Chapter Seven

  Part Two

  Line was in the Candour Monastery library. One of the only places left that comforted her. She had chosen a book at random, but she couldn’t help but think that choosing randomly was pointless. Since she had already memorised the complete library here, she didn’t open the book, just stared at it. She came to realise that she spends too much of her time in the monastery.

  But she had nothing else to do. Vax’dian was still not back yet from his family visit, so the reason that made Line want to leave was useless right now. Line sighed. In the five years that she has been here she had never felt this bored. She blamed Vax’dian for this.

  That’s when she noticed that Arasha was moving through the maze of books.

  Line stood from her desk and made her way to Arasha “Arasha? Your still here? I would’ve thought that you would be in Yor?”

  Arasha looked up at her “how come?” she was flipping through a public record.

  “With how busy you always seem to be I though you would’ve been working on a case”

  “I am” Arasha thought for a moment “come here” Arasha took Line’s arm and led her to desk Arasha was using. This desk was covered with public records, all opened to varying different people “since Divan isn’t helping me, do you mind helping?”

  “Of course I’ll help” anything to stop her boredom “what is all this?” she picked a record to look at.

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  “they’re all missing”

  Line looked at her “you’re looking into the missing persons reports?”

  “I am. The king specifically asked for me to look into them, just see if they are connected or anything. But you should know by now that there a lot more happening recently”

  “I do. But I usually only take murder cases. I’ve never been involved with a missing person case before”

  “well, now is a good time to get some experience”

  “alright” Line picked up another record “what do you want to do first?”

  “I was going to talk to family members first while I waited for the full reports. You should ask Ali to talk to a few, if we split up, we can save some time. Maybe we can save a few people”

  Line gave a nod “I’ll go get her”

  “we’ll start with the oldest and work our way up from there”

  “how many are there?”

  “twenty-six”

  “Twenty-six?”

  “Yes”

  “Why are we only just starting to look into this?”

  “because the reports don’t happen consistently, that’s why it’s taken so long to have someone look into them all together at the same time”

  “...this is bad”

  Arasha sighed “it is. This could be serial killer that managed to stay under the radar”

  “And if there are twenty-six missing persons reports, there might be more that haven’t been reported”

  “The king wants this over by the end of the week”

  “That’s only five days, we need more time”

  “well, if you wish to be flogged for asking for more time then be my guest. But right now we have no other choice”

  It’s probably best she didn’t receive any punishment directly from the king if she can help it, that would open up many complications down the road “fine. Ali can take eight, and we’ll take nine each. It might take a few days though”

  “I know” before Line left to go get Ali, Arasha spoke up again “Line. Thank you”

  Line smiled “you’re my friend Arasha, you don’t need to thank me”