“Yes, the details of what you told me are burned vividly into my memory. What I’m uncertain of, however, is the truth behind them.”
Benjamin gasped softly and Avery wondered if she should have stated her doubt more gently. “Why would I lie about that?”
“That would indeed be the question, wouldn’t it? Why would anyone lie about that, especially so graphically?” Avery stopped and chided herself mentally. Saga would have been far more tactful. She would have been more patient. Even if she hadn’t asked the question herself, Avery knew with Saga near she might have borne the objective to be delicate more in mind. She was letting her foul mood seep into her investigation. That was dangerous. She took a deep breath and retrieved the hagstone. Now she’d have to repair the damage she made. “Forgive me, it has been a hard couple of days.”
“For both of us, it would seem,” Benjamin reminded her.
Avery bobbed her head thoughtfully. She donned the hagstone, perching it between her brow and cheek. “Could you be so kind as to look up for me?”
Benjamin blinked at her, bewildered. He tilted his head to look up at the ceiling.
“Sorry,” Avery apologized. “Chin down, eyes up,” she clarified.
“Sure?” Benjamin did as he was instructed.
Avery closed the distance between them and examined his eyes very carefully. There was no glamour, that she could tell right away.
“What is that?”
“Unimportant.” As she scrutinized his eyelashes, she was able to conclude they were indeed thick but did not appear to be made up of more than one row of lashes. “Thank you. Just needed to check something.” She gave the rest of the room a once-over with the hagstone. Nothing. No magic. “How well did you know Elis Goff?”
Benjamin did not miss the wording. “Did?”
“Do,” Avery corrected herself again.
“Did something happen to Elis?” There was a rising panic in Benjamin’s voice, and Avery could sense that she was rapidly approaching another dead end when it came to suspects.
“He’s alive, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Benjamin grew even paler, which Avery had not realized was even possible. There was no more golden rosy glow to his skin, and he had to sit down on one of the overstuffed couches. “It wasn’t, I mean, I didn’t realize any other possibility than him being alive was an option.” He wrapped his arms around his stomach and rocked. “Oh God. What happened to Elis?”
“Liver failure.”
“Oh thank Christ,” said Benjamin, visibly relaxing. “I thought you were going to say he’d been killed too.”
“We do have reason to believe that failure was due to outside influences beyond his control,” offered Avery.
This sent Benjamin spiraling again. “What? How? What does this mean? Oh God, am I next?” He was starting to hyperventilate.
Avery missed Saga. She would have been much better at this. “Benjamin,” she spoke his name with deliberate purpose and energy. She eased herself down onto the couch opposite him so she could meet his eyes. “Breathe.Slowly.” She forced magic into every syllable. It was indelicate, but it worked.
The man forced himself to inhale and exhale at a relaxed pace.
“Now,” she spoke more carefully, maintaining eye contact as he continued his slow in-and-out exercises. “Why would you think someone would be coming for you next?”
Benjamin took a minute before swallowing and attempting to speak again. “Only a few of us were left with anything—the rest of Eira’s things went to charities or a trust or something. I’m sure that pissed off a lot of people, and not just Carys.” He closed his eyes. “But I wasn’t left anymoney, so what would they want with me? It’s not like I got anything they’d want.”
“Who arethey, Benjamin?” asked Avery.
“I don’t know. Whoever is doing this—whoever killed Doctor Campbell and tried to kill Elis.” He opened his eyes and focused on Avery, his voice desperate. “All I got was this apartment, and there’snothingspecial about it, Inspector, I swear. I’m not ungrateful, but no one should be upset they didn’t get this place. I can’t even sell it—no one would gain anything from harming me for it. Especially when Eira had so many other properties. The only reason I benefit is because I had no place of my own and couldn’t really afford an apartment in London on just my paintings.”
“So you didn’t plan to contest the will based on what Eira left you?”
Benjamin frowned. “Why would I contest it? And on what grounds would I even do so?”
Avery tried to keep her own skepticism from her expression. “Carys seemed to think there was something about your relationship with Eira that neither of you were willing to admit.”
Benjamin’s nose scrunched in disgust and displeasure at the mention of Carys’s name. “What does that dried-up cow think she knows?”
