The final repairs not only went off without a hitch, but Nir'wei had to assume that he'd hit a nerve or something, because they happened in complete silence. Thankfully Ashira was surprisingly competent in her workmanship, moving her hands where he told her to, following his instructions without pause or question. Each tile was nailed into place on the support beam, seamlessly overlapping the surrounding tiles and each painted with a thin layer of water-resistant grease provided by the elderly couple, to make sure there'd be no leakages when the next rains came. All in all, it went surprising better than he thought it would have, in all honesty, as he sat back and admired his work with hands on his hips. Apart from the obvious brighter hue from the unweathered tiles, it looked pretty damn seamless when compared to the others.
Even better, upon sliding back down, he found the Waterbottoms waiting for him, a satisfied smile on each face and a ceramic mug of steaming tea in each hand. Ashira apparently rejected it, because she instead took her money and disappeared with little more than a small thank you and goodbye. Nir'wei on the other hand graciously accepted their offer and sat with them inside, sipping and chatting. They were surprisingly lovely and humble folk, he had to say. Their home was as simple on the inside as it was on the outside, but odd knick-knacks covering the walls and well-decorated curtains and table-coverings gave the place a warm air that stayed with Nir'wei even after he finished and bid his farewells. "There's nothing more wholesome than helping out those in need, is there?" Archailist chuckled as they passed the Waterbottom's gate.
The Sev'ryn nodded - he couldn't agree more - but then Archailist's tone turned... darker. "Why do you suppose that couple needed someone like us to come and fix that roof of theirs, hm?" he asked, obviously probing despite already knowing what the answer was. Just what was the squirrel thinking? Trying to sneak a peek through their mental connection showed nothing but fluffy clouds; he was masking it, preventing him from looking deeper.
"They... they obviously couldn't do it themselves," he replied after a moment of hesitation, unsure exactly where this was leading. "I mean, look at them. They're old, frail, they'd probably struggle to lift one of those tiles, let alone climb up onto the roof and fix them into place. It's no surprise that they put an ad up, and it's not like they had to spend much for it either." Since both he and Ashira had unexpectedly turned up at pretty much the same moment, the two of them had managed to complete the job in half the time expected, and they'd split the reward both ways for good measure, so they'd both barely caught a few pennies since the elderly couple had already said they'd be paying by the break. "What do you think they were doing, trying to lure people into a trap?"
For a moment, Archailist paused. As a matter of fact, he paused long enough to make Nir'wei stop in his tracks. He couldn't be serious, right? "Those two are a very nice, very elderly couple sitting in a nice area of Midtown, with all the tools and all the materials needed already purchased and ready. They've obviously got plenty of money if they've got all of that ready to go in the first place, so why do you think they put up an advertisement to find the cheapest, least-skilled labourers to come and do the job for them, when it's obvious they've got more than enough cash stashed away somewhere to hire a professional carpenter, roofer, whatever you want to come over and do the job correctly." Alright, he had to admit, the spirit-squirrel made a good deal of sense there. He'd never even considered that angle.
"Not only that, but how many people do you think would be more than willing to help out an elderly couple like that? How many friends do you think they've got around the city? Why didn't the neighbours help? Why didn't the relatives, the children or the grandchildren or anything of the sort? If they want cheap labour, for whatever reason, there's plenty of ways they could have gotten it for free, as a favour or something. Don't you think that's much more preferable to having a complete stranger come over to your house, sit on your roof and hammer stuff into your home?" He wanted to say that maybe they didn't get along well with the neighbours - maybe the family lived in a different city, they'd all flown the nest or something - maybe all their friends were just as old and frail as they were! One of those had to be true, of course... but all of them? Now he was starting to stretch it.
The squirrel still wasn't done, though. "Imagine the best ways to lure someone to your house. Put up an advertisement for a small, very easily-completed job, some sub-decent pay, very low requirements. A disarming family, a nice elderly couple, the last people you'd ever suspect. A job that means you'll have to come nice and close to the house... you'll make yourself tired. It's such a small thing you'll probably never even mention it to anyone, and besides that, if you've already got a job, you won't bother taking up a tiny job like that for such a limited amount of pay. It'll probably just attract loners... guys who blow in from elsewhere, pick up little jobs that nobody else bothers with. No attachments, no strings. Probably nobody here even knows or cares who they are. You give them everything they need, let them go up onto your roof, work all day fixing roof tiles in place, and when they come down, you give them a cup of tea as a sign of thanks, pull them inside..."
His blood ran cold. "But nothing happened," he protested.
"Yeah," the squirrel replied with a faint smile. "Nothing happened, you're right. Doesn't matter. Even if something had happened, I mean, there was that girl there as well. She saw you come with them inside the house afterwards, and she didn't take any of the tea. If you disappeared... well, when news got out, she'd have told everyone she last saw you going into their house, so they would have been busted anyway."
No way. Nuh-uh. Archailist had to be joking, right? He had to be. But when he looked back through that mental connection, all he saw was steel. He'd had suspicions, but nothing concrete. Nir'wei hadn't even considered it. Damnit. Refusing to turn around and look back at that damn house, he made a vow then and there to never take up a community job ever again.
