Page 10 of Blood and Moonlight

He stops, focusing on the blood on the wall, then steps past Juliane to stand in front of it. “He must have cut her throat from behind right here.” Simon gestures to the pattern so strangely familiar to me, then lower to more I hadn’t noticed. “Then he started stabbing her, too. These vertical streaks of blood are from that.”

I don’t know whether it’s more disturbing that he understands what he sees or that I know he’s right.

Simon follows barely visible tracks in the mud back to the body. “He dragged her over here, but she didn’t struggle, so she was unconscious if not dead by then.”

“Small mercy,” says Juliane.

“Agreed,” he murmurs, pacing back to the area near Perrete’shead. “He removed her eyes and crushed her face with something heavy, but I’m not sure which he did first.”

Simon looks around again, this time taking almost a full minute, before shaking his head. “I don’t see anything he could’ve used to do that, though.” Then he sighs and rubs his temple. “Everything is disturbed. Footprints, heavy rain, the body covered and moved from how it originally lay…” I realize he’s correct—Perrete’s position is not quite as I found her. “I don’t think there’s much more I can learn right now,” he says. “Best to let them take her away.”

Juliane lowers her lantern. “Will we go with them?”

“Wewill not,” Simon emphasizes. “We’ll go home and speak with Oudin. When I come back, I might bring Lambert, but not you.”

“But I can make sure nothing is for—”

“Juliane,” Simon says firmly. “You know how tired you’ll be by then.”

She sighs. “Yes, you’re right. More tired tonight.”

Simon holds out his elbow like he’s inviting his cousin for a stroll, and they exit the alley, arm-in-arm. I ease away from the edge and crawl back across the roof. As an extra precaution, I spring nimbly across the gap and creep across another block of houses to the next alley before climbing down.

I haven’t learned whether Magister Thomas will fall under suspicion, but if I arrive at the Montcuir house while Juliane is alone, I might be able to find out from her what Oudin says.

In the meantime, I have to warn the architect.