Page 37 of First Snow
“I’m not. I’m giving you someone who has a motive to get rid of Mikael.”
Arttu feels a fresh wave of energy flow through his veins as the information registers. Could it be Briar who connects all the dots? The elder Lord Briar also visitsThe Worship. He could have easily met not only Mikael, but Jenna Scott and Valtteri Suoranta too. Does that mean that Jareth could be innocent?
Arttu is overwhelmed by a desperate surge of hope. He pushes it to the back of his mind with all the insistence he can muster. It’s too early to get his hopes up. Jareth might still be in on this. He’s still involved in some kind of business with Briar, and the incident with the girl was shady as fuck.
“What about the bodyguard?” Arttu asks, trying to calm his whirling thoughts and focus on Tuulia again.
“Oh, he’s a weird one. Aurélien Lemaire, a French citizen. I’ve never seen such a clean vita. It’s almost as if he doesn’t really exist, as if somebody just made him up.”
Arttu shudders. “Maybe a military background? Or the DGSE?”
Tuulia shrugs. “I have no fucking idea.”
“Damn. Can this whole thing get any shadier?”
“It can. There’s also Lord Briar’s dipshit of a son. He has a fancy boarding school education, poor grades, and dropped out of his Oxford law degree. Daddy dearest was able to place him in an IT study program in London, where he got accepted despite his previous conviction for drug possession.”
Tuulia opens a new picture, which shows two red-haired men wearing suits in front of some kind of soiree. Arttu recognizes the younger Lord Briar, but his father looks older than Arttu assumed; his thin hair an irregular wreath around his head, and his skin gray and wrinkled.
“Is there a Lady Briar?”
Tuulia nods and opens the next picture, showing a beautiful woman with light, flowing hair. By the quality of the photograph and the dress she’s wearing, it was probably taken in the late seventies or early eighties.
“Eloise Briar. Allegedly, she suffers from some kind of skin disease that makes her allergic to light. She hasn’t made any social appearances in over 20 years and is said to be living a very secluded life at the family’s country estate.”
“A light allergy? Is there such a thing?”
Tuulia shrugs.
“I’m not a doctor, but there are inflammatory diseases that affect the skin and can cause sensitivity to light exposure among other symptoms. Most people affected can get better with treatment, but not Lady Briar.”
“Shit.” Arttu sighs. What kind of husband visits séances and hangs out in sex clubs while his ill wife sits at home, probably unable to leave the house during daylight hours? “Anything else?”
Tuulia snorts. “Wasn’t that enough for you?”
Arttu’s lips twist in amusement. “Thank you.”
“What are you going to do now?” Tuulia’s voice turns soft.
Arttu considers lying. He doesn’t want Tuulia deeper in this mess than absolutely necessary. On the other hand, he might have put her in grave danger already by making her investigate these people. She deserves, at the very least, to know his basic plan.
“I’m going to meet Faeling again. He can introduce me to Briar.”
Tuulia watches him silently for a long moment, then lets out a frustrated sigh. “I’d tell you to be careful—because this is madness, Arttu, really. Seducing a potential serial killer to get to another guy who’s also a potential killer? But I know you wouldn’t listen, as per usual. Just don’t get killed, okay?”
Arttu chuckles. Behind her grumpy attitude, Tuulia really cares for her friends. “Okay.”
Chapter 13
Jareth
Annikkistowsthefreshgroceries they bought on their way in the fridge while Jareth fixes them some coffee.
“Are you going to bring Arttu here?” Annikki asks. She stands with her back to him, but Jareth can hear the self-satisfied smirk in her voice.
Jareth hums something unintelligible. Of course he knows what Annikki means when she says ‘here’, namely not the summer house of Jareth’s foster parents, but the castle which stretches its roots into the ground in the same place but is shifted into the Kingdom Beyond on the other side of the veil.Rhosyn Keep.
He never would’ve brought Annikki to the other side, but when she first accompanied him to the summer house years ago she took one look at the building and said, ‘Oh, a threshold’ and passed right through. Annikki claims she’s entirely human, but Jareth swears she must have Troll blood. There’s no other way to explain her ability to be annoying.