The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 3

Chapter Three: The Body

Now

Amy and Fiona joined me beside the body of the late Duke Siggis Leifson. The duke had been an unremarkable man. Average height and stocky, he had been neither ugly nor handsome. The blood continued to leak from his open mouth. I noticed that he was bleeding from his eyes as well. The blood pooled in the dirt of the longhouse floor. As I watched Vincent slid through the crowd to stand beside us. His dark skin stood out against the sea of pale Hyperboreans.

“This looks like poison.” Fiona said. “Giant scorpion poison I think. It prevents the blood from clotting, which explains the bleeding.”

“We’re all drinking from shared bottles.” I looked at the tables and the bottles on the tables, “How does one poison one person in all of this?”

Amy hummed for a moment, and then tapped her teeth, “The drinking horn itself could have been poisoned, couldn’t it?”

Fiona and I looked at each other, and nodded. 

Leon looked around, at the crowd. “Duke Xander. Do you have anyone here capable of conducting a murder investigation?”

Duke Xander stepped through the crowd. He was an enormous man, six foot two and five foot wide. He was wrapped in furs from head to toe. The Duke shook his head.

“I have no such people. Does Your Grace?”

“You know I suspected foul play. I voiced my concerns.”

“You did.”

“So yes. I brought my personal investigative team. With your permission, I would like them to see what they can find.”

“Your investigators are women.” He said.

“Three of them are. And all four are gifted. The gift doesn’t discriminate between man or woman.”

Duke Xander closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded. “This is a disaster. Foreign investigators cannot make things worse.”  

“Thank you.” Leon turned to us. “Go to work”

Fiona looked around at the crowd. She scanned them with an appraising gaze. Fiona was a reader, with a mystic gift allowing her to read people’s auras. 

“Nobody is feeling overt guilt.” She said. “Which tells us nothing. If the killer felt justified their aura would not display guilt.” 

Amy knelt over the body, “Does anyone see his drinking horn? I could do a reading of the horn. It might tell me who added the poison.”

Amy was a psychometrist, able to read the history of any object she touched. People in the crowd began looking about. I scanned the floor around the body. I couldn’t see the horn. 

“Could the killer have taken it?” I asked.

“It would be wise if they had.” Fiona said. “Doing so prevents a psychometrist from doing a reading.”

“But psychometrists are rare. All mystic gifts are.” I said. “Could the killer be sure that one would be present?”

We considered in silence. Then Amy raised her hand and locked eyes with Leon. He nodded, “Yes Amy?”

“Were our names on the guest list, your Grace?”

Leon nodded. “You’re nobility. I wouldn’t disrespect you by listing you as plus ones.”

“Then anyone who knew what we do for you would know a psychometrist was coming, wouldn’t they?”

“Damn. Yes they would.”

“They use your politeness against you.” Duke Xander said.

“Who had access to the guest list? And who knows our gifts?” Fiona asked.

Duke Xander stroked his massive black beard. “Many people have seen the guest list, noble, commoner, and slave alike. That will do nothing to narrow things down. I do not know who knows your gifts. I do not know any of you by name.”

“There will be time for introductions later.” Leon said. “Anyone with a competent intelligence network could know about the four of you. And that includes all nobles with motive.”

“That narrows it down to nobility,” I looked at the crowd again.

“A noble could have ordered a commoner to commit the murder, couldn’t they?” Amy asked.

“They could have,” Fiona said.

I shook my head. “Amy is right, that horn would be useful.”

“It would,” Leon agreed.

I looked at Vincent. “Vincent. Can you scan the room? Look for the horn?”

Vincent nodded, “Of course I can. Let me take a seat.”

Vincent sat back down on a nearby bench. Vincent was a clairvoyant. He could see at a distance and see things normal vision wouldn’t reveal. His eyes went black as he activated his clairvoyance. 

“Your team is impressive.” Duke Xander said. “A reader, a psychometrist, and a clairvoyant. How did you find them?”

“Pure luck.” Leon said. “I was smart enough not to let the opportunity slip through my fingers.”

I noted that Leon hadn’t mentioned my mystic gift. He was probably hoping to hold me in reserve as a secret weapon. Which suited me fine. My gift was the rarest of the mystic gifts. Hyperboreans kidnapped people like me to enslave them into service.

“I couldn’t see the drinking horn,” Vincent said, his eyes returning to normal. “But this place is full of holes like old cheese. Nearly every bag in this hall is warded. So are most of the chests and other odds and ends. The money spent on protective alchemies in this hall must be enormous. There are endless places the horn could be hiding and I’d never know.”

I looked at Leon, and he shook his head. I nodded, and said nothing.    

“Fiona, dearest? Can you help me flip the poor duke?” Amy asked.

Fiona nodded and dropped to her knees. They rolled the body over, the eyes rolled open as they did. Several people gasped in the crowd. Amy scanned the body, running a hand over a cloak clasp and then a dagger. She pursed her lips and hummed. 

“Any ideas?” I asked.

“I could do a read on any of his belongings. But I’m not likely to get much. Where was he seated? What table? Is the bottle still there?”

A murmur ran through the crowd, as the implications of Amy’s words sank in. 

“If the bottle were poisoned, would there not be more victims?” Fiona asked. “Surely the poison was added to the drinking horn directly?”

I heard a shriek, and turned to see a Hyperborean noble woman collapse in a swoon. The crowd parted where she fell, as though she were diseased. I walked over and checked her pulse and her breathing. 

“She’s fine.” I announced. “She fainted.”

Fiona looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “She fainted. What caused that?”

“Fear that she’d been poisoned?” I said.

“Are all Hyperboreans so easily frightened?”

“Women are fearful creatures,” Duke Xander replied.

Fiona shook her head, but said nothing. 

“We’ve got nothing?” Leon asked.

“Nothing.” I answered.