Pickle had decided that if Leofryn had gone missing within a year of Kala, and if he was dead, then his death might have been related to hers. If he had been killed by the same person and thrown overboard at sea, his body might have ended up on a beach somewhere, and not been identified. That was a lot of suppositions, but Pickle hadn’t been daunted, and had started searching online newspaper archives.

He hadn’t found Leofryn.

Instead, he had found at least seven other bodies which fit the same pattern as Kala. He rattled off the list of locations, which confused Linua until a few minutes later, when Eret posted an image he had thrown together, of a map superimposed with red dots. The bodies had been discovered along the Panathelo coast, the curved line of land on the opposite side of the strait from Herkow, that swept down from the north and curved away to the south-east. The newspaper reports had been vague, but each one had mentioned either a disfigurement or burn marks on the palm of the hand, or that the victim had died of electrocution instead of drowning.

Linua: But if there was a serial killer like that, surely the police would know about it already?

Eret: Most of the bodies were found in different jurisdictions. Also, if the bodies were discovered years apart it would be harder for the police to notice a pattern.

He added a revised map with big green outlines to denote the country boundaries along that section of coast. Linua studied the image. The bodies seemed evenly spread. A third map appeared, now with blue arrows denoting sea currents, which seemed to sweep in towards the coastline where the bodies had been found, although it was hard to pinpoint any particular spot where the bodies might have originated. They could have come from the southern sea, or from the coast south of Herkow, or somewhere in between.

Pickle: so Leofryn could have been killed like kala was , but his body got carried somewhere else .

Eret: Did you find anything out about the victims, Pickle?

Pickle: there wasn’t a lot of information in the articles . one of the victims was homeless and living on a beach . a couple of them had run away from home as teenagers .

Linua: Shouldn’t we tell the police about this?

Solly: The police are useless!

Eret: They won’t believe us, they think our burglar was just some random criminal, when clearly it must be relatef ad

Eret: sorryt aniyth ihs hitting iw me

Eret: EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP THIS RIGHT NOW! OR I’M TELLING DAAASD

Eret: I’m back. That was Anith. Sorry. Uh. Let’s just stop here.

There was nothing from Eret or Anith for a while, and the others evidently didn’t feel like discussing it without them. Linua was just about to log out of the PC when she heard a ping.

--New Group Bulletin started by Pickle—

--Eret has logged into New Group Bulletin--

--Solly has logged into New Group Bulletin--

--Linua has logged into New Group Bulletin--

--New Group Bulletin has been changed to Intrepid Investigators--

Pickle: eret sent me a pm and asked me to set up a group without anith . for obvious reasons .

Ouch. Poor Anith.

Linua: Anith is probably right you know. We shouldn’t go any further with this.

Pickle: it will be okay as long as we don’t actually visit anyone who might be a serial killer …

Solly: Hey, Linua, do you still want to buy my bike?

Eret: Make sure you don’t give him too much for it. Linua, I had an idea for how to get information from the police reports about the deaths. But you’re not going to like it…

Grandmother had been extremely non-plussed when Linua had raised the prospect of acquiring a bike.

“A bicycle?” she asked blankly. “What do you need a bicycle for?”

Linua hesitated, trying to think quickly. She couldn’t say it was to meet up with Eret in the village. Luckily Helged came to her rescue.

“Linua had a bike when we first came here. You used to ride round and round the garden! Don’t you remember, Madame?”

“Oh … yes ... of course, that was some years ago now. You’re not a child anymore.”

“I could ride along the forest track that goes to the viewpoint,” Linua suggested.

“Not while we’re in danger, Linua!”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Afterwards, then? When it’s safe?”

“Oh dear … I’m really not sure …” Grandmother rallied. “I’m afraid getting a bicycle today is out of the question! You missed a study session yesterday when we went clothes shopping. We really cannot have you falling behind.”

Falling behind what? Luckily Linua had already prepared for this objection.

“I can do my work when I get back,” she said. “I don’t mind staying up a bit later.”

After discussing around the issue several times, Grandmother had grudgingly agreed.

The bike had originally been black, until Solly had applied dozens of transfer stickers to it. Linua twisted her head several different ways trying to see what they all were. Some appeared to be robots, some were fluorescent yellow ghosts, some looked like … wolf men wielding swords? There were half a dozen stickers proudly bearing the Keng Boh Kids logo.

Linua was straddling the bike in Solly’s parents’ garage, having just wobbled up and down his driveway on it. She was a little out of practice, but it seemed steady enough. There were two Yi bodyguards present, one standing at the door that went into the house, and the other in the driveway in front of the garage. They stood with their feet at shoulder width apart and their hands behind their backs, and stared into the middle distance. The one by the house door was Hei Lang, the same one who had accompanied Linua during the shopping trip, and the one on the driveway was called Shin Won.

Linua wasn’t sure how this buying business was supposed to go, and it didn’t help having two expressionless men standing there watching her do it.

“I’ll give you twenty-five shekels for it,” she said, to start things off.

“I can’t go below forty,” Solly declared.

“Forty!” Linua stared at him. “Why not twenty-five?”

“Because my cousin offered to buy it for forty.”

This was taking too long. In a few minutes Linua would be meeting Eret. She felt impatient to get out of the garage and over to Pickle’s house, where the meet up would be taking place. She tried not to think about the guest Eret had invited.

“Why didn’t you sell it to him already?” she asked Solly, a little resentfully.

“I’m offering you first dibs on it,” Solly said airily. “But if you don’t want it…”

Linua did want it. The bike meant just that little bit more freedom, a reason to go out of the house in the evenings.

“Alright, I’ll give you forty for it then,” she said reluctantly.

“Alright, but only because you’re in the Astronomy Club,” Solly said magnanimously.

The forty shekels duly changed hands, and Linua was the now owner of a second-hand bike.

She wheeled the bike out of the garage and onto the front drive, where Solly’s mother was watering window boxes full of flowers. Solly’s mother was one of those people who couldn’t sit still, constantly moving and straightening things, including making continual efforts to flatten Solly’s hair and untuck his collar, to his loudly expressed annoyance.

Solly’s dad was there, ostensibly washing his car, but seemed to spend more time regarding the bodyguards with open curiosity, like a man watching a magic trick performed for his amusement. He was balding, cheery and rotund. He asked questions all the time, but never waited for the response, instead providing a humorous answer of his own, at which he invariably laughed heartily.

“We’re going over to Pickle’s, mum,” Solly said, as they came back in from the garage.

“Did you take the bike, then?” his mum asked Linua, in the bright tone adults used when they were trying to sound interested in the lives of teenagers.

“Yeah.”

“Oh good!” she said to Solly. “You’ve been wanted to get rid of that bike for ages.”

“Mu-um!”

Linua turned and delivered an incredulous glare at Solly, which he pretended not to see.

Pickle’s house was utterly different from Solly’s. Linua realised how neat and clean Solly’s house had been in comparison—it hadn’t really struck her at the time, because she unconsciously expected all houses to be like that. Grandmother’s house was always scrupulously well kept, courtesy of Helged, and Castle Yi had an army of servants to ensure the same thing.

Pickle’s house was, by contrast, crammed with stuff. Just inside the front door were a series of pegs hidden from view by an explosion of coats of different sizes and colours, with a tumble of shoes and boots spilling out into the middle of the passageway. Further in, along one wall, were bookshelves crammed with double rows of books tilted at different angles. A basket of laundry had been left on the narrow stairs, out of which trailed a shirtsleeve and three rumpled socks making a bid for freedom.

Solly plunged past all this chaos and strode confidently into the kitchen beyond. Hei Lang followed, with Linua behind him, and Shin Won bringing up the rear.

The kitchen was just as bad, if not worse. Even before Pickle’s mother had started cooking in it, all available surfaces had been filled with cooking gadgets, cookery books, a jar full of coins, a cardboard box holding fruit, a fruit bowl filled with empty jam jars, packets of opened biscuits, a partially disassembled six-pack of cans of juice, tea mugs filled with cutlery, and a teetering pile of tea towels that threatened to slip onto the floor.

Pickle’s mother was as plump as Pickle. She wore spectacles and had mousy brown hair twisted into a bun, with a pen stuck through to keep it in place. She was standing at the stove, retrieving a large baking dish from of the oven which was filled with something that bubbled with cheese and steamed, instantly clouding her spectacles with fog.

“Oh great,” she said breathlessly as Linua and Solly came in. “You’re just in time. Take those plates, will you Solly?”

At that point she saw the Yi bodyguards and her mouth fell open.

“Gosh, I don’t know if I made enough to feed everybody,” she said, helplessly.

Hei Lang bowed politely.

“You are very kind, Mdm, but we are on duty and will not eat.”

“Oh. Will you take some tea then? Solly put the kettle on, there’s a dear.”

Solly hadn’t moved at any of these requests.

“Thank you, Mdm, we do not require tea.”

Linua stood up on her tip toes and peered around Hei Lang.

“What plates do you want us to take? And where?”

“You must be Linua.” Pickle’s mother beamed at her. “My name’s Eluina.”

Chaos ensued as the Hei Lang scouted the route ahead of Linua to make sure it didn’t contain any unexpected burglars, and Pickle’s mother tried to hand plates and cutlery and napkins to Linua and Solly, all in a small kitchen where the available floor space seemed to be mostly taken up by a kitchen table.

Pickle’s family did have a dining alcove—Linua went past it on her way into the garden—but the table there was groaning under stacks of paper and books, more cardboard boxes and, randomly, a vacuum cleaner. Linua felt a briefly overwhelming urge to go delving into the kitchen cupboards for a pair of rubber gloves and some cleaning cloths and sort the whole place out.

There was a third table in the small patch of grass that constituted the back garden. Linua dumped the plates and cutlery on it. Pickle was there, laying out placemats but, to Linua’s disappointment, there was no sign of Eret yet.

Eluina came out with the steaming tray, which she left on the table, next to a large bowl of salad.

“Just help yourselves,” she said. “Don’t wait, otherwise it will get cold. I’m sure the others will be here soon.”

And then there was Eret’s tall, reassuring form, smiling at her. She went up to him and he cast a quick, wary glance at the bodyguards, but she took his hand.

“Great-Grandfather Yi said it’s okay.”

Eret quirked an eyebrow, and she decided not to repeat any more of what Great-Grandfather Yi had actually said. Eret came and sat down beside her at the table, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

She nodded.

There was just one other guest to arrive.