A Cut Below (Kapamentis Crime, Book 1) by T.W.M. Ashford

Author:T.W.M. Ashford [Ashford, T.W.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

chapter

seventeen

Thaddeus came around with a worse hangover than the time he partied at a Qualian nightclub for sixteen straight hours. His mouth tasted of salty copper and none of his limbs were feeling very cooperative.

He couldn’t have been out cold for too long. For one thing, he wasn’t dead yet.

Whoever punched him in the back of the head had done a real number on his vision; it returned in swirls of grey and brown. Slowly, the warehouse came back into focus. He groaned. Considering what shapes the colours formed, he kind of wished his vision would go away again.

He was back down on the ground floor with his arms and legs tied to a bleached, splintered and disconcertingly damp wooden chair. A space amongst the freezer crates had been cleared for him. The four Mulochs from earlier were performing a stocktake a few metres away, paying him no attention. Thaddeus was surprised he wasn’t in a vegetative state given the size of their fists. Mulochs were seven-and-a-half foot bipedal bison not known for their diplomacy. With an average weight of over six hundred pounds, they didn’t need to be. Nobody wants to argue with a minotaur whose horns are longer than the width of their body.

One of them turned its dark brown eyes in his direction. Thaddeus’s guts scrunched together like a piece of wastepaper.

“Hey, boss,” it grunted to somebody Thaddeus couldn’t see. “The thief’s awake.”

They each put down their respective inventory and stared at him. Thaddeus didn’t bother trying to wriggle free from his restraints. Even if he somehow escaped, he wouldn’t survive the ensuing stampede.

A fifth Muloch stomped into view from behind the wall of ship parts. This one was even bigger than the others. The sharp point of one of its horns had been chipped off and a deep scar ran through the thick pelt across its shoulder. The others obediently stepped aside to make room.

“Funny,” she said in a voice like continental drift, as she brought her giant face close to Thaddeus’s, “I don’t remember buying one of these.”

The other Mulochs laughed on cue. This involved a lot of heavy snorting and the occasional stomping of a hoof.

“I ain’t no thief,” Thaddeus said as calmly as he could. “This has all been a big misunderstanding.”

One of the other Mulochs dropped a plank onto the floor in front of him.

“How’d you misunderstand your way through a broken window?” it asked.

“The boards were already torn off that window when I got here. It seemed suspicious, so I thought I’d take a look. I’m a private investigator. It’s my job to notice these things. But clearly everything is fine. Untie me from this chair and I’ll be on my way.”

“What must this human think?” the boss of Telkaari Imports asked the others. “‘Mulochs are so dumb. They’ll believe anything I tell them.’ Well, this human’s not so smart either, is he? If he was, he’d know being an investigator is even worse than a thief. You work for the Ministry?”

“Oh, absolutely not.

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