It took some convincing, but Detective Morse was able to regain access to the letter 669 had supposedly sent that implicated him. Although, he had to call in some favors with the evidence storage department and the clerk managing the inventory.

He stood before the barred window of the evidence storage front counter, and placed his access request to the inventory clerk. Who looked less interested in guarding and itemizing the items, more interested in the porn magazine he was reading. Porn wasn’t illegal, but it was clearly poor taste for a Royal Guard on duty.

Behind the guard was a vast, and almost endless amount of storage that held many columns and rows of shelves that ran up to a formless roof. It was likely due to a special kind of magic that had formed the evidence domain.

“Name and badge number.” The guard listlessly asked and nodded his head when he took note of Morse’s badge and the evidence order slip that was also handed to him.

The guard shuffled off the chair he had been slouching on, and called out for one of the Trydolens moving purposely about the place sorting and cataloging items in the shelves.

“Boss.” A Trydolen grumbled as he shuffled to the guard. Although, grumbling was just their natural tone of voice. Being a hybrid of human-lizard demon tended to see their voices being something akin to rubbing lemons on a steel grater.

“Get this one. Came in last hour.”

The slip hovered before the Trydolen’s fish eyes: it gave a rapid succession of blinks before stowing the slip in a folder and sluggishly moving its body to one of the aisles and disappearing among the shelves.

But he soon reappeared in a surprisingly quick time with an evidence pouch in his hands. Then handed it to the guard who unsealed the magic around the back and took an image of the evidence for preservation.

“It has to return as it was handed in.”

“Of course, I won’t be holding it for long.” Detective Morse thanked the man as he left the area to make his way to the Solace Tailor shop, where Emelia would meet up with him there.

When they had arrived, the shop was opened with Lucy Finch stocking folded material on the shelves behind the counter.

“Miss Finch.” Detective Morse approached the counter and noticed the slight twitch to her hands, before she placed her items down to face him.

He flashed his badge, which made her stance more upright and cautious. Emelia got out her quill and notebook to start capturing the interaction.

“Yes?” She soberly said, clearly not about to give more words in response.

“About the letter you tried to hand to me. Who gave it to you?”

Lucy frowned. “Letter? I don’t know what you mean.”

Emelia and Detective Morse shared a glance before grilling her closer on the matter.

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“You visited the Royal Guard this week, did you not?”

Lucy continued to frown and firmly state, “I did not.”

Detective Morse pulled out the letter, sealed in a clear pouch, and showed it to her. “Is this not your handwriting?”

This time Lucy looked confused. Emelia could tell that she wasn’t putting on an act based on other twitches and tells from her body.

“In this letter you implicated an operation henchmen in the death of Fairy Blossom.”

“Fairy Blossom is dead?” The tones to Lucy’s voice indicated genuine shock.

Emelia’s quill noted it all down.

“How well did you know this woman?”

“I think I should speak to a law agent before I carry this conversation further.”

“Of course, but should I tell you that you have the right to remain silent as anything you say and do can be upheld in a justice court, and you would need legal representation, it would mean that I have to arrest you for suspected felony in this legal system.” Detective Morse calmly advised the woman.

“As I see it, you aren’t guilty of anything unless you are proven so. This investigation would lead to a trial. It’s in your best interest to help us. Especially, if this woman was your friend. Wouldn’t you want to see proper justice given to her?”

Lucy sighed and opened up to tell her side of the story. She had known Fairy Blossom for a year, having being one of her paying customers for gowns and dresses that she wore in her line of business being a Call Girl for the Peony Soap House.

“She seemed to be doing very well. Always able to pay for lavish dresses.”

As they did more business, their friendship grew the more they had shared common interests in fashion and local gossip.

“What kind of gossip did you talk about?”

“Mostly who was sleeping with whom, and trivial talk like that.”

One day, Fairy Blossom had entered her shop enraged. After Lucy had been able to calm her down in the shop’s backroom, she learned that her favorite customer (Marcus Poirot) had stopped asking for her and started asking for not only other call girls but call boys as well.

“He was sleeping with men?” Emelia asked as her quill frantically scribbled in the notebook.

Lucy nodded. “A lot of people knew that Marcus was a womanizer, and didn’t bat an eye at men. But suddenly, he was invested into them.”

“Do you know what caused this switch?”

Lucy shook her head. “Unsure, but there were rumors that he had been approached by Ashton Sommerville. And that man may have forced Marcus into sex.”

Morse and Emelia nodded their heads.

“So, back to this letter. You wouldn’t have any reason to write it?”

“No. I never heard of the operation henchman before. Fairy Blossom never mentioned him. So why would I know about anything he did?”

Detective Morse stowed the letter away and thanked Lucy for her time.

“The Royal Guard may call upon you again should they need you to testify. But for now, thank you for your time.”

Detective Morse and Emelia stepped out of the shop with more questions in their minds than answers, but one thing was clear was the connection between Marcus and Ashton, and both of them being dead.

“Let’s go to the Cannon Fodders 4Hire headquarters. We need to see where Simon’s brother fits into this mess. If he does at all.”

As the Royal Guard officers were making their way up the street, they were unaware of the man following them at a stealthy distance. The man paused before Solace Tailor’s shop entrance then went up the stairs and stepped inside.