Chapter 3 - Midnight Meet

Twisting the knob to open the door, Alexander takes his bow and pushes it the rest of the way open.

"Ah. Glad to see you made it. You've passed your test, I believe." Mac nods, a strange smile on his face. Glaring at him sourly, Alexander demands,

"Give me my money."

"Pardon?"

"I know a dark deal when I hear about it! Give me my money and find someone else to kill!" the rogue drew an arrow from his quiver and nocked it, "Give me my money, or this place will need a new boss."

Mac half rose, startled,
"N-now now...don't get excited!" he slowly reaches for a desk drawer. Alexander narrows his eyes and in a blaze of light his arrow forms a translucent, shifting glaze on it,

"Sour move gets frozen for life. Bad move just gets killed. Choose wisely."

"Just calm down. You asked for your money, didn't you?" Mac carefully holds up his hand--in which he now had a pouch, "Full of gold, half the price I promised you earlier--"

The glaze on the arrow shifted to be an aura of shifting greens and golds. "Why not all of it?" Alexander demanded harshly. Mac smoothly continued,

"We had a slight emergency, and one of the bouncers quit. He made me pay him everything."

"I don't CARE!" the young elf hissed through his teeth, with a faint trace of madness in his eyes, "Give me the money or your life..."
Changing his earlier plan, the boss man quickly did as he'd been told and opened all the drawers to the desk. Every scrap of silver, and every bit of paper money found its way to the desk and Mac quickly jumped away.

"I assure you...there's no murder intended. Just because the last group of people didn't make it doesn't mean it's murder. The last people died of their own foolishness, greed, and ignorance. If they'd stuck to the task at hand, instead of fooling around with whatever walked, they'd still be alive today."

His soothing tone seemed to have a slight effect on the elf's taught nerves,
"It's their own fault?" the catlike pupils dilated again, covering his green eyes with darkness, "Yes, always blame the victims--after all, who can argue back?"

The arrows were down again...Soundlessly, where he wouldn't startle them back up, Mac walked to his desk and took a sheet of paper out of the middle drawer. "This is what was found after they died. The first one he tried to lay up with someone's daughter, and the someone was NOT pleased. Here, read for yourself." he holds it out.

Not releasing hold on his guard, Alexander hesitantly reached out for the paper and took it. Only after glancing in Mac's direction, and positioning himself where he could see from the corner of his eye did he look down at the paper.
After a few seconds, the elf looked back up with a shadow of a smirk,
"Fools to them. Well..." he trailed off, and cleared his throat, "I suppose I COULD do this...but you'll have to pay me again..."

"Of course, of course. That's an obvious thing, after such a fright. Now, it's late. Go get some rest, and I'll contact you as soon as I can get some more information on what you should do." Mac ordered, and scowled as the elf just stood there with the paper, "What now?"

"The money. Have it sent to the riverbank early tomorrow afternoon. I'll be there." Alexander turns on his heel--and turns back around, "I'll have free access back down won't I?"

"Naturally."

***

Stepping from the door into the slight chill of night, Alexander studied the paper in his hands. Yes, it did give him answers--coroner's answers--to the three deaths before him. And yes, it gave GOOD answers too.

He frowned. That was the problem. The answers were too good; too clear cut for the types of deaths those three had suffered. After all, if he'd had a wife and children, Alexander would have been sure not to leave anything short of bloody murder if he'd found someone sleeping with his daughter!
That the man had been found with bruises around his throat and a broken neck also set it a touch odd. You're bound to have some kind of weapon at your own home, why just settle for bare hands? Even a candle holder could be used in his own experience...

Better to not think of that though, keep his mind on this puzzle instead of the past.

Alexander realized with a guilty start that he was still standing outside the gambling den, so he began a stroll down the center of town. Besides, he reasoned, who else was gonna be up that early in the morning when there was trading and farming to do tomorrow? Surely not anyone that was interested in a coroner's records.

Back to the studying. Victim number two had tried to garnish a little too much pay from someone he had supposed to have been working for. He'd been found with both legs stabbed ridiculously too much, both arms nearly torn from his shoulders, and a noose around his neck.

Next guy murdered--the name gave Alexander a bit more than a pause. After a second or two's hesitation, the elf swore under his breath,

"Shey...I'd wondered where the old scat went..."

Forcing the swirl of dizziness down, he read that Shey had also been the victim of his own greed and want. Shey had decided that his ego had taken too much of a bruising for some reason or other, and had attacked the murderer in a drunken, red blurred frenzy. He'd been slit in the throat and left to rot.
That sounded like him...but just an ego bruising? Usually Shey would give as he'd gotten. But then he didn't drink...Never when the two were 'traveling companions' and prospective victims for the other in a teasing game designed to keep both in top form...

Don't think of that right now, other things to tend to. Alexander stopped by a tree stump out of the way of the road and sat on it, absently.

Something else, he realized as he read over how the other two died. The other two appeared at first glance to have been done by different people...but it was odd in his mind that all three had something wrong with their neck in some fashion. Probably nothing really...

He'd study again after he got some rest, it WAS past the usual time when he settled down for a night.

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