PREVIOUS: 025: Pierogi Punishment
LUCYA: "...So we're trying tae get back inside? Do ye know what ye're lookin fer?"
Jagal gives her a "coulda fooled me" kinda look, but there are more important things going down here.
JAGAL: (nods) "The good stuff. The, uh, guy came right over to check on his 'wares' after trial. Couldn't get too good a look without giving myself away, though."
JAGAL: (shrugging) "Just gotta figure out how to actually get into it."
Jagal is prepared to gripe about Keela's presence again when he notices someone else. Unhurried, almost seeming to wander aimlessly were he not clearly sticking to the path, comes a hunched figure smoking tobacco.
LUCYA: "Auh, 'tis Mr. Columb! What's he doing here..."
Lucya presses her ear against the wall.
LUCYA: "Perhaps I am nae sneeky, but I can eavesdrop! Hoho!"
Jagal snorts and positions himself for furtive peeking if necessary.
JAGAL: (more quietly than usual) "Sure, congratulations."
Still pacing, Keela isn't quite within range of the door when Columb knocks. She still strides over quickly to answer, though there's a pause as she looks over the person standing there.
KEELA: "...Can I help you."
COLUMB: "Oh pardon me, ma'am, I was just-- my dog, y'see, he's an ol' fogey and he's picky 'bout his treats! And we're fresh outta those winter cucumbers-- can I come inside? I'll only be a minute, ma'am..."
He tries to sidle past her through the front door.
KEELA: "We're closed."
Keela doesn't quite manage to keep him out.
COLUMB: "It'll be just a minute! So sorry ma'am, here's this for the trouble, yeah?"
He pulls a handful of tobacco leaves out of his coat pocket and places them reverently in her hands, then waddles off towards the back of the store.
KEELA: "........"
For a minute, Keela seems stuck on what she's supposed to do with the tobacco before she sets the leaves on the counter. It's enough time for Columb to make good headway, but she at least intercepts him at the door to the back.
KEELA: "Wrong way."
Keela gestures towards where the vegetables seem to be located.
COLUMB: "Oh sorry, still learning my way about the place, y'know how it is..."
Columb is standing directly in front of the now-upright shelf, the one that killed Pearce. Exactly how he found it so quickly is unclear, but he doesn't budge. He cocks his head to the side and scans the room.
COLUMB: "Say, was your husband-- so sorry for your loss, ma'am-- was he very tall?"
Jagal ducks again. Keela's brow furrows a bit at Columb going in a completely different direction. She doesn't seem all that surprised, though—if indeed she ever does.
KEELA: "You don't have permission to be here."
Columb fumbles around in his pocket for... something. He doesn't appear to find it.
COLUMB: "Hm? Where'd it go? Ah well, I'm retired anyway."
He turns back to Keela with his palms outstretched.
COLUMB: "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am, it's just, y'know, old habits die hard and all. Sometimes I'll hear somethin' 'bout a case, and it just gets... stuck in my head."
COLUMB: "Like this one... If Pearce had a little side business-- and we got plenty testimony sayin' he did-- then where did he keep his stuff? And I was just thinkin', if he had a little trick to it, it's gotta be somewhere he could reach, right?"
KEELA: "I say he didn't."
KEELA: "Out."
At Columb's moment of confusion, Jagal fishes something shiny out of his own pocket to squint at. Hmm...
Lucya looks over Jagal's shoulder and stifles a gasp.
LUCYA: "What have ye done?! He's ginnae-- wait, he's a senior warden? But he's so..."
COLUMB: "Just a moment, ma'am! I'm almost done."
He squints around the bottom of the shelf a few moments longer, then sighs and makes his way over to the vegetables.
COLUMB: "S'pose he was tall after all."
More concerned with the emblem on the badge—which he just can't quite put his finger on—Jagal either doesn't really register Lucya's statement or just isn't impressed. He vanishes the badge away again.
JAGAL: "You're not as quiet as you think you are."
LUCYA: (pouting) "I know that..."
JAGAL: "Then why..."
Jagal trails off with a disapproving shake of his head.
Keela bristles but just watches the retired senior warden now. Hopefully he's really on his way out...
COLUMB: "Thank you ma'am, keep the change."
Looking a little dejected, Columb stuffs a few winter cucumbers under his arm, drops a few coins on the counter, and bumbles out of the store.
KEELA: "......."
Keela watches the exchange of goods with a sharp eye and sees no reason to intervene with Columb's exit. She lets out a long breath when he seems to be gone. Strange little man.
The other strange little man glimpses Columb stepping out the door onto their side of things and quickly makes himself scarce.
All of a sudden, Columb stops in his tracks, feels in his pocket for something, then runs back into the store.
COLUMB: "Sorry, sorry! Just one more thing..."
He runs straight up to the grieving widow, holds out his hand, and opens it to reveal a tiny package.
COLUMB: "Smell this, please, ma'am."
JAGAL: "...Oh."
Jagal awkwardly swings around to watch through the window upside-down this time, from the roof.
One door lock already in hand, Keela slowly lowers it and glowers at the intruder.
KEELA: "......."
Keela apparently smells it enough to wrinkle her nose, intentionally or otherwise, but she's clearly in no mood to comment.
COLUMB: "See, we found this on the second victim's body, so I've just been goin' around seeing who recognizes the smell..."
He smiles coyly on his way out, for real this time.
COLUMB: "Thank you, ma'am."
With the few moments of extra time, Lucya's managed to obscure herself inside a bush, escaping the senior warden's notice as he leaves for home... probably. She plans to stay there until Keela is well out of sight, too.
After letting out one more breath, Keela does a final sweep of the shop, puts out the lights, and locks up. She does cast a wary look around for any stray wardens, but none are 'in sight. She hurries home to keep it that way.
Jagal gives it a few minutes before hopping off the roof. He stretches until it disagrees with his wound, then settles down.
JAGAL: "Well. Think they bothered to get a new lock?"
Lucya carefully extracts herself from the bush-- a few snags on her dress are inevitable, but nothing rips, at least.
LUCYA: "We shall find out, aye?"
Jagal isn't sure what's so funny about Lucya slowly emerging from the heart of a bush, but he's set off snickering either way.
JAGAL: "That we shall."
🎲 Jagal rolls Secure an Advantage to unlock the door. He misses, but burns momentum to make the result a weak hit.
Jagal strides over to the back door and scans the lock.
JAGAL: "Nope. Tsk, tsk. Shoulda taken my advice—at least then this might be a challenge."
Jagal cracks his knuckles and squats down to get after this thing with full confidence. After a few moments of nigh-inaudible clicking, he moves to pull the lock off, but it doesn't budge.
JAGAL: "..."
Jagal gives it another go. One more. His attempts clearly aren't going as well this time. But it ought to be easy. What could be throwing him off? He wouldn't consider himself a victim of stage fright, but has he ever actually had someone watch him do this before? Being watched is pretty antithetical to the entire point of picking locks.
JAGAL: "I—Shoo. You're... blocking my light."
Jagal isn't relying on any visual cues in this venture at all.
LUCYA: "Hmm? But I'm nae..."
Lucya scoots anyway, but his gripe instigates the opposite of its intended effect-- she moves closer and squats next to the doorknob, watching his hands closely.
🎲 He rolls again and gets a strong hit with a match!
JAGAL: "Th..."
Jagal grumbles something about her not knowing how light works before shaking out his hands a bit. There's no reason to be psyching himself out over something he actually definitely knows he can do. Ugh.
Jagal adjusts the angle of the lock to give her a better view, just to prove something, or whatever, and goes again.
The lock comes off without a hitch. Lucya lights up and claps her hands silently.
Jagal swoops the lock away and opens the door with a little bow.
JAGAL: "After you."
Since it's clearly in a gloating matter, he's not too worried that might come off as polite or anything.
LUCYA: "Thank ye!~"
Lucya doesn't care much whether it's supposed to be sarcastic or not.
Once again, Jagal slips inside behind Lucya, though there's no one to surprise with his presence this time. Just a bunch of shelves.
JAGAL: (wrinkling his nose slightly) "All right..."
...Now he has to remember what he's supposed to be looking for.
LUCYA: "Hummm... This is the shelf, aye?"
Lucya finds the murderous shelf pretty easily, and looks over the top and the bottom.
LUCYA: "I wonder what Mr. Columb was on about, askin' if he was tall or nae... He wasnae as wee as you, at least."
Jagal is fine leaving the top shelf to Lucya for the time being.
JAGAL: (a little sour) "Yeah, I saw his body, thanks. For longer than you did, too."
JAGAL: "But we already knew he could reach the top shelf, more or less. What difference should it make?"
Lucya makes a noncommittal noise and leans over him to look at the brackets on top of the shelf. No gimmick here... though they do look suspiciously loose, and there's no damage on the wall.
Jagal hunkers down to examine the bottom-most shelf. The way they're currently stationed, if he somehow compromises the stability of this thing, it would definitely hit Lucya before it could ever get to him. So, a good time to take that risk.
JAGAL: "...Mm?"
Feeling along the edges, he pauses.
JAGAL: "Pretty big splinter tryin' to come—"
Something clicks.
JAGAL: "—Ah."
LUCYA: "Auh!"
Lucya feels a shift in the wood underneath her arms, and immediately ducks down to inspect the shelves again. The top one seems to have a loose back, and she reaches in to pry it open.
LUCYA: "There really was a secret shelf... but..."
Well... it just wasn't as big as she hoped.
Jagal makes a questioning noise and sidesteps as needed to stand back up. He doesn't have the finest view of the top shelf from here, but even with the backing removed, there doesn't seem to be a lot to see, anyway. Some scratches.
JAGAL: "No yrr?"
Jagal pauses to mutter something about the smell before shaking it off.
JAGAL: (brow furrowed) "But this wasn't where he ran right after trial. Was in the back somewhere."
LUCYA: "Nay, naught back here but some wee scraps a paper... Hm?"
She pulls one of them out to read... Pretend Amelia wrote another riddle.
LUCYA: "Auh! Another riddle! What is with these... Ye want up?"
She motions to offer him a lift.
Although he'd normally be happy to just go ahead and climb the shelves for a look, he's in a bit of a mood at the moment and instead just goes to snatch the note out of Lucya's hand.
JAGAL: (examining it) "..."
Jagal still can't read.
JAGAL: (squints) "Not the same kinda paper as the other one, is it?"
LUCYA: "Eh..."
Lucya looks at him a bit nonplussed.
LUCYA: "Nay, none a these are. I'll just take 'em all, I s'pose..."
As she gathers up the notes in one hand, she notices a stray leaf, oddly drained of color, with a little white clump on its underside. She hands it to Jagal carefully.
LUCYA: "Now what d'ye make a that?"
Jagal lifts an eyebrow but carefully grips the proffered leaf at the edges. He doesn't take long to scan it.
JAGAL: "Little late for me to worry about the cosmetic uses if this's what it looks like, but..."
JAGAL: (peers at the clump and whistles) "Not too late for somebody to have a good time. Or kill all your crops. Maybe both."
LUCYA: "W-what d'ye mean..."
Lucya's mental Field Guide To Ironlands Flora is heavily skewed towards the edible, but she scrounges through it and comes up with some horror stories she'd heard from someone who knew someone at a circle up north, who came to Mossgrove begging for food one year...
LUCYA: "That's whiteout?! But... Mr. Pearce... just what was he thinking?!"
Lucya had been trying to keep some sort of sympathy for the man, but that was evaporating quickly.
JAGAL: "Huh?" (waving it off) "Oh, you can use the blanched plants to prevent scars. Not that it's popular given, you know, everything else."
JAGAL: (snorts) "Thinking he'd turn a good profit? It's pretty pricey stuff."
Accordingly, he swiftly vanishes away the leaf and its contents to pockets unknown. No cause for concern.
LUCYA: "Maybe, but-- auh, we must be careful! Ye must have some way tae store it safely, such that it dinnae spread..."
She searches the shelf again for any more remnants of the vile stuff.
JAGAL: "I'm not gonna wander off to some farm and rub expensive goods all over your crops. And I'm not gonna lose track of it, either, believe me."
Satisfied he's not finding anything else in this shelf, Jagal sidesteps towards the back of the store.
JAGAL: "Might be more wherever the awkward guy stashed the rest of the goods. Should be back around here... somewhere."
Jagal sounds oddly sure of himself for very clearly having no idea of the details here.
LUCYA: "Humm, alright..."
She seems convinced enough that he has a vested interest in handling the stuff carefully. Without much comment, she follows him to the back of the store to be a second pair of eyes.
Jagal starts to skim the woodwork in the back of the store, not bothering with any of the actual stock at the moment.
JAGAL: "Could try to sniff out the yrr, but I'm not exactly a hound here." (snorts) "Any chance we could borrow the warden's?"
Beat.
JAGAL: "...He's gonna show up again if I mention him, isn't he." (waving) "You heard nothing."
LUCYA: "I fear I dinnae know the smell-- Auh!"
She covers her ears and sticks her tongue out a little. She heard nothing!
LUCYA: "Maybe 'tis outside?"
Jagal snorts. Amazing.
JAGAL: "That is where he came in from, probably."
Jagal pauses, realizing he didn't check if her ears were still covered, before deciding not to worry about it. He's used to just talking to himself, anyway.
Jagal ducks a head out the door first to check for onlookers before moving back to start with the frame.
JAGAL: "Hmhm~"
With a smug little look, he pulls on another hidden latch. Something back inside clicks.
Jagal bows. Some wall paneling pops loose not too far from Lucya. She claps again, quietly.
LUCYA: "Auh! How do ye do that?"
She carefully pries the panel open and peeks inside.
Jagal's grin couldn't get much wider. He's clearly enjoying this, even though rising from the bow hurts a little more than going into it did.
JAGAL: "It's a gift."
Behind the panel, the items on top seem to be rather hastily thrown in, though it seems better organized farther down. It just looks like strange odds and ends at first, but...
Perched on a cabinet for a better vantage point, Jagal plucks out a tightly-wrapped squarish package smelling of rot.
JAGAL: "Mine."
And it's gone.
Lucya was just thinking that his smile was kind of nice when she's cruelly reminded that Jagal's skill at lockpicking and sniffing out secrets is because, unfortunately, he steals things for a living.
LUCYA: "That wasnae evidence, was it?"
She looks over the hurriedly-placed top shelf items for anything particularly out of place.
JAGAL: (holding up his empty hands innocently) "What wasn't evidence?"
Among the odd things that haven't been stolen are a rolling pin, a trowel, and... the store register? As well as a small green vial that doesn't feel so out of place aside from the crack where the contents are trying to seep out.
Jagal squints at the array of items. Something... seems relevant. For some reason. He might need a minute.
Lucya huffs at him and reaches for the store register, but notices something off about the rolling pin next to it...
LUCYA: "Ehh? I-isn't that blood?!"
JAGAL: “That, or somebody’s real secretive about their seidrberry pies.“
There's some on the trowel, too... And this register is strange, written in some sort of code. It makes her think of the odd little poem they found.
LUCYA: "Should we just... take all of it??"
Jagal takes the trowel to inspect idly.
JAGAL: “You’re asking me. If we should take more things.”
Jagal snorts and stows the trowel.That's answer enough.
Lucya rolls her eyes and makes room in her things for the rest of the evidence.
LUCYA: "If it'll help find out who did it..."
JAGAL: "Whatever you gotta tell yourself~"