Page 11 of Veiled Justice (The Other Detective #1)

As expected, Krieg was prompt. He didn’t let himself into my flat this time, just rapped sharply on the door.

I opened it and stared at him. He was dressed in distressed jeans, a grey T-shirt and a brown jacket that looked new.

Every inch of him said he was wealthy and handsome.

My brain did a temporary disconnect. He’d looked great in a suit, but in jeans moulded to him … yum.

‘You broke into my home,’ I blurted.

He quirked a dark eyebrow. ‘I didn’t break in,’ he said calmly. ‘I used your key to open the door. You were sleeping.’

‘Next time,’ I said firmly, ‘wake me.’

He smiled and a hint of warmth crept into his grey eyes. When he spoke, his voice was low and slow, almost seductive. ‘Is there going to be a next time when you’re sleeping in my arms, Inspector Wise?’

Damn my heart for the stupid little pitter-patter it gave. My face felt warm. I ignored his question and brushed past the sexy prick without comment. I needed more than four hours sleep to deal with this shit.

To my surprise, Loki flew to my shoulder. ‘You’re coming?’ I asked the caladrius.

‘Better than drying paint.’ The bird gave its usual shrug.

Ugh, fine. ‘Don’t be seen,’ I ordered.

Loki laughed at me with his cawing chuckle that set my teeth on edge; it was worse than a hyena’s laugh. Krieg looked vaguely amused for the second time in as many minutes. Great, I was entertaining the ogre king. I glared at him; if anything, his smile widened.

‘Let’s go,’ I said briskly and trotted down the stairs.

‘Where to?’ Krieg asked as we swung into his car. Loki took up position in the rear, resting on one of the headrests. Krieg looked at him in the rearview mirror. ‘No shitting in the car,’ he ordered.

Loki looked scandalised. ‘Never!’ A moment later he muttered to himself, ‘Only in cereal.’

Eww. I made a mental note to make sure Loki never flew over my cereal. Krieg chuckled and the warm sound rumbled round the car. He started the engine. ‘Where to, Wise?’ he repeated.

Feeling disconcerted at hearing the deadly man laugh, I gave him Louisa Carnforth’s address.

After skimming Channing’s notes, she was my first port of call.

Louisa had interacted with Helga, but Channing’s report had been annoyingly brief and he hadn’t mentioned the incident with the obnoxious Squiggins at all.

Krieg plugged the address into the Satnav and we drove off in companionable silence. At least, it was companionable for me because I had no idea what Krieg thought of it. I had no idea what Krieg thought about anything at all. His poker face was the stuff of legends.

We drove out into the rolling Cheshire countryside where the Carnforth family resided – and boy, did they reside.

The place had to be over fifteen-thousand square feet or more, and the mansion – it couldn’t be called a house – reared out of manicured lawns and well-maintained gardens.

Built in red brick, it was sleek and modern.

Everything about it looked top spec; there wasn’t so much as a flake of mortar out of place.

The heavy metal gates had been left open, granting us easy access to the driveway, and now I could see why: the whole area was abuzz. Someone was erecting a large white marquee and there were vans of florists and caterers lining the paved pathway.

‘Looks like they’re hosting a party,’ Krieg commented.

I swallowed the sarcastic ‘no shit’ that wanted to spout from my lips. Sassing the ogre king was a sure way to an early, unmarked grave.

We climbed out of the car. Somehow, even in his casual clothing, I could see Krieg would fit easily into a place like this.

There wasn’t a hint in his body language that suggested he was intimidated by the show of wealth.

A home like this in an area like this meant the property had to be worth a cool fifteen or twenty million.

‘Go and listen to the caterers and florists,’ I murmured to Loki. ‘See what they think of the Carnforths.’

‘Sky has ears,’ he promised, putting his own spin on ‘the walls have ears’ before he flew off.

Krieg rang the doorbell. A maid dressed in an honest-to-goodness French maid’s outfit opened the door and took two steps back, eyes wide. ‘Oh … Ogre,’ she stuttered. Then her eyes took in all of Krieg’s muscles and she inadvertently licked her overly-full lips. I didn’t blame her.

‘That’s right,’ he rumbled. ‘High King Krieg, at your service.’ He shot her a dazzling smile and she literally fainted dead away.

Luckily, he caught her before she hit her pretty blonde head on the oak parquet flooring.

He laid her down in the recovery position with an ease that told me that sort of thing happened a lot.

‘Guess we just go in,’ he said, eyes sparkling with amusement.

‘You enjoyed that too much,’ I muttered as I brushed past him.

‘I do love to intimidate,’ he grinned.

I huffed. ‘That wasn’t intimidation, that was desire. I think so much blood rushed to her nether regions that her brain didn’t have any left.’

He barked a laugh; it was there and gone in a moment, but the grin lingered. He looked entirely too pleased with himself. Ugh. Men.

‘Excuse me,’ I called loudly. ‘We’re here to see Louisa Carnforth?’

‘I’m in the drawing room!’ a posh feminine voice drawled. I had no idea what classed an area as a drawing room; I knew they existed, of course, and always in posh houses with more bathrooms than residents, but what gave it that name? Was it a place where you did artwork?

I opened three more doors until I found what I guessed she was referring to, though it looked like any other living room to me. This one held the woman I guessed was Louisa Carnforth. No sign of paintwork or easels.

A beautiful brunette was sitting on one of the chairs with a team of people buzzing around her.

Someone was fussing with her hair whilst another was prepping make-up.

She blinked in surprise when she saw us.

‘You’re not the florist, darling.’ She spoke with deliberate slowness, like she was fully used to everyone around her waiting for her every word to drop from her luscious lips.

‘No. I’m Inspector Wise with the Connection and this is High King Krieg.’

Her perfect eyebrows shot up. ‘How delightful. We do love royalty in this household, no matter the shape, size or colour.’

She clearly had no idea she was being insulting, so I spoke quickly before Krieg could growl something at her that would get us chucked out. ‘Going somewhere?’ I asked hastily, gesturing to the women fluttering around her.

She gave me an amused look. ‘Not at all, I am staying precisely here. We are hosting a charity gala tonight – and it’s going to be the party of the season.’

I arched an eyebrow. ‘I thought Quintos’s party was the party of the season.’

‘So did he, darling, but you saw how wrong he was! Arley Hall is gorgeous, but he didn’t have any real pizzazz.

No entertainment except for a couple of dancers.

’ She sniffed disdainfully. ‘Even his fireworks display was so mediocre that I left after a few minutes. But tonight will really be something special.’

Eyes wide and wholly without guile she added, ‘You should come!’ She eyed Krieg like he was a tasty morsel of food. ‘A king is bound to get tongues flapping.’

‘I’ll check my schedule,’ he replied blandly.

‘I came to speak to you about Quintos’s party,’ I started. ‘I believe my colleague Channing interviewed you last night.’

‘Gosh,’ she cracked a yawn. ‘It was actually this morning wasn’t it? Luckily,’ she winked at Krieg, ‘I’ve lots of practice at being up all night. I have the stamina of a caffeinated werewolf in mating season.’

I ignored her obvious flirting and ploughed on. ‘I came to talk to you about Tom Squiggins,’ I persisted.

‘Young Squidsy?’ Her brow furrowed, making her makeup artist huff under her breath. ‘Whatever for?’

‘I believe he came on to you?’

She laughed. ‘That’s not news, darling, it’s why I changed his nickname from Squigsy to Squidsy. His hands are everywhere and it often feels like he has far more than two of them. Just like a squid.’ She winked, pleased as punch with her own cleverness.

‘Helga protected you from Squiggins, did she not?’

‘Who protected me?’ she asked with a vague smile.

‘The ogre who got murdered.’ Krieg suddenly sounded a whole lot more menacing.

‘Gosh.’ She stared at him admiringly. ‘You really can turn that energy on, can’t you, darling? I love it.’

‘Helga,’ I repeated impatiently.

‘Yes.’ She nodded and tried to look more compassionate. ‘Your ogre told Squidsy off, told him facilitating rape was not in her contract.’

‘Rape?’ I asked.

She waved it away. ‘The little love was being dramatic. He’d pinned me in a corridor on the way to the loo and was groping me through my dress, which I objected to – loudly.

I was about to knee him in the groin when good old Helga hauled him off and did a rather brilliant growl.

She said something that made him go quite pale.

’ She fluttered her eyelashes at Krieg. ‘I’d pay to have you growl at me like that. ’

‘I don’t need your money,’ he said, keeping his tone perfectly even. I suppressed a sudden smirk. He was trying his hardest not to growl at her.

Louisa ran her eyes over him, assessing his clothing right down to his boots. She zeroed in on the fancy watch peeking out of his jacket. ‘No,’ she purred. ‘I can see that you don’t.’

‘You didn’t mention the incident to Detective Channing. Why not?’

‘Darling, it was 4am! I was ready for my bed. I needed my beauty sleep for my gala! If I’d mentioned I’d spoken to the poor girl, I would have been there all night.’ She rolled her eyes.

‘So you lied.’

She bristled. ‘I didn’t lie, darling. I didn’t stab the poor girl. Honestly, the Squidsy incident just didn’t cross my mind. He gropes me at every opportunity. It’s nothing new.’

‘You didn’t think of pressing charges?’ I asked primly.

‘Gosh, no. What girl doesn’t put up with a grope now and again? If we all made a fuss every time it happened, there wouldn’t be a man left who wasn’t in prison. And then who would rule our patriarchy?’ She laughed at her own joke.

I folded my arms and glared. ‘Or perhaps behaviour would change.’

‘You’re one of those “climate-change” people, aren’t you?

The ones that think we can actually stop it?

’ She half-laughed, half-huffed. ‘Anyway, sometimes I quite enjoy it when Squidsy gropes me. But I wasn’t in the mood yesterday, I had bigger fish to fry.

Besides, I couldn’t press charges against him without rocking the boat.

His daddy owns my favourite club.’ She shrugged like that was far more important than standing up for herself and her right not to be casually fondled and sexually assaulted.

‘Anyway, as I was saying, you simply must come tonight.’ She sent us both a saucy grin.

‘If only to watch the steam coming out of my darling father’s ears.

It’ll give the party a real edge.’ She pushed the stylist and makeup artist aside, went over to a desk and pulled out a plain cream card on which she wrote: Louisa says to let them in. LC.

‘Here.’ She handed it to me and I studied the writing; she must have been in her late twenties yet she still dotted her ‘I’s with little hearts. She was frozen in adolescence, stuck in her teenage rebellious years even though the teens had left her a decade ago.

‘Your father wouldn’t want us attending?’ I asked lightly.

Louisa laughed. ‘He’s not a fan of creatures or the Connection so it’d be a real one-two.

Your presence would definitely add an element of drama.

’ She pursed her lips then said in a wheedling tone, ‘Much the same crowd who came to Quintos’s masquerade will be here … lots of opportunities for questions.’

She waggled her eyebrows up and down and her makeup artist sighed. Louisa shot a glare at the young woman, who wilted and offered a simpering smile instead.

‘We’ll think about it,’ I interjected. And honestly? I would consider it. It would be a good opportunity to question people when their guard was down. Nothing they said would be admissible in a court of law – but the Other frequently dispensed with the courtroom.

Our justice was rough and ready. And usually permanent.