Briefly, the investigation went as follows. We were called in to the office of our superior, Murius. He reported that a patrol of his had found the murdered bodies of the tax collector and his guards. This patrol, regrettably untrained in CID procedure and led by a non com whose valor and physical skills are clearly worthy of praise, but whose mental skills sometimes leftsomething to be desired, had cleaned up the crime scene including the weapons and armor of the guards, and buried the bodies. This left us, after suitably praising the assistance their efforts had rendered us, to go out and bring back the tax collector's body. And of course investigate any clues that might have survived the efforts of the patrol.

The first odd thing, which might pointed the way to a non-rebel perp, was the failure to take away the armor and weapons. It subsequently developed that the failure to do this was the result of inadequate lift - only two people were involved in the crime. The victims were killed with curved weapons. Subsequent investigation through a Reconstruction spell obtained from a local scholar by yours truly, revealed that only two people did the crime. These were eventually identified by normal investigative means, tracked to an inn, there attacked and captured. One of them turned upon the other, Reshtera, and fingered him. Unfortunately, the informant is no longer useful, having been killed by a number of mysterious attackers some days later.

There are a number of lessons to be learned from even this mundane crime:

1. Not all crimes are committed by Sartarite bandits. Sometimes the perp is lunar. If so, no amount of application of special investigative methods to the Sartarites will reveal the perp.

2. Army patrols should be trained in basic CID procedure. At the very least, burial of the bodies should not precede investigation.

3. Important personages, or even middle rank tax collectors, should not be left behind so that the Sartarites can mutilate the corpses before we can resurrect them. It would have been much harder to resurrect the tax collector had some annoying Sartarite burned the body before we got there.

4. Reconstruction is a spell with considerable potential in CID work. Unfortunately, it is one use for us. The local scholar in Swann has it reusably, however. The easiest method of securing his cooperation is to bribe him with books. The easiest method of obtaining books is to use pen and ink, plus paper, from the clerical account, and a copy of a book lent to me from the library in Furthest, and for me to copy said book possibly with the aid of another clerk, during time when my skills would otherwise be wasted on watch. I would like to point out to my esteemed superior that I am far more likely to successfully advance his career by solving possibly otherwise insoluble crimes with the aid of my friend's Reconstruction spells, than I would be to advance his career staring out into space on guard duty.

Yours in the service of the Beneficient and Conquering Moon,

Yasna