Here it is...the last segment! Sorry it took so long to update, my family went on vaction and we only just got back yesterday!
Thank you to Mrs. Dom Masbolle and FreakishlyObsessedVampyreGi...(your name was so long, the review thing cut it off)!!!
Enjoy!
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The Testimony of Trainee Guardswoman Beka Cooper
Given Thursday, May 14, 246 H.E.
Special Eclipse Session of the Lord Magistrate's Court
Corus, Tortall
"Well, um, as you know, I started my practical training as a Provost's Dog near a month and a half ago. I was lucky enough to assigned to Goodwin and Tunstall here. Anyway, um, it was right around then that my friend Tansy's little boy Rolond was kidnapped and killed. Not a good many people cared too much though. See Tansy had married Herun Lofts, Crookshank's grandson, so Rolond was his great-grandson. Of course, nobody much liked Crookshank, so they were just all glad he was getting his comeuppance. I cared though. I saw Tansy soon after I became a Puppy. She gave me a very sparkly stone, saying that she got it the day before Rolond was took and it was an ill omen.
"The next day we went to the court of the Rouge to fetch the weekly happy bag takings. When we were there, Crookshank came storming in yelling at the King of the Rouge. He said that the Rouge could not hide behind notes and the Rouge's 'Shadow Snake' had murdered Rolond. As if that were not puzzling enough, a little bag fell out of Crookshank's pocket and I picked it up. Inside were many more stones, just like the one Tansy gave me. We had them looked at by a mage, and he said that they were fire opals. How Crookshank had come across them, we had no idea.
"The next day or so, one of my Dust Spinners told me of nine murders (they live on corners and pick up talk, as well as dust, see. I have magic that lets me go inside 'em and listen to all that talk they pick up). The murders had been done all near the same time, and none of the killers had spoken a word. We decided to keep an eye out for any information about them. I was listening to the pigeons a few days later (pigeons carry the ghosts of the dead for a time and I can hear the ghosts with my magic), when I heard the ghosts of the murdered folk talking. There were nine in all. They had been hired to dig 'shiny stones' and told not to talk. When they were done, they were killed. I thought they were talking about the fire opals, and I was determined to find out who had hired them. I told Goodwin and Tunstall all I found out.
"Around this time I also told my friend, Ersken, who's also a Dog in training, about the Shadow Snake. Now we had four people looking for him. Later that day, Crookshank's house caught on fire right when Tunstall, Goodwin and I were passing. We went inside to help get people out, but Goodwin and I also searched Crookshank's rooms. We found the notes from the Shadow Snake. They were writ in ash, with a picture of a snake on them. They said that Crookshank had more blood to lose and they made me worried. I told my Birdies to look out for information on the Shadow Snake, and also the diggers too.
"One of my Birdies found out who many of the Snakes victims were. She and I went to see them all. We asked what had happened and what had been asked for. The Snake had asked for all manors of things, from mere money, to a lily pendent necklace to a ruby pendulum. I made a map, hung on the wall of my room, and stuck colored pins on for every Snake victim, looking for a pattern. Then Tansy's husband, Herun, was took. It made me want to find the Snake even more.
"I began to suspect Yates Noll. His mother, Mistress Noll, owned and ran a bakery and had stalls in both Night and Day Markets. I'd seen him being downright nasty to his sister, and his friends were thieves. He worked in his mother's stalls, and all of the kidnappings happened around the Markets. The biggest thing, though, was I that saw Mistress Noll wearing the same lily pendent as was described to me by a Shadow Snake victim. When my Dogs and I looked into him, he went into hiding. I put my Birdies to looking for him.
"In the mean time, we had found a lead on the diggers. One of the pigeon ghosts had talked about a guard named Jens. We heard of a Jens who was employed by Crookshank. It all fit. My Dogs and I, and some other Dogs too, were set to tail him. When we saw him and some other hard folk go into a boarded up building, we raided it. We had struck gold, or fire opals. In the building were eight diggers, all mining fire opals in the basement with Crookshank's guards keeping watch. We let the diggers go and arrested the guards. We figured with their testimony, we could go after Crookshank.
"There was a riot the next day (word came later the Crookshank had been killed in it, but we didn't know until after). We were waiting to see if we were needed, when one of my Birdies came and told us he had word of where Yates Noll was hiding out. He said they were in Sheepmire Tavern. We went straight there and raided their hideout. They had been keeping Herun Lofts tied up with them. We arrested Yates' three friends, but when we went to arrest him, he confessed that he was the Shadow Snake, and then killed himself. While my Dogs took the prisoners to Jane Street Kennel, I went to tell Mistress Noll that her son was dead.
"When
I got there Mistress Noll was shouting at her daughter. She was
still wearing that lily pendent. An inkling popped into my head.
After telling her that Yates was dead, I hinted that I thought that
she was the
Snake. She confessed. When I tried to arrest her, she attacked me,
but I got her down here, to Jane Street. And, um, that's it.
That's how the whole thing went."
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Well, hope you liked it!! You know what to do next!!! ;)
