Page 18 of Veiled Justice
‘Guess we just go in,’ he said, eyes sparkling with amusement.
‘You enjoyed that too much,’ I muttered as I brushed past him.
‘I do love to intimidate,’ he grinned.
I huffed. ‘That wasn’t intimidation, that was desire. I think so much blood rushed to her nether regions that her brain didn’t have any left.’
He barked a laugh; it was there and gone in a moment, but the grin lingered. He looked entirely too pleased with himself. Ugh. Men.
‘Excuse me,’ I called loudly. ‘We’re here to see Louisa Carnforth?’
‘I’m in the drawing room!’ a posh feminine voice drawled. I had no idea what classed an area as a drawing room; I knew they existed, of course, and always in posh houses with more bathrooms than residents, but what gave it that name? Was it a place where you did artwork?
I opened three more doors until I found what I guessed she was referring to, though it looked like any other living room to me. This one held the woman I guessed was Louisa Carnforth. No sign of paintwork or easels.
A beautiful brunette was sitting on one of the chairs with a team of people buzzing around her. Someone was fussing with her hair whilst another was prepping make-up. She blinked in surprise when she saw us. ‘You’re not the florist, darling.’ She spoke with deliberate slowness, like she was fully used to everyone around her waiting for her every word to drop from her luscious lips.
‘No. I’m Inspector Wise with the Connection and this is High King Krieg.’
Her perfect eyebrows shot up. ‘How delightful. We do love royalty in this household, no matter the shape, size or colour.’
She clearly had no idea she was being insulting, so I spoke quickly before Krieg could growl something at her that would get us chucked out. ‘Going somewhere?’ I asked hastily, gesturing to the women fluttering around her.
She gave me an amused look. ‘Not at all, I am staying precisely here. We are hosting a charity gala tonight – and it’s going to betheparty of the season.’
I arched an eyebrow. ‘I thought Quintos’s party wastheparty of the season.’
‘So did he, darling, but you saw how wrong he was! Arley Hall is gorgeous, but he didn’t have any real pizzazz. No entertainment except for a couple of dancers.’ She sniffed disdainfully. ‘Even his fireworks display was so mediocre that I left after a few minutes. But tonight will really be something special.’
Eyes wide and wholly without guile she added, ‘You should come!’ She eyed Krieg like he was a tasty morsel of food. ‘A king is bound to get tongues flapping.’
‘I’ll check my schedule,’ he replied blandly.
‘I came to speak to you about Quintos’s party,’ I started. ‘I believe my colleague Channing interviewed you last night.’
‘Gosh,’ she cracked a yawn. ‘It was actually this morning wasn’t it? Luckily,’ she winked at Krieg, ‘I’ve lots of practice at being up all night. I have the stamina of a caffeinated werewolf in mating season.’
I ignored her obvious flirting and ploughed on. ‘I came to talk to you about Tom Squiggins,’ I persisted.
‘Young Squidsy?’ Her brow furrowed, making her makeup artist huff under her breath. ‘Whatever for?’
‘I believe he came on to you?’
She laughed. ‘That’s not news, darling, it’s why I changed his nickname from Squigsy to Squidsy. His hands are everywhere and it often feels like he has far more than two of them. Just like a squid.’ She winked, pleased as punch with her own cleverness.
‘Helga protected you from Squiggins, did she not?’
‘Who protected me?’ she asked with a vague smile.
‘The ogre who got murdered.’ Krieg suddenly sounded a whole lot more menacing.
‘Gosh.’ She stared at him admiringly. ‘You really can turn that energy on, can’t you, darling? I love it.’
‘Helga,’ I repeated impatiently.
‘Yes.’ She nodded and tried to look more compassionate. ‘Your ogre told Squidsy off, told him facilitating rape was not in her contract.’
‘Rape?’ I asked.
