‘I am certain that he knows the identity of the killer, but at this stage I do not think he is the offender in question.’
Faraday nodded briskly. ‘Then drop any and all lines of enquiry into him and his wife.’
‘Sir—’ I began to protest.
He held up a hand. ‘Save it, Inspector. His father is touted to be the next wizard Symposium member. This office cannotafford to alienate one of the most important members of the Symposium.’
‘He’s not even elected yet!’
‘No, but I can’t ignore the possibility – the likelihood – that he will be. The Connection’s budget review is coming up, and we’re requesting a significant increase to fund Unit 13 and additional units of its kind. So I’m telling you, drop the line of enquiry on Barnaby Kerr. There are to be no further interviews or surveillance on either Mr or Mrs Kerr.’
‘And if the Kerrsdidkill Lord Marlow?’
He pressed his lips together. ‘Then you’d better make sure the evidence on them is ironclad and tied up with an on-camera confession. And Wise … if it is Kerr, the kill order is rescinded. Are we clear?’
‘Crystal,’ I muttered, a sour taste in my mouth.
‘Excellent. Dismissed, Wise.’
I stood and shut his door as I left, because his damned open-door policy didn’t apply to him.
I had Elvira on Beeks and Bland on Hunter. I didn’t have enough manpower to keep eyes on the Kerrs too, and so I’d already cut them loose. The fact that Faraday wanted me to let them slide made me want to put people on them. However, my gut was still fixed on the two military men – Hunter and Beeks – so I told my contrary nature to settle down and cool off. I had other things to focus on, like learning everything I could about den ceremonies as quickly as possible.
The Connection database was annoyingly sparse on ogre customs, so after half an hour of fruitless searching, I gave it up as a bad job. An idea occurred to me, so I swung by Ji-ho’s office on my way out. As hoped, he was still there.
I knocked on the door. ‘Hey,’ I greeted loudly. ‘I’ve got an ogre thing later, and I wondered if you could find some informationfor me? I’ve looked in the database, and there’s a whole lot of nothing there.’
He waggled his eyebrows. ‘You want me to do some digging on unofficial channels?’
I paused. ‘Only if you feel okay with that.’
He snorted. ‘Sure. You got it. What do you need to know?’
‘Everything about the ogres,’ I said drily, ‘but start with anything you can find out about den rules and den blessing ceremonies.’
He looked intrigued. ‘When do you need it by?’
‘Yesterday would be good.’
Ji-ho flashed me a grin. ‘I’m all over it, Shirlylock.’
‘Call me on my mobile when you get anything?’
‘I will,’ he assured me. ‘I’ll go home and use my home unit. The setup here can be tracked.’
‘I appreciate your discretion.’
‘You know you’ve got it,’ he said in all seriousness.
‘I do know. That’s why I asked.’ I clapped him on the shoulder. ‘I owe you.’
‘You don’t owe me shit for this. And Stacy?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I owe you my life. It’s going to be a long time before we’re square.’
I shook my head. ‘We’re already square, Ji-ho. Friends don’t keep tallies.’
