Page 99 of The Forgotten Queen
Kase shook his head. “Everything I try leads to a dead end. Nobody around here has heard about the carriage accident. There was no record of any newswriter reporting it or the deaths of her parents or the carriage driver. There wasn’t even a record of a disaster crew coming in to help clean up the accident or haul off the destroyed carriage. Nobody has heard of Von and Edmay Nealman or Otis Sutton. You said he was some kind of doctor. Well, not a single hospital in Cristole has ever employed him. It’s as if they dropped out of the sky and landed in Cristole.”
It was definitely starting to feel that way.
“And I found out that Sydria was in a coma, so the carriage accident didn’t even happen three months ago,” Marx said.
“That might explain why no one knew about it. I can broaden my timeline and see if anything new comes up.”
“I also have another lead you can look into.” Marx hesitated. “I think Sydria is married.”
“I know. I was at the ceremony.”
“No.” Marx shook his head, disgusted that his friend couldn’t keep up. “Not to me. I think she’s married to someone else.”
“But she’s also married to you,” Kase said slowly.
“Sort of.” Marx brought his hand to his head, rubbing his forehead. “But if she was already married, then my marriage to her doesn’t count.”
“That’s great news.”
“Why is that great news?” he snapped. It felt likeawfulnews.
“Because I thought the entire point of this investigation was to find out who she was so that you could get out of your marriage to her.”
Marx swiped the air in front of him, swiping Kase’s words away with it. “No, the point of investigating is so that we can help Sydria.”
“Okay,” Kase said, drawing the word out as if he didn’t believe Marx at all.
“So I need you to find this guy,” Marx said.
And then I can fight him to the death.
“What guy?”
“Her husband!” Marx groaned, looking over Kase. “How are you my personal guard when you can’t even follow a simple conversation?”
“Nothing about this feels simple,” Kase muttered under his breath.
“Here’s what we know,” Marx said, “he has dark hair and curls.”
“Curls?”
Marx rolled his eyes. “I know.”
He already hated the man.
“He has to be someone prominent that my father would be interested in. So let’s start with the royal families, High Rulers, commanders, important people in each kingdom who might have attracted my father’s attention.”
Kase stiffened. “Wait. What did you just say?”
“Important people in—”
“No, before that.” Kase’s eyes lit up with excitement. “You saidcommanders.”
“Yeah, so?”
Kase slapped the desk in front of him. “I know where I’ve seen Otis Sutton before.”
“Where?”
