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The fire elemental came closer, and I could hear the flames crackling as they danced on his head where hair would have been if we were in the Common realm. A spark flicked in his hands, and I gathered my intention in an instant. There were no walls to blast him through, but I could shove him off his feet with a blast of air.
I held my nerve. I hadn’t switched on my camera yet. I had options.
‘I got a message for you from Reed.’ Reed was Jingo’s number two. I guessed that with Jingo’s death he was now number one.
‘Go on.’
‘You find the killer, you bring them to us.’
‘I’ll consider it.’
‘Consider it really carefully or we’ll take a visit to your Mum’s little house in Hoole,’ the wizard sneered.
Rage flared and my magic whipped out, not to blast air at either of them but to slide into the wizard’s mind and assess what manner of a man he was. He had almost no mental shield and I slid in as effortlessly as if I were tearing a piece of paper.
I waded through his recent memories in an instant. This was Lenny, one of Jingo’s enforcers, and the things he’d done made even me sick to my stomach. He was a vile human, and I had long ago gotten used to being judge, jury and executioner. It was the Connection’s way.
I didn’t want him dead, though: I wanted him to be an object lesson. Poor Lenny was about to have a really bad day, but I felt no sympathy. He’d felt none when he’d held down a woman the previous night. She’d been a young dryad and he’d held her still whilst Jingo had stabbed her to death with scissors. The brutal murder must have happened mere hours before Jingo’s death.
Lenny had mindlessly done what Jingo had ordered without knowing the girl’s offence or her name. Now he wouldn’t know his own. Justice in the Other realm is rough and ready, and only the strong survive.
With a slash of my magic, I ruptured his cerebrum. I left his cerebellum and medulla unharmed so he could walk and breathe, but he wouldn’t have any memory of who he was. He wouldn’t be able to think.
‘If you threaten my family, you get a fate worse than death,’ I snarled at the fire elemental.
He blinked then turned to stare at poor slack-jawed, vacant-eyed Lenny.
‘Len?’ he called but his pal didn’t respond. He just stared right ahead. ‘What did you do?’ the fire elemental growled, growing the flames in his hands.
I narrowed my eyes. ‘Pay attention. I already told you – a fate worse than death. Now take him and go. I’ll find the killer and I’ll bring him to justice. Tell Reed that if he even thinks about touching my family, he’ll start a war with the Connection that he’ll never come back from.’
The elemental baulked a little at that. The Connection had once come down on an organised crime syndicate like a tonne of bricks. That had been at the start of the Connection’s history, and it had been a shockingly horrific bloodbath, but a message had been sent and it still resonated eighty years later.
‘Leave!’ I snarled.
‘You heard the lady,’ a baritone voice said firmly from behind me. ‘Go.’
The elemental’s eyes widened at the sight of the man behind me. ‘No disrespect is intended to you, Your Excellence.’ He grabbed Lenny and dragged him away as he made a hasty exit.
I turned quickly to see who had crept up behind me, though the title was a big clue. Even so, I blinked at the sight of the ogre. I recognised him and I was aware of his reputation – I know all the movers and shakers in the Other realm – but we’d never been formally introduced.
I recovered my aplomb. ‘High King Krieg, my honour to meet you.’ I touched a hand to my heart and gave him as shallow a bow as I dared. I held it for the count of five and straightened. If I showed too much respect, he might think I was a walk over; too little respect and he’d take off my head. The Connection would fine him, and no doubt he’d pay up, but I’d still be dead. Most creatures fear the Connection and its inspectors, but the ogres and the griffins? Not so much.
‘Inspector Wise,’ Krieg responded, studying me openly.
‘How can I assist you, Your Excellence?’ I returned his gaze though I was careful not to hold eye contact for too long. Like cats, ogres see that as a dominance thing, and I didn’t want to accidentally challenge the king of the ogres. Hell, I didn’t want to challenge him on purpose either.
Krieg had tousled black hair and a clean-shaven, chiselled jaw; the only thing that marked him as an ogre was his hulking size and the tusks that protruded from his head: a small one on his forehead and a larger one behind it. He stood well over seven feet tall. I’m nearly six feet tall and I tower above most people and creatures, so it felt odd to have to look up at him.
‘I came to assist you,’ he said finally.
I was confused. ‘With what?’
‘I thought you might wish to see me about the body in White Friars.’
I tilted my head. ‘And why would I want to do that?’
‘My understanding is that the body was dispatched with an ogre’s mace. I came here to assure you that we were not involved.’
