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T he bodies were gone, but the house was still graphically violent. There was blood spatter everywhere, but the Ghoul had also painted things on the wall with the blood. It was disturbing, and I wasn’t with someone I could go to for comfort.

Neco might be used to this, but I wasn’t. Neco got what he needed and got out of the neighbor’s house. I needed to do the same and then I could go home to people who could comfort me.

“Are you getting anything from this?” I asked.

“Loads.”

“You going to share, arsehole?”

“Not here. No one needs to see this.”

“Even you?” I demanded.

Neco mopped his hand over his face and kind of looked like he wanted to hit me.

“I don’t do this, Lance. Someone acts up in Guttertown and I do my due diligence.

Most of the men who were hurting people in Guttertown were hurting their family behind closed doors.

I find out how to get into their houses without alerting their families so I don’t have to worry about witnesses. I’m careful.

“Listen to me. I have never killed an innocent person and if Nestran’s justice system actually worked, I wouldn’t be killing anyone.

I don’t know how the Ghoul is picking his victims, but he enjoys killing.

Unless we work together and stop him, he’s going to escalate, and this is going to happen in more houses.

This is putting me in a rotten mood and I need a drink.

Let’s get back to the Whispering Raven.”

Ugh. Neco figured something out, but he decided to go all ‘strong and silent’-type while we were making the walk back to Guttertown.

“You’re really going to make me wait until we get back to my tavern to talk to me?”

“We can talk about anything except what we just saw. You never know who is listening in public, Lance. Sometimes, it’s me and I have a code.

It might be someone who doesn’t. The Ghoul hasn’t gone after Trevils because he’s mostly protected by the Barons but I’m betting he’d have no problem getting rid of two Guttertown brats who were looking into him. ”

“Fuck, Neco. Way to be terrifying.”

“I meant to be. I get you’re scared for your mom, but you aren’t scared enough about the Ghoul. I know things went to shit, but if you’re going to do this, I want you to do it with me.”

I just grunted because it made sense. I should be scared. The tavern was deliberately hard to break into because desperate people were motivated. We shuttered the windows at night and it was much harder to kick our door in than it was the house I just left.

The tavern was also In a high tra”Iic’area of Guttertown and right next door to the brothel, where someone was always coming and going. It would be very hard to get to me, but we'd also only looked at one crime scene.

As far as I knew, Neco wasn’t kicking doors in because no one in the house knew he was there. The Ghoul kicked in the door of that house, but he might have found another way in at other houses like Neco was doing.

Thanks, Neco, I was going to sleep super well tonight.

We didn’t talk for the entire walk back. If you left Ollie alone and there wasn’t a ton of work to do, he was usually plotting something. I think I would have preferred ending up in the cells again because he had a meal and tankards set out for three people like we were having a meal with Neco.

“Thanks, I’m famished and could use a drink,” Neco said, strolling over to take a seat.

Did Petunia kick me in the head and I was dreaming all of this?

The Barons switching things up so that if I did this, I’d be free and clear and could live my life slinging drinks the way I wanted was one thing.

Neco letting me hit him twice and being civil to me?

Nah, I was having donkey-related hallucination dreams.

“It’s safe to talk now and you haven’t eaten all day,” Neco said.

Maybe Neco was the one who had been kicked in the head by a donkey.

Because I could get him wanting to keep Mom alive because that was just who he was, but he was almost acting like he used to when we were best friends.

That Neco paid attention if I got wrapped up in something and forgot to eat.

He brought it up more often than Mom did when we were kids.

I really didn’t want Neco to act like how he did when I used to love him and then go back to hating me when this was over. I couldn’t go through that again.