Page 19 of Fortune's Ashes
‘Mr Kale is here,’ she said, as if she’d only just discovered his presence and was surprised by it. ‘He’ll see you in his office. I’ll show you the way.’
‘Thank you.’
I followed her onto the factory floor. As soon as we were through the door, the noise intensified. The place was smaller than I’d expected, with fewer than a dozen employees bustling around various complicated looking machines. The receptionist led me towards a closed door at the other end of the room, knocked once and entered. ‘Mr Kale? This is DC Bellamy.’
Kale was already rising to his feet, his hand outstretched in greeting. ‘DC Bellamy. It’s lovely to meet you at last. I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘I guess my reputation precedes me, Mr Kale.’ I grinned and shook his hand. ‘It’s not all true.’
‘Oh, I think it probably is. And please, call me Birch.’
It was nice to receive a warm welcome. I looked Birch Kale up and down and decided that I’d definitely not met him before. I didn’t know the pixie community as well as I knew the vamps and the werewolves and it was something I needed to remedy; I supposed this was a start.
He gestured towards a chair and I sat down. He did the same and leaned across his desk. ‘What can I do for you, detective?’
‘I want to ask you a few questions about Quincy Carmichael and your dealings with him.’
Birch Kale let out a low whistle. ‘That’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time! Has old Quincy turned up, then?’ There was an edge to his words that hinted at both enthusiasm and bitterness.
‘I’m afraid not. I’m looking into his disappearance and I thought you might be able to help me out.’
‘Oh.’ Kale’s shoulders dropped a fraction, indicating his disappointment. My gut told me that there was more to his reaction than the desire to see an old colleague again.
I took a gamble, careful not to phrase my next words as a question. ‘You didn’t part on the best of terms.’
Kale pulled a face. ‘You could say that – although we didn’t officially part ways. One day he was here and the next…’ He waved a hand. ‘He left owing me a considerable amount of money. He still does, in fact.’
Ah-ha. Suddenly, Kale’s reaction made more sense. ‘What happened?’
‘He came to me initially with grandiose plans for selling several lines of blood-esque items. He’d worked on the formulas himself, and he convinced me that there was a market. I was dubious to begin with, but Quincy had a way of persuading people.’ He half-smiled. ‘He was right, of course. Nowadays the fake-blood-items business is booming, but thirteen years ago not so much. Anyway, he laid down a deposit with a promise to pay the remainder after production. I produced what he wanted and he never paid up.’
‘Is that because he disappeared before he could pay, or because he couldn’t pay?’ It was an important distinction.
‘I sent him several reminders before he vanished,’ Kale told me. ‘And I made it very clear that he wouldn’t receive the products he’d ordered until he’d paid me in full. He kept telling me to be patient and that the money was on its way.’ He pointed to himself. ‘Here I am, a dozen or so years later, still being patient. And still waiting for the money.’
‘What happened to the products he’d ordered?’
Kale wrinkled his nose. ‘We managed to flog a lot of them to local shops and markets, but we still made a considerable loss. I can have our accounts team dredge up the details for you, if you like.’
‘That would be useful. Thank you.’
‘No problem.’
I tried a different tack. ‘What was Quincy Carmichael like as a person?’
‘Very charming, but something of a dreamer. He always struck me as a great romantic at heart. You know that he ran a dating agency before he came to me?’
I nodded.
‘I always had the impression that he wanted to be seen as doing something worthy, whether that was helping supes find love or vampires with their blood needs. He liked to think of himself as working for a greater good. He never struck me as crooked, just –incompetent. He bit off more than he could chew.’
‘But you think he had money troubles?’
‘I know it. I always assumed it was why he upped sticks and vanished. There were too many creditors beating down his door and the easiest thing was to disappear.’ Kale met my eyes. ‘He wasn’t a bad guy, detective. Despite everything, I liked him. If he turned up tomorrow, I’d probably still have a beer with him.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘Then I’d slap him with my invoice. Hard.’
‘I understand that.’ I paused. ‘Do you know who he was close to at the time?’
The pixie sucked on his bottom lip. ‘There was an ex-girlfriend who he still got on well with, I think. She was a vampire. I can’t remember her name – Candy, perhaps? I often saw them together. And of course there was poor Simon Carr.’
