Page 17 of Mystic Justice (The Other Detective #2)

Chapter Fifteen

It was late when Krieg pulled up outside my flat but we were both too tired to even think about flirting.

It had taken hours for Kate and Ed to scrape the body off the rockery and magically remove all traces of it before the park opened for another day.

Destroying evidence wasn’t ideal but it was necessary to keep the Other hidden.

Besides, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be bringing the culprits to trial; serial killers had a tendency to go down swinging.

These weren’t impulsive killings so I wouldn’t feel remorse. The murders had to have a purpose – the runes spoke of ritual – and if I could just work out why they were happening I was sure it would crack the whole case wide open.

The problem was that we had a John Doe. There was no ID on the body, and the centaur appeared to have landed head and chest first, so there was no way we’d get a visual identification.

His flesh had been torn from his bones and his jaw was hanging off his face, so dental records were out as a means of identifying him.

I had to hope that his prints were in our system or someone reported him missing – and soon.

Channing had checked SPEL but we had no reports about a missing centaur in the Merseyside and Cheshire areas.

Tomorrow we’d widen the search radius, but for now I had nothing and that frustrated the hell out of me.

John Doe, John Stallion, whoever he was his family and friends deserved to know his fate, to get closure.

I knew first-hand how much it sucked to lose someone you loved, and not being told why they’d been ripped from you was rubbing Himalayan salt in the wound.

‘Inspector,’ Krieg murmured, drawing my attention back to him. ‘You’re dead on your feet. Come on, I’ll see you to your door.’ He went round the car to open my door for me and I let him; it seemed to make him happy.

‘I don’t need you to do that,’ I said reflexively, though it was nice. Sam could never have done that, could never have protected me. Not that I needed it. But still … it was nice.

Loki was uncharacteristically silent on my shoulder and that worried me a little.

Usually when we were in Krieg’s car he flew to the back seat and snarked around, strutting back and forth on the headrest and threatening to poo on the leather.

Today he’d huddled into me, the insult back in Kate’s morgue neither forgotten nor forgiven. I didn’t like his silence.

If I’d had more time or headspace, I’d have dug into it but Loki’s unusual manner wasn’t deadly, whereas my cases were.

They needed all of my mental prowess. When I’d closed them I’d focus on what ailed my feathered friend.

Maybe by then he’d be ready to tell me. In the meantime, I’d be there for him, offering him silent, supportive friendship.

It was the kind of friendship that I valued.

It didn’t come with glittering presents and loud nights out, but it was constant and unwavering through thick and thin.

Despite myself, I pictured a younger Kass holding me as I sobbed my heart out, unable to voice the full horrors of what I’d been through.

She’d never pressed me and I’d valued that.

I would do the same for Loki and hope that it would also be enough.

True to his word, Krieg cleared the way to my front door then held out a hand, tacitly asking for my key. I had no doubt he could gain entry without one, but I passed it over so he could go room to room and check my flat for me.

I stepped inside and watched him move through my space.

His movements were fluid, like a prowling puma.

There was something about him that told my inner goblin he was a deadly predator; worse, my id knew he could procreate and provide, and it was determined to give him a chance to prove it.

My superego knew that procreating with the King of Ogres was a very bad idea but my ego was stuck, torn between my basic bitch urges and my lofty ideals.

If I were sensible, I’d cut him loose. He was a risk to my career and my heart. And yet…

He turned to face me. ‘All clear.’

‘No monsters in my flat?’ I quipped.

His face grew solemn. ‘Only this one,’ he said softly.

Just like that, my id stomped on my superego. ‘You’re not a monster!’ I protested.

‘You don’t know who I am yet, Inspector,’ Krieg said almost reluctantly.

I closed the distance between us, squared up and lifted my face to look at him, then I did one of the riskiest things you can do with an ogre: I held his gaze. I held it for five long seconds and then I spoke one word: ‘Bullshit.’

My expletive startled him and he barked a laugh. ‘I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me before.’

‘Then you’re overdue.’ I tapped him on his solid chest. ‘I may not know your favourite food or your favourite colour, but I’m certainly beginning to see you. I know what manner of man you are, Robbie Krieg, and you’re a good one.’

As he opened his mouth to protest, I reached up and laid a finger across his full lips.

‘I’m not saying you haven’t done bad things, but I suspect that you’ve always done them for the right reasons, just like I have.

I’ve killed people too, Krieg. Don’t look at me with those gooey eyes and think I’m a saint because I’m not. ’

His lips brushed my finger and I let it drop. ‘Gooey eyes?’ he grinned.

‘Another thing no one has said to you, huh?’

‘Never.’

I searched his eyes. ‘Get used to it. If we’re going to mean something to each other, I won’t hesitate to tell you what I think.’

His expression grew wistful. ‘Are we going to mean something to each other, Inspector?’

I sighed. ‘I suspect we are.’

His answering smile was brilliant. ‘Good.’ He bowed ridiculously low, straightened and started for the door.

‘Krieg!’ I called after him. He turned, one eyebrow raised. ‘When are we going to kiss?’

The smile was back. ‘Not yet. Once we start, I’m not sure we’ll be able to stop.’

‘Like a tube of Pringles,’ I said understandingly.

‘Pringles?’

‘Tell me you’ve eaten Pringles,’ I demanded.

‘Add it to the list.’ He winked and left while my jaw was still hanging.

The click of the door was enough to bring me out of my disbelief. ‘He hasn’t had Pringles, Loki,’ I said to the bird. ‘Can you believe that? No Pringles, no Dr Pepper. What does the man eat?’

‘I not Pringles,’ the bird confessed.

‘Shut the front door!’ I exclaimed and marched to a cupboard. Before I could open it, my resident ghost opened the door and a tall can of crisps flew towards me. ‘Thanks!’ I said as I grasped the red tube. I almost always had a ready-salted snack on hand and Pringles were a constant in my larder.

‘Once you pop you can’t stop,’ I explained to Loki. ‘I’m just warning you. They come with a little plastic lid, but we won’t need that bad boy.’

‘Better than ham?’ Loki sounded optimistic.

‘Let’s not be hasty. They both have their place.

’ I pulled off the foil lid and, after a moment’s indecision, crumbled one of the crisps and laid the crumbs on a plate for him to peck at.

Then, knowing that Pringles weren’t a balanced diet, I found him some ham.

Too tired to chop it, I ripped it into small pieces with my fingers.

Loki warbled. ‘Is good!’ he declared as he pecked away at the salty, crispy goodness.

‘Right?’ I made myself a cup of tea and then got back to work.

Logging in remotely on my laptop, I called up McCaffrey’s file on Moss Hollings and checked to see if she’d missed anything.

After an hour I concluded that she’d done a thorough job, which was great for her but a pain in the arse for me.

I’d been hoping for a loose thread she hadn’t picked at, but she’d tied them all off. Dammit.

I did one last check of my emails and leaned forward when I saw one from Ji-ho.

It was a quick write-up after he’d viewed the CCTV footage that Peter Glenn had sent through.

Sure enough, Rowan Dewlin had remained on site for his whole shift and left the building at 3.

12am. He was in the clear. Frustrated, I closed the laptop.

Brain still buzzing despite the late hour, I grabbed some more Pringles and found my phone. I unlocked it and practised navigating SPEL. I couldn’t remain ignorant forever – I wasn’t a Luddite like so many of the dragons were.

I paused mid-chomp. I’d been so fixated on identifying the centaur’s body that I hadn’t given a thought to who could kill a centaur like that.

He could have been chucked out of a plane but then you’d need to find an obliging pilot and there would be rosters, flight paths – evidence.

No, it was more likely that the Other killers had used something Other to achieve their desired effect.

Our main aerial threats were griffins and dragons.

The centaur had been heavy and I wasn’t sure if a griffin had the strength to lift a centaur that high.

Still, dragons always spoke the truth, so if I found a suspect one I only had to ask them if they’d killed the centaur.

If they refused to answer … well, that was an answer in itself.

I sent a message to Shirdal, the leader of the griffin assassins, and asked whether or not a hit had been taken out on a centaur in this area. If so, had the hit had been carried out successfully.

Another airborne threat was the phoenix.

With some effort, swearing and backtracking, I managed to use SPEL to look up the latest intel on her.

It said she was still on Llanddwyn Island, a deadly place where the Connection sent things it deemed dangerous but that didn’t merit being incarcerated in Wraithmore Prison.

We sent things that were inherently deadly to Llanddwyn but whose actions were tightly bound into their very nature so they couldn’t be blamed for what they’d done. If the griffins hadn’t found an outlet in sanctioned assassinations, no doubt they’d be languishing on the island too.

‘More?’ Loki chirped, and I happily crumbled another couple of Pringles for him. He gave a happy dance, looking world’s better than he had all day.

‘You feeling better, bud?’ I asked carefully.

He stilled. ‘Jingo evil.’

‘I know. I won’t let him get you again.’

‘I stay with Pigdog,’ he said firmly.

‘For as long as you like.’

He did a strut. ‘With Pringles?’

I laughed. ‘Sure. We still have a good half of the tube to get through.’

He gave another happy hop. I put my phone away and chatted with him until my yawns were coming more frequently than my words. ‘Bed,’ Loki said firmly. ‘Sleep.’

‘Yeah. I’m tired.’ And tomorrow would be another long day. We had a second body to dig into and I had to hope we’d catch a break. If we didn’t, I had a feeling we’d be looking at corpse number three very soon.