Page 65 of Veiled Justice
I blew out a breath. ‘He will, because we are going to nail these arrogant fuckers to the wall.’
‘To the mattresses!’ Loki screeched in agreement, making me grin. My bird spoke Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and mob slang. He was multilingual.
By the time we arrived at the station, Channing had roused Katz and ordered him to come down in an hour’s time. I pulled him into my office and gave him the full rundown of everything that he’d missed. His jaw worked. ‘Ma’am?’
‘Yes?’
‘Next time, I’d prefer to come with you when you go undercover.’
‘Me too,’ Loki asserted firmly. I ignored the bird; going undercover was hard enough, without trying to smuggle in a fancy pigeon.
Channing, though? I couldn’t imagine anything worse than strolling into theLustroom with my uptight, inexperienced partner. Tiredness made me snap, ‘You can prefer all you want. Ineeded one of us to be sharp. When I wrap this up with a fucking bow, you’ll be doing the paperwork while I sleep.’
Channing didn’t look impressed.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. I had a headache from lack of sleep. ‘I’m not used to having a partner,’ I said finally. ‘I forget to include you.’
‘And Loki,’ Loki muttered mutinously.
‘You had no issue including Krieg!’ Channing objected. Then he slid a glance to the ogre, blushed and stammered, ‘No offence, Your Excellence.’
Krieg looked amused. ‘None taken, detective.’
‘Krieg had skin in the game.’ I looked at Channing. ‘Anyway, wouldyoulike to say no to the High King of the Ogres?’
‘No,’ Channing conceded.
There was a knock on my door and DS Roberts stuck his head round the door. ‘You’ve got a “Verona” in reception for questioning. Apparently she’s refusing to give her full name.’
‘I’m just glad she showed up,’ I muttered.
‘Trust you to have witnesses with only one name like bloody Cher.’ The DS left with an eyeroll. He wasn’t my biggest fan.
I turned to Channing. ‘Show Verona into Interview Room One. Recording protocol X.’ He nodded and left briskly.
‘Recording protocol X?’ Krieg asked.
‘It sounds ridiculous, I know, but he’s new and I didn’t want him recording with the wrong cameras. There’s both Common and Other equipment in the room. The cameras back upautomatically and we don’t want this shit going to the Common realm police archive instead of ours.’
‘Right. Can I sit in?’ Krieg asked.
‘And me!’ Loki demanded.
I considered it. ‘You can both come in with Verona. For Katz, the pair of you will need to be on the other side of the glass.’
‘They really do two-way glass?’ Krieg sounded surprised.
‘Not everything you see on TV is bullshit.’ I pushed away from my desk. ‘Come on, we need to get some evidence on Quintos.’ I smiled. This was going to be fun. I loved it when I had an ace up my sleeve.
My phone buzzed with a message from Kate:Imbarum. Lots of it.
Make that two aces. And I was collecting more; I had other irons in the fire. Adrenaline poured through me, carrying me through the lack of sleep. I slugged back two paracetamol – as efficacious as any potion but far cheaper – and hoped they’d kick in soon.
I led Krieg through the station to the interview rooms where Verona was already waiting. BDSM Barbie was apparently off duty: today she was dressed in jeans and a bright white hoodie, her hair was tied back and her face was free of make-up. She looked almost approachable.
She remedied that by glaring as soon as I walked in. ‘You’d better have a damned good reason for dragging me in on my day off,’ she snapped.
I grinned at her. ‘Honestly? You’re going to love it.’
