“In His will, our peace.”
― Dante Alighieri
Ricky had left pretty good notes, and after triple-checking everything, I had a clear idea where I needed to head next. George could have been poisoned and smuggled out of the palace through the staff quarters. I still had no theory what exactly had happened that night, but I wanted to find the woman that Matt had spoken about. I needed to get back to the palace and question a couple of people that I had missed the day before.
Instead of taking the tube to the palace, I headed to the south side of the city. Zachary worked at the police station in Epsom and after our agreement I had to talk to him about my next course of action, without revealing too much. Part of me wanted to stay away from him, but the other part needed to thank him for saving my arse. My gut feeling told me that George was still in the city, but most likely not for very long. The royals were the key, but the problem was that all of them (apart from Arthur) hated my freaking guts.
Rubbing my achy thighs in the tube, I was listening to a mother that was telling off one of her twins for smearing chocolate over his brother’s face. Deep down this woman wished that she could leave them in the tube. Yeah, everyone somehow had dark marks on their souls.
The crowds of people on the streets in early afternoon had put me off going out in the middle of the day, but at least it wasn’t raining. This case was my priority, and I didn’t want any unexpected visitors from hell looking into my background. Some mongrels with developed abilities like mine were summoned down below regardless of their role in society. Lucifer liked picking out half demons with exceptional abilities, and I had to stay away from hell as far as this was physically possible. The freedom in the underworld was limited; that’s why many demons were willing to try a new life on the outside.
It took me a while to find the police station in Epsom. There was part of me that believed that Zach wanted to use me for something. He had his own dark secrets.
As soon as I entered the red brick building, I knew that I could never truly call myself human. Tequila emphasised the emotions that humans were broadcasting. I felt extreme anger, pain and resentment. There were many people in the building filled with troubled thoughts. Zachary was inside too. I had spent enough time last night with him to recognise his fiery attitude somewhere on the third floor. Sometimes I connected with strangers, still not understanding that odd side of my supernatural abilities. My father, whoever he was, must have been a very powerful demon.
I walked straight to the cop who sat at the front desk. Once I cleared my throat, he looked up and automatically frowned. He didn’t like my colourful hair and the fact that I had a black eye. He believed that I could still be saved if I pray to God for forgiveness. Yeah, I was most definitely in the wrong side of the city.
“Hey, I’m looking Detective Quinton,” I said, ignoring his judgmental look.
“Have you got an appointment?” he asked. “Are you from the press?”
Wow, paranoid much?
“We are on a case together and I need to speak to him urgently,” I explained, not entirely happy that I had to have an appointment just to see Zach. Humans were awkward, and sometimes difficult for no apparent reason. I hated wasting my precious time and this guy obviously judged me from the start.
“Are you from another division?” he questioned.
“No, I run a private detective agency. Detective Quinton and I have been assigned to a new case. Can you just do me a favour and tell him that I need to speak to him pronto?” I pressed, more hostile, losing my patience. He didn’t look amused or even impressed.
“He’s busy. It might be a while,” he replied, not even bothering to inform Zach that I was waiting downstairs.
I forced myself not to compel him to give me a pass upstairs. The hangover was hitting me hard this afternoon and I still had to head to Buckingham Palace. I didn’t want to get drunk tonight again. I had no more available cash and Ricky would kill me, knowing that I was wasting time.
I waved my thanks and decided to wait for a bit, hoping that Zach would eventually show up. I found the bathroom after getting bored of waiting outside. There were a few female cops talking, some obviously in a hurry. I splashed some water over my face, wondering if I could sneak upstairs somehow and stop wasting time waiting around. I was just about to leave when I overheard a conversation between two police officers. One of them was inside the last cubical, and the other was washing her hands.
“Apparently Zach came in late today and had a massive argument with Dean,” said the dark-haired one. I didn’t want it to look obvious that I was eavesdropping, so I entered the free cubical next to the last one.
“Really? Zach is always in such a bad mood. The other day he nearly beat someone up on the street over some voodoo crap. I wonder why they haven’t suspended him yet,” pointed out the other woman, who was in the cubical next to mine. It seemed that Zach was well known at the station, obviously from his reputation as a stellar personality. All of a sudden I didn’t want to leave. If I was going to work with this guy, I wanted to get to know him a little better.
“I don’t know, but apparently the superintendent had his guts full of complaints. Zach believes in all sorts of supernatural rubbish. He is super hot, but too eccentric. Apparently he is trying to find something odd in every bloody case that he lays his hands on these days,” said the woman who was now washing her hands in the sink.
Humans weren’t aware of the other world, so it wasn’t a surprise that both of these women believed Zach was simply odd. The Watchers had made sure that every human was protected from the real truth, but every mongrel out there knew that sometimes rules were made to be broken. There had been many unexplained cases on the streets of London that many cops didn’t want to touch.
“He was normal before, you know… before this thing with his partner.”
Okay, now I needed to know what “this thing” with his partner meant.
“I don’t know, maybe. That’s terrible what happened to Cora. She died at such a young age. Quinton had never believed in her suicide, you know,” said the one that was right opposite me. Hell, Ricky had been right. And Paul. Zachary was carrying a grudge over his dead partner. I should have let him win and solve this case on my own.
“Zach thinks that she didn’t commit suicide, that some kind of dark forces were involved. He hasn’t been the same since. I don’t know, but the pathologist was convinced that it was a suicide, that no third party was involved.”
There was a long moment of silence, as the woman in the cubical next to me was digesting all the information slowly. I had my answer now: Zach had lost his partner a while back. Of course I didn’t know all the details, but it was safe to assume that he hadn’t gotten over it yet.
“Right, you mean he thinks that there is some other world beyond this one,” the other one laughed.
“Yes, something like that. He might have lost his mind,” the one next to me added. A moment later I flushed the toilet and left like I was just some random girl done with her business.
Zachary believed in the other world, and there was possibly a good reason for it. Some demon had already tampered with his mind or he was simply just paranoid. I didn’t quite believe in the second option. These days demons were unpredictable.
I left half an hour later, not getting anywhere with the cop at the front desk. Maybe last night was a mistake. I shouldn’t have shared with Zach intimidate details about my past. He was obviously sensitive to things that weren’t easily explained. His problems shouldn’t really worry me, but I knew that in the near future I had to stop blabbing about my life to anyone who was willing to listen. Working alongside a human who believed in supernatural stuff could slow down the progression of the case. If the missing royal was kidnapped by another demon, then Lucifer’s reputation would be in tatters.
I was hoping that the guy at the desk would tell Zach that I had been around, so I expected him to get in touch with me later on. It took me another hour to reach Buckingham Palace. I was pleased to see that security was tighter than normal and the guard at the front of desk made me wait for ages before I was eventually let through. Deep down I was hoping that Arthur was out gallivanting somewhere else with Natalie, so I didn’t have to deal with him today.
“Ahh, Miss Brodeur, I presume that you have a reason to be here again?”
I turned around, not even making it a few steps into the main corridor. Rodriguez must have gotten the call that I was in the palace.
“My business partner has managed to extract an elixir from the samples found of George’s blood. We are certain that the demon that took George belongs to a higher faction—Lucifer’s,” I said, getting straight to the point. I bet this wasn’t what Rodriquez wanted to hear, but he needed to face the truth.
Rodriguez stroked his beard, grabbed me by the elbow and moved us aside, like he was afraid that someone was planning to listen in. Of course, the news was unexpected. That could only mean that someone within the faction was conspiring against Lucifer himself.
“A demon part of Lucifer’s faction? Impossible. The prince never associates himself with any demons,” Rodriquez snarled, looking alarmed. The royals were protected and, after me, no other demon apart from Rodriquez was allowed anywhere near them.
“Yes, sir, my business partner triple-checked everything. That’s why I need full access to the prince’s staff to assess if anything was missed the night in question. I also found out that the prince had been seen with redheaded, older woman outside the palace. Maybe this is nothing, but you would know who that might be?”
Rodriquez’s eyes narrowed even further, and a vein in his neck began thumping faster. No one ever dared to rebel against the hierarchy in hell and now there was a demon on the loose—that had Prince George. This whole thing stunk like someone was looking to start an uprising.
“Of course, I will inform the guards to give you full access. Make sure you keep this to yourself. The Dark Lord wants this matter to be resolved as soon as possible. On top of that the Queen Mother is thinking about appealing to the press, and we can’t afford the risk of panic in the nation,” Rodriquez hissed, exhaling sharply.
He was right; things were tight and time wasn’t on my side. I bet the other factions didn’t know that the Queen’s grandson was missing. There was only one master of the underworld, but I had heard rumours that some Watchers expected to see a change. Apparently not everyone was happy downstairs and, if there was going to be an uprising in hell, then mongrels like me were going to be used as a shield. Yeah, none of this was good.
“I shall, but right now I need to go,” I said, letting him know that he was wasting my time.
“Use the back entrance. There is a meeting on the upper floor. I’ll make all staff available to you should they need to be questioned again,” Rodriquez said. “By the way, what happened to Detective Quinton?”
As soon as Rodriguez mentioned Zach’s name, a fresh wave of heat shot over the nape of my neck. I didn’t understand that new reaction. The guy was a still stranger to me.
“He’s around. We made a deal last night to work together,” I explained, faking a smile. “I’m planning to give him a full report later on.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Time is of the essence, Miss Brodeur, and I hope to hear good news soon,” he said, turned around and then headed in the opposite direction.
My hangover reminded me that I had to get on with my task, so I used the back corridors to walk to the main kitchen. I still had friends amongst the staff. Not many of them were privy to what happened to me twelve months ago. Arthur was forced to cut whatever contact he had with me. I was relieved from my post within an hour. I never had a chance to say goodbye to anyone that I worked closely with, so I wasn’t sure how some of the staff would react seeing me now. After all, I was an outsider now, asking them uncomfortable questions about their bosses.
It took me fifteen minutes to get from one wing to the other. Now and again, I had to stop as the heated memories blurred my vision, spiking my anxiety and increasing my heartbeat. Arthur was an impetuous man; he used to drag me to all of the secret rooms, away from guards, staff and other people, so we could be alone. I needed to keep the whole affair in the past, but right now I was reliving every second of it. My love for him burned deep inside me, and I couldn’t get away, even after twelve months of hell.
“Hello, are you lost, little girl?”
An unfamiliar voice startled me when I walked through one of the back staff rooms. A woman appeared suddenly right in front of me. Her face was hidden in the shadow, and I couldn’t read her emotions. I nearly tripped, but kept my balance. There was something odd about her ambiance. She was either a demon or something much worse.