“No.” He obviously read all that I wasn’t saying in my one word reply.
“You need to tell us everything, Kennen. It’s the only way we can get you released.”
“We need to hire a negotiant!”
I compressed my lips. “We did. It’s not enough for you.”
I had read the laws as I’d promised myself. Noble had been right, damn it.
“But then, what is going to happen to me? What am I going to—”
“Answer our questions, for a start.” Noble’s tone was cold, but he didn’t look as completely unapproachable as he had that first night. “What were you doing around the White Stag when you were arrested?”
Kennen sent me a questioning glance, his face a mirror of the sharp planes and dark-circled brown eyes I had sported before Rosaire’s hearty stews. Though unlike me, his wide eyes made him look comically innocent. I had a vague stirring of hope thata jury would see him that way too. I nodded encouragingly in response.
He ran a hand through his dirty hair, making it stand on end. “Ferris and Mari were fighting again that night. I had to get out.”
The flare of hope shot into guilt.
“I walked for a while. Passed a number of empty taverns—no action in any of them, no friendly faces. But I had a few gold to spend.” He looked at me with a grimace. “So I headed east.”
Ferris had distributed pocket money with the new clothing and items we couldn’t afford—part of the reason for the fight in the first place.
“Did you buy anything? Did anyone see you?”
“No.” But his gaze turned shifty. “There was a raucous tavern. I could see it from a block away. Looked perfect for...er, anyway, it looked perfect. So I headed for it. Wasn’t three strides to enter when I heard a noise. Like the tap of metal against stone. Someone screamed, ‘You!’ Then there was this weird sound—like the screech of a cat.”
His eyes pinched together. “I walked toward the sounds. A woman was...lying there. I reached down, then everything went black. I woke up in a puddle of blood with a knot the size of a grapefruit on the back of my skull.”
“Did you see anyone else? Anyone nearby?”
“No. Must have heard me coming. Hurt like the devil when I woke. I couldn’t stop moaning. Then I saw the body.” He shivered. “Lying there, right next to me.”
“How long do you think you were out?”
“Don’t know.” He scratched his head, flattening one section and making another stand further on end. “Maybe twenty minutes? Was about ten when I left the house, and I heard a guard say it was half past eleven as they were locking me up.”
“After you woke up and saw the body, what did you do?” Noble asked.
“I touched her arm. It was so…cold. I tried to warm her. I didn’t know what to do. I justsatthere, looking at her, skull pounding. Then this man came barreling down the alley and tackled me. Just kept yelling. Wouldn’t listen to a word I said. They had me shoved into this rathole not twenty minutes later.” He kicked a piece of straw. “They thinkI’mthe Vein Ripper. Unbelievable.”
He paused, his eyes widening. “Spirits.” He looked as if someone had just struck him again. He started frantically patting at his wrists, his chest. “The Vein Ripper hit me. He could have doneanythingto me!”
“His victims have all been women so far. I doubt you were quite his style, even with that shirt,” Noble said.
Kennen looked down at his overly frilly shirt in bemusement. “Who are you?” he asked in honest confusion.
“Someone your sister hired.”
“The negotiant?”
“No.”
He looked at me. “Marietta?”
“I made an agreement with him.”
The cogs turned. His face flushed from stark white to angry red. His fists clenched the bars of his cell. “How dare...” His voice trailed off as his indignation turned again to confusion. His gaze took in all of Noble’s...everything.
