Page 70 of Veiled Justice
I smiled. ‘And we’re back to the fun, aren’t we? Fun fact: you fumbled on the wording of the oath and we now have a full statement from her.’
I slid a copy across to the lawyer who scanned it quickly. ‘I need a moment with my client,’ he said hastily.
‘It was all Louisa’s idea,’ Quintos blurted. ‘She set the whole thing up, all three deaths! I was just an unhappy witness. She threatened me, told me not to come forward with what I knew or I’d be next!’
‘Quintos!’ The lawyer barked.
Quintos glared at him. ‘Shut up, Trent. You’re fired!’ The lawyer shook his head and stalked out without another word.
‘Are you waiving the right to a solicitor?’ I asked pleasantly.
‘I don’t need one!Charlatans, the lot of them. I built my own company from the ground up and I don’t need some sycophantic lawyer muddying the waters. This is all very simple. Louisa killed them all and I’m a victim, too. She was terrifying. She said she’d kill me. I believed her – she’s ashark.’
‘Interesting wording. That’s what Louisa said to Helga, wasn’t it? That you’re either a shark or a fish?’
He seized on it. ‘Precisely. That’s exactly what Louisa said because it’s true. She’s a killer through and through – I bet she killed her father as well. Honestly, Inspector, she was the one behind it all. I had nothing to do with it!’
‘Except for providing the money for hiring the ogre assassin.’ I smiled. ‘Money leaves trails.’
‘It does not! I routed it through a shell company!’ he protested.
Gotcha. ‘So youdidpay for the hit?’
He faltered. ‘I want my lawyer back.’
I grinned. ‘I’m not sure he’ll come, but we can ask nicely. Another fun thing is that we have you cold. You’ve just confessed to paying for the hit and we have a statement from Verona and Katz confirming thatyoumasterminded the whole thing. Not Louisa but you, Cameron Quintos. Lawyer or not, you’re going away for a very long time.’
‘It wasn’t me! It was Katz!’
‘You said a moment ago it was Louisa,’ I pointed out.
He started to sweat. ‘It was both of them! It all started in Nocturne.’
I opened my notepad. ‘Tell me everything, Quintos, and maybe we can discuss reducing your sentence.’
He sang like a caladrius.
Two down, Louisa to go. And she was going to topple like a house of cards.
Chapter 38
Louisa called for a whole team of lawyers; not one, not two, but three suits sat next to her. ‘Where’s that tasty beefcake?’ she drawled in that upper-class privileged voice. She stretched back in the plastic chair as if it were a throne. I was here to teach her she was no queen. It was a lesson I was going to thoroughly enjoy.
I didn’t like her talking about Krieg that way but I didn’t want to examine why. I struggled to keep the glare off my face; I was planning on doing a good-cop routine. Her ego would be her downfall and I would pander to it.
I managed a smile. ‘High King Krieg is otherwise occupied.’
‘Shame. I do like some eye candy.’
‘Cameron Quintos isn’t exactly eye candy.’
‘No, darling,’ she tittered. ‘But he’s rich as hell and powerful to boot. And that adds at least a couple of points in his favour.’
One of the lawyers leaned forward and murmured something to her. She waved him away.
‘You’re pretty rich,’ I pointed out. ‘Richer, now that your father has passed away.’ I paused. ‘I’m sorry for your loss, by the way. It must have been hard losing him – and after all that mess with the dryad too.’
She dabbed at non-existent tears. ‘I’m crushed, of course.’
