Dial H for Heroics

Josie asked the Duke for a clear room to work. She wanted something big to write on.

He took her and Lois to an unused office down the hall from his. They lit a lamp and

pushed the desk and chair next to the wall and she nodded at what she had to work

with.

“All right,” said Josie. “So we know there were three judges involved in the fake tax

bills.”

“What does that leave us?,” asked the Duke.

“There has to be a fourth man involved at least,” said Josie. “The quest system

imposed on Jack and me works as a constant reminder that we didn’t get something

done. Until we figure out who this other man is, we will have a reminder that the

board is still there and capable of being used to attack the citizens with false claims.”

“Understood,” said the Duke.

“So the first thing we have to do is sort out the claims the three judges filed that led

to the missing treasury money,” said Josie.

“For the sake of argument,” said Lois. “How do you know the gold is missing?”

“Jack and I got involved when two separate groups of tax collectors came down to

the Hole in the Wall to arrest everyone living there for nonpayment of taxes,” said

Josie. “The first group I set on fire, the second I cursed to be better Watchmen. Some

of the survivors of the first group I handed over to the elves to shape into better

people.”

“Which group caused you to visit me?,” asked the Duke.

“The second group,” said Josie. “The first group caused Jack to visit your uncle and

his friends.”

The Duke nodded. The information was what he had expected in the chain of events.

“So Jack and I visited the Duke after the second group came down to the Hole in the

Wall and broke in and ripped up our place,” said Josie. The Duke blanched at this,

realizing how close he had been to joining his uncle. “He allowed me to go over the

books and there were huge discrepancies into the amounts coming in and going out.

That is how we found the first judge, Lewn. The other two were pointed out by Eric,

Eileen’s husband, and an associate of ours named Guin.”

“Captain Griff arrested the other two, and we found records of payments for services

rendered after a search,” said the Duke.

“But the quest board reminder is still there,” said Josie. “So someone is still there and

capable of activating the Watch to go after a target.”

“What happened to Lewn?,” asked Lois. She expected a horrific end the way the

Duke rubbed his face.

She had already seen what Josie was capable of in the way she had cleared out the

capitol of her enemies.

“Jack turned him into a baby,” said Josie.

“Excuse me?,” said the Queen.

“Jack made a deal with him to stop the warrant against the Hole in the Wall and to get

back some stolen property for someone he met,” said Josie. “The judge wanted to be

younger and to start over, so Jack made him younger and let him start over. We left

him in the care of his butler.”

“But the quest board didn’t go away, and the King knows that the duchy has lost a lot

of money,” said the Duke.

“Every duchy has lost a lot of money,” said Lois. “The Montrose suborned the

Exchequer to keep Rickard unaware of what was going on.”

“Which brings us back to you, Your Grace,” said Josie. “If we can permanently shut

down the board, the city and duchy will be better, and it will be something to show

to the auditors that are coming to check the books. The one lady that we knew was

taking advantage and wasn’t at the party is gone. So is her lover. So are most of the

Montrose that were with your uncle at his party. If we can straighten this out, it will

put you back on good footing to look after your responsibility without a lot of the

people who were using it to make things worse for everyone else.”

“So how do we get started?,” asked the Duke.

“We start with Lewn,” said Josie. She turned into Zatanna. She waved her hand.

Writing appeared on one of the walls. She switched back as she read the entries. “I

only went back a year. I’m sure if all of the tax ledgers are looked at, there are

problems the whole of your uncle’s tenure, Your Grace.”

He nodded.

This had been an ongoing problem that had never been addressed because the person

who should have been addressing profited off of it.

“All right,” said Josie. “Let’s throw the other two judges on the board and see what

pops out.”

The other judges’ names appeared. More casefile numbers appeared under them. They

had almost enough to equal Lewn between the two of them, but he was the most

active land stealer in the group.

“Let’s put what’s left over here,” said Josie. She pulled the numbers from the files

without an identity on top of the bills. She saw two more active members of the ring,

but they were not nearly as bad as the other three.

She also had no idea who they were, or how to find them.

She supposed she could throw out a bird and see if that would lead her to the targets.

The Duke flipped through the papers until he found something to match with what

Josie had thrown on the wall. He frowned.

“That bill wasn’t signed,” he said. “I have it listed as an estate tax.”

Josie let the persona go so her watch recharged. She looked at the two lists of unsigned

bills.

“Do you mind if I check with the auditors?,” said the Duke. He handed the pages to

the Queen. “There is something wrong with those two lists.”

“Please do, Your Grace,” said the Queen. “We’ll wait for you to return.”

He stood and bowed to her before he walked out of the room. He closed the door

behind him, before walking away down the hall.

“Estate tax?,” asked Josie.

“In Grecious, we have a law that when you die, your relatives have to pay a tax on

anything they inherited,” said the Queen. “It’s usually something like two percent of

whatever the estate is calculated to be worth. You can defer the payment if you don’t

have the funds for two years. That gives you a chance to sell everything and then pay

what you owe.”

“So if the estate is only worth one gold piece?,” asked Josie.

“You would only have to pay some tin to clear the tax,” said the Queen.

Josie looked at the lists. What had the Duke seen? It had to be something she had

missed because of her lack of information about the city and the country.

He returned with a couple of sheets of handwritten notes. He compared the notes with

the entries on the wall. He frowned at them.

“What’s wrong?,” asked Josie.

“The king is going to have me beheaded,” said the Duke. He sat down. “I can’t

believe this.”

“What’s the problem, Your Grace?,” asked the Queen. He handed her the papers to

look at. She did, but didn’t understand the information.

Josie walked over and slapped his face hard. He looked up at her. Anger flowed

across his face. He paused when he saw real danger looking back at him.

“We can’t help you if you don’t talk to us,” said Josie. “What is wrong?”

“Both of these lists are estate taxes payments,” said the Duke. “The one on the left is

also the sites of some gruesome murders here in the city, almost monster attacks. The

ones on the right are abandoned properties. No one knows what happened to the

owners.”

“How do you know this?,” asked Josie.

“The auditors I hired have been going over the properties that were seized as they go

over the paperwork,” said the Duke. “Several of them reported that the owners of the

properties of record had been killed according to the neighbors. I asked Griff to verify

the information and there are Watch reports, but no one has been caught. We don’t

know if it’s a monster, or not.”

“And the other list is confirmed abandonment?,” asked Josie. She eyed both lists.

“Yes,” said the Duke. “There are no orders for these because if the tax isn’t paid, they

automatically are collected by the Duchy to be resold.”

“What does that mean?,” asked the Queen.

“The board is still active, and we think someone used the commission process to

commit murder on these two lists,” said Josie. “Is that what you are thinking, Your

Grace?”

“Yes, it is,” said the Duke. “How do we stop it?”

“Ordinarily I would turn Jack loose on this and see what he stirred up,” said Josie.

She ignored the blanch that got her. “I think we are going to look into this ourselves.

Let me send a note, and see if we can get help.”

“Ourselves?,” said the Duke.

“Someone in your Watch is killing people for money,” said Josie. “If we pick the

wrong man, he might kill us as soon as he knows we’re on the trail. I promised the

King that I wouldn’t let anything happen to Caroline, or Lois. So I am going to ask

for an extra set of eyes, and we’re going to see what we can find out. Hopefully, it’s

not Captain Griff.”

“It would be a relief if it wasn’t,” said the Duke.

Josie fished some paper out of her messenger bag and a pen. She wrote a quick note,

waited for the ink to dry, then folded the paper. She wrote a name on the outside

before turning into Zatanna long enough to send it on its way.

“We could have asked for adventurers,” said the Queen.

“The person I asked for knows how the board works,” said Josie. “He might not know

anything about these killings, but he might be able to point us in the right direction

before I throw a bird out over the city to hunt the man down. We want to be able to

prove things without magic. Magic can alter evidence to give us what we want which

wouldn’t be good for the interests of justice.”

“So we need the bloody knife in hand,” said the Queen.

“We need to gather enough evidence to point to one man out of however many people

are living here in the city, and the Duchy beyond,” said Josie. “I think that is

something we can do.”

A soft glow built into a ribbon of light and two armored figures stepped into the

office from beyond the natural veil of things.

“I brought the man you asked for, Ear Ripper,” said Sir Robert. He smiled at the

expression that netted him.

“Bob, this is the Duke Hent, and my temporary assistant, Lois,” said Josie. “This is

Sir Robert of the Dire Woods, principal knight for Duchess Lorelei. How’s Lori

doing, Bob?”

“She is much interested in this mystery,” said the elf knight. “She is also going to

want to trade favors. We took your malcontents, and Jack took our dragon. For the

use of Master Gall, we reserve the right for a future favor that is not a quest by your

Society.”

“Really?,” said Josie. “I won’t go against my own interests.”

“I doubt anything that Lori will ask will touch the human world,” said Bob.

Josie gave him the look.

“She might want to go fishing,” said Bob.

“I’m not going, so I am not sure you should be asking me at all,” said Josie. She

crossed her arms. “Don’t you have fishing spots in the Dire Woods?”

“No,” said Gall. “That’s why it’s dire.”

Bob nodded in agreement.

“You can ask Jack yourself,” said Josie.

“He is a madman,” said Gall.

“And he had an angry dragon with him,” said Bob.

“The dragon took up with the youngest,” said Josie. “He’s become friendly.”

“He set one of Lord Brant’s men on fire,” said the Duke.

“You should see him when he is angry,” said Josie. “But that isn’t moving this along.

I have about eight hours before the sun goes down, and I want to have a handle on

this before June goes home. Mister Gall, I want you to tell us about the shadow board

again, and how it related to your duties.”

“I was a patrol watchman in the South District Two,” said Gall. “We have a barracks

just down from the Southern Gate. I have a separate home north of that. My

commanding officer would pick up warrants and gather a squad to serve them on

people. The usual thing was to arrest them and bring them back to the barracks to be

handed over to a calvary unit which would hand them to the old Duke.”

“You were collecting fraudulent taxes when I met you,” said Josie. “Did you have to

kill people in the service of these warrants?”

“Some of the people Aile arrested were beaten severely,” said Gall. “But if he killed

anyone, if was after they went to the barracks, after the rest of us were sent home.”

“I want you to look at this list of cases on the wall,” said Josie. She pointed to the

monster attack list. “What can you tell me about them?”

“They are all in the south, in the districts across from where we tried to raid your

place in the wall,” said Gall. “Do you have a map?”

“I can make one,” said Josie. She pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. She

transformed and a picture of the city appeared on its surface. Marks indicated the

places she had been since she had arrived in town. She pulled the paper to the size of

a Universal map from back home.

“Can I have something to write with?,” asked Gall.

Josie handed him her pen.

Gall folded the map so the north side was cut off. He marked in the properties for the

dead people houses one by one. He handed the map back, the ring of houses circled

a couple of blocks in the center.

“Can you mark out the other list, please?,” asked Josie.