Page 45 of Brimstone Bound
Lord Fairfax drained his glass, smacked his lips and looked at me. ‘Perhaps you should start from the beginning.’
An unbidden image of my own corpse engulfed in flames rose up in my mind, but I quashed it. Not that beginning. ‘I am here,’ I said baldly, ‘because I believe my mentor, Detective Constable Anthony Brown, has been murdered. His body was discovered a few hours ago at the DeVane Hotel. There is evidence outside his room that a werewolf was involved.’
All four werewolf leaders looked at Lukas. He leaned forward, picked up his whisky and took a drink.
‘What evidence exactly?’ Sullivan inquired.
‘His fourth-floor room was accessed via the window,’ Lukas said. ‘There are claw marks in the stone work outside. Wolf claw marks.’
McGuigan started to splutter. ‘Preposterous! This is obviously some ploy on the vampires’ part to make us look bad. None of us wanted Brown dead. Quite the opposite, in fact!’
Lukas finally removed his feet from the chair and sat up straight. ‘I can assure you that no vampire wished for anything other than for Brown to continue in his position. If you doubt that it was a werewolf who killed him, then you’re more than welcome to visit the crime scene yourselves.’
Lady Carr wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. ‘How did Brown die?’
‘The cause of death has not yet been determined,’ I said. ‘His body is only just being transported to the morgue.’
Her nose wrinkled. ‘Yes, yes, but you must have some indication about what happened. Was his throat torn out? Was it a head wound? Blood loss? What?’
‘His body,’ Lukas said, ‘was made to appear as if he’d hanged himself.’
I breathed out. I was both surprised and grateful that Lukas had chosen not to reveal all the salient details. I might not have known Tony well but the least he deserved was some scrap of dignity in his death.
‘Made to appear?’ Fairfax inquired. ‘Or did he actually hang himself? He lost his wife recently, remember.’
I cleared my throat. ‘The pathologist will be able to confirm what actually happened, but there is other evidence to suggest foul play.’ I outlined what I’d seen at Tony’s flat and its subsequent clean-up.
I expected further dissent from the wolves; instead, they gazed at each other. The atmosphere in the room changed from suspicion to worry.
‘What does this mean for us?’ McGuigan asked. ‘Are we to expect a sudden influx of police?’
‘Bound to.’ Carr’s mouth turned down. ‘They might have no legal authority, but they could easily use Brown’s death as a way to force their position. We need to be prepared for a fight. We should put out a statement to the press straight away. Then we need to find the fucker responsible for this, and rip their heart from their body.’ She licked her lips and I suddenly understood that she wasn’t speaking metaphorically.
Fairfax nodded. ‘I’ll contact the Prime Minister’s office and reiterate our loyalty.’
‘Right now, the police are keeping the matter quiet,’ Lukas interjected,
Lady Sullivan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why? Is Barnes going to use this as an opportunity to send in more troops? More than this girl here? Whoever she really is?’ She hissed. ‘All that money we spent trying to keep Brown in place. We might as well have pissed it up that damned wall.’
I blinked, surprised at both her vehemence and her language. ‘What money is that?’ I asked.
The four werewolves, who I sensed didn’t necessarily like each other but who were in agreement, didn’t answer. Realisation hit me; now I got it. ‘The police wanted him to retire,’ I said. ‘They wanted him out of the way so that different detectives with different agendas could be moved in. You wanted him to stay. His attitude was exactly what you wanted. You were all bribing him.’
Sullivan’s lip curled. ‘It was not bribery. He was free to act however he wished. We simply enhanced his earnings. He performed a difficult job, and we were happy to help him.’
The worst thing was that I believed her. And I believed that Tony would have argued that he wasn’t in any way compromised, and that he was still doing his job. But even he would have known that he couldn’t continue as the sole Supe Squad detective indefinitely.
DSI Barnes seemed to think Tony had sanctioned me as his replacement. Was that because Tony had thought I’d be happy to take the same kind of backhanders? Or was it because he knew I wouldn’t? I shook my head; either way, it didn’t matter. The four clan heads were desperate for damage control. They hadn’t wanted Tony out of the way, they’d wanted him to stay exactly where he was.
Lukas had been right; whichever wolf had killed Tony, their motive wasn’t anything to do with police politics, or to prevent humans from taking a greater interest in supe affairs. This was something entirely different.
I stood up. ‘I’m only in Supe Squad for the next twelve days. After that, I don’t know what will happen. Frankly, I don’t care. What I’m going to do, however, is find out who killed DC Brown. I will do that with or without your help. I suspect that your cooperation will make whatever comes next easier on all of you – but that’s up to you.’
A deep grumble sounded in McGuigan’s chest. ‘We can’t be seen to be helping the police. Most of my wolves have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, and it’s better if it stays that way. I have too many hotheads to deal with as it is.’
Fairfax agreed. ‘I have the same issues.’ He met my eyes. ‘We will not stand in your way, however. We need the killer found – assuming, of course, that it really was a werewolf who did this.’
Lukas spoke up. ‘It was.’
