Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 27 - The Teleporter Murders

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

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Chapter 27

Valkyrie and Crow entered the mages house carefully, looking at the walls and floor, the furniture and corpse lying face down on the carpet. Valkyrie looked over it quickly, seeing the knife in the back and look of slack shock. There was nothing broken or ruined in the house. Not even a teacup out of place. The dead man's wallet and keys were on the entrance hall table. Nothing stolen.

"He was taken by surprise," Valkyrie said.

Skulduggery got the rainbow dust out of his pocket and sprinkled a little over the room. No colours came up. "No magic. What could all this mean, Cub?"

"Light could have trusted his killer, or the killer could be skilled, quiet," she said quietly, looking at the many pictures on the walls of friends, loved ones. He'd enjoyed having photos it seemed. It was almost creepy to have the life and vibrancy on the walls when the owner was dead on the floor.

Mr Bliss came into the room. "The other detective is nearby."

He was referring to Detective Crux, a nasty little man employed as Second Detective by Elder Guild, topped only by Skulduggery who was First and Head Detective, making Crow not only the most accomplished detective in the country but also in charge of the department at the Sanctuary by default, although ninety-eight percent of the running was left to other people.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to find enough wrongdoings by Crux to fire him yet. "Why, Mr Bliss, it sounds like you don't like him. Is it that you found emotions in your hollow heart?" Valkyrie smirked at him.

He had no reaction except to look at her blankly. She wasn't sure if he hated her or was indifferent, but she knew he would do nothing to her since she was with the Dead Men, possibly the only force he wouldn't take on directly. It was incredibly amusing to Valkyrie after she'd gotten over her beginning intimidation of him, and she had taken all of her teasing she used to give to Meritorious and now threw it in Mr Bliss' face. He didn't say anything for a long, long moment, enough for Crow to come up beside her and rest a hand on her shoulder. "Can you send him away?" Crow asked.

"I will try," Mr Bliss said, then left the room. Moments later, Valkyrie and Crow watched as Mr Bliss walked to a Sanctuary car, get in and was driven away.

"I think he hates me."

"Strange, that," Crow said lightly, shaking his head. "Come on, we need to meet the Elders."

They got in the Bentley just as Crux pulled up in an old, battered Ford. He glared and sneered at them as he got out his car. Valkyrie waved at him with a fake smile.

"I hate him," she said through the smile, looking at him as they drove past. She dropped the act when he was gone. "Like, really hate him."

"I'm sure you'll survive. You can tell that talisman all about it."

He referred to her 'Hate' talisman, which she was meant to tell all about the people she hated in hopes she'd stop hating so many people. So far it wasn't working. If anything, she'd become more aware of quite how many people she hated, and it was a lot. She'd gotten it last week for her fourteenth birthday from Crow. She'd gotten a lot of presents, as per usual, but the day itself had been spent with Nadia and she'd enjoy it a lot, going out to the movies and to get dinner, and it had doubled as their unofficial year anniversary. Unofficial as they technically started dating a few months after they met, but it was more fun to say they'd been dating from the start so it was now her birthday. It wasn't too far from the truth to be a lie, they had only been seeing and talking to each other since they met so it was all very within reason.