Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 176 - Dexter and Tanith: Turned Detective

Chapter 176

They found a hairdresser on the way to Crasis' house. He lived way out on the outskirts and they had to get Fletcher to take them over that way and then get a taxi, but that far out they were able to find someone decent with time available for her, at least. It only took half an hour, but it did look a lot better. It was just very... boyish. She'd always had such feminine hair, always mid-shoulder blade or longer except when it had been ruined by a criminal. And very suddenly it was short. She was encouraged, between Tanith and the hairdresser, to get an undercut. There was no other hope for her anyway, the burning had gone up the hair to almost the skin, so if it wasn't cut out it would fall out likely the next time she showered anyway. So she was left with an undercut.

The bits on top were long enough to sort of flop – her hair was very straight and flat like Gordon's so it really was just a sort of flop, there was no other way to describe it – but not long enough to tie back. However, since the damage was mostly at the back, the top still had enough hair to be left down with a side parting to give her a very androgynous bob-like cut, or be tied back in a man-bun. Neither looked right on her, she hated the whole thing, and she wanted to cry, but at least it looked intentional. That was what she told to herself as she pretended to love it for the stressed-out hairdresser's wellbeing, who believed she'd accidentally set herself on fire with a sparkler.

The one thing that had make it better was the hairdresser had called over the barber from the other side of the shop and he'd put some mousse in it and now it was sort of messy and that did look good. The only issue there was that any time she got into a fight it was going to get ruined, and she actually had to upkeep it, and honestly, she still kind of hated it, but it was better than it was. She still hadn't told Nadia.

Dexter had to ask around a lot and pull more than one personal favour to get the address of Crasis, who they found out had married a mortal and wasn't using magic anymore. That had shocked Valkyrie, but in the last half hour of their taxi ride, she supposed she understood. If Nadia suddenly lost her magic and was going to age and die a mortal death... she'd probably give up her magic to be with her. She'd rather live and die with the woman she loved than live on hundreds of years without her. That just made her heart ache for Skulduggery. To lose a wife, a person so loved, would kill her. To lose a future baby she could have with Nadia – she took a deep breath and shook that thought away. She wouldn't think of that. She had to focus on Ryan and then go crying to Nadia tomorrow morning when the mess of New Years was officially over.

"I should warn you," Dexter said as they watched the taxi drive off where it had dropped them off right outside Crasis' house. "The Dead Men didn't really get on with Crasis in the war."

"What does that mean?" Tanith asked.

"It means Skulduggery and Crasis butted heads a lot," Dexter told them. "Crasis wanted to be involved in tactics more since we used a lot of his time and effort in our plans, but Skulduggery never liked his ideas and since Skulduggery was making plans on behalf of the Dead Men in those instances and it didn't involve anyone other than us, he always got his way. And Crasis never really liked us a whole lot for it."

"Ah, no one likes Skulduggery," Valkyrie said with a shrug. "We only want to know what he did. I doubt he doesn't want help if Mercy forced him into anything anyway."

"What's the Dead Men?" Ryan asked her when Dexter went and knocked on Crasis' door.

"It's a group of people that did very difficult missions in a war you don't know about," she said and pushed him towards the door.

When Robert Crasis opened the door, he looked at Dexter and his jaw clenched. His eyes flicked over Valkyrie and Tanith while Ryan stayed out of the way. "Can I help you?" He asked them.