‘You want me to come with you, boss?’ Channing asked.
‘No, it’s okay. I’m a big girl. I can take my lumps. Loki, you stay with Channing. I don’t want Faraday seeing you and taking issue with you.’
‘I invisible!’ Loki protested.
‘Bird, don’t be stubborn. You’re going to wear yourself out. Stay here. Channing, keep an eye on Loki.’ I fixed my bird with a glare. ‘No more pooping on people. Channing, I want you to dig up what you can find on the other partners for Marlow’s aerometric firm, Zephyr Metrics. The company was getting ready to go big. Maybe one of the partners wanted half rather than a third of the profits.’
Frost looked dubious at my comment, so I continued, ‘Greed is a surprisingly common motivator for murder, so let’s dig in. And Frost, you free to assist?’
‘Absolutely. I just wrapped up a traffic violation this morning.’
‘Great. I’m pulling you all in on this one, subject to caseloads. Lord Marlow’s death is going to make waves, and Thackeray doesn’t like waves.’
‘He’s more of a millpond guy,’ Channing agreed.
‘Frost, dig into Ada and her new beau, Tyler Carter.’
‘You got it, ma’am.’
I left them to it and went upstairs to where the brass’s offices were, physically and metaphorically above us all. I rapped firmly on Thackeray’s door and let myself in when he gruffly called, ‘Enter.’
I walked into the office and kept my face blank as I saw that not only was DSU Thackeray there, but so was DCS Faraday.
‘Sirs,’ I greeted them.
‘Sit down, Wise,’ Faraday ordered. This was his rodeo then.
I sat.
‘There’s pressure on this one, Wise, as you can imagine. Lord Marlow was a Symposium member. We can’t let this kind of thing stand. Justice needs to be swift, and it needs to be brutal.’
‘Understood.’ I waited a beat. ‘It also needs to be right.’
Faraday’s lips pinched. ‘We’re not asking you to sell your soul or do anything you wouldn’t normally do. What we’re saying is, you pull every resource at your fingertips to close this in a timely fashion.’
‘Yes, sir. I’ve already told my team that it will be all hands to the tiller on this one.’
‘Excellent. We’re not unaware,’ Faraday continued carefully, ‘of your continued romantic entanglement with Robert Krieg.’
‘It’s not a secret,’ I said as mildly as I could manage. ‘It also has no bearing on this case.’
Faraday’s eyebrows shot up. ‘No bearing? An ogre killed Marlow.’
‘That has yet to be proven conclusively,’ I said broadly. ‘The ME, Dr Potter, is running additional tests.’
‘For what?’ Thackeray asked.
‘There is some suggestion that the ogre marks were deliberately simulated to point the finger at the creature community. It is notable that the Anti-Crea are currently protesting outside the office.’
‘So?’
‘So how do they know of Marlow’s death and the ogre connection – which has yet to be proven and has not yet been released to the public?’
Faraday studied me. ‘You think the Anti-Crea are involved.’
‘I think there’s a good chance they might be. Two of the men outside gave off ex-military vibes. One of them could have done this – in and out, taser, snap on cuffs. Yeah, it had the smoothness of a seasoned professional. I am, of course, running down other avenues: business partners, the separated wife andthe new boyfriend. But the fact that the Anti-Crea are here when it’s been less than twenty-four hours since the murder and no report has been made inThe Mystic Informer… how do they know about the death? The ogre angle?’
Thackeray harrumphed. ‘Leaks, regrettably, happen. Their attendance is not the smoking gun you need it to be.’
