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He stumbled and regained his balance.

I watched as his eyes cleared and he regained his composure.

In an overly polite tone I asked, “Shall we have a word outside?”

He knew who I was and nodded, nervously.

We went out into the street and into an alley at the side of the club.

I continued in the same tone, “I have had a very bad day, Dennington. In fact, I have had a terrible year. The last hundred years, to be honest, have been awful. I would love to take all of this out on you, vent my frustration and make you my punching bag. One wrong word from you, and I will rip you apart into so many pieces no one will be able to identify you. You read me?”

He blinked.

“Tell me what happened the night you found Matteo Lombardi’s body. Who sent you to find him?”

He stammered. “The… the call came from the royal office. Harris, I think. Asked me to find him, said he was missing. We tracked him… we were told he was going to the lodge and we went there looking for him.”

“Who told you he was going to the lodge?”

He looked around agitated. “I can’t remember, someone from Harris’s office, a female, called, Par...no…Clarissa?”

“How did she know where he was?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know! We followed the information and we found him as I told you.”

“What about the dagger?” I wanted to know.

“What dagger?”

Dennington claimed there was no dagger and that when they came on the site, the flames had already gone out, the body had been burnt. There was no dagger, but he found the belt buckle and picked it up to show me.

“Why did you say shifters killed him?”

He looked around wildly.

“I didn’t… I mean, it wasn’t me. One of the guys said it must have been shifters. I said, no, it was too clean but we had no other explanation, so we went with it, I guess.”

He looked uncomfortable.

I stepped closer. “What else?”

He swallowed. “When we arrived in the Capital, the woman Clarissa called me again. She asked me if I’d found Matteo, if he was dead. It was almost like she wanted me to confirm it.”

I frowned, trying to figure it out.

“When I said yes, she asked if it looked like shifters did it? I said I didn’t know, and she said, it must’ve been. She asked if I’d seen shifter activity in the area, I mean, we’d come across some shifters along the way but they had nothing to do with it. She said it must’ve been them and we were to say we thought it was.”

“You just accepted that?”

He licked his lips. “No, well, yes. It was the way she said it, like it would be better for me to go with this story. There was no reason not to, so I did.”

“Who is this Clarissa?” I’d never heard of her.

He swallowed. “She is with the queen, one of her party.”

Taheera.

I let Dennington go and went back to the Castle. Things were becoming very complicated indeed. I didn’t know what to make of this. The fact that someone from the royal household took a special interest in Matteo’s death was worrying. I knew Taheera was not a woman to be trifled with. I had to be careful with my inquiries.