Chapter Two
A scant few hours later, the body of Verinka Tarasovna lay in the morgue beneath The Malykt’s temple. The police had studied her as much as they pleased, though without uncovering any very startling information. She was estimated to be in her mid-forties, with signs of no particular vices. She’d had a little money with her, and a moderately handsome timepiece, but no jewellery, nor any sign that she’d ever been wearing any. Probably not a robbery, Nuritov had decided. Nothing had come up that might hint at what she’d been doing in a street far from either shops or any house such a woman might have lived in.
The Order had moved fast. The moment the police released Verinka’s remains, they had whisked her to the morgue and proceeded with their own examination. The kind that invo
