Free The Iron Swamp by J V Wordsworth Page A

catch the killer but not enough to go up against Vins.
    "Sorry about that," Rake said, as we waited for the lady at reception to order the search. "I didn't think–"
    "No, you fracking didn't. Cythuria Phil!"
    "I didn't get much sleep last night."
    I didn't either, but I guessed that Rake at least intended to. "Because of the girl?"
    He nodded. "All I can think about is bashing Welker's head in."
    "Let's go for a drink tonight. We can talk about it," I suggested
    But Rake shook his head, aggression creeping into his voice. "I can't talk about it."
    "Well we could talk about something else then?"
    He looked away from me as if the conversation was over, but then he swung back like a batsman connecting with a ball. "Why are you pretending to be my friend? You can't like me, not after everything I've done to you."
    For a moment I didn't know what to say. "I'm not pretending, I'm trying. You're not the same man who ripped that card."
    Rake's laugh cut deep. "That was yesterday! Even if I'm sorry for it now, it doesn't change anything. I'm still the guy who bullied you for nearly a cycle, so let's not pretend otherwise." He started walking away. "I'll meet you at the crime scene."
    I winced. Nothing would seal me in the role of victim faster than an emotional response. He was wrong though. I'd come a long way since Fader and Colcheck used to steal my lunch and stick bits of it up my nose. This was real life now, and I had resources that Rake didn't.

Chapter 6

    Outside, Rake was already gone so I got in the front of the bus alone while the sweeps piled into the back ready to look for quilla burrows and blood throughout the grounds. The sweeps were mostly city-folk interested in earning a bit of extra money by helping the police, but sometimes off duty officers were called in if they couldn't find a good enough excuse to get out of it.
    I expected to find Rake already in Kenrey's bedroom, but a call to the policeman at the gate confirmed that he was not on the premises. I called, but got no answer. My first instinct was that he was bashing Welker's head in, but I dissuaded myself of this. He was probably sulking in some bar. As he had so little interest in exonerating Peti, his absence was not amiss.
    My tablet bleeped with a message from Benrick. It was the list of bishons who might have wanted Kenrey dead. Rake wanted it to be some sort of anti-rape crusader, but it wasn't. If Benrick could be trusted, then the killer was most likely paid by someone on this list. None of them cared about Kathryn's rape. They either wanted something Kenrey had or feared something he would do. I just had to find out what it was. There was a good chance that the next person to inhabit Kenrey's compound, wear his robes, and use his title was the one responsible for his passing. Not if it was Peti though. The quilla wouldn't work for people like that. His acts of terrorism were motivated by causes much closer to vigilantism.
    CKN still hadn't announced Kenrey's replacement, so I returned to my experiment. I grabbed two of the sweeps to help. The lady was attractive, with dark hair, and explosions of freckles below her eyes. She rose only a head's length above my height, while the man looked tall enough to climb trees the way most people climbed steps. I wasn't enthusiastic about choosing a man that comparatively reduced me to a shih tzu running around his feet, but he was standing next to her, and my finger just drifted over.
    It could have been worse. There wasn't a molecule of fat on him, and his ears elongated to alien proportions as if someone had carved an ugly face into a fence post. Rarely did I consider myself the most attractive man in the room, but here I felt pretty sure of it.
    "Pyke," she said as she shook my hand in a way I chose to interpret as flirtatious. The other guy was Lemus, and his shake was as limp as his voice. I decided Pyke was going to do the running.
    "I've called you both away from the sweep because I want to do a little