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Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood and came back to the bed. "There's
a note attached."
He held it up and read it out loud. "Newspapers are provided for all guests as
a service of The Traveler's
Ease. You will be billed five crullas a day for this service."
"News." I wrinkled my nose.
Badger was curious, though. He unwrapped the newspaper and studied the front
page. "Oh, no," he whispered.
I sat up. "What is it?"
He handed me the paper, and I immediately saw what he'd seen.
A headline in bold black type said, Offworld Woman, Unidentified Man "Bleeder"
Victims.
I read the article out loud.
"Two bodies, badly mutilated and drained of blood, were found in the Westmarch
District during the night. Both bodies fit the same pattern as twenty-three
previous murders that have taken place in
Westmarch in the last twelve months, all of which are considered the work of
the so-called 'Westmarch
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Bleeder.'
"The body of the first of the night's victims, offworlder Thanassa Tang, was
found in a blocked drain on
Blackwillow Street at 23:40 last night by city officers Brian Karpovtsev and
Alex Leetch. The officers were called to the site by municipal workers who
discovered the body while attempting to prevent a blocked drain from flooding
nearby homes; when the workers attempted to clear the drain, Tang's body
caught on their probes and was dragged to higher ground.
"Identification was made by Tang's fellow traveler, whose name has been
withheld. Tang was released on her own recognizance from the Customs
Department of John Ardhal Memorial Spaceport following questioning at 15:30
hours, and was instructed to proceed to her assigned housing. Her colleague
states that she never arrived."
"You know that isn't true," Badger said. "They didn't let her walk out of
there. Those men killed her and dumped the body. And this Westmarch Bleeder
made a convenient suspect, so they dumped the body there."
"I think you're probably right." I picked up where I'd left off.
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Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood
"At 04:10 this morning, Westmarch taxi driver Lee Fan found the second body in
the back seat of his carriage. He said he had been in an all-night eatery
taking his break, and when he came out he thought for a moment that a
potential fare had climbed into the back seat to wait for him. It was only
when he asked the fare for his destination and the man didn't respond that Fan
turned and discovered that the body had no head. Police are still attempting
to identify the man, whose fingerprints are not on record."
"No head?" I said. "How many murder victims do you think lost heads last
night?"
"You think the second body was the man who attacked us, don't you?"
I lay back, feeling weak and sick. "Yes. I think so. Why look for a
complicated answer when a simple one will serve?"
"No reason at all."
"At least we know he's dead."
Badger sighed. "For what little that's worth. We don't know why he was
following us, we don't know how he almost killed both of us& and we don't know
where Fedara Contei is or what she has to do with any of this. That, I think,
bothers me as much as everything else together. Why did she kill the man who
was trying to kill us?"
"I think I know the answer to that, anyway." I closed my eyes. The pain was
getting worse. My abdomen was so tender I couldn't bear to rest my arms on it,
and it was beginning to swell, too. I tried to imagine what would happen to me
if I ended up in a Pincadan hospital receiving the quality of medical care
that would be available to offworlders. I would probably die. They would
probably kill me on purpose. At least I didn't have to worry about getting an
infection. Three cheers for nanoviruses.
"Well?" Badger asked. I opened my eyes to find him staring at me.
"Well, what?"
"Why did Fedara kill our attacker?"
"Oh." I'd drifted and lost my focus, and I was having a hard time getting it
back. Bad sign. "Because if we're dead, we can't lead her to the
Corrigan's Blood
, and we can't take it and her back to Peter Crane so that she can kill him."
"That's true." Badger made a face that made me laugh, and laughing hurt so
much that tears welled up in my eyes. Someone knocked on the door. Badger
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stiffened. He picked up the board, but this time was less
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Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood panicked about it. "I wonder what
complimentary service the rooming house has decided to charge us with now," he
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