Post by Deleted on May 19, 2023 10:55:34 GMT -5
“I wish we'd just followed him, he could have led us right to the source, but..."
But they couldn’t have known, could they, that Whitby had been a part of something bigger than himself or that he might have led them right to the people they had now set their sights upon. At the time, he’d just been a murderer with an odd tea collection and some senseless notes.
When Woodwick asked after the coin pouch, Ber nodded, then listened to the theories the lieutenant proposed. Personally, the younger man doubted that Whitby’s employers wanted proof of the dead man’s activities as much as monetary compensation for what they’d already lost. At the very least, it wasn’t like they could take back the decision to kill him. Whitby, on the other hand, had probably planned to keep the money for himself - it wasn’t as if the same thought hadn’t flickered across Ber’s mind, too.
The captain moved on to discussing Whitby’s comment about the captain before answering Ber’s question about the changing nature of crime in Skia. To the former, the soldier asked, “Thom didn’t happen to include the names of any of the ships they were using, did he?” Already, he had a suspicion of what Woodwick would want them to do next, and he imagined a long night spent lurking in the docks – or worse, on the ships themselves – with no small amount of dismay. To the answer to his question, Ber silently nodded, glancing back in time to see the other man shaking out his hand.
Woodwick’s return inquiry had Ber narrowing his eyes thoughtfully as he worked to recall that particular part of the interrogation. When he did, the soldier blinked at the captain; it hadn’t struck him as odd at all. “I asked him where they found the ingredients for some of the potions Long was selling, since some of them are hard to find,” He replied, lightly tapping the tips of his fingers together where his hands rested in his lap. “He laughed again, I think, then said that they weren’t that hard to find at all. That they were just wandering around if you knew where to look.”
After casting a glance at Woodwick, only to see that he still seemed uncomprehending despite the recitation, the younger man waited another heartbeat before explaining, matter of fact: “He means people, sir.” People like Ber – or rather, like Ber had been. He liked to think that, as a soldier trained to fight, he posed too much of a threat to target now. Even before he met Temperance, he had known that a handful of potions required body parts. “Kids that have no one to look out for them. People that have no money, no home, and no job. There’s so many that no one will notice if one goes missing.” Or, more likely, that when someone noticed, no one would care. After all, what was a missing street rat but one less mouth to feed?
The grim acknowledgement settled for a moment before leading to a secondary realization. “If they’re kidnapping people, they’ll need a place to keep them, at least temporarily. Somewhere private, where no one will hear any screaming and no one could escape.” He looked back at Woodwick. “Do you think— Could they be using a ship for that?”