Danthres blinked. Perhaps she didn’t want the Brotherhood involved, after all-not if she wanted this solved properly. “All right, then, what do we do?”
“First, I examine this house.” Boneen slowly got down onto the floor and sat in a lotus position; Danthres could hear his bones creak and crack as he did so. The aged wizard muttered something, waved his right hand about, and then started to float upward.
About a minute later, he unfolded his legs, while still floating, and placed them on the ground. “This is worse than I thought. It’s been going on for at least a decade, possibly longer. I can’t tell for sure-there are magically enhanced items in there interfering.” That last was said with an accusatory look at Abbi and Millar.
“That’s impossible!” Abbi said. “We don’t keep anything magical in the house.”
“That’s right,” Millar said. “Got rid of it all. Filthy stuff, magic.”
Noting that was the first thing Millar had said that hadn’t made Danthres want to punch him, she asked Boneen, “Is there any way to extract those items? If they don’t belong to the family, they might belong to whoever cast the spell.”
“It’s possible, but I’m already rather tired, and-”
“Fine, then.” Danthres turned to Torin. “What’s the name of the Brotherhood representative?”
“Ythran,” Torin said. “I’m sure he’d be overjoyed to hear all about Boneen misreading the peel-back.”
“I didn’t misread it!” Boneen was almost pouting. “All right, all right, I’ll cast the blessed spell.”
This time, Boneen didn’t bother with the lotus position, but the muttering took longer, and he gesticulated with both hands.
Danthres had to blink away the spots in front of her eyes that the resultant flash of light caused, but when they were gone, she looked down at the ground in front of Boneen to see seven objects, all encrusted with the muck that had taken over the Jaros house, all looking like articles of clothing.
Boneen pointed at one of two items that looked like cloaks. “That looks like a Protector Cloak-a low-level one, it’d just keep the shit off you walking around Goblin-but that explains the magical interference.”
However, Danthres was more interested in the other cloak.
Breathing through her mouth to avoid the stench-which, while not as bad as the room had been, was still pretty awful-Danthres bent over to grab it. Grateful that her uniform included gloves, she picked it up by one end with her right hand, wiping the center of the cloak off with her left glove.
Then she smiled grimly. “I know who did this.”
Forak’s Perfect Clean had offices in Dragon Precinct, only a short walk from Danthres’ rooms, which was why she had chosen them in the first place. That evening, she entered their waiting area, accompanied by Torin. As had been the case when she had gone there to make the appointment, and again when she filed the complaint about her missing cloak, the waiting area consisted solely of a bench, a desk behind which sat a prim young woman, and a door leading to the back.
The prim woman-whose name, Danthres recalled, was Emanuela-looked up at their entrance. “Ah, Lieutenant Trellis, isn’t it?”
“Tresyllione, actually,” Danthres corrected automatically.
“Of course. I’m afraid we haven’t found your cloak yet, but I can assure you that it will turn up. We here at Forak’s guarantee customer satisfaction-it is our watchword, after all.” Emanuela said all that without once changing her inflection.
“Well, I’m afraid that isn’t good enough,” Danthres said, trying to sound like an outraged customer-which wasn’t too difficult an act for her just at the moment. “I want to speak to your supervisor immediately.”
“I’m afraid Mr. Forak isn’t available right now, Lieutenant, but if you wish to make an appointment-”
“I’m afraid that I must see Mr. Forak right now, or I will shut this place down.”
Emanuela opened her tiny mouth into an O, then closed it. She didn’t have a prepared response to that, it seemed, and it took a few moments for her brain to actually function. “Can you do that?”
Torin smiled his most pleasant smile. “We are lieutenants in the Castle Guard, madam. The Lord and Lady have granted us considerable leeway in such matters, and all we would have to do is pronounce this place a menace to the well-being of Cliff’s End and its inhabitants, and it would be shut down. Mr. Forak could, of course, appeal to the magistrate, but that might take days.”
“Weeks, even,” Danthres added. “And you would not be permitted to conduct business until that-”
“Mr. Forak!” Emanuela cried out in a tone very much like a mouse’s squeak, apparently unable to handle any more disruptions to her world. “Some people here to see you!”
A short man with thin hair and a thick mustache came out through the door to the rear. “What? What? Dammit, Emanuela, I told you not to bother me, I’m trying to-Oh!” That last word was spoken upon sighting two people in leather armor and earth-colored cloaks, symbolizing that they were detectives in the Guard. “Dammit, Emanuela, why didn’t you tell me that the good people of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard were here?”
“But-” Emanuela tried to protest, but Forak didn’t give her the chance, bounding forward with a broad smile peeking out from under his mustache.
“You’re Mr. Forak?”
“Yes, Lieutenant, yes, I am most definitely him, yes, I am. Now then, who might you be, and what service can Forak’s Perfect Clean do for you on this lovely day?”
“I’m Lieutenant Tresyllione, this is my partner, Lieutenant ban Wyvald. I’m one of your customers, actually.”
“Ah, yes, well, of course,” Forak said, sounding relieved. “Are you satisfied with our service, Lieutenant Tresilon?”
“Tresyllione, and I mostly am, yes, although an item has gone missing. A cloak-just like the one I’m wearing now. I told your girl about it there-”
“Right, of course, yes, we’re getting right on that. My best people are searching for the cloak even as we speak.”
“Your best people?”
“Of course.”
Danthres nodded. “Fascinating.”
“Mr. Forak, I apologize,” Torin said, “but I’m a bit befuddled. You see, before coming here, we went to the castle and examined your tax records. They say that you only have one employee.” He nodded his head at Emanuela. “I have to wonder-who does the actual cleaning?”
“And who’s looking for my cloak?” Danthres added.
Forak started to shuffle from foot to foot, and twisted the end of his mustache with his right hand. “Yes, well, ahm, you see, I mean, that is to say, uh-”
“Let me save you the trouble of lying, Mr. Forak. You don’t have any employees, do you? You charge one gold per room cleaned, which, when I first came here, you said was to cover cleaning supplies and labor costs. Other cleaning services usually charge two gold, but they also give the option of providing your own supplies-which you don’t do.”
“Erm, yes, you see, I-”
“This is because you don’t actually have a staff, do you, Mr. Forak?” Danthres started moving slowly closer to Forak, who backed up until he bumped into Emanuela’s desk. “Instead, you cast a spell to clean the room and send the dirt to a closet hidden in a house in Unicorn, where no one will ever find it. There are only two problems, Mr. Forak.”
“Oh, ah, yes? What’s, er, what’s that, then?”
“First of all, the closet filled up and exploded. The dirt from all the homes you’ve cleaned has now taken over the house, and soon it will encompass an entire block. Do you know who owns that house, Mr. Forak?”
“Er, well, no, actually, I-”
“Alfrek Jaros. He works for Sir Lio, the transport minister. Do you know what Sir Lio will think about someone doing this to one of his deputies?”
“Uhm-”
“The second problem is that it isn’t just dirt that goes to the Jaros closet. According to our magical examiner, the spell requires sending the items from one closet to another, and some items in the closets of your clients got mixed in with the dirt. They included two pairs of boots, a Protection Cloak, three tunics-and my cloak.”