Killer's Gambit

by Hermione Stark

  The cowboy was our only lead. The cowboy was the only one who knew who had paid off Constance Ashbeck to lie to the jury. That person had to have something to do with Leonie’s death. We still had no explanation for how anyone but Steffane could have killed her in that sealed off room, but the fact that somebody had paid to help get Steffane convicted meant that somebody had something to hide. I just wasn’t seeing the whole picture yet.

  And I was angry at myself. Why had I never questioned the cowboy? Why had I taken it for granted that he was Steffane’s loyal lackey? I’d even asked myself if Steffane had been the one who made the cowboy pay off Constance. Which made absolutely no sense whatsoever. This case was making less sense as time went by. The only thing I was sure of was that Steffane Ronin, stuck in that torture device of a chair, wanted to get out of prison desperately that he was prepared to make an enemy of the Devil Claw Killer.

  Steffane knew who the killer was. I was so close. The answer was just out of my reach, if only I knew how to get it.

  “We can’t stop now,” I said, pacing the room. Back and forth, back and forth. The other three watched me for a few minutes, and then Monroe went back to tapping away at his laptop, probably trying to find out other places where the cowboy might have gone if not Otherworld.

  I knew that that would come to no good. The cowboy had been savvy. The moment he realized that we had found Constance Ashbeck he had bought his ticket out of here. He had been ahead of us this entire time.

  And now it was Friday evening already. We had only the weekend to close this case, and I could not imagine how on Earth we were going to do that without the cowboy. The damned guy was probably kicking back on some beach in Otherworld, drinking a magical alcoholic cocktail and having the time of his life. And I was here trapped in this hotel room with my team, my friends, who had risked their jobs to help me. Who had gambled that with me on their side, we would come out on top of this. And we were about to lose big.

  Everyone was about to lose their jobs. I should have left it alone. I’ve should have done this by myself and never involved any of them. I knew how much their jobs meant to them. They were the hardest working team that I had ever met. And the worst part was how bad I knew Storm was feeling right now. He thought that it was his fault. He had tried to protect his team from this exact eventuality, but his desire to help me had persuaded him otherwise. I was always messing things up for myself, but now I had messed things up for them. Big time.

  So I paced, back and forth, back and forth, and then I came to an abrupt stop.

  “What?” Storm asked. “Did you think of something?”

  The idea had put that had popped into my mind was insane. Even worse than the current situation we were all in. And yet once it had popped into my head, I couldn’t shake it off.

  “Maybe,” I said. “But you’re not going to like it.”

  Chapter 24

  STORM

  It was late Saturday morning and Storm was home from Edinburgh. He arrived at his apartment to find that the place looked like a troop of angry, starving adolescents had trampled through it. The kitchen was an explosion of dirty dishes and half eaten food. The bin was overflowing. What looked like half a home-baked cake had been dropped onto the floor and not cleaned up. A fine dusting of white powder covered all of the surfaces. Storm hoped it was flour, since it looked like someone had been baking.

  The trail of flour continued down the corridor and all the way into the lounge, where empty pop cans and bottles and the plastic wrappings of various sweet and savory snacks were littered all over the floor. Every single one of the drinking glasses that Storm owned were all over the dining table, along with several empty alcohol bottles. A carton of juice had spilled over and pooled onto the table and the carpet, and dried into a sticky residue.

  Saskia and Jenny were each sprawled over a couch, fast asleep and oblivious to Storm’s arrival. Their music was blaring loudly and they also had the TV switched on at full volume, but they were completely passed out. It did not seem possible that two people could have made so much mess in the span of twenty-four hours.

  Storm heard a key turning in the lock of his front door, and turned to see his cleaner letting herself in. She took one look at the mess, and at the girls sprawled over the couches, and gave him a mutinous look.

  Storm asked her if she would come back tomorrow and he would pay her triple the usual rate and make sure the girls were not lying all over their mess. He had no idea why they had chosen to sleep on the couches when there was a perfectly good double bed in the guest bedroom

  He gently tapped his sister on the shoulder, but her only response was to snore and roll over. Storm sighed. The last thing he felt like doing was waking Saskia up and having an argument with her. He had no doubt that this mess and antisocial behavior was an effort to punish him. She was aware that they were due to have dinner with Evaine at 7:00 pm that evening and she had promised to turn up to it. Which she wouldn’t be doing if she was still passed out drunk.

  Storm went to get an alarm clock from his bedroom and set it for 5:00 pm. He placed it right next to Saskia’s head where she could not fail to hear it. Full of pent-up energy and needing to fill the hours until dinner, he decided to spend the rest of the day working on his drowned girl case. A whole list of people who had been on the boat that night still needed to be interviewed.

  Work would be a good distraction. Storm had agreed to meet Diana at 8:00 pm that night and go together to the Ronin house, where she said she would enact her fail-safe plan to find the killer. She had refused to divulge what that plan was in advance, insisting that he wouldn’t like it but that it was going to work.

  Given that his whole team was at risk of being fired when the chief returned to work on Monday, Storm knew he no alternative but to try. After all, if it worked, they would catch Devil Claw, a serial killer who had murdered twenty-eight women over eight years with impunity and was nowhere near stopping. Diana’s methods might be unconventional, but in his experience they usually got results. He had decided to trust her about this case, so now he might as well go all the way. And that made him damned nervous.

  Worried that Diana might try to go to the Ronin household without him this evening, Storm had insisted that she meet him outside of the restaurant where he was going to be having a very short dinner with his sisters. Saskia and Evie were going to be mad at him for walking out after just an hour, but what alternative did Storm have? He hoped that hour would be enough to talk some sense into Saskia.

  Either way, Storm was going to have to leave the dinner at 8:00 pm on the dot because if he was late to meet Diana there was a risk she would come into the restaurant looking for him. The last thing he wanted was for her to meet his sisters. They’d be mad enough at him for leaving for work, especially since the dinner had been his idea. They already had a problem with him working all the time. He wasn’t looking forward to giving his excuses. He doubted they would think the Steffane Ronin was as important as he thought it was.

  After a few hours chasing down witnesses, Storm drove to the restaurant, arriving fifteen minutes early. Evie had chosen the restaurant — or, more likely, her staff had chosen the restaurant on her behalf. It was a Michelin starred Chinese place. Parking his car in busy central London was a problem, and by the time he had found a spot he was already feeling annoyed. He tried to talk himself into a good mood as he headed for the restaurant.

  But the person he saw waiting outside it for him did nothing to help his mindset. It was Diana. She was dressed in very classy little black dress, and her hair had been styled half up and half left tumbling down her back. She looked gorgeous. She always looked gorgeous. But what the hell was she doing here?

  She gave him a twirl as he approached. “Well?” she said “will I do?”

  “You weren’t supposed to be here until 8 o’ clock,” he said.

  “I came early,” she said cheerily. “I thought you could do with the moral support. Don’t pretend you don’t need i
t. You’ve been grumpy as anything these past few days.” She slid her arm into his, attaching herself to him like a limpet.

  Before Storm could think of an excuse to get rid of her, a chauffeur driven Bentley pulled up on the curb beside them. The chauffeur hurried out to open the passenger door, and Evie climbed out as gracefully as royalty, perfectly balanced even on her extremely high heels. She was wearing a lilac knee-length sheath dress that was the height of respectable fashion, and looked wonderful with dark-haired looks. His sister always looked wonderful. She was the spitting image of their late mother, but a more petite version.

  It was ironic that she was so small because she was a formidable powerhouse. She had spotted him already and swept towards him with her arms open. She gave him a perfunctory hug and allowed him to kiss her on both cheeks. “Constantine,” she said. “You’re looking well.”

  “Thanks, Evie,” he said. “As are you.”

  “Evaine, please,” she said. “And who is your lovely companion?”

  Storm had no option but to introduce Diana. Now that Evie had arrived, he had lost all desire to try to proceed Diana to leave. He was sure it would only cause a scene, and Evie hated scenes.

  “This is my friend, Diana Bellona,” he said.

  Diana was looking at him with great amusement. The two women shook hands, and Diana now eyed up Evie with unashamed intensity. “If there wasn’t such a size and gender difference,” she observed, “You too could be identical twins!”

  “Hardly,” said Evie coolly. No doubt she didn’t appreciate the comment on her pint-sized cuteness. Not that Storm thought she was cute. He thought she was a dragon who could singe him with a mere glance from her flashing eyes.

  “Shall we go in?” he said, holding open the restaurant door.

  Maybe it was good that Diana was here. Maybe having a stranger in the mix was exactly what they needed to stop the fireworks that usually happened when he and his two siblings were forced to spend any amount of time together. The problem was that Diana was like adding gunpowder to the mix. Storm had a feeling that no matter how things turned out tonight, it wouldn’t be anything that he had expected.

  Diana kept her arms tucked into his as if she was her date his date. A maitre d’ arrived to show the three of them to a private dining area where the lighting was dim and strands of fairy lights on the walls twinkled to create an intimate atmosphere.

  “Cosy,” Diana said in a low sexy voice. She cuddled up next to Storm.

  Storm shot her a warning look. Diana had clearly sensed that Evie didn’t entirely approve of her, and Diana was intent on needling Evie.

  As they took their seats, Diana choosing to sit right next to storm, and Evie choosing to sit on the opposite end of the table, Saskia arrived with Jenny in tow. Saskia looked like she was wearing the clothes that she had slept in, and Evie rose to greet her younger sister with an expression of distaste. Ignoring Evie’s attempt to plant the two kisses on Saskia’s cheek as was customary, Saskia sat down with a thump.

  Evie pretended that she had not been snubbed, and shook Jenny’s hand instead. “Jenny,” she said. “How wonderful to see you again.”

  “Er, you too.” Jenny shot a wide-eyed look at Saskia as if she was doing her very best not to laugh.

  This was not off to a great start. Storm sighed, and did his best not to roll his eyes. Clearly the two younger women had decided that they were going to do their very best to make this evening as difficult as possible for Evie and Storm.

  Saskia crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Evie and Storm mutinously. “We’re all here,” she said. “You might as well say what you both have to say and then I can leave. I’m not going to stay here. I hate fancy overpriced restaurants, and I hate Chinese food.”

  “You love Chinese food,” said Evie. “When we were young, mother used to take us to a Chinese restaurant. You adored the dim sum!”

  Ah, that must have been why Evie had chosen this restaurant. She had been trying to do something nice for Saskia. But Saskia had no intention of playing along.

  “It’s been a long time since then, if you hadn’t noticed,” Saskia snapped. “I’m not a child anymore. Mom is not alive anymore. And if this is your attempt at playing happy families, then you must be out of your mind.”

  Storm saw Evie take a deep breath as if crying out to the heavens for patience.

  Saskia had spotted Diana. “Who are you?” she said rudely, her lip curled in distaste as if Diana was unpleasant and unwelcome.

  “This is my friend, Diana,” Storm said.

  Saskia’s eyes lit up and she turned to grin cruelly at Evie. “Ooh! Storm has a lady friend. A hot, sexy lady friend. What do you think about that? No wonder he—”

  “Will you shut up!” Storm snapped. “You’ll be polite to Diana, just like I’ve been polite to your friend Jenny when she turned up at my apartment uninvited!”

  He had not intended to snap, and immediately he wished that he had said it in a gentler tone and used less aggravating words. Because Saskia’s face had turned bright red, and she had already started rising up from her chair is if she was going to scream at him.

  And then Diana laughed. She threw back her head and let rip a full-throated peal of delighted laughter. “Gosh, I haven’t had this much fun in ages. This is like a real life soap opera. You guys are better than the Kardashians, not that I’ve washed the Kardashians. It’s not really my thing.”

  “Me either,” said Jenny. “Are you Storm’s girlfriend, then?”

  Diana shook her head. “I wish!” she said. “Sadly I’m just his colleague. His friendly colleague.” She waggled one eyebrow, making Jenny giggle.

  By now Saskia was looking thoroughly ashamed at having been rude to Diana.

  Jenny’s eyes had gone wide. “So you work at the Agency of Otherkind Investigations too? What do you do?”

  “Our work is confidential,” said Storm.

  “Currently we’re working on breaking a dhampir out of prison,” said Diana, ignoring the look Storm gave her.

  “Out of prison!” exclaimed Jenny.

  “Diana, I don’t talk about work at home,” said Storm.

  “Good job I’m not you then,” she retorted.

  Saskia grinned broadly. Clearly Diana had won over her heart. The waiter arrived to take orders, and when he left, Diana told his sisters and Jenny will about the Leonie Ashbeck murder case and how Steffane Ronin insisting that he was innocent.

  Evie gave a huff of derision. “These petty concerns are hardly worth your time, Constantine.”

  Diana ignored Evie, and continued to regale Saskia and Jenny with how they were close to cracking the case. Fortunately she left out many of the more contentious details, including the fact that Storm and his team were facing suspensions and had acted against their chief’s orders, and that in exchange for his freedom Steffane Ronin had offered to give up the Devil Claw Killer. At least Diana was showing some sense.

  “So how exactly are you going to catch the killer?” said Saskia eagerly. “Storm never talks about his work. If I knew it was this exciting I might have wanted to work for the Agency too. I always thought his job was really boring.”

  “Ha!” said Diana. “If it was boring, you wouldn’t catch me dead doing it. And anyway, it’s a secret how we’re going to catch the real killer. I haven’t even told Storm yet. I’m going to surprise it him afterwards. Maybe once it’s done, he’ll tell you all about it.”

  Storm was astonished at the ease with which she was talking to Saskia and Jenny. He had always struggled to find topics for conversation with his little sister. He had always thought that Saskia had no interest in his job whatsoever, but she was taking a great interest in everything that Diana was saying. Evie on the other hand did not look impressed. It seemed that nothing Diana could say could change her mind that Storm should give up his job immediately and travel to the Realm to take up the job that she wanted him to do.

  “And what exactly is it that you do for t
he Agency?” said Evaine to Diana, her cold tone putting a dampener on the conversation and making Saskia glare at her.

  Storm knew what was coming was inevitable so he didn't bother to divert the conversation.

  “I’m a psychic consultant,” said Diana. Saskia and Jenny grinned widely, but Evie froze for just a fraction of a second. This was observed only by Storm, who knew exactly what Evie was thinking.

  “And how does this psychic consultant thing work exactly?” said Evie scathingly.

  Diana shrugged. “Explaining is it like explaining why water is wet. It just is,” she said glibly.

  Storm couldn’t help but be amused, as was Saskia because Diana had clearly achieved her aim of annoying Evie.

  “Is that your sales pitch?” said Evie. “If that’s what you put on your job application, I’m surprised that Constantine didn’t throw it in the bin.”