Chapter 31
Jamie returned to the library, his thoughts a swirling mass of half remembered images. Everything he saw sent memories flying in new directions. His eyes burned and he wondered if it was the effect of the potion, the rock hitting his head, the memory change or pulling an all nighter to put the map together.
“Probably a combination of all three,” Jamie muttered. He shook his head at the thought. As he began to scan the shelves for any books on court proceedings a thought occurred to him.
“House?” he asked aloud.
“Yes Keeper?” came the reply. The voice sounded lazily sleepy, like someone drifting off to sleep in the summer sun.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes Keeper, the architect is here and it is difficult to stay awake.”
“I see,” Jamie said, wondering to himself as he did why he always used that phrase when he never really did see. “I just wanted to make certain you were all right.”
“Of course Keeper, the architect is fixing the problems, why would I not be all right?”
Personally Jamie thought the statement was the equivalent of saying things were okay because you were in the hospital but decided to let House drift away. He returned his attention to the shelves and continued looking. It seemed strange to him that he would be the judge in a case where he was also the victim, but figured Fey courts probably didn’t function on the same principles as human ones did. Jamie pulled a likely looking source from the shelf and turned back towards the door as he heard a noise.
“I thought you might be needing a bit of something,” Del said wheeling in the tea tray. Jamie had no idea how he had gotten the heavily laden tray up the staircase but as he knew brownies did not like to be questioned about their magic, he refrained from asking. From what Jamie could see, the try contained a stack of three different sandwiches as well as plain slices of bread stacked next to a jam pot and a dish of butter. There were also small piles of shortbread, sugar cookies and macaroons, all giving off the warm freshly baked aroma. To the side of the plates was a piping hot tea pot and a coffee pot, a container of creamer, the sugar bowl and a dish of sliced lemons formed a half circle around the two pots. Jamie noticed the cups and saucers didn’t match and instead of a spoon, the sugar bowl had a fork with it. Jamie put the book down on the edge of the desk.
“Are you okay Del?” Del looked surprised at the question.
“”I’m not the one who nearly had his head bashed in,” the little man said somewhat stiffly. Jamie looked at him, recalling that brownies took their role as protectors very seriously.
“You do know that none of this is your fault, right?” he asked. Del half shrugged and began loading a plate with one of the sandwiches and lots of the cookies. “Del?”
“It is my responsibility the keep the occupants of my chosen domicile safe.” Del said fiercely. Jamie sighed.
“I know. But this is a somewhat different situation.” Jamie say the muscle in Del’s cheek jump as his jaw clamped down. “It doesn’t occur but every couple hundred years as far as I can tell. And I think the last keeper to deal with it was blown up with the last House.” Del jerked his head up in surprise and stared at Jamie. Jamie took the plate from him before it could fall. “Why don’t you fix a plate and join me,” Jamie said. “There seems to be enough.” Jamie took the plate over to one of the comfortable leather chairs placed in front of the fireplace. Behind him he heard Del fixing his own plate and the small man was soon settling himself in the chair opposite Jamie. Jamie tried to keep the extra cookies from sliding off of his plate as he unearthed the roast beef sandwich below.
“You know what is going on? Del asked.
“I think I might,” Jamie said. “Two groups are fighting over the same space. Each want to use it at the same time.” He began leaving out all names and references to simplify matters. “I’m willing to bet that the rock this morning will turn out to be from one of the groups.”
“So they thought that by killing you they would gain access to the Lustan?” Del said. Jamie took a bite of his sandwich and thought about it as he chewed.
“Maybe, but maybe not,” he said after swallowing.
“Why maybe not?”
“Since I’ve been here there have been three attacks. One on house itself, which probably happened before I got here, one with the boulder in Albe’s bed and another with the man in a human suit.”
“And then today with the rock.”
“Yes and the rock today, which sort of looks similar to the rock in Albe’s bed but it really isn’t.”
“Why not?”
“To get the rock in Albe’s bed required a great deal of sophistication. Enough that House’s security was bypassed. And so far there are no clues as to who did it. In addition when we captured the false Keeper, whoever sent him made sure to kill him so that he couldn’t tell anyone about anything that he knew. The rock today was thrown by someone who was quickly apprehended.”
“You think he was set up?”
“Maybe. He might have just taken an opportunity as it presented itself. Or he might be set up by the other House so they look good. Did you notice anything odd about Albe?” Jamie had to swallow the rage as he thought about Albe being alone and killed.
“That he had the same sort of rock thrown at his head?”
“That and his body. He hasn’t been missing that long,” Jamie said thinking about the packet of letters he had found. “His body should still be decomposing not completely desiccated. It looked like it had been freeze dried.” Jamie shivered a little.
“Dehydrated,” Del said after a moment of thought.
“But why?”
“It would kill him fairly quickly and not let him call for help,” Del said.
“True but then why the rock?”
“Maybe the rock came first?”
“Then why dehydrate him? Jamie asked.
“I don’t know,” Del said slowly. They each sat in thought for a moment, sitting in heavy silence.
“I wonder if there is a way to figure out if the rock came first or second.” Jamie mused.
“Well,” Del said after a moment of thought. “If the rock came first wouldn’t there be more, I don’t know, um spatter on the underside of the rock?”
“It would be dried by now but even with it being outside there should be some stains on the bottom of the rock if that is what killed him.” Jamie forced himself to think of it objectively and not to think of it as Albe.
“There was nothing on the rock, just some dust where it touched. No stains.”
“Then the rock came second. I wonder how soon after?”
“How soon?”
“Yeah was the rock used right after death to hide features or was it used recently to make it look like whoever hit me also killed Albe?”
“Huh,” Del said thinking things over. “I couldn’t tell you.”
“Me neither. A doctor might.”
“What would a healer do for a dead man?” Del asked, puzzlement across his face. Jamie guessed Del wasn’t a big fan of homicide detective shows.
“There are some doctors who specialize in figuring out exactly how people died. They might know the time lines.”
“Seems sort of gruesome to me,” Del said. “But humans do tend to kill each other quite often. I suppose it makes sense that you’d have someone to figure it out. Once you’re dead though our healers won’t have much to do with you. Don’t know what kind of dead healer you’d get to look at him.”
“Good point,” Jamie said thoughtfully. “If he had come across Albe’s body in a normal way he would have just called the cops. Here that wasn’t a possibility. “Jim deals with the Fey who pass in the human world right?”
“The Lawyer man?” Del asked. At Jamie’s nod he continued. “Well yes he deals with us and them so to speak. But we don’t really need a lawyer. We need a healer, right?”
“True but Jim might know someone. At least it would be somewhere to start.” Jamie’s thoughts were interrupted by a huge yawn.
“I think possibly you might wait until tomorrow to make that call.” Del said.
“I don’t think I’m supposed to sleep after a head injury.”
“With what you took to cure it,” Del said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure the vial contained more than one dose.”
“In that case I may take a bit of a nap before looking into the court thing and calling Jim.” Dimly Jamie wondered if Jim would have any insight on the court he was supposed to judge. Jamie left Del stacking the plates on the cart and preparing to take it back down to the kitchen. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and yawned again. He pushed his bedroom door open, stepped inside and closed it behind him.
“Just a nap,” he said to himself toeing off his shoes. He fell on top of the bed fully clothed. “Just for a little while.” He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep almost immediately.
