I smiled. ‘It is when you know who or what killed him,’ I agreed easily.
‘I’m military,’ Beeks grunted. ‘I know wounds.’
‘Ex-military,’ I corrected. ‘And you were part of a Common army, so you wouldn’t have seen ogres rampage as part of your service.’
He leaned forward, nostrils flared, eyes dark. ‘Bitch. You don’t know what I’ve seen.’
‘You’re right. I don’t. So tell me, what was the name of Drummond’s purported ogre relative?’
His eyes were still narrowed in anger, jarring with the nonchalant shrug he offered. ‘Dunno. But he told us he had one once. He couldn’t hold his liquor. Said he had an ogre nephew, but that they’d never got on, obviously. That he was ashamed his sister had parted her thighs for a monster.’ His smile now was vicious. ‘Like you, I suppose Inspector.’
‘Shut your mouth,’ Channing snapped from his position by the recorder. ‘Or I’ll shut it for you. Show some damned respect.’
‘Threats of police brutality,’ Beeks sneered. ‘Watch yourself, little man, because I’ll be walking out of here without a blemish or you’ll be kicked off the force.’ He leaned forward. ‘I have friends in high places.’
‘Barnaby Kerr Senior, I presume?’ I interjected, giving Channing a little warning glance purely to pander to Beeks’s ego.
Beeks smiled maliciously. ‘He’s going to bust you down to traffic for opening your whore legs. Just you wait and see.’
‘My whore legs are no concern of yours,’ I said mildly, unruffled. ‘And where were you when Alasdair Drummond was getting his insides ripped out?’
‘I was with Junior and Angie. They like a little ménage à trois.’ He shot me a salacious wink, and I knew it was total bullshit just to cover their arses.
That meant they had something to hide, and I was going to nail them to the wall.
I smiled, but there was nothing friendly in the expression. ‘Yeah, is that right? And you calledmea whore?’
His grin slid off his face. ‘Don’t you be rude about Angie. She’s everything you’re not!’
‘Bitter and bigoted?’
His teeth ground together audibly.
‘Let it be shown for the record that Mr Beeks is grinding his teeth,’ Channing said, tone cheerful. It almost made me slip up and smile.
‘Fuck you,’ he snarled.
‘No thanks,’ Channing shot back. ‘If you’re sleeping around, then there’s a high chance you have a sexually transmitted infection, so I’ll pass.’
Beeks’s face went even redder.
‘Where were you when Marlow was murdered?’ I pressed.
‘With the Kerrs,’ he ground out.
‘You don’t even have to ask when the murder was? Ask which day?’ I arched an eyebrow.
‘I already know which day. It was in the news.’
‘No, it wasn’t. But you know whatisin the news? Let me read you the piece thatThe Mystic Informer isrunning. You’re going to love it. You’re all famous.’
I cleared my throat theatrically and began, ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Theodore Marlow, a much-beloved member of the air-elemental community who served on the Symposium. He was found murdered early on Wednesday morning. His killers made a weak attempt to make it appear as if he was murdered by an ogre.
Similarly, one Mr Alasdair Drummond, a piper and a known Anti-Crea sympathiser,was found murdered in the early hours of Friday morning. He too was killed in such a way as to attempt to lay blame at the ogres’ door.
We spoke with the lead investigator, Inspector Wise, who had this to say:
‘The sad deaths of Marlow and Drummond were carried out by a person or persons currently unknown, in a pathetic attempt to frame the ogre community for the same. The murderer was cowardly on both occasions, striking in the dark and utilising tasers and magic-cancelling cuffs to incapacitate their victims prior to delivering grisly deaths. The deaths were clearly designed to whip up ire against the ogre community, but luckily the pure incompetence of the killers is such that the attempt has fallen flat. Meanwhile, members of the local Anti-Crea chapter are being questioned in relation to the deaths. It is only a matter of time before the killers are identified, apprehended and justice carried out.’
