29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Xiao Shu
Ihave seen a number of prisons in my time. It’s one of the aspects of being a traveling investigator, even of supernatural crimes. You get to see a lot of prisons.
Because even though spirits lack a soul like us elves, many of them still bear the appearance of elves and it can be hard to distinguish them from us.
To avoid killing an innocent, unless a spirit is caught in the act, usually I have to imprison them and interrogate them until they confess or reveal that they are a spirit.
With the governor’s wife in the mix, it’s a bit trickier. It always is when officials are involved.
Still, no one can complain about the quality of this prison. I can see Gao Liying’s handiwork in this. She may be the general in charge of the troops stationed here, but since we are in a time of peace that leaves her more as a glorified guard captain than actual general.
She has always been a very neat and tidy person. With her everything has its role and works in its order. It likely came about from growing up in a military family. However, it is testament to Liying’s honor that she would take the time to ensure the neatness and order for even prisoners.
This prison doesn’t even carry the same stink as others I have witnessed, although it doesn’t seem to escape the dankness of being underground.
Liying is a few steps ahead of me, as she descends into the prison.
Torches are evenly spaced, allowing a flickering light even as we go deeper down.
Quanyu is a few paces behind me. As always, he is my partner in investigating as well as smuggling.
Oddly enough Fanqing insisted on joining us.
She looks completely out of place in her scarlet red hanfu, her hair piled elaborately on her head. Not a strand out of place.
Such beauty has no place being here in this prison, but Fanqing is now also my partner in investigating so I’m just going to have to get used to seeing her in places like this.
Liying doesn’t turn her head even once as she leads us through the prison, lined with neat barred off cells.
Finally, she stops at the inhabited one.
A chair is situated in the center right in the small beam of light shining through the narrow window near the ceiling.
Sitting in it, daintily and primly is the governor’s wife.
Her maid is busy in the room, making it comfortable for the lady before she leaves.
The governor’s wife folds her hands in her lap as we approach and holds my gaze.
She is calmer than most prisoners are. That doesn’t mean she is innocent though.
I have witnessed killers so vicious that they don’t even blink an eye at killing, believing that they have done nothing wrong.
“I have nothing to confess,” she says holding her chin up. “I have committed no crime.”
I fold my arms, widening my stance as I stare her down, looking for some crack in her composure. “And how do you explain the maid found dead in your rooms?”
She blinks once, slowly. “I don’t know how she got there. I was at the banquet with all of you.”
“The coroner placed her time of death at before the banquet even began. So, you could have always killed her before then and then attended the banquet.”
She lifts her chin. “And how could I have been capable of that. Look at me, Lord Xiao, do I bear the physique of a killer?”
The second lady is quite thin, she indeed doesn’t look capable of it, but fox spirits are shapeshifters. Appearances cannot be trusted when they are involved.
“Besides,” she continues. “It would be a simple manner to kill the maid and bring her into my room to frame me. You cannot just assume that I killed her because of her location.”
There was a lack of blood at the crime scene, which would imply that the maid was indeed killed somewhere else and brought there.
Especially with something so gruesome as a liver being eaten, there would have been a mess where she died.
However, that doesn’t immediately rule out the second lady, since she could have killed the girl and someone could have come too close and she panicked and took her to her rooms to hide her before disposing of the body.
Still, as the second lady of the house, she would have had any number of rooms available to hide her in. It doesn’t seem right that she would put it in her own rooms.
And in my time as an investigator, I have learned to trust my gut. “Do you have any enemies? Someone who might have a reason to frame you?”
“It must be that Ji Nimei. She is the one who started those rumors that I am a liver stealing demon.” She sniffs as she tightens her hands around the edges of her skirts.
“But I didn’t know that she hated me this much.
I always thought that we got along well, but she must have been consumed by jealousy over me and was simply biding her time to act. ”
Ji Nimei, that’s the governor’s first wife. That would make things even more complicated. I can’t exactly go around accusing both his wives of being spirits without proof.
“Do you have any proof?” Quanyu demands, obviously thinking along the same lines I am.
The second lady waves her hand emphatically. “She’s the one who started these ridiculous rumors. Who else could it have been?”
That’s hardly a reason to lock up another of the governor’s wives. I need to be careful here or else he will write a missive to the emperor complaining about me and I’m going to get summoned and have to explain myself and then it will be politics, politics, and more politics.
I hate politics.
Can’t people just leave me alone as I try to stop spirits from killing all of them?
The greatest roadblock in my investigating is never the spirits… it’s the elves around me who think they know best.
I purse my lips as I step back. It’s just as I suspected, my work is far from done.
Now I need to find the area where the girl was killed and try to defer any evidence from that.
If I can find some bloodstained clothes or other evidence that could tie it back to the second lady, then I could finally close the case.
But until then I still need to do investigative heavy lifting.
First, I should see if the coroner has any further details about the maid’s death.
Then I can speak with possible witnesses and anyone who could have known the maid.
One dead body does not a guilty person make. Especially since anyone could have moved it into that room while we were attending the banquet.
I turn to Liying as I release a sigh. “Please make certain she remains comfortable.”
I turn to go but pause as I take in Fanqing standing there. Her eyes are locked on the second lady as if waiting for her to do something. A small furrow has formed between her brows as she stares at her.
“Fanqing?” I ask softly, wondering what she is thinking.
She quickly blinks and puts on a smile as she turns to me. However, that doesn’t quite mask the worry I see in her eyes.
“Is everything all right?”
“Of course,” she responds brightly. A bit too brightly, especially considering how much work I have ahead of me.