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[seekerofsecrets]

Kate Morgan, Renaissance scholar turned private investigator, has only just arrived and has already encountered the Mansion's bloodier side. Her olive skin is pale, but she's composed enough as she enters the main room with blood on her clothes and without the coffee she'd sought out the kitchen to get

Comments

[space__puppy]

That's news to me. Need some help?

[seekerofsecrets]

Yes, please. Do you know where I could find a doctor?

[mancalledspade]

"Christ." He's already heading towards the kitchen and more or less pulling Kate along unless she forcibly resists him. "When did you find them?"

[seekerofsecrets]

"Just now," she says, still too shocked at what she's found to offer much resistance, although normally she would probably be annoyed. "I'm guessing they haven't been there long."

[mancalledspade]

"How badly is the woman hurt? Did you see anyone leaving before you found them?" His businesslike manner suggests that he's used to crime scenes, and to blood.

[seekerofsecrets]

"A stab wound in each shoulder, a cut across the throat -- that one's not much more than a bad scratch -- and a bad intestinal wound. She might make it a week or so, with proper medical care. If she doesn't go into shock. No, I didn't see anyone, and she's unconscious by now, so she won't be any help."

[sweariwontdie]

"What?" Armand is startled, since they seemed alright last he saw them.

[seekerofsecrets]

"A man and a woman. Eastern European, I think -- maybe Russian, but it's hard to be sure. She can't speak much, and probably shouldn't try. It's pretty gorey. Do you know where I can find a doctor? He's gone already, and I don't think there's much to be done for her, but . . . it's worth trying, right?" The nature of her job makes it hard to get close, but Kate likes people, and finding them in pools of their own blood is upsetting.

[oilwithvinegar]

"Well, yes. I put them there." Paul smiled cooly at her. "It was self-defense."

[seekerofsecrets]

"I've defended myself lots of times, and I've never shot one person in the head and left another with an intestinal wound."

[oilwithvinegar]

"Pre-emptive self-defense. They tried to kill me once, they'll try to kill me again."

[seekerofsecrets]

"That's what reporting someone to the proper authorities is for."

[alcuin_delaunay]

Alcuin can try to help, at least enough to stop the bleeding. He heads for the kitchen at once, asking Kate questions as he goes. "Does anyone know what happepned? How long ago was this?"

Kneeling by Vera, he touches her arm gently. "Miss--can you speak?"

[seekerofsecrets]

"I don't know exactly what happened. A stab wound in each shoulder and one in the abdomen. I couldn't tell you much more."

Vera, for her part, is almost entirely unconscious, curled around the blade in her belly. There's a very weak noise from somewhere in the back of her throat, but it's a sound of pain, not really a response.

[mancalledspade]

Spade looks up from where he'd been at Vera's side, trying to stop the bleeding via pressure. He moves out of Alcuin's way.

"Miss Morgan, how long ago did you find them?" He moves to the very dead man, doing a cursory examination of the corpse.

[seekerofsecrets]

"Just a minute or so before I went looking for help. I don't know how long they'd been there, but it can't have been too long since she's still breathing."