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“It’s a brothel,” Gem explained.

“Indeed, it is,” Madam Trela confirmed. “Madam Elims was one of their long-time customers. She spent the night with one of their new hires. My patrols found her body early in the morning. She died from seventeen stab wounds.”

I winced, my chest aching as if being stabbed too. Seventeen? Why? This seemed to be a murder for the sake of brutality.

“Who would do such a thing?” I asked quietly.

Gem leaned her shoulder against a wall panel, folding her arms across her chest. “Was the whore with whom this woman spent the night the last person who saw her alive?”

“Yes, he was,” Madam Trela replied. “Unfortunately, he’s nowhere to be found. He’s now our suspect. I personally questioned everyone at the fun house.”

Madam Trela was excellent at her job. Highly intelligent, she possessed an exceptional memory for details. Her reports had always been efficient and on point. If anyone was to get to the root of this crime, it’d be her.

“Has Madam Elims’s family been notified?” Mother asked.

“She didn’t have a family in Egami City, Your Majesty. Madam Elims was childless and unmarried. Her store is now the property of her sister, who lives on the North Coast. We senta messenger with the sad news to her.” Madam Trela heaved another sigh.

Mother propped an elbow on her desk. “Do you have any ideas on the suspect’s whereabouts?”

The head of the guards shifted her weight to another foot, looking uneasy.

“Not yet, Your Majesty. But we’re doing everything to find him, and we have a few good leads. Last week, my women saw a man who matched the subject’s description. They stopped him near the corner of Green Lane and High Crossing, mere steps from the place where the first body was found just forty minutes later.”

“What’s his description?” Gem asked.

Madam Trela turned to her. “Tall, large. Brown hair and a full beard.”

A chilling tendril of dread slithered down my spine.

“It could be anyone,” I said quickly.

“Maybe, Your Highness.” Madam Trela nodded thoughtfully. “But isn’t it too much of a coincidence for a man with his description to be at that location at that hour? Also, most men in the city are clean shaven nowadays as per the latest fashion.”

Gem chewed on her lip, considering something.

“Most,” she said, “but not all. Did your women question him, Madam Trela?”

“They were about to bring him in for questioning, but a woman intervened.”

“A woman?” Mother exclaimed.

Gem pushed away from the wall, standing to attention in the face of this new information.

My tendril of dread grew to the size of a boa constrictor now, wrapping itself tightly around my chest.

“Yes, Your Majesty. The woman claimed to be his relative, so the guards let him go. Allow me to remind you, it wasbeforethefirst body was discovered. The guards would’ve been much more vigilant had they known about the murder.”

“That woman could’ve been his accomplice,” Gem noted, her frown deepening.

“Or another victim,” Mother added with concern.

Madam Trela wrung her hands, the flowers on her hat trembling.

“That’s what I fear, Your Majesty. More murders can happen. Predators like that don’t stop on their own. They need to be caught. From what he did to his latest victim...” She winced, tears sparkling in her eyes. “He got a taste for violence, and it’s growing.”

The emotions on Madam Trela’s face were genuine. Though, her anguish and empathy never stopped her from doing her job efficiently and even ruthlessly if required.

Mother rose from her chair. “We need to warn the people of Egami. I’ll have to address the city.”