Daily Writing Challenge Day 12
Gravestone ( @daily-writing-challenge @kthalentia )
The ceremony was lovely, as far as funeral ceremonies go. A gathering of thirty people were huddled around the long black casket as it was being lowered into the ground. Mrs. Vindal had managed to keep her composure for the full two hour service, but seeing her husband dropping deeper and deeper into the earth was too much for her to bear. Her brother reached out to rub her back as she fell to her knees sobbing, with the rest of her family and friends keeping their forlorn gazes to the casket. The words were said. The funeral was over. Now she had the rest of her life to mourn her doting husband.
A miqo’te detective and his hyur assistant remained at a distance out of respect, so they could mourn him in peace and privacy. But once the crowd began to disperse, the Detective pushed off the stone wall, slipped his hands into his coat pockets, and began to mozy over to the recently widowed. “Afternoon, ma’am.” He pulled off his dusty leather hat and bowed, but she didn’t bother looking at him. “I’m Detective K’thalen Tia, this here’s Investigative Assistant Eadric Swalls. We were assigned to ya case a few days-”
“Have you found the man who killed my husband.” Ms. Vindal spoke in a low whisper, though given her tone, it was plain she wasn’t really asking; as good as K’thalen was with homicide cases, this one was putting him through the wringer.
“Not yet, ma’am.” He cleared his throat as he exchanged weary glances with his partner. The slender elezen rose to tower over them both, her eyes still red from crying, but her expression had hardened like a stone mask.
“Then how can I help you?”
When Eadric stepped forward, her darkened gaze snapped to him. “We would like to ask you some questions, if you would give us some of your time.” He paused only long enough to retrieve a pen and his notebook from his chest pocket. "Is there anyone who your husband angered recently? Maybe someone that was out to get him?"
"Are you asking me if the wealthiest family in the Gridania has enemies?" Her answer and tone were curt.
"Well I…" Eadric rubbed at his ear -- a nervous tick he had to get rid of one day. "If someone was bold enough to use poison then-"
"You two idiots didn't really come out here to waste my time, did you?" Mrs. Vindal's face contorted with disgust. "Get to the point lest I lose my patience!"
She wasn’t the only one here about to lose her patience. “We wanna know where ya been n’what ya were doin’ a few bells prior to ya husband’s demise.” K’thalen came right out and said it, with his arms crossed and his expression darkened. If looks could kill, Mrs. Vindal would be wanted for double-homicide right now; her eyes ripened with a barely restrained fury, causing Eadric to take a meager step away from the Detective in a subconscious effort to avoid her wrath.
“Are you accusing me of killing my own husband?! Before his body is even cold?!” She hissed, flaring and glaring. “You’d better think very carefully before you answer… that is unless you don’t fear the noose!”
“Not accusin’ ya of nothin’, ma’am.” The Detective was quick to answer, choosing to overlook the felony she just committed when she threatened to kill an officer of the law. “In fact with your cooperation, gettin’ ya name off the suspect list’ll only happen sooner rather than later.”
“You dare…” If Mrs. Vindal was her husband, K’thalen would be missing teeth right about now. “You would ask me of this at this time? At this bell?! Your superiors will hear of this slight against me, Detective! By the time I’m done with you, neither of you idiots will ever work another day on the force again! Do you hear me?! NEVER!” Her hand came up lightning fast -- striking the side of his face with her open palm and knocking his hat clean off his head! Neither one of them moved to arrest her for blatant assault; this case was already complicated enough, and if he slapped her with irons and brought her back to the station he would never hear the end of it. Satisfied with their fear of reprisal, she shoved past them and stormed off to the exit of the cemetery, likely to go have a word with their chief.
“That could have gone a lot worse I guess…” Eadric picked up K’thalen’s hat and handed it back to him. “Coming here was a mistake… we should have waited a few days after the funeral.”
“Nah, she knows somethin’ she ain’t wanna tell us.” The Detective rubbed his swelling cheek; she slapped him so hard his vision was a little blurry. “That was all show. Smoke n’mirrors. If’n ya paid attention, ya’d notice she ain’t even answer our questions.”
Eadric tapped his tin with his finger until a slender cigarette was loosened enough to pull free. “You think she killed her own husband?” K’thalen snorted while he turned to look down the path to make sure she was actually gone.
“Ain’t said that. Alls I’m sayin’ is one a’the most powerful n’influential men in the Black Shroud dies in his own house surrounded by nothin’ but family n’loyal house servants, but they don’t even want us pokin’ our noses ‘round the crime scene? N’we gotta prioritize some envious fools way out n’Thanalan who coulda wanted him dead? It ain’t addin’ up, lad. This whole case reeks a’foul play but everyone’s ‘fraid a pissin’ these Vindals off ‘cause they bankroll our division.”
“Everyone but you, apparently.” Eadric struggled with his lighter. Click! Click! Click! Nothing but embers too weak to start even the smallest and weakest of flames. “You know… you’re gonna get us all fired if you approach her like that again. Gods know you don’t have a backup plan in case they put you on ‘permanent suspension’.”
K’thalen took out an old match from his pocket and flicked it against a nearby gravestone to light it. “People wanna cover their asses instead a doin’ their damn jobs. I don’t care if the Seedseer herself’s a suspect. I’m lookin’ for answers, not excuses.” He held the match aloft to let his partner take a few puffs. “Besides… this ain’t the first time I pissed that woman off. Reckon it won’t be the last, neither.”
“Yeah, well, next time do it when I’m not standing next to you. I have a wife and two kids I have to think about, you know.” As Eadric talked, K’thalen’s ears suddenly turned around at the faintest sound of a twig snapping in the distance. “If I was single and childless like you, sure I might be brazen too. But that just isn’t the ca-”
He tackled Eadric as the air surrounding them exploded! It was hailing bullets, filling solemn and somber gravestones with holes as the deafening barrage flew over their heads and peppered them with debris! Frantically they both crawled in opposite directions, keeping their heads down lest they catch one in the cranium and kiss their careers and lives goodbye! K’thalen dove behind a marble slab and pressed his back against the sarcophagus, while Eadric took shelter behind a statue of some long forgotten nobleman! Neither of them could count the number of guns firing on them -- not at this magnitude! Sticking their heads out for a visual was suicide as well, so they were forced to bunker down and wait for this bullet storm to pass!
After what felt like an eternity, it finally did just that. “K’thalen!” Boomed the deep voice of a Hellsguard Roegadyn. “You raggedy cat bastard! You still alive over there?!” Both the Detective and the Assistant exchanged weary glances again. The cemetery only had one entrance, and was surrounded by a four yalm high wall covered in vines and shrubbery; trying to climb out to escape would only make them easy shooting targets.
“... ya!” K’thalen reluctantly answered. “N’who do I owe this pleasure?”
“Bronze Dune! Better known as the Bullet Baron! BWAHAHAHHH!” The roegadyn’s bellow shook the loose stones around K’thalen’s feet. “I gotta hand it to you, cat! Not many people have survived my salvo! But if you think I’m low on ammo, you better think again!”
“What do ya want?! Why’re ya shootin’ at Twin Adder Lawmen?!”
“To kill you, of course! I’ve been paid quite handsomely to grind you into a rich Miqo’te broth! Mmmm..!” K’thalen could hear him patting his stomach. He risked getting shot in the face by poking his head out for half a heartbeat! At least a dozen men were all standing shoulder to shoulder, with most of them holding rifles primed and ready to fire again… but this ‘Bullet Baron’ was holding a belt-fed repeater cannon that looked like he ripped it right off a Garlean machina! “Shit… not good!” He thought to himself, drawing his revolver. Six bullets against a hundred… not odds he particularly liked. “I saw you peeking! You know it’s hopeless…! Come on out and it’ll be one clean shot to the head! Painless! I give you my word!”
“Let my partner go!” K’thalen demanded, feeling Eadric’s burning glare on his face. “If’n it’s me ya after then it don’t make sense to kill him too!”
“So he can run off and summon every Adder in the forest? What do you take me for, some slackjawed craven?!” Bronze Dune chortled before adjusting his grip on the minigun. “No witnesses can leave this cemetery. Not in one piece, anyway. But I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. We can’t have the law coming down on us just yet, so we’ll only beat him to an ilm of his life! How’s that sound! Fair, right?”
“I stick my head up… and you’ll just kill me!” Eadric shouted back, drawing his pistol too. “I’m supposed to just trust you’ll keep your word?!”
“I don't give two SHITS what you do! Raise your damn hands and come on out slowly for an ass whooping, or die!" The Bullet Baron didn't give him too many options. Eadric was staring at K’thalen with fear in his eyes, but not for them; his one and only concern was for his family. His wife was too sick for work… if he died here then his family would starve.
"Alright!" Eadric conceded, gripping his pistol by the barrel. He chucked it fast and low, causing it to slide across the rubble-paved pathway to the Detective. "I'm unarmed! Coming out nice and easy now…!" He gave his partner one last weary look before he poked his fingers out from behind the ruined statue.
K’thalen couldn’t afford to let Eadric die, especially on his account. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched -- but not outsmarted. He dropped to a prone and began crawling along the path towards the corner of the cemetery. His partner slowly lifted his arms up as he wiggled his fingers. “Don’t shoot…! I’m coming out!” Eventually he revealed his head with bated breath. The hyur was as pale as a ghost and trembling; if he ever made it out of this mess he would have to sit down with his wife and have a long conversation about a career change. Slowly he stood out in the open, with fourteen men training rifles at him.
“Smart lad.” Said the Bullet Baron, smirking. “A real shame we have to kill your partner. Made himself a local legend out in Thanalan. Rumor has it he’s never missed a shot. Come over here and my boys’ll make sure you ain’t in a proper state to run to the authorities.”
“NOW OR NEVER!” K’thalen shot up to his feet with his trusty revolver in one hand, and his partner’s trust in the other! Time seemed to stand still when he raised his weapons, with white muzzle flashes going off alternatively in each hand! He didn’t hear the shouting, the screaming, or even the voice of his partner Eadric.
All he heard was the ringing in his head from the thunder of his firearms, felt the numbed pinch against his arms and chest, and the taste of blood in his mouth.
