The soul readily agreed with Shade's view and nodded without hesitation:
"Yes, I can tell you who the murderer is. In fact, I can sense his location right now. It's a kind of—"
Shade finished the sentence for him:
"Instinct. Souls are just that miraculous."
"Then let me describe the murderer's location for you. Do you know Gray Street in the city? That is—"
Shade stopped him:
"Hold on. You're coming with us. Like I said, it's getting late, and I don't want to miss dinner because we picked the wrong person and had to make another trip."
As he spoke, he reached into his pocket. The soul wanted to explain his predicament—that he could not stray too far from his own corpse—but Shade had already found the crow skull among his portable toys:
"I've learned quite a few crafts lately. This can store your soul temporarily. Don't struggle now, don't resist the pull... Looks like it worked. My handiwork is pretty good after all."
Carrying the soul with him, the detective holding a cat and the mysterious blue-eyed girl took a carriage back into the city. Though Shade felt this was yet another troublesome matter, following Young Mr. Gilott's guidance, they found the Lower District underground casino where the murderer "worked" just five minutes after getting out of the carriage.
It was not far from Herring Street or Spider Alley. Crossing three alleys northwest would bring them to the Tatton River. The concept of weekends had already emerged in this era, though it had not yet become widespread. Even so, on Friday afternoon, the people in the underground casino were not as sharp and diligent as usual.
Still, Shade was not about to charge in with a gun and massacre everyone in the building over a trivial matter. He