Page 72 of Veiled Justice
She slammed a fist onto the table. ‘He tried to make me take up needlepoint – needlepoint! Like I was a fucking damsel in the fifteenth century!’
‘You made him the damsel in the end,’ I said admiringly. ‘Your father – well, he just needed to go. He was holding you up. He put a stop to you dating Quintos.’ I smiled. ‘I bet you taunted him while he was bedbound. Such small doses of Imbarum, a potion created byyourcompany … But Amber DeLea tells me that the Coven Council refused to authorise it for sale.’
‘Ugh,’ she said. ‘Those witchy bitches are just jealous dried-up old hags with no vision.’
‘Miss Carnforth!’ Lawyer One snapped.
‘That’s not incriminating,’ she shot back. ‘The witchesaredried-up old hags. It’s just the truth.’
‘Like the truth that you decided to end your father,’ I murmured. ‘Like Alice Rose. Like Helga. All of them werestepping stones to prove you’re the one in control. Which, of course, you are.’
Her lips curled into a cruel smile. ‘I am in control, yes. And yet here I am, perfectly untouchable. They wereallkilled under the in-house rule. None of the deaths are anything to do with the Connection so you can’t arrest me, even if I had something to do with it, which I didn’t.’ She smirked, so certain of her security.
Lawyer One let out a low groan.
I smiled. ‘It’s a funny thing about the in-house rule. As soon as another species gets involved it becomes conspiracy to murder and the in-house rule doesn’t apply. With your father’s death, you involved the witches who supplied you with the Imbarum. And you’re a wizard soeverydeath is a conspiracy to murder.’
The truth was that the witches had supplied an illegal drug meant to incapacitate her father, not kill him, and I wasn’t sure that charge would stick. But the others? Oh yeah, they’d stick like glue.
‘You have no proof of any wrong doing,’ Lawyer Two shot at me. ‘Unless you have some actualevidence,we’re ending this now.’
I grinned. ‘I have more proof than a good bottle of whisky. Let's start with the footage from her fancy videographer showing she was indeed missing from the fireworks at the time of death.'
'That shows nothing,' Lawyer Two dismissed.
'It shows opportunity. But you're right, that's not the smoking gun we need – not alone anyway. But let's pair it with Helga's blood on Miss Carnforth’s dress – I got to it before the dry cleaners couldremove it – and that gun is starting to warm up. But then, we've got the statements.'
'From who?' Lawyer One asked tightly.
'We have a full statement from a Volderiss Clan vampyr, Verona. She witnessed everything. Quintos made her swear an oath, but he fumbled the wording and the oath didn't take. She sang like a bird.'
Louisa groaned. 'Fucking idiot!'
I slid a copy of Verona's statement across to the three lawyers, which they pored over. I was kind enough to give them some reading time before I added, 'And of course, there’s the statements from Quintos and Katz blaming Louisa for the whole thing.’ I passed the lawyers the additional statements.
The lawyers needed better poker faces, their expressions were all dialled to “oh shit”. Even Louisa was finally beginning to look a little alarmed.
‘Even with all that … there’s the fingers. We have a warrant to search your residence for your trophy – we found the first one inGreedin Nocturne Circle but I suspect we’ll find the second one in your home. Not to mention, those vials of Imbarum. Deny it all you like, the evidence against you is sizeable and irrefutable.’ I smiled. ‘Louisa Carnforth, you are under arrest for conspiracy to murder Helga Jónson and Alice Rose, and for the murder of Magnus Carnforth. I find you guilty, and sentence you to Wraithmore Prison for a term to be determined by the CPS.’
‘Don’t say another word!’ Lawyer One instructed her.
She pressed her lips together, silencing herself, but the action was too little, too late.
'We'd like a moment with our client,' Lawyer Three said grimly.
'I'm sure you do. You'll have it.' I pushed away from the table. 'If she wants a plea bargain, she's going to have to confess. Otherwise, the full weight of the law will be thrown at her. She's going to Wraithmore Prison, that much is certain. How long for, is up to her co-operation and remorse. Something to think about.'
I walked out. Louisa may not have masterminded Helga’s death from the very beginning but in the moment she sure as hell had ordered it. I was more than satisfied that she was guilty – beyond all reasonable doubt – and in the Other realm, my opinion was all that counted.
Rupert was officially cleared, justice had prevailed. Katz, Quintos and Louisa Carnforth were all going away for a very, very long time.
Chapter 39
I handed all three files over to Gareth ‘Gaz’ Steele at the CPS for peer review; even though I was Judge, Jury and Executioner, I needed the case to be airtight. I didn’t want any of their fancy lawyers tapdancing out of the charges. Gaz would lock it down, dot the I’s, cross the T’s so that any appeal would be dead in the water before it began. And that was good because an appeal was his purview, not mine.
The greying man grinned as he took the files. ‘I love working with you. You had them all nailed to rights already but with two of them confessing, they’re tied up with bows on. I’ll see all three bound for Wraithmore shortly.’
‘I didn’t manage to crack Montague or Squiggins.’ I sighed. They had both lawyered up and I’d had long interviews that resulted in nothing more than brief, prepared statements and a string of ‘no comment’ replies. They had certainly known what was going on, and we had some evidence against them thanks to Verona and Quintos, but it wasn’t a solid case. Beyond reasonable doubt was a high threshold.
