CHAPTER 7
Even though he didn't like that, Shim and Krey went separate ways as Vivienne had told them, so to be more inconspicuous.
The room seemed to contain every kind of people. It was hard to say who they were, the hoods left very little to be seen, but sometimes it was possible to at least figure out what they were, and Shim was amazed by the sheer variety of races gathered in that place.
After the first, intense initial ritual, it seemed like the gathering had morphed into a kind of theme party, albeit a quite macabre one. The participants had split into small groups who were talking quietly between them. The detective was able to slip into some of those, nonchalantly starting to talk about the heartless victim found. No one asked him who he was, just like he had been told, neither did he.
All the people he talked to seemed to agree on the fact that such behavior from a necromancer was to be deprecated, that it was going to throw mud on the whole category. They shared a wide range of remarks going from the politely annoyed to the explicitly colorful. None but a few, however, seemed to know anything of the subject, even just for having heard anything in passing. Which was more or less what Shim had expected. It was already too much for him that Vivienne was so well informed, if he had ended up discovering that anyone in there knew all the details, he would have had a fit of rage, and he would have had an internal investigation in the department started first thing in the morning, in order to find out how come information had leaked from there. In the current situation, only someone who was heavily involved in the facts could have been so well informed, which kept undermining the already scarce trust Shim had in the woman who had brought him there.
The few information he was able to gather, over a period of time he found incredibly long and fruitless, concerned a certain Wilton Grange, who many had defined a ruthless and amoral man – description that from Shim’s point of view fitted almost any necromancer – who wouldn't hesitate to make such a show of his power. The same people, though, said he had never been that powerful.
Shim decided it was still worth paying him a visit, fighting all the time against the impulse to just ask if he happened to be there.
He used his communication crystal to inform Krey that he was leaving and tell him to meet him at the door. He was about to shed the cloak and go out when Vivienne suddenly appeared in front of him as if she had always been there and somehow he hadn't noticed her till then.
«Did you find out anything detective?» she asked sweetly.
«Maybe», he replied drily.
«I am glad to hear that. I suppose you would be wanting to go and find Grange.»
This time Shim didn't even try to look surprised. «You knew they would mention him to me, didn't you?»
«You credit me with too many abilities I do not possess, detective. I have simply supposed that they had mentioned it to you the same way they mentioned it to me this very night. Personally I have never had the dubious pleasure to meet him, but I have come to know the place in which he resides, and it might pleasure you to know that it is not very afar from here.»
«Fine, then tell me where it is and we will part.»
«You are not thinking of going there alone?»
«I'm not alone. And that's none of your concern anyway.»
«It is true, it is no concern of mine if tomorrow someone will find your body without the heart inside. Nonetheless I would consider that unpleasant, not to say useless for our scopes.»
«Yours and who else’s?»
«Yours, of course, detective. We might have different motives, but we both aim to achieve the same result.»
This, Shim thought, was yet to be proved.
«I will lead you to his mansion, then you will proceed on your own if so you will wish.»
The dwarf shrugged. He didn't think he could prevent her from leading them anyway, and he didn't want to waste any time trying.
The house of Wilton Grange, or the place Vivienne indicated as such, ended up being quite near indeed. It was in a fairly secluded neighborhood, made up by short buildings which had done their best to resist the fury of the hurricane which had swept the city a few days ago, and found out their best just wasn't enough. None of them had really suffered serious structural damages, but all had been damaged and needed at least a bit of maintenance, at best.
The one to which the woman led the two agents was a small villa facing the street. No light came from the bare windows, it looked deserted.
Vivienne advanced to the door, she put the palm of one hand against it and slightly tilted her neck backwards, as if to follow a strange smell no one else could perceive.
«I believe that you should go inside», she said.
«We should come back tomorrow», Shim replied. «It would already be a problem to wake someone up in the middle of the night just because some people I don't know didn't talk well about him... breaking in is out of the question.»
«Maybe... we should go in». Krey had approached one of the windows while the other two were talking, and had tried to look inside, unhindered by the utter lack of light in the building.
Shim gave him a quizzical look.
«There are bodies inside», the dark elf explained.
«Let's go in! Call the central, have them send reinforcements». He hadn't even finished talking when he started running toward the door. Just one hit with his shoulder was enough for it to open and hit the wall. Shim took a small crystal obelisk from a pocket and it immediately started glowing a bright white light, lighting the room. It was square, unfurnished, with the exception of an old table against one wall, and in each of the four corners there was a human body. The rotting stench left little doubts concerning the health of those poor people.
Krey entered in turn, right after wearing sunshades to shield his eyes from the light. Vivienne stood on the door for a little while, apparently unsure. She held one hand in front of her, just like she had done before, and moved it carefully, as if waiting for something to stop her. Her hand went all the way through the door, and she followed with a graceful movement and a surprised look on her face.
«No one inhabits this place», she said in a whisper.
«What does that mean?» Shim asked, but instead of Vivienne's answer he heard Krey's voice.
«Something's wrong, no one is answering at the central.»
Right then, the corpses in the corners started to stand up slowly.
Somewhere a bell was tolling its twelfth toll.