Free Thieves of Islar: Book One of The Heirs of Bormeer by James Shade Page B

enunciate the question.
    “I need you to drop everything else you are doing right now,” he said. “I know that's going to cause some problems, but it can't be helped.”
    “What's going on?” Shaels asked.
    “Do you - did you know Henri deAlto?”
    Coatie frowned. He had heard the name, but he could not remember where. He was sure he had never met the man.
    He shook his head. “No, I don't think so.”
    Ortelli nodded and Coatie saw a subtle change in the man. The anger seeped away, or some of it did. It was replaced by something less than sadness. Remorse? Coatie could not tell.
    “Henri did some work for us over the years. Mostly document preparation and light leg work.”
    Coatie recognized the name finally. He had arranged payment for the man’s services. He remembered him mainly because the payments were unusual. They were made out as vouchers for equipment or training.
    “He was killed last night.”
    Coatie watched the guildmaster more closely, sensing something about the statement was troubling his leader even more than he was displaying. His hands curled into fists. There was something more than a business relationship behind his boss’s emotion.
    “There was a fire. I’ve heard the city guards are looking for Henri's children as potential arson suspects. The building is owned by Tonas Valche and Holger deLocke is in charge of the investigation.” Victor looked at him meaningfully.
    Coatie nodded. “Aye, that's a bad combination.”
    Valche was not a member of the Islar Thieves Guild, at least in any official sense, but he should have been. Few of the first rung guildmasters had ever been as miserly as the slumlord and some of the city's thieves would have trouble being as ruthless. Valche owned a large portion of Ninth Ward and had holdings in the Pineal and Dockside wards as well. Valche could exert influence with his wealth alone, but his power was further extended due to the businesses to which he rented, and he handled that power like a bully with a stick.
    Similarly, Holger deLocke was one of the most corrupt, vice-laden, and unsophisticated guards on the city’s payroll. It was a pairing that could cause the deAlto children nothing but problems.
    “Could it have been an accident?”
    “I don't expect that Henri's death was at all accidental.”
    “Guild work?”
    “Yes, I think so.”
    “Who?” Coatie was at once interested and worried.
    “I don’t know. Henri was more active in the guilds once. He was given reform.”
    Coatie considered this. It was not unusual to have a thief blacklisted from active participation in business in the city. The Guild Assembly could 'reform' you, making it impossible to find cooperative work amongst any of the upper rung guilds, as well as restricting access to fences, black market equipment merchants, gambling halls, or any other need one might have in the Islar underworld.
    “But we were giving deAlto work?” Coatie asked.
    Ortelli nodded. “The complaint came from a lower rung guild over a decade ago.”
    Coatie understood. Ortelli’s guild was a high second rung guild and one of the most influential and powerful in the city. Ortelli had taken liberties in violating a Guild decision, but he had some discretionary power to ignore it. The question Coatie had was why would he do so?
    “You didn’t agree with the sanction?”
    Victor waved his hand in the air. “It was an excuse. There was something personal behind it.”
    As Victor spoke, Coatie realized that while the motives for the action against deAlto may have been personal, so too were Victor’s.
    “In any event,” the guildmaster continued, “it is history.”
    “But it could be a claim that would validate killing the man,” Coatie observed.
    “Perhaps. But I don't think anyone will claim it. It was too minor and many of us have known Henri too long. I don’t know… That's part of what I want you to do – find out who killed Henri and why.”
    “And the other?”
    Victor smiled