Page 66 of Veiled Justice
‘On cloud ten!’ Loki agreed. Verona blinked at his presence then, to my surprise, she extended her finger. After a beat, Loki flew to sit on it. She stroked him gently and he crooned. What the actual hell? Why was my bird fraternising with Dominatrix Barbie? And worse, why was I a smidge jealous?
I tried to set my feelings aside and turned to Channing. ‘Caution her and start recording,’ I instructed gruffly.
‘Detective Elliott Channing and Inspector Stacy Wise in interview with Verona of the Volderiss clan,’ Channing said. He rattled off the time and date for the camera then read Verona her rights. She looked at him, intrigued.
‘We need to take your statement,’ I started.
Visibly frustrated, she huffed, ‘You know that I can’t give you one.’
I smiled. ‘Au contraire. Although it’s corrupted and can’t be used, I was lucky enough to see some footage that shows without a shadow of doubt that you didnotswear an oath.’
‘I did!’
I smirked. ‘No, you didn’t. Quintos phrased his oath request badly. What you said was, “I will give you my oath that I will not speak or communicate in any way about anything I saw here.”’
‘Yeah? So?’
I leaned forward. ‘You said “Iwill”, so you didn’t give your oath in that moment. You promised to do so in the future. You didn’t glow golden, Verona – the poor wording meant that the oath didn’t take. You can speak freely about what you saw without fear of an oath death.’
‘Cockwomble!’ Loki cackled in delight.
She bit her lip. ‘What if you’re wrong?’
‘Verona, I swear to you that I saw the oath didn’t take hold. My oath that I speak the truth. As I will it, so mote it be.’ I glowed golden as the oath took. ‘Youdid not glow,’ I promised again.
She looked at me then threw back her head and laughed. ‘Oh my God, that is too perfect! The absolute arseholes! Are you going to kill them or send them to prison?’
‘I rather think prison is the worst punishment for them, don’t you?’ I said drily.
‘Absolutely – they can all rot there.’ She beamed. ‘This is the best start to my morning. You’re right, it was totally worth coming in for on my day off!’
She leaned forward. ‘Tom Squiggins found me in Cameron Quintos’s office and said he had something important to tell me.’ She blushed lightly. ‘Like an idiot, I let him get close enough to whisper to me – but he didn’t whisper, he jammed a syringe in my neck. He used some sort of serum on me to induce my compliance. Everything felt … floaty, like it didn’t matter what I did and it was best to just obey him.’
She frowned. ‘It was horrible. I guess he wasn’t sure if the serum would work because he also held a knife to my throat to ensure my compliance. And then he walked me over to a secluded area in the gardens where I witnessed Quintos order an ogre to kill Helga.’
I leaned forward. ‘And who else gave the order?’ I pressed.
‘Oh!’ She grinned. ‘You’re right. Louisa Carnforth told the ogre to do it, too.’
‘Didyou hear them discuss any other crimes?’
‘I heard Katz and Louisa talking about using a dryad assassin called Kane to kill another dryad.’
I smiled. Gotcha, you arrogant fucks.
Chapter 36
I had enough for all their warrants but this was a case that could come back to screw my brother. It had to be ironclad – and I knew just what to do.
This time Krieg and Loki were on the other side of the glass so at least I didn’t need to worry about a mistimed ‘Pigdog’ from the peanut gallery. Katz looked half-asleep; the lazy arsehole hadn’t even bothered to bring a lawyer. I hit record and read him his rights.
‘You want a lawyer, kid?’ I asked casually, before we started.
‘Am I under arrest?’ He started picking at his nails.
‘Nah. We’re just chatting.’
He waved a hand dismissively. ‘Let the record show that Caspian Katz has waived his right to a solicitor.’ I smiled warmly. ‘So, tell me about yourself.’
