53

  It had taken Nairo and Ridley only an hour to track down Dr. Watkins to a familiar address.

  "Odd place to find a doctor," Ridley said as they arrived at the Gilded Cage Gentlemen’s Club under the pale moonlight.

  "I can't believe we've ended up back here again," Nairo said frostily.

  "This case is full of suprises," Ridley said with a little grin.

  He strode towards the door and knocked. It opened only a moment later, and the same well groomed, wispy eyebrowed, doorman stood in the doorway.

  “Good evenin… oh it’s you again,” the doorman’s crisp accent dropped, and he eyed them with naked suspicion. “What do you want?”

  “We need to talk to Mama Noor,” Ridley said.

  “I’m afraid Mama Noor is…”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll only be a minute,” Ridley said, barging past the doorman.

  “I say… hold on one moment!” the doorman blustered. “You can’t just…”

  “Is she up in the garden?” Ridley asked over his shoulder, striding through the brothel like he was a regular.

  “I’d stop there if’n I was you,” a thick voice growled from Ridley’s right.

  Nairo turned and saw a thug who was all shoulders, no neck, pan faced, and ugly as a dog’s behind, holding a oneshot crossbow aimed directly at Ridley’s guts.

  “These ruffians are trespassing!” the doorman said, so outraged his voice was a tight trill of indignation.

  “Alright Chester, keep your voice down,” the thug growled. “No need disturbin’ the guests.”

  “We’re not trespassing,” Ridley said, his hands creeping towards his pockets.

  “Yer not?” the thug said.

  “Well… okay, technically we are.”

  “Move them hands another inch, and I’ll spray yer guts across the wall.” The thug raised the oneshot and the bow’s string creaked ominously.

  “Hold on!” Nairo said. “We just need to speak with Mama Noor. We were here last week, remember? We’re just following up on an investigation.”

  “Mama don’t like visitors dropping in on her unannounced,” the thug said. “Now you best walk out the way you came, before you never walk anywhere again.”

  “Harold?” a lyrical voice rang up the stairs. “What is going on, my sweet?”

  “Trespassers Mama,” the thug replied, not taking his eyes from Ridley. “Don’t worry, I was just about to sling ‘em out.”

  “Mr Reedley?”

  Ridley looked up the stairs, and Nairo saw the blush creep up his neck again.

  “Mama Noor,” he said with a faint smile on his face.

  The Madame of the brothel walked… no she practically glided, her footsteps were that light and elegant, down the stairs. She was dressed in all white again. Her pearl white shawl was draped perfectly over the back of her head and across her arms. She wore a two piece dress that seemed to be two pieces of long white cloth wrapped alluringly around her body, showing off her curves and her taut stomach. She wore gold bangles half way up both arms, studded with rubies, and a matching stud in her bellybutton. Her feet were bare with jingling gold anklets on her ankles.

  “You know these lot, Mama?” the thug, Harold, asked.

  “I do,” Mama Noor replied as she alighted the final step, the smell of sweet morning flowers following her. “But I do not know why they are here.”

  “We came to see Dr. Watkins,” Nairo said. “It’s about our investigation.”

  “I believe Manny has passed,” Mama Noor said. “Is your investigation not over?”

  “I wish,” Ridley muttered. “Litteragi was a dead end… pardon the phrase.”

  “I see. And what do you want with Emily?”

  “Who?” Ridley said.

  “Dr. Watkins,” Mama Noor said.

  “Dr. Watkins is a woman?” Nairo said.

  “Of course Sergeant, who else would be able to take such good care of my girls?”

  “Can we speak to her?” Nairo asked, still eyeing the oneshot in Harold’s meaty grasp.

  “Harold, you may lower your weapon, these people pose no threat to me,” Mama Noor said, laying a gentle hand on his forearm.

  Harold reluctantly holstered his oneshot and squinted menacingly at Ridley.

  “Emily is in her surgery at the moment. You may follow me.” Mama Noor turned and glided down the hallway.

  Nairo and Ridley, with Harold close behind them, followed her through the brothel. They made their way down a winding staircase to the basement. Mama Noor knocked and then opened the door. Inside was a surprising typical, and very out of place, doctor’s surgery. It was fastidiously clean, well kept, and with too much white everywhere. Sitting at a small desk was a grey haired woman with a kind face. She had soft wrinkles around her eyes and the corners of her mouth from years of smiling too much. Her wiry grey hair was tied in a messy bun on top of her head. She had emerald coloured eyes that glittered with warmth and certainty. She looked up from the file she was filling in and smiled at them.

  “Good evening Doctor,” Mama Noor said as she sashayed into the surgery.

  “Hello pet,” Dr. Watkins said. Her voice had an interesting twang that marked her as an immigrant to Valderia. It was a broad mountain accent, both friendly and gruff at the same time.

  “We have some guests who would like to ask you a few questions, are you busy?” Mama Noor asked.

  “Oh never too busy,” Dr. Watkins laughed. “I’m Doctor Emily Watkins.” She extended a gloved hand towards them, noticed it, laughed, and whipped the glove off before shaking their hands.

  “I’m Sally Nairo and this is Ridley,” Nairo said, shaking her surprisingly warm hands. “We’re Private Investigators working a case we hoped you might be able to help us with.”

  “Oh my,” Dr. Watkins said, raising her eyebrows. “I’m afraid I don’t much get out of this basement. I don’t know what I could help you with, pet.”

  “Do you mind if I remain?” Mama Noor asked, already sitting herself down on a comfortable chair in the corner of the room and pulling one of her knees up to her chest. “I do find these people so interesting.”

  “Sure,” Ridley said, drooling slightly as he admired the shape of Mama Noor’s long legs.

  “Well what can I do you for?” Dr. Watkins asked, scribbling a few more notes in her file.

  “We wanted to talk to you about some of your old patients,” Nairo said, handing over the well worn files to her. “Stacey Alibaster, Cecilia Brown, and Gwen Fortuna.”

  Dr. Watkins took the files and flicked through them surreptitiously.

  “Yes, it looks like they were mine, but I see so many girls…” Dr. Watkins sighed.

  “Every young girl who’s ever been in trouble north of Goblin Town has visited Dr. Watkins,” Mama Noor confirmed.

  “These three all worked for the Umbry theatre within the last decade,” Nairo said. “The file says they visited you not long before they left the stage. Maybe you remember this one?” Nairo handed her Cecilia’s file. “She would have been working at the theatre within the last few years.”

  Dr. Watkins furrowed her brows and read.

  “Yes… I vaguely remember her,” Dr. Watkins said.

  “Do you remember why she came to you?” Ridley asked.

  “Hold on.” Dr. Watkins heaved herself off her chair and shuffled over to a filing cabinet in the corner of the room.

  She began noisily opening and closing drawers, rifling through files, and tutting. After a minute or two, she let out a little triumphant shout and came back to them.

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  “Cecilia Brown!” she said, slapping the file down and opening it up. “Yes, it says here she came to because she was with child.”

  “Cecilia was pregnant?” Nairo said.

  “Yes. It was early, she was perhaps only a few weeks,” Dr. Watkins confirmed.

  “Cecilia had a child?” Nairo said thoughtfully.

  "No, she didn’t,” Ridley said, his voice dark and thick. “Remember her final words?”

  Nairo felt like she had been punched in the gut.

  “She said she would see her baby again,” Nairo whispered. “Did she miscarry?”

  Dr Watkins sighed and eased herself back into her chair, nodding morosely.

  “Yes. I remember her now. So many girls come in here because they don’t want the child. Cecilia though, was bursting with excitement. She was already picking names when I spoke to her. But she lost the baby. Maybe a month or so later. It broke her the poor duck.” Dr. Watkins closed her eyes for a moment and exhaled deeply.

  “Did she say who the father was?” Ridley asked.

  “Of course she did. She couldn’t shut up about it,” Dr. Watkins said. “Mr. Friedrich Shumacker.”

  “Of course it would be Fred,” Mama Noor said, rolling her eyes.

  “You know him?” Nairo asked Mama Noor, but it was Dr. Watkins who responded.

  “Know him? The man has planted more seed in this city than the entire Forestry department!” Dr. Watkins said, letting out a barking laugh. "Why, just last month I had another girl in pregnant by him!”

  “Shumacker’s got other kids?” Ridley asked.

  “No. Not for a lack of trying, but it’s the family curse,” Dr. Watkins said. “I’ve had no less than a dozen girls through my doors that have been knocked up by him. Every single one miscarries.”

  “What?” Nairo said. “Every single one? That can’t be right.”

  “What family curse?” Ridley asked.

  “The Owners,” Dr. Watkins replies. “Generations of inbreeding have left some of them almost incapable of bearing children. Friedrich is no different. The rumour is his mother miscarried eleven times before finally giving birth to Friedrich. And his swimmers seem even lazier than his father’s were.”

  “But he has a son,” Nairo said.

  “And that was a miracle all of its own,” Dr. Watkins said.

  “Leanne was always one to get her own way,” Mama Noor said.

  “You know Leanne Shumacker?” Ridley asked.

  “The city is very big but our world is very small,” Mama Noor said, giving him a little white toothed smile.

  “Ahh Leanne, yes I remember her,” Dr. Watkins said, smiling briefly. “Girl had more steel in her than an armoury. But even her, she miscarried, what was it? Three? Maybe four times before giving birth successfully. Which is actually quite good for the Shumackers.”

  “These other two girls,” Nairo said. “They were also romantically linked with Shumacker, could it be possible they visited you because they were pregnant as well?” Nairo asked.

  Dr Watkins read through the files again.

  “There’s a good chance,” she said. “Most of what I deal with is sexual diseases and pregnancies.”

  “If these girls were sleeping with Friedrich, then there is a good chance,” Mama Noor said. “The man loses himself in his passions quite easily.”

  “We noticed,” Ridley muttered.

  “But it could also have been because they wanted to abort the baby,” Dr. Watkins said. “That’s also not unusual. Many of these young girls know it would end their careers on stage if they were to get pregnant.”

  “So they come to you?” Ridley asked.

  “Yes. It’s not a service I imagined myself ever dealing in, but I saw the damage these girls were doing to themselves with their home remedies, and I had to step in and make sure they were safe.”

  “Home remedies?” Nairo said.

  “Blood Moon,” Mama Noor whispered the word as if it were a curse.

  “Oh,” Nairo said.

  “What?” Ridley asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Sorry ladies, I don’t have a baby oven, what's Blood Moon?”

  “Blood Moon dear,” Dr. Watkins said. “Or as it’s known in the medical field, Excillius Dierecta. It’s a toxic root that causes miscarriages and it’s a dreadful thing. It literally burns the baby from the body but it also causes nasty side effects. If you don’t know how to dose or even the purity of the extract you’re using, you can easily kill someone.”

  “I’ve only ever heard about it,” Nairo said. “There was a girl at my school who fell pregnant, and that was all anyone could talk about it.”

  “Yes, unfortunately most young girls are too embarrassed to visit a doctor, or they’re afraid their parents will be told,” Mama Noor said, a sadness in her voice. “So they go to these back alley apothecaries' where who knows what is being put into the concoction or even how much. Blood Moon is incredibly fickle in the wrong hands.”

  “Which is why I do what I do,” Dr. Watkins said. “It’s bad enough a young girl’s life can be ruined by a mistake without her risking death or internal damage on top.”

  Ridley drew his brows together in thought.

  “This Blood Moon stuff,” he said slowly. “It can kill someone, right?”

  “Yes,” Dr. Watkins said. "It's technically a toxin."

  “Does it leave any traces?” Ridley asked. “Like physical signs of its use, even if they survive?”

  “Not outwardly,” Dr. Watkins replied. "Internally there will always be some evidence, its horrid stuff. There’s scarring on the womb and damage to the uterus. Sometimes it causes burns in the throat or mouth…”

  “In the back of the mouth?” Ridley asked quickly.

  “Yes, usually.”

  “What does it look like?”

  “Look like? Well like a burn. Usually it festers. The mouth is a disgusting place, full of bacteria…”

  “Can it lead to rot?” Nairo asked as she realised what Ridley was asking.

  “Yes, the skin could decay over time if not properly treated. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason,” Ridley said quickly.

  Thoughts began to fly through Nairo’s mind. She was bursting to have an epiphany moment as more puzzle pieces flew into place.

  “And when they die… what’s it like?” Ridley asked.

  Dr. Watkins looked at him with mild disgust.

  “Horrible,” she replied after a moment. “Too much causes the body to go into shock. Capillaries burst, the lungs get burnt, and the body almost goes stiff with the shock of it.”

  “And it’s painful?” Ridley asked.

  “I’ve never seen it happen, but from the bodies I’ve examined afterwards, it looks deeply unpleasant.”

  Ridley exchanged a look with Nairo who nodded.

  “Thank you Dr. Watkins,” Ridley said. “You’ve been very helpful.”

  “I have?” Dr Watkins laughed. "Well, I’m glad to be of service.”

  “We won’t take up anymore of your time,” Nairo said, giving her a quick smile and resisting the urge to sprint from the room.

  “I hope you solve your case, pet.” The doctor smiled at them warmly.

  Mama Noor uncurled herself from the chair and looked at them curiously.

  “This is such a strange case, full of odd questions,” she said as she walked them out of the surgery.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Ridley muttered, his mind working furiously, his mouth on autopilot. “We’ve chased naked fat men, I got stabbed, we even went on a treasure hunt in a graveyard.”

  “What for?” Mama Noor asked as they walked up the stairs.

  Ridley was so distracted he didn’t even admire her shapely backside as he walked up behind her.

  “A gravestone.”

  “HH. Hubert Hess,” Nairo said absentmindedly as she kept slotting together all the disparate bits of evidence in her mind.

  Mama Noor froze on the top step and whirled on them.

  “What did you say?”

  “What? Nothing… it was just the name on the gravestone, Hubert Hess.” Nairo stammered.

  Mama Noor’s beautiful face curled into a vicious snarl and she spat on the floor.

  “Do not say that demon’s name in this place!”

  “You know him?” Ridley asked, momentarily snapped from his own mental meandering by the vitriol in Mama Noor’s usually sweet voice.

  “Know him? The man was a sadistic animal!” Her delicate hands had curled into fists. She took a shuddering breath and gathered herself. “I was only just starting out running my own establishment when that monster was still alive. Everyone in the industry knew of him and what he would do to girls. Beatings, cuttings, rapes, they were just tools of his trade. He took pleasure in it.”

  “We’ve heard,” Nairo said, swallowing dryly.

  “I saw!” Mama Noor said, her eyes glistening. “I saw what he did to them. He ruined them and he enjoyed it. I watched him once. He came to my place, this is before I had men of my own for protection, one of his girls ran away and I sheltered her. That animal kicked the door down, dragged her into the street, and went to work on her. I tried to stop him… but I couldn’t. He beat her… and he cut her… he cut her so much. He had a… a straight razor." Mama Noor's voice cracked and she stared into the distance as if she could see. thegruesome scene playing out before her. "And he just slowly peeled the skin from her face while he whistled, like it was little chore he had to do on his way home… I can still hear it now. The Farmer’s Dale, that little nursery rhyme for babies. He whistled and cut her until she stopped screaming…” A tear rolled down Mama Noor’s face and she turned away from them.

  Nairo felt her guts twist. She wanted to reach out and console her, but she knew that was the last thing a woman like Mama Noor would want. Hastily, the madame wiped the tear from her eye and then cleared her throat.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I think it is time for you to go… I need to go to my garden. Harold, show them out.”

  Mama Noor turned and fled up the stairs to her garden, her anklets jingling the whole way as she disappeared at the top of the stairs. Nairo and Ridley watched her go, both of them feeling like they just saw something so intimately painful that it was almost shameful to them.

  Harold looked up at his fleeing mistress and then glared hotly at Nairo and Ridley. He didn’t say a word as he threw open the door and watched them leave.

  Nairo and Ridley didn’t speak until they were halfway down the street.

  “Sounds like Hubert Hess got what was coming to him,” Nairo said, her jaw clenched in fury.

  “Yeah… hopefully it wasn’t quick.” Ridley said.

  They trudged along in silence, their heads bowed.

  “Do you know what all this means?” Ridley asked her, his hands in his pockets and his face buried behind the collars of his jacket.

  “Someone was poisoning Shumacker’s mistresses with Blood Moon,” Nairo replied.

  “Yep,” Ridley said.

  “Shumacker was poisoning his own mistresses and killing his own children?” Nairo said in disbelief.

  “He’s married and he’s an Owner. Can’t have some bastards running around trying to make a claim on the inheritance,” Ridley muttered. “He knocks ‘em up then makes sure the babies got rid of, and who gives a damn what happens to the woman?”

  “So he got Lana LaRue pregnant, spun her a bunch of nonsense about running away together, and had her poisoned?”

  “Could mean that LaRue’s death was an accident,” Ridley said. “They could have got the dose wrong and killed her by mistake.”

  “And Quinn?” Nairo asked.

  “Found out?” Ridley said with a shrug. “With all these OD’s going on, it was the perfect cover. They could dose him with the same drug and it would just get ruled an overdose.”

  “Shit!” Nairo said, running her hands through her hair. “I didn’t think Shumacker could be capable of this. It’s so… malevolent!”

  “The evil ones are always the best at hiding it,” Ridley muttered, lighting a smoke.

  “And now the tough question,” Nairo said. “Where is Shumacker?”

  “I don’t know,” Ridley said. “But if that sadistic fuck killed Quinn, there ain’t a rock big enough or far enough for him to hide under!”

  “We’ll find him,” Nairo said, her jaw set. “And he’ll pay for what he’s done.”

  “Yeah,” Ridley said, his hands curling around the knife in his pocket. “He’ll pay.”