Page 32 of Veiled Justice
‘Your brother was with Ava Grey.’
I kept my face blank with effort. ‘I’m aware. Anyone else? Who was Verona with?’
He shrugged. ‘She was there to make nice with Mr Quintos, so mostly she was focused on him.’
‘But he wasn’t at the fireworks, was he?’
‘I don’t know, but I know he wasn’t inside at the bar. He could have been shagging someone somewhere else, I guess.’ He seemed unwilling to entertain the idea that anyone would sneak off for some privacy without some fuckery and frolicking involved.
‘Have you got any more questions, Inspector?’ Volderiss interrupted. He was a lawyer, and he knew I had nothing on Ludwig. I also believed Ludwig; he wasn’t smart enough to lie.
‘Nothing else.’ I nodded. ‘Thank you for your time, Ludwig. Please send in Verona.’
Ludwig was visibly relieved and all but ran to the exit. When the door closed behind him, Volderiss turned to me and steepled his fingers. ‘It is worth confirming that I instructed Verona to get closeto Quintos. His company has been working on synthetic blood for vampyrs. When he finally cracks the formula, it will be a momentous development.’
‘And you want to be on his good side?’
Volderiss smiled in a way that wasn’t very pleasant. ‘No, I wanted to have blackmail material on him. He has a less than sterling reputation and I need some weapons in my arsenal before I even think of doing business with him. The blood could become a game changer for us, but not if Quintos tries to charge us an arm and a leg. I need something to force him to be reasonable when all he can see are pound signs.’
Before I could respond, the door opened and in strode Dominatrix Barbie carrying a tray of drinks. ‘Do you not know how to knock?’ I shot at her, still leaning into the bad-cop vibe since that was what she seemed to expect. And would hopefully respect.
Verona ignored me. She set the tray down in front of Volderiss, doctored his tea, passed it to him then stood on his right, leaving us to help ourselves. She was obviously his right-hand man. Woman.
‘Lord Volderiss was just explaining that he ordered you to get close to Quintos through any means necessary,’ Krieg stated.
Surprise flickered across her face before she smoothed it away. ‘A little harmless flirtation.’
‘And did you achieve your objective?’ Krieg pressed.
She hesitated and her eyes slid to Volderiss. He gave a rueful nod. ‘I am bound by an oath of silence,’ she said finally.
I grimaced; shewas bound by a magical oath and if she broke it her life would be forfeit.
‘You saw who killed Helga,’ Krieg growled.
‘I can’t answer that.’
‘You saw who killed Helga and they wrangled a vow from you to hold your silence,’ Krieg deduced.
I picked up my tea and sipped it. ‘And since you were there to get close to Quintos, it seems likely that the only one for whom you’d swear a vow is him. To get close to him. To get the blackmail material.’
Volderiss sighed. ‘I suspect she may have had the material already, but if she speaks or communicates about it in any way she will die.’ He turned to her, ‘And we can’t have that.’ His tone was heavy.
‘You can’t answer, but your body language can,’ I said to Verona. ‘Did Quintos stab her?’
Before she could stop herself, she jerked her head the tiniest amount to the left as if she were about to shake her head. She stopped herself instantly so the movement was minute, but even so she blew out a shaky breath.
‘You cannot question her further about the death,’ Volderiss snapped. ‘I won’t risk losing her to an oath-death, Inspector! You may ask your questions about the party. Nothing more.’
I grimaced but nodded obediently; he was a member of the Symposium and I couldn’t afford to make an enemy out of him or I’d find myself working a traffic rotation on the Isle of Skye.I studied the hard-faced blonde. ‘You went outside to watch the fireworks?’
She hesitated before nodding. She was clearly considering her actions and words carefully and something in my question had made her hesitant about her answer.
‘You went out to the fireworks for a short time?’ I amended my question.
She nodded more firmly.
‘A source told me that Quintos wasn’t at the fireworks. You went outside to the fireworks. Seeing he wasn’t there, you tried to track him down?’
