The clown was the perp. Who could have guessed?

  Sand scattered as I ran after him.

  Laughing, he threw thin knives at me, barely visible as they slashed through the dark.

  Bloody weirdo. The costume was part of his body.

  His laughter died out when I dodged the blades with ease—I swiped low, snatching a handful of sand from the ground, then threw it at his face.

  “Argh!” He stumbled backwards.

  My right foot hit the bullseye on his chest, dropping the creature flat on his back. He coughed, squirming in pain.

  “It’s over.” I approached him, pulling heavy iron handcuffs from my belt. “You could’ve made this easier, you know?”

  He cackled again, choking in his own blood.

  I shook my head and went down to shackle him when his pained expression flipped into a red grin.

  “Shit!” I jerked back, but he grabbed my ankle and stabbed my foot. I winced in pain. “You little—”

  I stomped the clown’s face with gusto, knocking him out cold.

  “Bloody hell.” I pulled the knife out with a hiss.

  The blade didn’t cross my foot, but it was enough to leave a thin line on the surface and wreck my shoe.

  I’ll deal with this later. Time to get paid.

  I dragged the clown creature out of the circus and threw him inside the carriage.

  Fred had already moved to the next case on his own once we identified the most likely suspect. Chang’s payment was due in a few days.

  I sighed. “Do you think we’re going to run out of cases at some point, Savio?”

  “Nobody wants your job, so I doubt it.”

  “I don’t know why.” I climbed into the carriage with a wince. “It’s lovely.”

  He set us on the move with a chuckle.

  A couple of cops were talking to a man outside the police station when we arrived.

  I hopped out and grabbed the perp.

  The fellow approached me, pen and notebook in hand. “Are you the horror-catcher detective?”

  His eyes widened behind his round glasses once he noticed that I was, well, me.

  “Are we in trouble?” I glanced back at Savio.

  He shrugged.

  “N-no,” the man said. “I’m a journalist for The City Ledger.”

  “Eh?! The City Ledger as in the sensationalist newspaper?”

  “I’d like to ask a few questions about yourself and your ‘cases’, if you don’t mind.”

  I blushed. “Me?”

  He gulped as he saw the passed-out clown in my hand. “But if you’re busy right now, I can—”

  I tossed the perp inside the police station and rushed back to what really mattered—my interview.

  He smiled sheepishly at me, and I began telling him of my heroic exploits. And Fred.

  The journalist nodded along, writing down every word.

  We parted ways at the end, and I skipped back to the carriage with a big smile on my face.

  Savio was snorting in the driver’s seat, deep asleep.

  I knocked on the frame. “Dang, the interview only took a few minutes. Are you alright?”

  His eyes were barely open as he stared at me. “No, it didn’t. You were talking for hours.”

  Eh?!

  “It can’t be...”

  “Fred won’t be happy about this.” He grabbed the reins. “Just saying.”

  “I can’t help myself!” I slipped into the carriage and checked my pocket watch.

  Savio was right. The interview took hours.

  Worth it.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I giggled.

  It was late in the evening when we got home. Savio took the horses to the mews as I went inside.

  I was not expecting to see Fred when I opened the door, but there he was, standing in front of the fireplace like a glowing corpse in black.

  So cute.

  I skipped towards him. “Did you close your case already? That was fast.”

  “Yeah. We’ve got no time to lose.”

  There was a letter in his hand.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Ghosts.” He threw it into the fire.

  “Wait—”

  “Not the kind I’d like to catch.”

  “But I thought we were taking any job.”

  He looked at me for the first time since I arrived. “Why are you limping?”

  Bloody hell, he noticed.

  “Oh, it’s just a scratch.” I stretched wide and turned to leave. “I’ll be good as new after a bath—”

  I cried out in pain as my foot touched the ground, as if I stepped on a sharp spear.

  “Are you sure?” Fred raised his eyebrow.

  I shook my head, holding back tears.

  “Alright, sit down.”

  I limped to the chair nearby and sat down with a wince.

  Fred took off my shoe.

  My foot was black all the way to the ankle.

  “It was just a scratch, I swear!”

  He stared at it, scratching his head back and forth.

  I panicked. “Fred, say something!”

  “Wait.” He rushed to the workshop.

  Am I going to die?!

  He came back with a big, scary contraption and put my foot inside.

  “Oi, wait! W-what are you going to do?”

  “I’m just measuring the damage,” he said, adjusting it to my leg. I felt a scary pressure.

  “I don’t like that sound.”

  “Connie, look at me.” He raised his head like a dream. “When was the last time you ate something really good?”

  My heart raced a bit. Fred never looked at me like that before, and what’s up with this personal question? I couldn’t keep eye contact.

  “Hm, I suppose that was when we—”

  Snap.

  My black foot fell on the floor.

  “Son of a—”

  I wriggled on the chair like a worm as the pain rose all the way to my neck.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  I stared at him, wide-eyed.

  “SORRY?! You CUT OFF my FOOT!”

  “The rot was spreading. You were going to die once it reached your heart. I can’t replace that.”

  “I don’t care, you bloody maniac!”

  “Now you don’t.” He picked me up and began walking towards the workshop. “I’ll get you a replacement.”

  I flailed, hitting him.

  “Put me down! Put me down right now, you... you...” His jawline was right above me. I looked away, red-faced. “Hmpf!”

  I crossed my arms as he sat me down at the table.

  “I think there’s something around here.” He went to the back of the workshop and began to rummage.

  “It better be the prettiest, most awesome foot on earth,” I grumbled.

  Fred came back with a thin wooden staff thing and attached it to my leg using leather straps.

  “Right, where’s the rest of the foot?” I asked.

  “That’s it for now.”

  My jaw dropped. “It’s a pirate leg. Do you want me to go around with a freaking pirate leg?!”

  “It’s a peg leg, and it’s temporary. Making a proper foot will take at least a few weeks.”

  “Weeks?!”

  He blinked a couple of times. “Sorry, you can deduct from my salary.”

  “You don’t have a salary.”

  “Precisely.”

  “Argh!” I sprang to my feet and immediately went off-balance with the clumsy thing. “I’m going to take a bath!”

  He stepped aside. “Okay.”

  My eyes narrowed at him.

  Freaking psycho. Why so cute?

  I stumbled into Savio as I limped out of the room

  “Oh...” He looked down. “Nice pirate leg.”

  “It’s a peg leg!”

  I snapped awake in the morning, flustered from an embarrassing dream I just had.

  I need a mission, urgently.

  Waiting in bed for Fred to finish my foot would’ve been hell. Maybe Savio needed a hand with something.

  Noises came from the kitchen as I went downstairs.

  Our kitchen was in the basement, as aristocratic types didn’t like the smells and heat. Fancy stuff.

  Savio was rummaging through the shelves.

  I put my head through the door. “Need help?”

  “We are running out of some staples, but I don’t know.” He scratched his head. “Are you okay to be doing that kind of stuff?”

  “I’ve never been more okay in my life. What do you need?”

  He shrugged and gave me a list. “Here you go.”

  I peeked inside the workshop on my way out of the house.

  Fred was at his worktable. Soft thuds as he switched tools.

  “Looking good.” I nodded approvingly as I stood behind him, even though I had no idea what part of my foot that was. “I’m going out. Need something from the market?”

  “Aham,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  “Hm.”

  Suspicious...

  My eyes narrowed as the thing clicked in his hands.

  “I pooped my pants,” I said and crossed my arms, waiting for his response.

  “Sounds good.”

  I set off to the market with a sigh.

  The market was unusually busy today, and they stared at me as I passed. This peg leg clacked so loudly, and somehow, I hadn’t noticed it until I left the house.

  I wanted to bury my head in the ground, but that’d have been worse, I think.

  Focus on the list, Connie.

  I took a deep breath and went to buy the first item. Sugar.

  Clack... clack...

  There were a lot of workers at the vendor, however. I wondered if I was too late.

  They began to leave, draining the stall in front of my eyes.

  “Wait!”

  Clack, clack, clack—

  My foot got stuck between cobblestones.

  “NOOOooo...”

  The merchant was already packing it up once I finally got there.

  “Sorry, I’m out,” he said.

  “Really? Not even a pound left?”

  He shook his head. “Come back tomorrow, eh?”

  “Oh man...”

  Someone spoke up behind me. “Hey, isn’t that...”

  I turned.

  A group of workers whispered among each other, tapping the newspaper one of them held.

  Oh snap. I forgot about that.

  The youngest one approached me with a small package in his hand. “Here, I’ll sell my pound to you.”

  My jaw dropped. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine. I know a guy.”

  “That’s... so kind. Thank you.”

  I guess I’m famous now.

  I giggled internally as I paid him.

  But my foot didn’t move when I turned to leave. The ground zoomed in on me as I fell, stuck between cobblestones again.

  Damn it—

  Someone held my back, projecting a long shadow over me.

  Fred?

  No, the voice was different.

  Seductive in a way that gave me shills.

  “Careful,” he said. “We don’t want to break another foot, do we?”

  My eyebrows arched as I turned.

  “Who are you?”

  The gentleman was blonde, tall as Fred, and better dressed than he was.

  “I’m an old friend.” He adjusted his red satin tie.

  “You must’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

  He chuckled. “How could I mistake one of Fred’s living marionettes?”

  How does he know Fred?

  “He hasn’t been answering my letters,” he said. “Stupidly stubborn, that one. But I can’t blame him—”

  I looked past the man, my heartbeat picking up speed.

  A grin curled on his lips. “I’m just the same.”

  Black coats moved faster than the regular workers through the stalls.

  This stinks.

  There were only a few clean escape routes that I could see.

  I could make a run for it.

  Clack.

  If I didn’t have a freaking stick for a foot!

  Damn it.

  They surrounded me, and he smiled as if he knew how this would end.