Work Text:
When the knock on the door came, Lacey was halfway into her dress. Valaena stepped past her to open it, and there Myrtle from down the street stood. She looked terrified.
“A client died while he was with me. They think it was me that did it,” she blurted out.
Valaena’s expression set in a grim line, and she reached out, gently but firmly pulling Myrtle into the room. Lacey, now fully in her dress, reached out to close the door.
“What happened?” Valaena asked.
“He collapsed while he was on top of me. And - and I screamed, ‘course, and people came, and they’re saying it was poison. I don’t know what to do! But I thought, well, you two’ve helped folks out before. Even if this is bigger. So I hoped you could help me? Cause they’ll kill me, if they decide I did it.”
Lacey exchanged a look with Valaena. “We’ll help you.”
“Oh, thank you so much! I can’t really pay you-”
Lacey cut her off. “It’s fine. They won’t look for you here, so stay a while. We’ll see what we can do.”
So they went down the street. They spoke to the people who knew things. Not the people with power, who knew far less than they thought, but their kin of the night. Women and men who sold their bodies to strangers. Those who clustered in doorways. Those who, each night, faced the cold with nothing to warm them. Their sort lived in the darkness and listened close to every whisper, knowing every little slip of information could, one day, be what saved them. The pair of them found out, from scraps offered freely and others bartered for, that the dead man had a younger brother. That brother had been incautious around the folk of the night, and had drunkenly declared his desire for the heirship. That was one thing, not enough on its own. But another woman had seen him buying poison. So, if they were believed, they could pretty well prove Myrtle’s innocence.
They managed it, in the end, however frightening it was to look those men in the eye and tell them they knew better. They had clutched at each other for comfort, but together they had pulled through. Together, it turned out, they could do a lot.
They did more and more of it, after that. Got more and more of a reputation. Even got paid, sometimes.