Page 50 of Mystic Justice
He shot her a flat look. ‘You do knowI’mthe manager here, right?’
‘Deputy manager,’ she said sweetly. ‘AndI’mfront of house and I’m busy.’ She gestured to the customers waiting to be seated then swept across to deal with them, a welcoming smile on her beautiful face.
‘Follow me,’ Ruben said reluctantly.
‘Did you speak with the two centaurs who were here last night?’ Krieg asked as we followed him.
Ruben sighed. ‘I’ve already spoken to the other Inspectors about this.’
‘Then repeat yourself,’ I bit back.
He rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, I saw them. The dead one and his friend.’ His empathy knew no bounds. ‘They were in Jane’s section but they were getting rowdy. Samson and I had to go over and ask them to leave.’
‘What time was that?’
‘An hour or so before close? You could see they’d had a skinful – they were swaying as they trotted out. Some bitch had two-timed them both and they’d bonded over the traumatic experience. They kept calling her “the skank”. As I said, they were getting loud, calling all women bitches and hos.’ He shookhis head in disgust. ‘You can’t let people spew that shit at the top of their lungs. A few customers complained so we gave the centaurs the heave-ho.’
‘Did you get a name for her? The “skank”?’
‘Nah. As I said, they just called her skank.’
‘Okay. Do you remember the other centaur’s name?’ I had both details on the file from McCaffrey, but I wanted to see what Ruben knew.
He shrugged unapologetically. ‘I don’t remember either of their names. The dead guy had been here a few times before. Centaurs don’t tend to be regulars – the place isn’t spacious enough for them – so the dead dude stuck out.’
His callous phrasing irritated me. ‘The dead dude was Joe Bogan,’ I snapped. ‘He was part of the Anglesey herd, and he had a mother and father who will be devastated at losing their son. He was aperson, not just a corpse. He had a degree in economics, and he wanted to move to Liverpool to live with his girlfriend. He’d come here several times before. On this occasion he came up to surprise her and got his heart broken when he found her in bed with centaur number two. His last twelve hours on this earth were not good ones.’
My voice was so sharp that Ruben held up his hands in a placatory gesture. ‘You’re right. That’s rough, but I don’t know any of them. It’s hard to cry a river over a dude you didn’t know.’ He paused then his glibness faded. ‘It’s different with Moss. She lit up the room, ya know? Even the customers knew on some level that she was special. She was going to be somebody, going to sing in stadiums full of fans. I believed that.’ He shook his head. ‘So fucking unfair.’
‘Joe Bogan was someone else’s Moss,’ I pointed out.
‘I suppose he was. But he wasn’t mine.’
It was hard to argue with that.
We’d reached the top of the stairs to the mezzanine level. Ruben led us past the empty tables to the door at the back and rapped loudly on the oak door. ‘Boss, you got guests.’
‘I’m busy!’ came the grunted reply.
I pushed past Ruben and opened the door impatiently. ‘Then make time,’ I growled as I entered the room. One of the pot washers, a barely legal witch called Betty, was buck naked and riding her boss with abandon whilst he fed from her neck. ‘Betty,’ I snapped out. ‘You’re done here. Get dressed and get out.’
When I’d interviewed her briefly, the eighteen-year-old had seemed nice, if a little vapid. ‘But I haven’t come yet,’ she protested.
‘That’s what vibrators are for. Out.’
She rolled her eyes and climbed off her boss’s phallus. Merrick pulled her back and took a long lick at the bite marks on her neck. Instantly the puncture wounds healed and faded with his healing spit. Vampyrs could also mesmerise their prey but Betty’s eyes were clear and she was walking without trouble. She hadn’t been compelled in the slightest.
I averted my eyes so the pair of them could get dressed but kept them in my peripheral vision in case Merrick got any ideas about drawing weapons because of my audacity in interrupting him mid-coitus. When they were dressed I held open the door. ‘Out, Betty.’
She sighed. ‘See you later, Giddy.’ She blew him a kiss and he gave her a brief smile.
When the door closed, I folded my arms. ‘Gideon Merrick, you’ve been a bad boy.’
He grinned. ‘Plenty of people bang their staff. She’s pretty, she’s of age. Most importantly, she’s willing. Very willing. It’s no big deal.’
‘You have a position of power over her. She could allege coercion.’
He snorted. ‘Betty doesn’t know the meaning of the word. It’s one of the things I like about her.’
