Chapter 49: Four left.
The inn actually didn't have a name. It was around midnight when Lee finally found it hidden in the western suburbs, at the end of a dark alley. Surprisingly, downstairs it had over half a dozen patrons, drinking beer and conversing in hushed voices, and a couple of them being from the city guard.
Under the skeptical eyes of the innkeeper, Lee asked for a room. While doing so he was holding a letter in hands, and pretended to read from it, as if trying to follow instructions to the letter, faking an appearance of a trusted, but not too clever servant.
When the innkeeper went up to the second floor to show him his room, Lee, while being fully immersed in the letter, pulled a chicken feather from his pocket and for a while clumsily tried to somehow stick it in the door.
Basically he was doing his best to leave the impression of a clueless child that was ordered to do a task he had no understanding of.
And it worked. The innkeeper stared in disbelief, observing the little moron following his master's orders, and couldn't remember when was the last time someone tried to order a hit in more awkward way. Fortunately, the kid didn't mess up too much and quickly ran off, leaving behind a pouch with gemstones, and a sealed letter.
Lee expected a situation of someone following him, but was surprised to see the task was entrusted to the two city guards he noticed earlier. Clearly the Red Chicken family was not as simple as he assumed before.
Nevertheless, he happily led them back to the Newman's mansion, and before entering, tore in halves and threw away the letter his master had supposedly given him instructions with.
It was basically impossible to not notice his actions, and he was pretty sure the instructions were picked up by the men tailing him. With that his mission was basically accomplished – all he had to do was wait.
The plan did have a couple of obvious flaws, though. First of all, it was highly likely Helen would want to dispose of him as the only person who could rat her out, and Lee was ready to disappear from the capital at the first sign of any abnormalities in her behavior.