The next day, Ayesha left her apartment and found Loki waiting for her. He smiled a brilliant smile and held out a cup from the cafe. “Milk tea, with espresso.”
“What’d you do, snoop through my trash?”
“No, I just told Sleeping Beauty that I was picking up your usual order for you. Your breakfast is in this sack with mine. I expect the sheriff’s office to reimburse me.”
“Fill out a form when we get to the office. You just cut thirty minutes out of my day.”
“Thirty useful minutes that can be used for walking in the park with me.”
“No.” Ayesha took a sip of her tea. “Loki, you keep trying to flirt with me, and I’m not biting. If helping me is just a way to get close to me, then buzz off.”
“So harsh,” Loki laughed. “Was I that obvious?”
“Yes. I appreciate your efforts to help, but your motive is all wrong and just annoying. So give me my food and go bother someone else.”
She started to reach for the sack, but he moved it out of her reach. “Just hold on, Sheriff. Getting closer to you was my original goal, I’ll admit that. But quite frankly, this murder has baffled and intrigued me. I’ll hang around and see it to completion, then I’ll hang up my sleuthing cap and leave you alone. It’ll work out for the both of us, right?”
Ayesha scowled, but had to admit that she was in need of someone, regardless of their goal. “Fine. Just remember, Haggard wrote me as someone pining after lost love. It’ll never work between me and anyone else. So if you try your infamous trickery on me, you’ll be the next body in town. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Loki answered, handing her the bag of food. “What say we go to the office and look over things before you officially open?”
“Or you could just let me sit for a few minutes and enjoy a meal sitting down for once.”
“Or that.”
To his credit, Loki did eat his muffins in silence, letting Ayesha eat her food with more pleasure than she had in quite a while. She licked chocolate off her finger, and downed the last of her tea. She let out a sigh and ran her tongue around her teeth to gather any crumbs.
“Better?” Loki asked.
“Yeah. Thanks.” She stood up.
“Wait a moment. Just let… let me savor this beautiful moment. Ayesha, the infamous She, has actually thanked me, Loki, for something.”
“Would you rather I shot you? Cuz I can do that. I just have to fill out paperwork.” Ayesha pushed her trash into a nearby dumpster, glad she didn’t blush easily. He had a habit of throwing her off balance and embarrassing her. She hadn’t always been so cranky.
“I’ll be fine. Shall we go?”
At the sheriff’s office, Ayesha wasn’t surprised to see Hera, Eir and Ixtlilton out front, waiting for her. She was surprised that there weren’t more townsfolk gathered there.
“Good morning, Sheriff,” Hera said briskly. “Loki.”
“Madam Mayor,” Loki replied, bowing.
“Hera, if you want me to tell you what is going on with the murder, I don’t know much yet.”
“I didn’t expect you to. I simply came to ask what you did know. And also to scare off the gawkers and gossips.” Hera smiled her infamous cold smile. Ayesha suddenly found herself sympathizing with anyone who ran afoul of their mayor.
“Ixtlilton and I came to report on what we found. The body is in Hades’ cold storage,” Eir said.
Once inside, Ayesha pulled some chairs (from where Fenrir had pushed them against the wall) and dragged them into the office. They all sat down, and Loki started a pot of coffee brewing.
“So what is known so far?” Hera asked.
Loki held up his notebook and recited: “Victim is Georgie Porgie, resident of the northern triad section of town. He rented from the Crooked Man, lived in the Crooked House. Was identified by one of the Three Pigs, Elmer, and Mother Goose. He was found yesterday morning around 11, by Toodles of the Lost Boys. He was in the alley between the blacksmith’s and the Happy Time Cafe. That’s mostly it.”
Ixtlilton looked at Eir, who motioned for him to go ahead. “We may not know what exactly killed the victim, but we know that he was in a very serious fight. Several fractures, contusions, and damaged organs indicate that it was mostly one-sided. He did fight back at least a little, as his knuckles were cut and bruised. Most of the bruises show that he was hit with probably fists, but there are also several larger places where he was hit with possibly a rock or something with an uneven surface. My guess is that he was simply beaten to death.”
“I’ve read that phrase, but never understood it fully.” Loki was busy stacking up papers from the deputy’s desk, tossing a few papers into the trash can.
“Basically, he was beaten so badly that he bled to death internally. And please don’t quote that meme about how blood is supposed to be on the inside anyway.” Eir quirked her eyebrow at him.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“So… it’s conceivable to say that he may have been attacked by someone with a weapon, managed to fight back and disarm his opponent, but his opponent overpowered him and beat him so badly that he died.” Hera tapped her long glossy nails on her armrest.
Ayesha nodded. “Seems like a logical chain of events to me. But whoever did something like that is most likely nursing some of their own bruises, especially on their hands.”
“Something to consider,” Loki spoke up, stopping his cleaning. “He likely died between Sunday night and Monday morning, right?”
“That’s what we’re guessing,” Eir said. “Neither of us are coroners, so we can’t really give a time of death easily.”
“Well, Sunday night was the big brawl at the pub, remember?”
Ayesha groaned as she remembered. “Yeah. And there were a lot of people involved in that. It took a long time to calm it down.”
Hera sighed. “I apologize on behalf of my ex-husband. He probably won’t be apologizing himself anytime soon.”
Ayesha waved her hand. “I’ve come to expect it. If he can actually pay the fine instead of doing community service, I’ll be surprised. Regardless, as many brawlers as there were, a lot of them are probably nursing their own wounds right now. So identifying someone just got harder.”
“Well, do you know of anyone who has a reason to want him dead?” Hera asked.
“That’s what I have on my list to ask people.” Ayesha lifted her notepad off the desk to illustrate. “Also, what kind of a person he was, if he claimed blood kin with anyone else in town, anyone claimed blood kin with him, yadda yadda yadda.”
“I’ll check with my staff and see if anyone has filed complaints against him, see what I can dig up on his history.” Hera stood up. “I think I should get out of your way now, ladies and gentlemen. This town unfortunately won’t run itself.”
“I wish it would,” Ayesha muttered, then spoke clearly, “Thank you for coming, and for helping.”
Random English Major Thoughts 