Page 83 of The Dark Hiss of Magic
He shook his head. ‘No. I cannot let you leave this place on your own.’ He turned his head and glanced at the rows of gleaming body lockers. Even with Dr Singh’s magic pill, he didn’t want to look at an array of corpses. If I left him here, he might cause problems and distract Adrienne from her own grim purpose.
I looked at Thane again and he nodded. ‘I’ll stay with Adrienne,’ he said. ‘You take Quentin. Find this Redcap and see what he has to say for himself.’
Lucky old me.
Hightower straightened his shoulders. ‘Tell you what,’ he said, as if Thane hadn’t spoken at all. ‘I’ll speak to this Redcap. Kitty, you can come with me. The wolf can stay and protect Adrienne here. He’s up to the job.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘Sure,’ I said, dredging up every ounce of remaining patience I could find. ‘That’s a good idea.’
He was already heading for the door. ‘Come on then!’
‘Don’t kill Quentin Hightower, Kit,’ Thane advised quietly, a faint gleam of amusement in his eyes. ‘You’ll only regret it later.’
I wasn’t so sure about that.
Chapter
Thirty
It didn’t take long to establish that, like Cindy, Fitz Williams didn’t work weekends, but it did take a long time to persuade Quentin Hightower that we needed to visit the Redcap ourselves. ‘It makes more sense to summon Mr Williams to us,’ he said several times over.
‘He won’t turn up to work on a Sunday, Quentin.’
‘If he has any modicum of pride in his work, he will come.’
Seriously? ‘Everyone is allowed time off – everyoneneedstime off. He’s not at our beck and call. We have to go to him.’
He pouted. ‘If you tell him thatIam here waiting for him, he’ll come. I’m Quentin Hightower, Kitty. You know that.’
Alas, I did. ‘That plan might work unless he really is the perpetrator who’s killed four people in quick succession,’ I pointed out. ‘If he’s the murderer and he knows that you’re on his trail, he’ll be more likely to run than to come.’
‘Hmmm.’ He scratched his chin. ‘Perhaps you’re right.’
‘Perhaps,’ I muttered sarcastically and gave him a long look. The man was baffling. Sometimes he was capable of making clever leaps of deduction and sometimes he could be perfectly sensible; he displayed a caring nature and protective instincttowards others. Yet sometimes his brains appeared to be made from cotton wool – and it was impossible to tell from one moment to the next which version might appear. Not for the first time, I wondered what sort of man he might be if I could burst his gargantuan ego.
Sneezy Matt found Fitz’s address for us: the Redcap lived less than a mile from the mortuary. As we set off, Hightower waxed lyrical about the ways in which he would get Fitz Williams to talk. ‘I can be very persuasive, you know. It’s always been one of my many skills.’
I didn’t bother responding; Quentin Hightower wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say.
‘Of course, if my sweet silver tongue isn’t enough to encourage him to talk, there are other ways. We can pull off his fingernails.’ He waved his hands towards me. ‘You can take care of that icky stuff while I ask the questions.’
I might have possessed different morals to many other people, but I didn’t agree with torture. ‘This isn’t the Spanish Inquisition, Quentin. We won’t be doing anything of that sort.’
He rubbed his chin. ‘Bribery is always an option.’
It would take an immense amount of bribery to persuade someone to cop to four murders. ‘What are you suggesting?’
‘My good word counts for a lot,’ Hightower mused. ‘I could get him onto the waiting list for the Pendle Club.’ He named a famous private members’ club.
‘Onto the waiting list? Wow.’
He flicked me a look. ‘You are mocking me. It’s a highly prestigious organisation, Kitty. There is a waiting list for the waiting list.’
Thank goodness it wasn’t a long walk to Fitz Williams’ house. The Redcap lived in a narrow terrace that was remarkably bland considering its location. As we found the right door, I crossed my fingers and hopedthat he was home.
I stepped forward, knocked loudly and we only waited a few moments before the door opened. It took me a second or two to recognise Fitz out of uniform and confirm that he was the Redcap I’d encountered at the river. Without his sombre black clothes and blood-red hat, he passed for normal.
‘Hello.’ He smiled genially. ‘I’m afraid that I’m not buying whatever you’re selling.’ Then his gaze focused and he jolted as he recognised my face. When he looked at Hightower, he was even more surprised. ‘You’re … you’re…’
