Author's Notes: Hey everyone, glad you liked the last chapter, I hope that you enjoy this one as well, as always I own nothing.
Karl walked down the street, fighting the urge to pull out his hair in aggravation. His investigation was going nowhere. He had attempted to recreate his previous investigation, start with the first murder and work back from there. But it seemed that violent deaths were a good deal more common in the slums than among the nobility. There were a number of deaths in the district and while some were as brutal as the last one had been but there were many violent deaths in the area and not all of the brutal ones were as violent as the prostitute's had been and even those the others could be completely discounted.
With that avenue cloudy Karl decided to go about it another way. He would look and see if he could determine if anyone profited from all of these killings. With that in mind he had gone to speak with the man who had first brought him to the scene of the prostitute's murder. It seemed that while Pfeiffer did indeed hold mastery in this district he was not unchallenged. While most of those who opposed him simply tried to run operations without paying Pfeiffer his cut there were two who were actively trying to wrest control from him.
The first was Tilian everyone called Francesco. He was mostly involved in smuggling, gambling and prostitution, all areas which Pfeiffer operated. While there had been clashes between the two groups and acts of sabotage against each other's operations it had been awhile since there had been any serious confrontations. As a person Francesco was known to be aggressive and prone to fits of anger.
The other claimed to be Louise De Monten, an exiled Bretonian nobleman, though everyone just called him Louie behind his back. Despite his claims of nobility he was engaged in pretty much the same activities as the other two, though he was somewhat different in the way he went about it. It seemed that he preferred to stay on the edge of things and take advantage of openings caused by the other two fighting. Neither quite fit the image that Karl was forming in his mind.
The person that he was looking for would have to have a combination of cunning, willpower and ruthlessness. Ruthlessness to be willing to use a creature like a werewolf to do his dirty work. Cunning to use the werewolf to undermine Pfeiffer's control of the district. Finally, the mystery man would need willpower, a werewolf was a vicious and willful creature, as Karl knew full well. Such a creature would not serve just anyone, it would have to be someone will the strength and will to force the werewolf to submit to him and Karl did not think that either of Pfeiffer's competitors fit that description.
Francesco seemed to have the necessary ruthlessness but from his description it seemed he lacked the cunning to use the werewolf as anything but a blunt instrument. As for Louie, he seemed more likely to have the necessary cunning but was lacking in other ways. For all of his boasting the man seemed to be a rather cautious man, almost timid, unwilling to engage either of the other two directly. Karl doubted that such a man would have the strength to command a werewolf. Karl felt the urge to shake his head again, here was another problem.
Everything he knew about these men was second-hand information. This was nothing like his last investigation, he could not simply walk up to them and demand an interview with them. Well technically he could but the results would likely be bloody and not likely to reveal anything new. Somehow he had to be able to uncover new information on the two of them and see if he could prove their guilt and use them to lead him to the other werewolf or disprove their involvement and begin searching for alternative leads.
With that in mind he decided to investigate them in their own territory. He decided to begin with Francesco. The man operated his organization out of a tavern, the Sword and Musket, just beyond the contested territory. Shortly after dark Karl went there and mingled with the crowd of workmen going there after work.
It was a crowded, the air thick with smoke and the smell of alcohol and unwashed bodies, it wreaked havoc with Karl's nose but he forced himself to ignore it. Francesco operated from a private room upstairs, which Karl could see that was guarded, making it impossible for him to just go in, fortunately it seemed that the man often came down to deal with others. Karl had been there for about an hour when the man himself came down.
He was a man of medium height with a wiry build and a dark complexion. He was surrounded by a number of heavily muscled bruisers, all armed and looking as if they were not at all adverse to a bit of violence, though as far as Karl could tell they were nothing more than ordinary men. Francesco took a spot at the bar, which was quickly vacated by those occupying it when they saw him approach. Though he laughed loudly and ordered free drinks for people it was evident that all the people present were afraid of him. This was further confirmed when the beggars began to arrive to give him his percentage of their take to one of his men. Everything was going smoothly till a small boy, no more than ten, came up.
"What?!" Francesco's man bellowed looking at the coins; his tone was one of surprised outrage. "Is this all!?" The child, visibly trembling, meekly nodded. The man grabbed the boy by the arm and dragged him over to Francesco.
"Look at this boss!" The man yelled, slamming the few coins the boy had presented on the table. Francesco looked at them, a glare on his face, and then turned to look at the boy.
"Rat, am I not kind to you and the others?" He said in a calm voice.
"Yes sir." The boy said in a tone barely above a whisper, he seemed close to tears.
"Do I not protect you from all the nasty men around here who would love nothing more than to hurt little children like you?" The boy could only not, his face fixed firmly on the ground. "And for all this I ask barely a pittance from you and yours don't I?"
"Yes sir."
"AND THIS," Francesco's voice going to a roar; "IS HOW YOU REPAY MY KINDNESS?! WITH A HANDFULL OF COPPERS THAT WOULD BARELY BUY ONE DRINK!" He suddenly jumped from his seat and lashed out at the boy with leather strap, striking him hard enough to draw blood. His man released the boy and the child fell to the ground screaming. This seemed to enrage Francesco further as he fell on the boy striking him again and again while all the while screaming at him to shut up.
Karl felt the rage flare up inside him and he was just getting reading to move in when Francesco finally stopped. Panting he told the child to shut up and get out and warned the boy to be sure to bring back more next time or he would get more of the same. Karl rose and slipped from the tavern, convinced that Francesco was not his man. The man was brutal and unimaginative, if he had command of the werewolf he would have sent it directly after Pfeiffer, not use it to undermine him in such a subtle manner. He decided to investigate De Monten.
The supposed nobleman also held court at a tavern, the rather grandly named Golden Crown, a name De Monten had apparently given it after he acquired it. As he entered Karl's eyes were drawn to the back of the room. A wooden dais had been erected and a chair set on it like a throne, though a closer look reveled it to be an old chair with worn and faded fabrics and padding coming out of worn stitching. Clearly it had been salvaged from somewhere but Karl was more interested in the man who was sitting on it.
De Monten was a short man running to fat, with thinning gray hair. He wore clothing which had been fine once but were now old, worn, stained and had been mended several times. At his side he wore rapier in a worn scabbard on a belt of worn leather. In his hand he had had a brass goblet, polished to make it look like gold. Beside his chair was a woman in a faded dress who poured him wine when he held out his goblet to her. Flanking his chair were two rough looking men. Throughout the evening whenever someone wished to speak with De Monten they had to approach and bow before he would acknowledge them and when he spoke he would always use 'we' instead of 'I' people seemed to find it rather silly, Karl saw more than one smirk from the patrons around the room, but it seemed that they were all willing to play along with it. Karl had a meal there and then departed, it was clear that De Monten was probably not the one Karl was looking for.
While he did not think that De Monten was mad the man was clearly delusional, putting on an act of nobility in faded trappings, the man was either delusional or putting on an act. Either way, Karl did not believe that the man possessed the strength of will needed to command a werewolf. If he tried the only result would likely him being eaten. So it seemed that, unless he was misreading something, neither of his suspects fit the image that he had created in his mind. He would have to reevaluate his fact and begin again.
Author's Notes: Hey everyone, I hope that you liked this chapter. So what do you think that is going on? Let me know in the reviews. Till next time, please pray for the woman sentenced to death in Pakistan and all others who need prayer. Bye and may Jesus bless you.