back, looking around the room. At this point, he was increasingly confident that witchcraft had been involved in what happened to Bolgar, but he didn’t know whether that was the same for Lorvend. If Roland was right, and if there were shadows involved there, then witchcraft had likely been a part of what had happened to his brother.
He carefully pulled back Lorvend’s shirt, peeling back the buttons, looking for any sign of injury but finding nothing. He pulled back his pants as well. Much like his upper torso, he found nothing there either.
If this was witchcraft, there was typically a purpose to the death. In this case, Finn didn’t know that purpose, only that he believed Lorvend’s death was tied to what happened to Bolgar and possibly to what happened with Todd.
Finn searched through his clothing, shifting through Lorvend’s belongings. He still needed the book Lorvend had, needing to know if there was anything he might learn about Bolgar’s clients. That was his only lead at this point. Until he had a chance to go through all of those clients, Finn didn’t think he would have an opportunity to uncover the truth. There might not even be time. Three days wasn’t a lot of time, certainly not enough for Finn to uncover somebody in the massive book that he knew Bolgar had. If only Bolgar had revealed the location of his journals, maybe Finn would have had a better chance of proving who was responsible for these crimes.
Shadows.
That thought kept coming to him. Shadows had to be witchcraft, but what kind of witchcraft caused the shadows to move the way they were described? What kind of shadows could kill a man?
What kind of shadows could conceal a murder?
Finn didn’t find anything on Lorvend’s body.
He looked around the room. There wasn’t anything here other than the dead body.
Finn got to his feet. Nothing even here to suggest he had been murdered. As far as he could tell, Lorvend had died of natural causes.
Finn headed back out to the other room. He would have to notify the Archers that there was a body here, and doing so would call attention to the fact that he had come searching for information. Finn would have to prepare for questions about that, and given that Geldan had made a point of saying Bolgar’s case had been put to rest, Finn knew they wouldn’t appreciate him digging around in details that might be tied to Bolgar’s case.
He looked around this area. If there was something here, and if Lorvend had been murdered, the killer had taken what they wanted. Likely it was reference to Bolgar’s money lending, though maybe they had overlooked something.
He checked the cabinets, looked through the bookshelves, and generally searched through everything to find the journal Lorvend, but found nothing.
There had to be something here he could use.
Lorvend had records. Finn remembered him saying that, and he had kept them partly to ensure his own safety, but partly because he had intended to buy into the moneylender business.
As Finn made his way around the inside of the home, not finding anything, he paused.
There was something on the floor.
He leaned down, checking to see what was there.
It was a small marker. It was a pin, a marker of sorts, made of silver and etched with a familiar shape Finn had seen before. He carried it over to the window so he could look at it more clearly in the daylight. The symbol on the pin told him where he needed to go next.
Briggs’s marker.
He looked around the inside of the room one more time before stepping back outside and closing the door tightly behind him. He would need to call the Archers to gather Lorvend’s body, but that could be done after he had finished with his search. There was still something more he could do.
He knew exactly where he was going now. He hurried along the street. Could it be that he had been close to the guilty person already and revealed his investigation?
Finn pushed that thought away.
Finding Jamison Briggs’s home was not difficult. It was early enough in the day that he didn’t feel as if he would be interrupting anything, but at the same time he thought that surprise might be beneficial. He was a master executioner now. He did not have to fear the same repercussions he would have before.
He made his way through the gate, up the long path, and to the arched double doors where he knocked. He waited, and slowly the door came open. The servant Tolsten looked at him, frowning for a moment.
“You’re the executioner,” he said.
“Finn Jagger, master executioner,” he said, emphasizing master. “I’ve come to speak with Mr. Briggs.”
Tolsten blinked. He glanced over his shoulder almost nervously. “I’m afraid Mr. Briggs isn’t speaking with anyone today.”
“You may tell Mr. Briggs that if he chooses not to visit with me then I will return with a dozen Archers, drag him to Declan prison, and question him directly.”
Tolsten took a step back. “Under what charge?”
“Murder.”
Tolsten’s eyes widened.
“Now. If Mr. Briggs could take a few moments, I’m sure he will find me much more agreeable in his home than he would within Declan prison.”
“You wouldn’t dare take a man of his stature to a place like that,” he said.
“I take men of all statures to Declan prison. When murder is involved, that is all that matters.”
Tolsten looked over his shoulder again. “I will escort you to his office, where you may wait until he finds time to visit with you.”
“I will not wait long before calling for the Archers.”
It would be interesting for Finn to see just how long Briggs made him wait this time. The last time, he had forced Finn to sit for an extended period of time, but this time he came with a different purpose and came with a different threat to him. When Finn had come before, he had claimed he was only there for information. At that time, that had been the primary reason behind Finn’s appearance. Now it was something more.
