It had been obvious from the few questions the Peggy Powler had asked Earnest Heinz that he knew very little
and she guessed it had something to do with a limited inquisitiveness simply born from his concern for the lack
of patronage. "They never came into my store and therefore their business remained their business" the sullen
merchant said without missing a beat from his tidying.
As the Last Witch of Underhill and the Constable of Bowes County watched Earnest's movements, both juggled
with their respective judgements of the man and unknowingly, their evaluations were contrasting -but not too-far
away from each other's assessment.
For the little woman aware of looking silly by standing too-near to the human-sized counter, she'd seen such folk
who trudged through life and subconsciously perceived those around them as carriers of constant negative effects
to their daily endeavours. In such cases, eavesdropping would only be something they performed if they deemed
it advantageous to their own private lifestyle and if not, such snooping was seen as a waste of time and energy.
Earnest Heinz was one of these folks. He may have clues to assist in Peggy and Officer Wilbur's investigation,
but the storekeeper will have already weighed the information and mentally disregarded it as worthless.
For the Constable Delphi, his perusal involved the notion that the chary owner of this out-of-the-way establishment
may be trying to to trick him in some fashion. Granted, he had an alibi when Lilac Featherstone of Lower Denton
and Dorothy Cobb went missing, but Wilbur wasn't one to just accept the nearest person to the scene of these
disappearances didn't have any knowledge that could help them in their inquiry.
Still, the stuffy policeman had to admit that Heinz didn't carry the manner of someone who stole women from
lonely bridges and kept them in his basement. In fact, Wilbur felt a little better when he realised that the building
didn't even have a basement. Both judicious results didn't paint Earnest Heinz in a good light, but the pair didn't
pencil him in as an abductor either.
However, when Peggy wished Heinz fair travels and turned towards the door, Wilbur's phrenic examination of the
situation evaporated and he simply followed the small necromancer out onto the flattened track that led to the
Fessel Cloud Walkway. Making sure the badge of office that the Blacksmith of Munderville had cast for him was
straight and in full view, he cleared his throat and prepared to probe the mind of the woman scanning the outside
of Heinz's forgotten outlet.
"It seems the fellow is no use to us, don't you agree, Miss Powler?" he asked as he copied Peggy's audit of the
building. The one-story structure was made of faded wood and to Wilbur, offered little in the clue-department.
The little Witch moved her eyes to his and seemed to be using the same study as she had on the storekeeper.
"Aye, it's just you and me" Peggy replied with a small smile that never reached her eyes. She would've preferred
to have conducted this odd situation on her own and not have to negotiate around this burly man with restrained
acumen. In a way -she thought as she sized her priggish partner up, Earnest Heinz and Wilbur Delphi were a lot
alike. "Mebbe' we should tek' a gander over at yon bridge and see what what we can see, eh?" the little Witch
offered the elected policeman of a job Peggy had guessed nobody wanted in Munderville.
Wilbur peered down at the wide-eyed little face looking up at him. "I concur, we should move our investigation
along with more haste as we have no idea what distress these four ladies are enduring at this moment" he said
sedately. Somewhere inside, Peggy inwardly sighed her opinion on her newly-enlisted companion of the law and
with a vague nod of consensus, the pair set off towards the mist-wraithed bridge.
.................................................................
It was during this short walk over to the Cloud Walkway that Wilbur felt the need to explain why he'd called upon
the services of the little woman beside him who was suppressing her toil to keep up with his long and determined
strides. "I feel I must thank you for your assistance in this troubling matter, Miss Powler..." the Officer said through
his thick soup-catcher of a moustache, "...I suspect this case will be merely the act of a common degenerate who
sought an intimacy with these poor females in a manner all respectable folk would find most foul and ungodly" he
added as Peggy suddenly halted her half-canter and stared down at the dried earth near her shoeless feet.
The tiny object was caked in mud from a few passing rains, but some of the white material it was comprised of
had avoided the effects of any recent drenchers. Carefully plucking the dirty item out of its semi-grave, Peggy's
mind rushed to attain a memory in order to identify the find she held towards Officer Delphi. It arrived almost at
once. "Back in the day before wood and metal became the trend, me-Ma used te' knaw' a lady who made these"
the little sorceress chirped. "...It's a button and grand one too" she appended and handed the delicate fastener
over to her clueless companion.
Officer Delphi examined the gift and with raised eyebrows he announced the owner was probably the seamstress
from Bowe-Denton, a revelation he felt was certainly important in his imagined competition to retain his position
of being in charge of the investigation.
"This shows that Dorothy Cobb arrived from this side of the Walkway and would have to pass by Heinz's store" he
furthered his reasoning and pocketing the potential evidence, the panglossian Officer Delphi asked the question the
petite Shaman been waiting for since arriving at this reclusive place.
"I've heard it said around Munderville that this might be the work of a Kaffajinn..." he suggested after rubbing a thick
thumb through his moustache. "...Although I have to admit that such creatures -although probably a regular character
in your line of work, tend not to be routine culprits when it comes to crime-solving". Beneath her wide-rimmed hat,
Peggy smiled to herself at Wilbur Delphi fondness of using ambiguous phrasing to ask a simple question or state
an obvious fact, but when you're handed lemons...
"Tis' a weird bugger, a Kaffajinn..." she began, "...some wizards say it's a Demon animating a dead animal's body
and others reckon it's a type of Illithid, a lower-being from behind the veil". Arriving at their destination, the bantam
-sized thaumaturge offered enigmatically to the wide-chested agent of the law "just think of a bad-tempered Tulpa,
but crafty".
.................................................................
The Fessel Cloud Walkway could be declared a celebrated feat of of engineering as its span across the forested
gorge must have involved many men and a keen mind to accomplish such a deed. With four huge ancient oak
posts embedded into the tops of the either cliff, the rope-and chain-bound abutments were the only parts of the
structure that always escaped the all-encompassing brume that rolled up from the humid crevasse later in the day.
The cart-wide deck of thick planks were made of Ash and coated in a Pine-sap vernix, From Peggy's viewpoint
at the berm of the bridge, she could see the weather from the nearby coast and the few vehicles that had used
it had made hardly any impact on the well-gilded boards. The handrails -if one could call them that, were twine
-bound lengths of Pine wood fastened to a single rope that traversed the gorge and offered little in the notion of
security. Holding onto her hat in case of any sudden up-drafts, the wary Wizard concluded that the design of the
bridge had leaned heavily on carriage traffic and not people.
Caressing the thick hemp of the uprights as she and Constable Delphi peered down onto the leafy canopy below,
the little Witch wondered how -if Mary Bottle had been at the far end of the Walkway and the shopkeeper hadn't
mentioned a stranger being on this side of the platform, how was this alleged Kaffajinn accomplishing the theft
of these young women?
and she guessed it had something to do with a limited inquisitiveness simply born from his concern for the lack
of patronage. "They never came into my store and therefore their business remained their business" the sullen
merchant said without missing a beat from his tidying.
As the Last Witch of Underhill and the Constable of Bowes County watched Earnest's movements, both juggled
with their respective judgements of the man and unknowingly, their evaluations were contrasting -but not too-far
away from each other's assessment.
For the little woman aware of looking silly by standing too-near to the human-sized counter, she'd seen such folk
who trudged through life and subconsciously perceived those around them as carriers of constant negative effects
to their daily endeavours. In such cases, eavesdropping would only be something they performed if they deemed
it advantageous to their own private lifestyle and if not, such snooping was seen as a waste of time and energy.
Earnest Heinz was one of these folks. He may have clues to assist in Peggy and Officer Wilbur's investigation,
but the storekeeper will have already weighed the information and mentally disregarded it as worthless.
For the Constable Delphi, his perusal involved the notion that the chary owner of this out-of-the-way establishment
may be trying to to trick him in some fashion. Granted, he had an alibi when Lilac Featherstone of Lower Denton
and Dorothy Cobb went missing, but Wilbur wasn't one to just accept the nearest person to the scene of these
disappearances didn't have any knowledge that could help them in their inquiry.
Still, the stuffy policeman had to admit that Heinz didn't carry the manner of someone who stole women from
lonely bridges and kept them in his basement. In fact, Wilbur felt a little better when he realised that the building
didn't even have a basement. Both judicious results didn't paint Earnest Heinz in a good light, but the pair didn't
pencil him in as an abductor either.
However, when Peggy wished Heinz fair travels and turned towards the door, Wilbur's phrenic examination of the
situation evaporated and he simply followed the small necromancer out onto the flattened track that led to the
Fessel Cloud Walkway. Making sure the badge of office that the Blacksmith of Munderville had cast for him was
straight and in full view, he cleared his throat and prepared to probe the mind of the woman scanning the outside
of Heinz's forgotten outlet.
"It seems the fellow is no use to us, don't you agree, Miss Powler?" he asked as he copied Peggy's audit of the
building. The one-story structure was made of faded wood and to Wilbur, offered little in the clue-department.
The little Witch moved her eyes to his and seemed to be using the same study as she had on the storekeeper.
"Aye, it's just you and me" Peggy replied with a small smile that never reached her eyes. She would've preferred
to have conducted this odd situation on her own and not have to negotiate around this burly man with restrained
acumen. In a way -she thought as she sized her priggish partner up, Earnest Heinz and Wilbur Delphi were a lot
alike. "Mebbe' we should tek' a gander over at yon bridge and see what what we can see, eh?" the little Witch
offered the elected policeman of a job Peggy had guessed nobody wanted in Munderville.
Wilbur peered down at the wide-eyed little face looking up at him. "I concur, we should move our investigation
along with more haste as we have no idea what distress these four ladies are enduring at this moment" he said
sedately. Somewhere inside, Peggy inwardly sighed her opinion on her newly-enlisted companion of the law and
with a vague nod of consensus, the pair set off towards the mist-wraithed bridge.
.................................................................
It was during this short walk over to the Cloud Walkway that Wilbur felt the need to explain why he'd called upon
the services of the little woman beside him who was suppressing her toil to keep up with his long and determined
strides. "I feel I must thank you for your assistance in this troubling matter, Miss Powler..." the Officer said through
his thick soup-catcher of a moustache, "...I suspect this case will be merely the act of a common degenerate who
sought an intimacy with these poor females in a manner all respectable folk would find most foul and ungodly" he
added as Peggy suddenly halted her half-canter and stared down at the dried earth near her shoeless feet.
The tiny object was caked in mud from a few passing rains, but some of the white material it was comprised of
had avoided the effects of any recent drenchers. Carefully plucking the dirty item out of its semi-grave, Peggy's
mind rushed to attain a memory in order to identify the find she held towards Officer Delphi. It arrived almost at
once. "Back in the day before wood and metal became the trend, me-Ma used te' knaw' a lady who made these"
the little sorceress chirped. "...It's a button and grand one too" she appended and handed the delicate fastener
over to her clueless companion.
Officer Delphi examined the gift and with raised eyebrows he announced the owner was probably the seamstress
from Bowe-Denton, a revelation he felt was certainly important in his imagined competition to retain his position
of being in charge of the investigation.
"This shows that Dorothy Cobb arrived from this side of the Walkway and would have to pass by Heinz's store" he
furthered his reasoning and pocketing the potential evidence, the panglossian Officer Delphi asked the question the
petite Shaman been waiting for since arriving at this reclusive place.
"I've heard it said around Munderville that this might be the work of a Kaffajinn..." he suggested after rubbing a thick
thumb through his moustache. "...Although I have to admit that such creatures -although probably a regular character
in your line of work, tend not to be routine culprits when it comes to crime-solving". Beneath her wide-rimmed hat,
Peggy smiled to herself at Wilbur Delphi fondness of using ambiguous phrasing to ask a simple question or state
an obvious fact, but when you're handed lemons...
"Tis' a weird bugger, a Kaffajinn..." she began, "...some wizards say it's a Demon animating a dead animal's body
and others reckon it's a type of Illithid, a lower-being from behind the veil". Arriving at their destination, the bantam
-sized thaumaturge offered enigmatically to the wide-chested agent of the law "just think of a bad-tempered Tulpa,
but crafty".
.................................................................
The Fessel Cloud Walkway could be declared a celebrated feat of of engineering as its span across the forested
gorge must have involved many men and a keen mind to accomplish such a deed. With four huge ancient oak
posts embedded into the tops of the either cliff, the rope-and chain-bound abutments were the only parts of the
structure that always escaped the all-encompassing brume that rolled up from the humid crevasse later in the day.
The cart-wide deck of thick planks were made of Ash and coated in a Pine-sap vernix, From Peggy's viewpoint
at the berm of the bridge, she could see the weather from the nearby coast and the few vehicles that had used
it had made hardly any impact on the well-gilded boards. The handrails -if one could call them that, were twine
-bound lengths of Pine wood fastened to a single rope that traversed the gorge and offered little in the notion of
security. Holding onto her hat in case of any sudden up-drafts, the wary Wizard concluded that the design of the
bridge had leaned heavily on carriage traffic and not people.
Caressing the thick hemp of the uprights as she and Constable Delphi peered down onto the leafy canopy below,
the little Witch wondered how -if Mary Bottle had been at the far end of the Walkway and the shopkeeper hadn't
mentioned a stranger being on this side of the platform, how was this alleged Kaffajinn accomplishing the theft
of these young women?
Read The TV Guide, yer' don't need a TV.