“She didn’t drown.” Yayu the Midwife was always ‘matter of fact’. Teller guessed it came with the territory. Or maybe it was the fact that everyone else down here seemed to be getting religion. Even in charge of all the births and most of the deaths in the world, the Midwives remained pragmatic.
“She felt pretty wet to me,” said Teller.
“I mean, drowning was not what killed her,” Yayu’s voice was unequivocal. “No water in the lungs. She was killed first and then thrown in.”
“You said killed.”
“Yes. I believe she was.”
“Damned Tinkralas believe we’re all gonna live forever,” Mas said. “It doesn’t make it true.”
“My belief is based on, what would you call it? ‘A hunch’. My colleague found it first, she should be here.”
The heavy cloth curtain toward the back of the surgery hut stirred and another midwife arrived. Along with the usual smell of soap, Teller noticed something else. This female had been somewhere, she was carrying a faint trace of a thousand different smells at once. Mas found that familiar, but he couldn’t put a whisker to it for now.
“Ah good, Anda, you’re here. Teller Mas here needs to know what you told me last night,” said Yayu.
“Well,” she shuffled, “the thing is, I, er—”
“Spit it out, dear,” said Yayu.
“I’m into potions!”
“Like bathing in them?” said Mas.
“No?” the young midwife said. “Why would I, oh. Just interested.”
“Ok,” said Mas, “I’ll bite. What does that have to do with our deceased, here?”
“Well after Yayu, Mistress Yayu that is, said that she hadn’t drowned, it got me to thinking what had really gone on, and I wondered what she had really died of, and I have a kind of theory about it, but I don’t want to tell anyone yet because, you know, it’s a bit strange and I don’t want everyone to think I’m crazy or that I don’t take my responsibilities as a midwife seriously, so I’m doing it at home in my own time or at least in my room at Madame Bana’s guest house since I’ve not been in Lakeside that long. Sir.”
“Okay—” said Mas, “and breathe.”
“Anything else?” Yayu asked.
“She smelled a bit, well, odd—” Anda said.
“Some of the best folk do,” said Mas. “Wanna be a little more specific?”
“When we opened her mouth, the water in there and in her nose, smelled of acid and fruit and something else.”
“What?”
“Well that’s just it, I don’t know. That’s why I went to see the potions person this morning.”
Mas grunted. There wasn’t an alchemist or any other kind of potions maker in Lakeside unless she meant—
“Dobbin, I think he was called.”
“Ah,” said Mas. “Bobbins?” Now, this was all starting to make a lick of sense. That explained the odd smell on the midwife’s clothes when she’d come in. The smell from Bobbin’s seedy little shack that he called a shop. Potions would be right. Bobbins was a dealer in a little of this, a little of that, was the only person ‘exotic’ potions could be obtained from in all of Lakeside, and wherever trouble was, Bobbins never seemed to be that far behind. “I’d stay away from that dockside rat if I were you, kid.”
“He seemed nice,” Anda said.
“I’ll bet he did. Steer clear all the same.”
“He wasn’t any help, anyway”.
“No,” said Mas, “he rarely is. Unless you’re looking for trouble. He’ll help anyone with that.”
“Thank you, Anda,” said Yayu. “That will be all.”
She rustled through the curtains and left the two of them alone. Mas leaned in close to the dead girl’s mouth. Brackish water certainly, and maybe the beginnings of the sweet smell of decay. But nothing else.
“Anda said the smell’s long gone, now.”
“Hmm, if it was ever there,” said Mas.
“She may flap her mouth like a stranded fish, but I think she has a good nose. Better than mine these days.” Yayu sighed. “I trust her and she’s not the kind to make stuff up on a whim.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Thanks for calling me in anyhow.”
Teller paced. What the hells was wrong with this case? It was nearly three hundred clicks before he realized he was on his own.