15. Lucy

S ome of my experiments were utter failures that couldn't be salvaged. I used to get upset about that, but Mom said it happened to her, too. I knew the Bloody Mary idea was weird. Guttertown didn't have anything like it. The people in our tavern drank ale or whiskey straight.

It was a risk, but Mom took those all the time. If I wanted to be totally self-reliant and never have my father find out about me, I had to take them, even if it might be weird and new. I needed to ramp it up because of Mom's cough because she might need the best healers.

Guttertown had skilled healers, but they didn't have access to the same equipment. They needed copper equipment to make certain remedies, and that was impossible. Folcard controlled the largest copper ore in Nestran that we knew of. The shifters might have some of their lands, but we weren't welcome there.

Folcard who controlled who got that copper and what the prices were. Guttertown couldn't afford it and even if we could, he wouldn't have sold it to us. They weren't actively trying to wipe us out like they were the shifters, but they didn't give a shit if we lived or died.

But I had a good start at hiring a healer that did have access to copper equipment. I couldn't get a healer that was working for a Baron unless I made myself known to my father, but I could get a healer who didn't.

I needed to get to the basement and get some barrels started so we could start serving Bloody Marys. The mango recipe wasn't done yet, and I still needed my test barrel to see if aging it did anything, but I knew it was fine without it.

But first things first. Ollie and his fucking secrets.

Ollie knew something about the murders or he wouldn't have told us to lie. People died in Guttertown all the time and sometimes violently. But I'd remember if either scenario happened here. I got more of the Guttertown gossip train because I lived and worked in a tavern and if I didn't personally hear it, Ollie told me.

As soon as Aimes left and we were alone again for a few minutes, I turned to Ollie.

"Fess up, Ollie. No one was murdered like that in Guttertown. Why did you lie to Trevils and why are you asking the rest of us to?"

Because Old Man Aimes had been coming in the Whispering Raven since I was a kid. I'd always loved his stories. Mom had been giving him food and drink in exchange for odd jobs. One of those odd jobs used to be watching me and keeping me out of trouble when I was too young and stupid to do that myself.

Leodos came to the Whispering Raven a lot. I'd met him several times. The man lived in the palace with the king and the princess, but he said no one did whiskey like my mom. He only bought his from us and if Mom had any questions about her books, he'd help. The man was insanely tall, but I liked him.

Aimes had been telling me stories of the famous Inspector Trevils since he was my drunk babysitter. He was wicked smart. He'd piece things together with seemingly minor details. It was almost like magic. It was probably really fucking stupid for Ollie to lie to him.

"Okay, get close," Ollie said. "This is the first I'm hearing about a second killer, but Trevils was in here asking about one killer they were calling The Blight. I don't know anything about the second killer because I haven't heard anything. I know the motive of the one not leaving any evidence."

It had better be a fucking good one because if Trevils found out Ollie lied for a killer, this wasn't going to be a night in the cells for him. Ollie would hang for that if the Barons decided he should. At most, he'd die in the cells.

"Then why did you lie instead of telling Trevils that?" Ronan said.

Thank you! Ollie wasn't stupid most of the time. I mean, yeah, there were a solid few years where Ollie's ideas landed us in the cells for the night and Mom was furious with me, but sixteen-year-old boys did stupid shit and so did sixteen-year-old girls pretending to be boys.

"The men who have been dying with no evidence have a connection to Guttertown. They all hurt someone here. Like, in a way that would matter if it happened outside of Guttertown, but since it didn't, nothing was going to happen to them. Someone made sure it did."

"There are several ways to hurt someone, Ollie. You need to be specific."

We didn't have much, but it was possible to fuck up someone's livelihood and leave them with nothing at all. They could come to Guttertown and lay their hands on whoever they wanted. If we fought back, they'd just lie and say we attacked them unprovoked. All of Guttertown could show up as witnesses that it didn't go down like that and it wouldn't fucking matter.

"They are beating the shit out of people. Mostly women, but some of them have kicked some kids that were in their way. The rest of Nestran has some pretty shit ideas about beating your own wife and kids, but it's different when it's not your wife and those aren't your kids.

"Except if they are Guttertown women and kids, you can do whatever you want to them. Someone is getting justice for Guttertown and the rest of Guttertown would have my back lying for them. You two just have to get on board."

You had to be a little morally gray to survive in Guttertown, but a line had to be drawn somewhere. Like, Mom taught me to cheat our taxes by the time I was thirteen and then she taught Ollie. Still that was business and the Barons weren't using the tax money to better anything like they were supposed to.

But was I mad someone was murdering people for hurting us here in Guttertown? It wasn't like there was a justice system for us. Well, there was if we hurt each other. But not if they hurt us. They could do whatever they wanted to us.

I mean, whoever was doing this, good for them.

Ronan was looking at me expectantly because I knew I was the holdout. Ronan would be fine with this. Honestly? So was I.

"We can use the tavern to spread the word."

Because I wasn't protecting this killer anymore. Ollie lied for him. I needed to protect Ollie. I couldn't lose him. Ollie would protect Mom and me by saying we didn't know, but we had each other's back here. I knew Guttertown felt the same. If everyone knew one of our own was protecting us, they'd protect him.

"Who is it?" Ronan asked.

"I can't say. For his protection and yours."

I nodded. I got it. No one could know. Most people wouldn't say anything, but not everyone in Guttertown would keep that secret if money was involved. I mean, most of us would take the gold and lie to anyone's face, but not everyone.

It was probably fucking stupid to get the tavern tangled up in this and Mom would kill me, but I thought it was a good cause. Some of those men had probably come into the tavern and made a mess. They probably had it coming.

Ronan was going to keep digging. He did that. I wasn't going to seek out who was doing it for my protection and Mom's, but I wasn't going to complain if that information fell into my lap. Ronan was going to be like a dog with a bone until he found out.

Hopefully, Ollie had the sense to protect him and not tell him.