Only Darkness Lies

Chapter 17

Elvira woke up early the next day and after having breakfast in the inn she continued her journey to Tinpole.

Tinpole was still far and according to the man she met in the tea shop the day before it would still take her one more day to finally reach there.

She wanted to reach there as soon as she could because she was sure that it would take her some time to find the murderers.

She rode her horse at a high speed, taking short rests in between. By the time it got dark she was able to cover more than half of the remaining journey.

The nearer she got to Tinpole, the more anxious she got. All this time, it was her goal to reach there and find the murderers.

She spent that night in an inn. Tinpole was not that far now.

She continued her journey the next day, and reached Tinpole by the afternoon.

Finally, she was there, so close to finding the murderers. Though she was tired from all the journey it could not stop her from searching for them.

As soon as she got there, she began her search. She asked the people about them, showing them the portraits she had brought with her but to no avail. It seemed as if no one ever saw them.

Could it be that I missed my chance and they got away or am I asking the wrong person?

Well, whichever it may be, she could not give up this easily. She hoped to find someone who can tell her about their whereabouts. 

Now, her main objective was to find an individual who can tell her about the murderers. But it was easier said than done. Tinpole was a big village, with a big population, almost like a town, it was already proving hard for her to find the particular individual. 

But what if she doesn't find them here?
Elvira could think of two possibilities, either they belonged from Tinpole or they move from one place to another.

If it was the first, then it would be easier for her to track them, but if it was the latter, then she would have a hard time finding them and she might end up chasing after them for years.

While she was going around Tinpole, a notice caught her eye. It was a notice to inform the agricultural workers about a rendezvous to discuss important topics.  She was lucky as the date and time were also mentioned. It was taking place the same day infact that very moment.

Elvira's hopes went high, maybe she could find that particular person there, whom she has been looking for to retrieve the required information.

She hurried to the location but there were not many people. She was late. Most of them had already left the spot after their meeting.

She asked the few people present there about the murderers but no one could recognise a single one of them.

Elvira's heart sank, she was so exhausted from going around Tinpole but it was proving to be a waste of  her time.

It started to get dark and since she would have to continue her search the next day, she thought it would be best for her to get some sleep.

She tried to find an inn in the area around her. While she was looking for one, a hack driver stopped by the road. She hailed the hack to go to the nearest inn.

On their way she thought to ask him about the murderers.

"I am looking for them. Have you seen them around here?"
"Yes", he replied after taking a closer look at the portraits.

She found him, the person she needed, one she has been searching for all day.

She asked him about their whereabouts.
"They hailed my hack to go to Zine." He said.
"Zine?"
"It's a shop in the country side, not so far from here."

Elvira wanted to go there right at the moment but her body needed rest. She planned to go there the next day and persuaded him to take her to Zine by offering to pay more money for his service. Though she could have saved money by taking a different hack the next day. She had an intuition that this one have more information that she could benefit from.