Page 29 of Veiled Justice (The Other Detective #1)

I was dressed in my Connection uniform when I walked into the dryad’s grove in Grosvenor Park.

The wards sensed that I held no ill-intent and let me in.

I had left a sleepy Loki at home; taking a bird with me to pass the death message seemed unnecessarily weird.

Plus the little fella seemed tuckered out.

He’d lived in a cage for a long time and longer flights seemed to take it out of him.

He needed to build up his stamina carefully – I didn’t want him pulling a wing or something.

At the grove, I knocked firmly on the elder tree and it shook its leaves to acknowledge my presence. ‘I need to speak to Alice Rose’s parents,’ I said firmly.

The elder tree groaned and shook its leaves again. As some of them fell, they laid a perfect path to another tree several yards away. I followed it. I could see the back of a dryad ahead of me and I tensed, drawing up my magic to defend myself if I needed to.

The dryad heard my footfalls and turned to face me. It wasn’t the killer I’d seen in Alice’s mind but it was Jude Jingo, who was a killer all the same. ‘Jingo,’ I snarled. ‘What are you doing here?’

He smiled. ‘This is my home.’

‘Bullshit.’

He laughed. ‘I knew you’d come here to notify the parents of the death. I’ve left it to you.’ I wondered if he expected me to thank him. His smile widened. ‘I thought a little frank discourse away from prying ears would be helpful.’

We were surrounded by sleeping dryads and their trees; the prying ears he was referring to had been the ones at the party. He didn’t fear the dryads prying because he had total control over them.

‘The Carnforths’ party wasn’t your cup of tea after all?’ I snarked.

He studied me. ‘Did you know, Inspector, that doppelgangers fall into the creature side of the Other realm?’

‘I didn’t,’ I admitted.

‘Not many do. It must be said that we are rare. We’re born with four legs like an animal and we are fierce and basic like animals. We like to eat, to drink and to fuck.’ He drew the last word out like he was trying to tempt me.

‘And kill,’ I added pointedly.

‘Yes,’ he agreed easily. ‘We like to kill. To assume a new form is a thrill. But my point, Inspector, was that as a creature of the Other realm I did not enjoy the theme of the evening’s soiree.

The rich elite can dress up and call themselves cultured but they are just as depraved as me.

Power – it’s all any of us want. And they seek to take it from us creatures, to subjugate us.

Some of them even spat on me tonight because of my green skin. ’

‘It’s not right.’ I hated agreeing with Jingo even for a moment, but I did.

‘It is not.’ He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. ‘I run drugs and guns, but I am an honest soul. I like money, and whoever said that crime doesn’t pay was lying through their teeth. But I am a businessman, not a bad man.’

‘You stabbed a teenager to death with a pair of scissors to start a feud,’ I snarled.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘And it started and ended the feud with exactly the result I required. As I said, I am a businessman and I need certain results. There may be collateral damage along the way but that doesn’t make me evil.’

‘Let’s agree to disagree,’ I scowled.

He smiled. ‘I like you. If the ogre wasn’t so intent on you, I’d woo you myself.’

I gaped at him. I did not need him to get that idea into his head; that Krieg might consider me his mate was more than enough to contend with. Not that I was thinking about that. ‘You’d have about as much chance as a moth against a dragon’s flame,’ I said firmly.

His smile widened. ‘As Ash Aspen, yes. But when I shed this form, I’ll make sure the next one is muscular like Krieg. You like them ripped, don’t you?’

I struggled to keep my face blank. At least with Ash Aspen’s body I knew who and what he was; if Jude Jingo took another form, I’d have no idea. ‘Don’t,’ I said flatly. ‘Just stay in Ash.’

He laughed. ‘Better to tell a gargoyle to be polite. I can’t change what I am, Inspector Wise, and I don’t want to. I embrace myself and my nature.’ He looked at me intently. ‘You would do well to do the same.’

The thought that he too might somehow know what I was filled me with anxiety. It clearly showed, because he gave a low chuckle. ‘No, I don’t know your secrets yet, Inspector. But I will. You know how I like to collect them.’

‘You like to use them for blackmail,’ I stated.

‘That too.’ He winked and started to move away.

‘Wait!’ I called after him. ‘Why were you and Alice working at the Carnforths’ party?’

‘Alice worked at the Nocturne Circle and some of their staff were brought in tonight.’ He tapped his nose. ‘Discretion was important and the staff at Nocturne know all about discretion.’

His statement rang true. I was certain that both murders were pre-planned so the killers would need staff they could trust on hand. And yes, there was more than one killer here; the problem was that I wasn’t quite sure precisely how many.

Jingo’s observations, along with Squiggins’ comment, meant that I was bound for Nocturne Circle next. But first, I had some lives to ruin.

I frowned at him. ‘Why are you trying to help me?’

‘Because fuckery against the creatures is not to be encouraged.’

‘So that’s why Alice was there – but why were you?’

He grinned and repeated, ‘Because fuckery against the creatures is not to be encouraged.’

I remembered his comments about the various people there and the salacious secrets they were hiding. ‘You were there to mine some blackmail material,’ I guessed.

‘Perhaps.’

‘You used Alice Rose to get you into the event and then you got to work.’ I studied him. ‘Did you know she was going to die?’

The flash of anger in his eyes was there and gone in a moment. ‘I did not. Such deaths are bad for business. I have taken over the grove and I need to keep things stable. I would never have sanctioned the hit.’

The hit. I had been all but certain I’d known the identity of the dryad’s killer and now I was sure. ‘A dryad assassin was hired to kill her.’ It was a statement, not a question.

Jingo’s eyebrows shot up and he looked even more intrigued. ‘And how did you deduce that it was a dryad assassin? I just said it was a hit.’

‘A guest saw another dryad, other than you and Alice,’ I lied. ‘And everyone knows that dryads and griffins are the paramount assassins of the Other. Besides, Alice didn’t struggle. She trusted her attacker because he was of the same species.’

And that was precisely why Helga was dead, too; she’d trusted her attacker enough to take a drink from him. An ogre she’d known had been hired to kill her. I wondered if he or she had been aware of the victim’s identity when they’d accepted the off-the-books contract.

Jude nodded. ‘I surmised as much.’

‘You think like a cop,’ I noted.

‘There’s no need to be rude!’ he sassed, and I smiled despite myself.

‘It was a compliment.’

‘Not to me, though I accept we are two sides of the same coin. We’re not so different.’

I snorted. ‘We’re worlds apart.’

‘We’ll see,’ Jingo murmured as he walked away. ‘Good night, Inspector.’

I didn’t reply. Instead I refocused on the tree in front of me and the family I was about to destroy.

I took a deep breath and knocked on its bark.