Her voice was brittle when she said, ‘I’ve got to go, Stacy. Speak soon?’
Because I didn’t want to end things like that, I hastily said, ‘Definitely. Maybe a wine night with Stevie?’
‘Sounds good,’ she said, and it sounded like she meant it. ‘It’s been too long, Ace.’
‘It has. Kass?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Keep me in the loop, okay?’
‘You got it.’ She hung up.
Well, she’d given me the information I needed all right. Marlow had screwed over his own people, and in doing so, the suspect pool had opened up wide.
Chapter Three
McCaffrey stood at attention in front of my desk in my poky office, where my new fridge hummed as it cooled numerous essential cans of Dr Pepper. Her natural red hair was tied back in a ponytail rather than in her usual bun, and she looked the wrong side of tired.
‘McCaffrey, what have you got for me?’ I asked.
‘I canvassed the area thoroughly around Lord Marlow’s residence but unfortunately no one saw anyone enter or exit the property. Of the nearest neighbours, a satyr took a sleeping draught and the other – a Common realmer – sleeps with earplugs in. Neither heard a thing. A number of the residents on the street were out of their properties at the time of the initial canvass, so I’ll return later this evening.’
I checked the time; we were close to 2pm already.
‘Have you had some refs?’ I asked with concern. We couldn’t have our staff operating on empty, especially with the long hours we frequently pulled. Fuelling the body was a must, though I was fuelled primarily by Dr Pepper.
‘No ma’am,’ McCaffrey confirmed, looking like a pixie could push her over.
‘All right, grab some food and take an hour. After that, I want you to see Ji-ho and get him to dig into Marlow. I want to know everything about the victim, down to whether he was a boxers or briefs man.’
‘You got it. Any news about our new digs?’
‘The DSU has closed the deal, and any day now we should get the green light to move into Number 1 Bridge Street.’
McCaffrey grinned, the smile reaching her blue eyes. ‘Still can’t believe we scored such a cool property.’
‘We’ll see how cool it is once we get in,’ I said cynically. ‘Old buildings always have their foibles.’ Not to mention uneven flooring. A lot of the old houses in Chester looked like someone half-drunk had done the flooring. Perhaps they had.
‘That’s half the fun. They have charm!’ McCaffrey said. ‘I bet it’s going to be fancier than my new home. Steeped in history versus a new-build.’
‘Right, you’re moving soon, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah, tomorrow. I’ve got a day’s holiday to do the move.’
‘Hope it all goes okay for you. With it being a new-build, hopefully it’ll be plain sailing.’ I’d only had one house move, from my mum’s out to my rented flat. I still remembered the literal hell of carting boxes repeatedly up the stairs, though Rupe, Julian and Grant had helped.
‘Thanks, boss. Here’s hoping,’ she said cheerfully. McCaffrey looked around. ‘Where’s your bird? I like the little fella. He’s got sass.’
‘He went back home. Needed some rest.’ And didn’t that just stick in my craw? Something was off with my avian friend, but he refused to tell me anything about it, no matter how much I pressed.
In my downtime, I’d done some research on caladrii, hoping to get some insight, but so far I’d found little to nothing, mostly because there was hardly any information out there on the magical birds.
McCaffrey studied me, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a packet of jelly babies. ‘Want one?’
I really did, so I took a red one and enjoyed the sugar hit. ‘Thanks.’
‘Sure thing, boss. I’ll let you know what Ji-ho finds.’ She stood and exited my office, leaving the door open to reflect the brass’s open-door policy.
