Page 16 of Veiled Justice (The Other Detective #1)

As we left Kate’s office with Loki in tow, I texted Channing: Pull out the reports on Verona and Ludwig please.

Moments later, they landed in my inbox. Channing was beginning to grow on me.

I was used to working alone, but my caseload was so overloaded that Thackeray had insisted I take on a partner.

I’d been annoyed at the time but maybe Channing had a use after all.

If nothing else, he was saving me time; in Laura’s absence I had to do all my own typing and I despised paperwork. The field was the place for me.

After a few moments of huffy silence, Loki said, ‘What find?’

Feeling a shade ridiculous, I filled in the bird on the autopsy results. ‘Need witch,’ he suggested. ‘For potion.’ He wasn’t wrong. I hoped that the use of the rare potion would give us a solid lead to tug on.

I pulled out my phone and texted my friend Kassandra – the witch Symposium member, whom I trusted completely. Maybe she could make enquiries on my behalf.

Hey Kass, how are you? I caught a case, a deadly one. Imbarum was used. Can you make discreet enquiries about who’s selling it?

Looking carefully at Krieg and checking he couldn’t see my phone, I also messaged Channing. Look into an ogre called Einar. He was dating Helga. Let me know what you find. Have we heard from Ji-ho re Helga’s phone?

He responded immediately. I chased Ji-ho, he is still trying to unlock it. I’ll look into Einar and report back. I wasn’t sure whether his speed in getting back to me showed that he was sharp, or he was bored out of his mind and playing on his phone.

I replied with an approximate address for Einar based on the location of the ogres’ den then pulled up the reports on the vamps, Verona and Ludwig. I read them quickly: Verona had claimed to be outside during the fireworks, and Ludwig had said he’d stayed inside at the bar.

I trusted Ava and her recollections but there’d been a lot of guests that night; just because she hadn’t seen Verona outside and Verona had said she was outside didn’t mean Verona was lying.

In such a large crowd it would be easy to miss someone and besides, vampyrs could lurk unseen in the shadows.

Still, I definitely wanted to speak to Verona and look her in the eyes to assess if she was being truthful.

Verona and Ludwig both worked for Lord Volderiss in Liverpool. It would take us forty-five minutes to reach them but it would be worth it to question them in person. It was so much harder to detect a lie over the phone unless you were a truth-seeker, which I was not.

I dialled Lord Volderiss; I knew he’d recognise my number because he’d called it often enough.

Fellow Inspector Elvira Garcia often worked out of Liverpool, but if she wasn’t available he’d reach out to me and I’d always helped him out, even if it didn’t make its way into a formal report.

I’d worked hard to cultivate our good relationship. He’d take my call.

Moments later he proved me right. ‘Yes?’ he answered impatiently.

I identified myself out of politeness. ‘Inspector Wise of the Connection, sir. I need to speak with two of your personnel who were in the vicinity of a murder last night.’

‘Who?’

‘Your receptionist Verona, and Ludwig, who I believe works in security.’

There was a pause and some clicking on a computer. ‘They are both in the building. I will make sure they are available to meet with you, Inspector.’

‘Thank you, sir, I’ll come within the hour.

I appreciate your co-operation.’ I really did.

Lord Volderiss was the new Symposium member for the vampyrs and he could have thrown his weight around, made me go through slower channels to get to his people.

Clearly the help I’d given him was weighing in my favour.

‘We’re on the same team, Wise,’ Lord Volderiss said wryly and hung up.

I pocketed my phone and turned to Krieg. ‘I’m heading to GV Law, in Liverpool. It’s a law firm owned by—’

‘I know who owns it,’ Krieg interrupted. ‘Lord Volderiss. The Symposium member.’

Like the dragon shifters, ogres weren’t part of the Symposium; I figured that was mostly because anti-creature sentiment was rife there, as well as in the Connection.

Unfortunately, that meant that there was no one on the Symposium to try and protect their rights.

The ogres had written off the Connection and it, in turn, had written them off.

It was a vicious circle so nothing ever improved.

‘Get in,’ Krieg said as he unlocked the car. ‘I’ll drive you.’

He seemed determined to ride shotgun on this case and I didn’t have the political clout to dissuade him – and anyway, I didn’t have my car with me – so I simply climbed in. Loki flew in and settled on ‘his’ headrest at the back.

‘Thanks,’ I said evenly. So far Krieg’s presence hadn’t inhibited my work and having a driver was handy; besides, his presence might be helpful with the interview. I had no doubt he had intimidation down to an art form.

‘Volderiss said Verona and Ludwig are in the office today and we’re okay to interview them.’ I clicked on my seat belt as Krieg started the car.

His eyebrow twitched in a minute movement, which was all that betrayed that he was surprised. ‘Accommodating of him.’

‘Not everyone is an arsehole.’

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘But most people are.’

I shot him a sideways glance. ‘Your world must be a dark place.’

‘And yours isn’t?’ He sounded surprised.

I considered the question for a moment. ‘No, it’s not.

I see dark things, but most people are aiming for good.

Sometimes they miss, but most of them are only trying to do the right thing.

It’s just that definitions vary – their definition of the right thing isn’t necessarily the same as yours or mine. ’

‘And killing Helga?’

‘I said most people aim for good. Every society has its bad apples and it’s my job to weed them out. One way or another.’ The Connection wholly endorsed – if not encouraged – the use of deadly force in the pursuit of justice. In a world full of deadly magical beings, it had to be the deadliest.

The Inspectors had a Latin slogan: Pro iustitia non dubitamus, which meant ‘for justice, we do not hesitate’.

In other words, lop heads off first and ask questions later.

That attitude had been embraced by some of my predecessors, like Inspector Stone.

He had been the Connection’s bogeyman: any time they’d needed a deadly result, they had sent him.

But now that he was MIA, the rest of us were getting pressure from on high to make sure that the Other realm didn’t think that his absence had weakened us.

We were actively encouraged to use lethal force when possible.

Paperwork, jails, appeals – all of that was a hassle the Connection would prefer to avoid, and petty crime was mainly dealt with in-house by the various magical factions.

We were the worst type of police force but I hoped that – eventually – by being a part of the problem, I could one day become a part of the solution.

‘And what are we going to do when we find this bad apple?’ Krieg’s tone held no censure, only genuine curiosity.

‘We’ll bring them to justice.’

‘But what does that mean?’ he pressed. ‘What is justice for you?’

‘It isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. When we find the killer and we know why they did it, we’ll know how to deal with them.’

Some killers, the ones who wouldn’t stop and who would thrive in prison, I would put down without hesitation.

For others, the confinement of prison would be a worse punishment than death so I processed those and locked them away for a very long time.

Not everyone deserved death; some deserved to suffer.

The Other didn’t give you a jury of your peers; there was no day in court in front of an impartial judge.

Justice started and ended with me, but for my own sake I had to know I was doing things right.

I approached every case as if I would arrest the perpetrator and gather iron-clad evidence to strengthen my case.

I couldn’t work and live amongst my human police counterparts and do less than that.

And because my justice could be deadly, I had to be sure it was meted out to the right person. For my own sanity.

‘You fascinate me,’ Krieg murmured. ‘You and your idea of situational justice.’

Before I could reply, he pulled out his phone and set the handset down so I could see who he was calling: Amber DeLea. Then he hit speakerphone.

I guessed that, like me, he had his own witch contacts.

I’d met Amber briefly but she wasn’t someone I was warm and fuzzy with like Kass, and Amber certainly didn’t owe me any favours.

Still, I could see the value of having Krieg and his contacts by my side on this; Amber DeLea was the newly appointed Crone and presided over the Coven Council.

Like him, she was a mover and shaker; she would get results and probably faster than Kass could.

‘Yes?’ Amber answered the phone brusquely.

‘Imbarum,’ Krieg said, meeting her brusqueness and raising her with some extra brevity.

‘What of it?’

‘Where do I get it?’

‘You don’t.’

‘Someone used it on one of my ogres.’

She huffed a breath. ‘That’s a problem. Are they okay?’

‘No.’

There was a beat of silence, ‘I’m sorry.’ Her tone was far softer than I’d ever heard it before.

‘Then help me find her killer, Miss DeLea.’

She sighed. ‘You’re making my life difficult, Krieg.’

‘Yet you are living it.’ His tone held some significance, as if he had affected her fate in some way.

There was a beat of silence. ‘You may have called off the contract that was on my head but you still let me stroll into a gathering of evil witches!’ she said accusingly.

‘But you knew full well it was a gathering of evil witches, did you not?’

She hissed, ‘So?’

‘You are mistress of your own fate, Crone. You knew there was a gathering of evil witches but you still went in. It was not for me to tell you it was a bad idea.’ Krieg sounded amused. ‘You have Bastion for that.’

‘Your ogres were providing the witches with security!’ she shot back, anger ripping through her voice.

‘Indeed.’ He paused for a moment. ‘And yet … you got in and out without a problem, did you not?’

‘Huh,’ Amber said, as she realised that he had facilitated her ingress into whatever the heck they were talking about.

‘Indeed.’ Krieg was back to being amused.

Amber sighed. ‘I’ll look into the Imbarum. I’ll let you know what I find.’ She hung up.

I looked at Krieg. ‘I don’t think she likes you.’

He gave a small smile. ‘I think she’s rather fond of me, actually.’

I snorted. ‘Do you have any proper friends? Besides Hanlon?’

‘Hanlon isn’t my friend. Do you have any proper friends, Inspector Wise?’ It didn’t escape my notice that he hadn’t answered my question.

Friends: what friends did I have? ‘Kate,’ I blurted, thinking of the ME we’d just left.

‘She’s a work colleague.’

I folded my arms. ‘She’s invited me to drink champagne with her and her sister.’

‘Have you taken her up on it?’

‘Well … no.’

‘Well, then.’

‘I’m friends with Kass and Stevie,’ I insisted, naming the two witches I’d gone to school with but hadn’t seen socially in entirely too long.

‘I look forward to meeting them.’ His expression suggested he thought they were imaginary friends rather than real ones.

I grimaced. I looked forward to seeing the girls too but Stevie was going to yell at me for neglecting them.

Luckily, dead bodies were a great excuse for letting things slide.

The girls would forgive me, they always did.

They understood; we all had busy lives and other priorities.

Theirs was their coven and mine was the dead.

And right now my priority was serving Helga in the best way I could by finding her killer.