Plagium (Keepers Book 1)

Chapter 8 - In Which A New Direction is Found

"I see," she replied. "You'd like him, he's a very kind man."

"Doubt that," Charlie sullenly said, kicking at the post. "Most people change their 'pinion once they getta look at us."

"Oh, no! Mr. Porter would be the last person to look down at someone," Tracey said. "I should know," she quickly added.

"You?" Mittie said, raising an eyebrow.

Tracey's cheeks flushed, and her fingers began to drum on her forearm. "A...anyways," she abruptly said, "We should discuss what we know so far. I don't think we have had a chance to thus far."

"Good idea," Mittie said, nodding her head in approval. "So, I saw Mr. Porter sometime last night. Midnight."

"Midnight?" Harriet said with a frown. "Where did ya see 'im?"

"Near The Undertown, I s'pose?" Mittie said with a shrug.

"It was at the shop," Tracey supplied. "The edge of Burberay, close to The Undertown."

"Ey, that can't be right!" Charlie exclaimed. "Harrie saw 'em round 12:30 o' so!"

"Well, what's the matter with that?" Tracey asked.

"Burberay is at least an hour's walk away from The Borough—that's where I think I 'ad seen him, you see.," Harriet explained. "It'd take especially long if they went through The Undertown to get there. Unless..."

"Unless?"

"Unless...they had a steam car?"

Tracey started. Steam cars were a recent marvel to grace the city of Mondon. Bright and fast, they easily outpaced even the fastest of horses. There were a number of problems that plagued this invention, however. Its immense speed was a cause of many accidents, and its clouds of scalding steam that it left in its wake was a hazard to any passerby. Regulations soon followed to keep it out of possession of the general public. "That can't be," Tracey said. "Hardly anyone owns a steam car."

"Not if they're rich...," Charlie said, looking out to the carriage-filled streets.

"Say..." Mittie said, her eyes drifting to the apartment that they had just left from, "Would ya think that Mrs. Pinot there would be rich enough to afford something like that?"

"Oh, yes!" Harriet said.

"Yes, I agree," Tracey said thoughtfully. "Mr. Porter's keeper services were not something that an average person could easily afford."

"Lemme make a note of that," Mittie said, snapping out a small pocketbook from her knickerbockers. "Our first suspect, Mrs. Pinot." She finished writing out details from their earlier conversations and closed the book with a flourish. "Now—,"

"'scuse me," A gruff voice sounded.

The group turned around.

There stood a gruff-looking woman, donned in a cap, and her hair loosely pulled back into a rather messy ponytail. Her vest and skirt, minus the coaldust, resembled very closely to Charlie and Harriet's own patch-filled attire.