I glanced down at the plate before me. Sausages, not dissimilar looking to those I was used to eating, strips of crispy meat which I assumed was the aforementioned bacon, some sort of egg that had been fried, the yolk still runny, and a small sweet cake which appeared to have fruit in it. I examined it a little closer. Dried fenmore berries.
“Would you like mine?” I asked, turning to proffer it to Kelly before realizing just how intimate that felt.
“If you’re sure,” he replied, taking it from me, our fingers brushing as he did so. Electricity sparked and he pulled his hand back quickly, taking the cake with him.
“Thanks,” I said, trying to act normal. “I hate fenmore berries. My brother loves them, though.” I picked up the fork and began eating the eggs.
“I’ll eat anything with them in for you while you’re here then.”
“Deal,” I replied after swallowing a mouthful. The eggs were a bit saltier than I expected, but when I tasted the bacon, I realized why. The eggs had likely been cooked in the same pan and this meat was salt cured. It also tasted like ambrosia. I could sit here happily eating nothing but bacon all night, I decided. It was definitely a product I would mention to my House to consider for trade.
A strangled sound came from Kelly and when my eyes flicked over to him, I discovered he was looking at my mouth intently, almost as if he wanted to eat me instead of what was on his plate.
“Do you have to make those sounds?” he whispered.
I wanted to crawl and hide under the table right there, suddenly aware that I must have been making some filthy sounding noises of delight as I ate.
“Sorry,” I muttered and began attacking the sausage, careful to not let a sound emerge.
Mal chuckled as he bustled about the kitchen. “I see why he gave you two a warnin’.”
Were we that obvious? I needed to take care. I couldn’t risk getting sent back for unprofessional behavior before catching my Prey. It would be the end of my career. My first and last case, done and dusted. I couldn’t bear the shame if that happened. I decided to change the subject, make good use of the camaraderie currently in play.
“So, how long has Roe been smoking?” I asked.
“You gonna arrest him?” Mal asked, sounding cautious.
“For using? That depends,” Kelly replied. “If he’s only procuring minute amounts through a contact for a little excitement every now and then, then no. Just seemed funny to see such a straight-laced guy in such a high position being naughty, you know?”
Mal relaxed, taking a seat next to Kelly. “Everybody go take a break,” he ordered. “Mark, you can attend to the roast when you get back. Fifteen minutes ain’t gonna matter.” He reached for a bowl of oblong root vegetables, light brown in color. “I’ll peel the potatoes while you’re out.”
His helpers all filed out the back door, no one saying a word. I knew what this was all about. Plausible deniability. If they weren’t here, they couldn’t say they heard Mal tell us whatever it was he was about to say. He was just peeling potatoes as far as they knew. The door closed with a muffled thud.
“Dang thing always sticks,” Mal grumbled. He picked up an implement sitting on top of the vegetables and began using it to carefully peel the skin off, dropping them onto the table. “These’ll go straight into the bucket for the pigs,” he explained. “Now, about that other matter.” His voice dropped down low. “It started off that way, then the guy who’d bring him the stuff brought a friend.” Mal gave us a meaningful look then. “His lordship is in a business deal with that fellow. You might have noticed the scented soap in the bathroom? Well, the needles from the pine trees that grow all over this area are brought in by the wagon load. Workers unload them in a shed he had built, cooking them or something to get the stuff to make soap and flavor tea. That’s in two other buildings. One’s the soap shed and the other is for bottling the tea. I reckon the stress gets to him a lot, as he started smoking more ’n more. He can’t hide it no more, not really. Though he don’t use for a couple of days before a scheduled Council meetin’.”
“How much soap does he make?” I asked.
“Oh, it takes a lot of pine needles to only make a little bit. He makes enough for the household and to sell at a small boutique in Freedom Rings.”
“And the tea?”
Kelly threw me a perplexed look. I gave him one back that I hoped he was able to interpret as ‘I’ll explain later’.
“About 500 bottles a week or so. It’s a real good seller. They are talking about making some simple vending machines to carry it in so more folks can buy it.”
I decided to look into how many loads of needles went into the output. It might be something of nothing, but you never knew where you’d catch a clue.
“Any idea who his seller is?” This from Kelly.
Mal licked his lips. “Councilman Ackroyd’s bonded, Joe. I have no idea who the other fellow is. I only seen him the once. I know one thing, he wasn’t from around here. If he was, I’d have seen him.”
I finished eating and pushed away my plate. Reaching into my pocket, I took out a small notebook of blank paper and a pencil. “Can you describe him for me?”
He nodded and I drew. When I finished, he nodded. “Yep, that’s him, for sure. That’s amazing!”
Whoever this hook-nosed light-haired man was, we needed to find him, even if it was just to gain information on their soap and drinks enterprise. As a bonus, it gave us an excuse to speak to Joe Ackroyd. As another Councilman’s Bonded, he might have knowledge gleaned via interactions with the young Jeddah, especially if the Ackroyds had any offspring who were close in age.
I picked up the glass of milk, relishing the coldness of it as it washed down my throat. It was satisfying, sadly more so than the progress we’d made so far on our case.