Swordplay

Part 26

Author Note: I'm really sorry for the long break in posting. I've been quite ill, barly managing with the daily amount of work (food on the table, laundry, emails). I think I'm back on track now, but there might be a delay or two while I try to catch up with everythign I usually do.

I've posted more than half the novel now. The question is, do you want me to continue? Or should I start posting something shorter? I will take this story down when I stop posting because I'm going to Indie publish it. I'd love to get a review from you on amazon if that's possible. I will post a reminder then.

Please recommend my story to your friends regardless whether they're on Wattpad or not. Thank you. Cat

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A few minutes later, they stopped in front of a single storey house with a well-kempt but small front garden. Patrol carpistos had been parked in a way they blocked the brightly lit stone path to the entrance. The pattern of a protective spell glittered over the lawn.

Druidus swallowed and got out. "The Ramasseurs are living here. Mother once worked for Monsieur and tried to force his daughter on me."

Moira found he looked pale. She followed him and Sabio who wove past the carpistos and walked into the house.

At the door, Druidus stopped. "You should probably not come along. It's no view for sensitive people."

Anger rose in Moira. Did Druidus think she didn't have it in her too? She looked into his eyes to give him a piece of her mind and recognized the worry in his gaze. Her anger evaporated. "That's fine. This time, it's no one I meant to take on a date," she said.

Sabio pulled Druidus along. "Let her. She has proven more than once that she can observe under pressure. She will cope with the rest."

They walked along a hallway that swarmed with gendarmes. Trough a door leading to the kitchen, Moira saw Semra talk soothingly to a young girl with a black dress, white pinafore, and bonnet. In the dining room, Buds was just spreading a stasis spell. He frowned when he saw her. Moira hurried to catch up with Druidus and Sabio who had entered the generous living room. Near the big double doors, she stopped since she didn't want to destroy the stasis spell in the room. Its pattern of blue and yellow threads contrasted nicely with the dark wooden floor. Sabio bent over an unmoving figure and lifted a blanket that someone had spread over it.

"Are the picture done?"

One of the gendarmes nodded. "Also, Doc has released the bodies."

"Great. Take them to the lab." Sabio crouched and examined the ground around the victim while Druidus walked over to the parlebol, activated the display of connections and noted the numbers.

Moira longed to help but as long as the stasis spell hadn't been lifted, she didn't dare to enter the room. Under no circumstances did she want to destroy evidence. Impatiently, she waited for the investigation of the crime scene to be over. She concentrated on the pattern of blood splashes on the ground, the wall, and the ceiling. Gendarmes hurried past her, and one or the other glanced at her questioningly.

Only Buds stopped and grinned. "I noticed, you learned form your mistakes."