After they returned the key to the barkeep, they began to question her about the love letter. When they said the name Mr. Cotton she began to laugh. She informed them that he was the owner of the textile mill down town. They asked her for directions and she told them to take the road east and to take the right where the road dead ends. That was where they were headed now. The shops have all but cleared up and there was nothing but small shacks that appeared to belong to working class families. There were kids playing in the street and women hanging their laundry to dry and it gave Gabe a quaint sense of belonging.

           After walking for around half an hour, they could see the gate. It was large and made of some form of steel. The sign above the gate had Cotton’s Textiles carved into the top of it. Standing in front of the gate were to large, hulking men, in leather armor holding spears. Gabe approached the two men. “What da you want” asked one.

           “We are here to see Mr. Cotton” Gabe replied politely.

           “He ain’t accepting no visitors” the other large ugly man replied.

           Kat stepped up “Surely you can let us in we won’t be any trouble.” She said this while making herself look as small and innocent as she could, but they didn’t seem to pay her any attention at first. After a few more moments the guards looked at her.

          “Why should we let you in?” The first guard asked.

          “Because,” Kat replied “We are trying to get to the bottom of a murder that happened last night.”

          “That’s not our problem.” the guard replied in an almost matter of fact kind of way.

          “Then how about this?” Gabe replied. “We need to get in there because we are duly deputized members of the King’s guard.” Gabe noted that this had some effect on the guard that had been leading the conversation. He seemed to be the type of person who was cowed by authority. Seeing this Gabe decided to press his authority. “Are you going to step aside or should we go get captain Alterio? “

          “He said he is goin’ to get the captain, Wendel.” The slightly shorter of the two complained.

          “I cans hear um Ander.” Said Wendel.

          The two guards began to bicker back and forth for a few moments. Then shortly after that Wendel decided that they should move. “Right this way officers” he gestured through the gate door that Ander was opening up.

           “Thank you” Gabe said. “I will remember this and repay you one day.” On the inside of the gate Gabe noticed that there was two large buildings and several outhouses. The building to the right seemed to be some kind of dying station. There were several large vats under the roof of a large shed. In the back of the shed there seemed to be some kind of small office. The other building was a large walled building. There was a set of doors on the front of the building and windows ran down each side.

          Kat turned to look at the two of them and said “What do you think? I’ll slip into the office behind the vats if you want to go into the other building and see if he is in there.”

          “Ok, but be careful and don’t get yourself hurt” Gabe replied. He watched as Kat slipped off to take the long way around to the back of the shed. After he was confident that she wasn’t going to get herself in the trouble, he and Sinclair adjusted their armor and headed for the other building.

           He was not prepared for how noisy the building was when they opened the door. They saw a whole room of women sitting at pedal powered sewing machines. Each one had a stack of fabric pieces that they were sewing together to make different articles of clothing and liners for jackets. One of the girls looked up from her sewing, to eye them curiously. Gabe approached her table. “Hello, I’m Gabriel and I’m here with the King’s guard investigating the murder of Grace.” She gave him a little sad smile and looked down at her hands. “Did you know her?”

          “Ay, I knew the poor thing” she said looking back up to Gabe. “She used to work here at the textile mill. She was always pleasant to be around and would do her part to make sure everything ran smooth here. I was sad when I heard she died.”

          “You said she used to work here, what happened? Was she fired?” Gabe asked her.

          “Yeah, she was fired, but not for anything that happened here at work.” She looked around as if she was making sure she wouldn’t be heard. “Now, I ain’t no gossip and I hate when people go spreading around things that are none of their business. The scuttlebutt around town is that she was sleeping with old Mr. Cotton and had gotten pregnant. They say when Mrs. Cotton found out about it, she was none too happy. So, she had Grace fired and made sure that none of the other business owners would hire her labeling her as a thief. However, the rumor is that Mr. Cotton still sneaks out at night to go see her.” The young lady at the table looked smug as if she had just done her civic duty by telling them what she had heard and she returned to her sewing.

          “Did Mrs. Cotton know about their secret night meetings?” Sinclair asked leaning in.

           Her eyes lit up with a chance to keep gossiping “Well, I’m not sure. She doesn’t dare speak to us poor common folk, but lately they haven’t been getting along very well.” They continued speaking to her for a little while, but Gabe could tell that they were not going to get much more of importance out of her. Gabe started scanning the rest of the room looking for either Mr. or Mrs. Cotton. Towards one side of the room there was a man standing in a nice purple linen tunic. The man noticed them as they were walking in closer to get a better look at him.

           “Are you Mr. Cotton.” Gabe called over the drone of the sewing machines.

           The man looked at them with confusion as he crossed the room. “Yes, that’s me. I’m Thomas Cotton” He shook hands in greeting with Gabe and Sinclair. “How can I help you Gentlemen?” Gabe noted that his eyes lingered on the emblem of the King’s guard on their chest.

          “We are here to investigate the murder of a woman by the name of Grace.” Gabe gave him a friendly smile. Mr. Cottons face went pale with fear.

           “I can’t talk here. Can we ….”

           “What is meaning of this disturbance!” Yelled an incredibly loud and incredibly shrill voice. Gabe whipped his head towards the sound of the awful racket. What he saw was a tall, thin, woman with grey hair. The dress she wore was expensive looking but made her look like an evil stepmother form a cartoon movie. She held her long pointy nose in the air in a way that said you are beneath me and I shouldn’t have to lower myself in such a fashion by speaking to you. Gabe decided that he didn’t like her one bit. She walked down the stairs from some kind of office or observation room and headed there way. “Why are you two here interrupting the work that my poor girls are trying to accomplish?” Gabe looked around and sure enough production had slowed as the girls watched their interaction with Mr. Cotton.

           “We are here to question this man in connection to a murder.” Gabe said trying to sound as official as humanly possible as the woman reached them with her long bird like strides.

           “How dare you” She was now looking down her nose at him. “You come into my factory. Disturb my girls. And you have the nerve to question my husband over the murder of a prostitute.”

           Gabe was feeling very uncomfortable now. He was trying to figure out what he was going to say when Sinclair leaned in. “We didn’t tell her who we were investigating.” He whispered into Gabe’s ear.

          “No, we didn’t but this information is relatively well known around here. There seems to be some rumor mills working overtime.” Gabe whispered back. The severe looking Mrs. Cotton was steadily growing redder. She was being ignored and this is not something that she was used to or that she was going to allow.

          “Get out.” She screeched like some kind of harpy. “Get out and don’t come back.”

          “I’ll escort them out dear.” Mr. cotton put his hand on her arm to calm her down. He then turned to Gabe and Sinclair and started escorting them out of the building. When they walked out, he led them around to the corner of the building. “Meet me behind the grocer at sundown and we will talk.”

###

          Kat was light on her feet. She had been an athlete her whole life and she had a mastery over her body that was better than most. She used this to her advantage as she ducked and weaved around the vats and pipes. She would wait till the men working out here weren’t looking and would slip past them quiet as a shadow. She slipped past all of them and made it to the doorway to what she though must be a small office.

            She jiggled the doorknob to see if it was open. “Craptastic, its locked” she thought to herself as she reached for the bobby pins in her hair. Kats father was a locksmith and he had shown her how different types of locks work. With this one she knew that if she could get all the pins pressed up, she would be able to open the door. She fiddled with the lock for several minutes constantly watching to see if anyone would see her when, with a click, the lock was taken care of.  She opened the door and slipped inside.

            The room was small and consisted of a cabinet, a large roll top desk, a waste paper basket, and a chalk board with several production notes on it. She began by going through the cabinet. It was mostly dry reports on the production of textiles, with some deals made to farmers that grow cotton. She put the files back and turned her attentions on the desk. On top of the desk there several different written reports and a very well-worn and used ink bottle and quill. There was a large leather bond book that seemed to be a ledger of some sort and it only held financial information. She went through the drawers of the desk and there was nothing of interest in those either. Kat pouted to herself. There should be something interesting in this room there is always evidence in the locked office. In a moment of petty anger, she kicked the waste-paper basket knocking it over. She was just about to get up when she noticed the balled-up piece of paper lying at the mouth of the basket with one legible word facing out. The word Grace.

           Kat picked it up and let out a tiny exclamation in triumph. The letter was a partially written note to the murdered woman. She read it for a little a while and realized what it meant. She snuck back out the door of the room and started to work her way covertly to the front gate. She noticed the boys were talking to an older man at the corner of the building. She headed to the front gate and went down the street for a few yards and leaned on the wall that separated the textile mill from the rest of the street. She could have waited at the front gate but the two giant smelly men there would probably try to make small talk with her and it would be easier to avoid them instead of having a pointless conversation. A few minutes later Gabe and Sinclair exited the gate.

           They noticed her standing there and headed over. “I got something.” She said in triumph and she handed the letter to Sinclair. Sinclair read it and seemed impressed. He passed it to Gabe and he read it as well. “Do you think this means what I think it does?” Kat asked Gabe.

           “Well, if it does, you will have your chance to ask him about it tonight.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 6