Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 99 - Tracking

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

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Chapter 99

Seeing the carcass of Signate hadn't been fun for Valkyrie. Wolf had held her when she'd stood there still, just looking at it, and helped her walk again, walk all the way to Pa and be enveloped in another hug from him. She'd snapped out of it when he was halfway through scolding Wolf for letting her see the body but could only smile apologetically. There was no stopping Pa.

Corrival had gone off, seen the carcass and come back with a little sweat on his brow.

"It doesn't get easier," he muttered and sat in his chair. He gave Valkyrie a soft smile and leaned back with his arms crossed. "Don't you worry now. You're a strong girl, strong enough to keep up. You want to run with the big dog, you've got to see the big dog problems. This is our world, see."

She nodded and they waited in silence for Crow to join them. He took off his hat and placed it on the desk. "Signate's been dead for a lot longer than we predicted."

"He was almost a – a hull," she said softly, thinking of the dry, dead thing in their office.

He looked at her. "What does that tell us about the murder?"

"Well, it eliminates him having drowned, I guess. It also indicates he was killed in a dry place for his body to look like that. It's probably from age rather than anything else," she said, her detective head coming back.

"That's true. I expect he was left in a hot place with minimal humidity," Crow said. "Where would that be?"

"I don't know," she thought aloud. "Somewhere they have a fire constantly? It could also be magic, though I don't know what type."

"True. We'll get back to that point. When I examined the body, I found a knife wound, something with a jagged blade that ripped the skin when it was pulled out. It means the killer may still have the knife."

"That makes it easier," she said.

"Exactly. I have some people looking over security footage so we might find something out soon," he said. "But we also have something else to worry about."

"What?" She frowned.

"Solomon isn't picking up his phone. He wasn't meant to go home yet," he said darkly and Valkyrie's eyes widened a little.

"They took Raven?" She whispered. "We need to see that footage."

"The staff will check, lass," Pa said, closing his eyes and putting a hand up. She sat fully back in her chair. Funny how he had trained her without her noticing. All the cakes he made her bake had acted as positive rewards it seemed. "You cannot over exhaust yourself. I will make sure all the fact are as the staff says they are, you, Pleasant and Vex should get some rest. I'll be sending you out as soon as I know what's happened."

They couldn't argue with him, just got themselves together and got going, driving home silently and wondering how they had gone from having a nice morning to having insane prisoners, dead bodies and a missing member of family. At least they had Pa to sort them out.