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I decided to hit up the neighbors that shared a courtyard with the crime scene.

They had to know something. The Madame had all these secret entrances if the fancy people didn’t want Guttertown to know they paid for sex.

I shared a courtyard with the brothel, so I tended to know who was slinking in and out and trying not to be seen.

Ollie also overheard someone yelling at one of the girls in the shared courtyard and bolted over there before it got violent. Beck, Panas, and Neco couldn’t be everywhere at once and sometimes, they were putting out one fire when another started. And Ollie could hear it even in a very loud tavern.

I regretted it at soon as we knocked. Lower Cutwart and Guttertown were the poorest areas of Nestran, but some people were better off. The tavern and the brothel did well, so my family and Beck’s were considered wealthy by Guttertown standards.

We didn’t put on airs, though. Not like this woman who opened the door and immediately sneered at me as soon as she heard my accent. Yes, she was better off than her neighbors, but if you went left when you exited Lower Cutwart, they’d consider her poor trash.

“Ma’am, the Barons have tasked us with taking the Ghoul off the streets. If he hit Lower Cutwart once, he’ll probably hit it again. Could you answer some questions about your neighbors?” Neco said.

Damn. I guess I did need Neco. He was polite, respectful, and this woman might be old enough to be his mother, but I guess the tall, dark, and dangerous thing did it for her. She batted her eyelashes and invited us inside.

I was pretty much invisible as she offered only Neco some wine and practically sat on his lap.

I was trying not to sit there gaping like a fish.

Neco never liked it when strangers touched him.

He used to say it made him feel weird. The only people he’d allow without removing their hands and snapping at them were people who were closest to him.

I could tell he hated this because he was my best friend once, but he wasn’t stopping her. He was actually flirting with her. And I didn’t hate him enough that I was gloating about this. Neco was doing this to help me.

“Did you hear anything the night of the murder?”

“No one did. Our son was getting married, so everyone who was invited was at the wedding and the reception after.”

So, there was some neighbor drama. I couldn’t believe I was saying this, but a lot of people found me a very attractive man in Guttertown.

Just a different kind of attractive than Neco.

I didn’t think about it much because I wasn’t a man and I couldn’t believe I was thinking this now, but I wished this woman found me attractive so I could flirt some answers out of her.

I was probably much better at that than Neco.

Except I was wrong. I was seeing an entirely different side of my former best friend. Neco gave her a sympathetic nod.

“And they weren’t invited I’m guessing. Did they have a lot of enemies?”

“Oh, gods no. They were good people. Our sons just loved their daughter a little too much, and she was always going to marry out of Lower Cutwart. It was a mutual agreement that they didn’t attend any weddings.

We didn’t want any of our boys doing something stupid to their brides and we didn’t want to give her any reason to stay here.

Elsbeth hated it and they fought a lot. That, we could hear. ”

“I talked to a few of Elsbeth’s friends. They said she had several merchants and Baron’s sons interested in her. You strike me as a very perceptive woman. Do you think it was one of them?”

I was going to go for a little horny and kind of a gossip over perspective, but I guess it was good Neco decided to tag along.

“No. Elsbeth was a catch. She was beautiful and well mannered. She would have fit in with the merchants or the Barons. She has five brothers and good hips, she’d have many sons. She wasn’t hiding she was accepting courting from all of them.

“Elsbeth was also pretty smart. She might be from Lower Cutwart, but she knew what she brought to the table. She didn’t want to marry just to get out.

She didn’t want someone who married her for her looks, either, so she hadn’t made up her mind yet.

Those boys were more likely to start killing their competition than hurting her. ”

I tried to hold in my snort because that was insanely na?ve.

I’d been pretending to be a man my entire life and my playground was a brothel.

It was entirely possible for some entitled rich boy who never had to face a consequence put Elsbeth on the spot to pick and gotten violent because she was the first person to tell him no.

Neco subtly poked the shit out of me not to react. Yeah, Neco got that better than anyone. If someone tried that around him, they ended up dead.

“How long was the wedding?”

“Lower Cutwart weddings are from sundown to sun up. When we got back, their front door was kicked in, so my husband went in to check. He came out vomiting and said it was terrible.”

“Thank you. Be safe until we can take care of the Ghoul.”

“I’ll feel much safer with a big, strapping lad like you protecting us.”

Gross. Someone died.

Neco grabbed my elbow and practically yanked me out of this house. If he didn’t want me to fuck up his face again, he was going to need to not manhandle me.

I really didn’t want to look at a crime scene, especially not when I knew how brutal it was going to be, but I guess I was doing this.