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‘Yeah. Any advice on that?’
‘Find out who killed him.’
‘Cheers,’ I said drily.
Jess laughed. ‘Dig into who your man was. Most deaths are carried out by people known to the victims. If the killer got into the mansion and into Mark’s room without being questioned, chances are that he or she is a member of the pack.’
‘Yeah, that thought had occurred to me.’
All joviality was gone from her tone. ‘Watch your back, Luce.’
‘I will,’ I promised. ‘Love you.’
‘Love you too. Keep me in the loop.’ We rang off.
It’s handy having a private investigator for a best friend because she won’t bat an eyelid when you tell her you have a dead body to investigate. Jess invented cucumber cool and I wish I had half of her attitude. She is queen of no fucks to give. I want people to like me too much, but people pleasing wasn’t going to win me this pack.
My chat with Jess relaxed me a little. Steve had rattled me about Manners and his allegiances, but Jess has a gut instinct second to none. If she trusted Manners, I trusted Manners. Now I just needed to work out who, out of the sixty-odd pack members, I shouldn’t trust. Easy.
I slid my phone into my pocket and cursed the fashion for women to have obscenely small pockets and obscenely large phones, then I walked into the living room. It immediately fell silent.
Liam was comforting Marissa. Tristan had left. Manners was sitting on the sofa, his stony face giving nothing away. I decided there was no time like the present to get cracking and tried to channel my inner Inspector Morse.
‘I’m going to ask you a few questions,’ I said to Liam and Marissa. ‘And you’re going to answer them.’ Rule 101: don’t ask, order. See? I could totally do this. ‘Mark and his ex-wife had an acrimonious split. He was seeing someone new. Who?’
Marissa looked down and away, but Liam met my gaze neutrally. ‘He and Seren had been dating, but I don’t know if it was serious. She’s taken a sedative and gone to bed.’ He hesitated. ‘She’s very upset.’
I’d seen Seren and Mark cuddling together. She didn’t strike me as mature; she flounced around the mansion with her earphones in, dressed all in black and with a perma-glare like a teenager in the middle of a rebellion. Who she was rebelling against I didn’t know, but she felt – young. It squicked me a bit to think that she was shagging Mark; there was an age gap of fifteen years between them. It wasn’t the number of years that was the issue, but she seemed so youthful that it felt a little like Mark had taken advantage of her.
Liam’s neutrality when providing the information was refreshing. Before I’d de-manned my ex, he’d displayed barely concealed dislike bordering on rudeness, so it was an improvement. Dead body or not, the day was looking up.
‘You were friends with Mark,’ I started.
He snorted. ‘No one was friends with Mark. He was number two – three, after you arrived. He took competitive edge to a whole new level, and he was always ready to come down hard if there were any pack infractions. I toed the line so we didn’t have any issues.’ He trailed off and I sensed the ‘but’.
‘Who did have issues with him?’
‘Cassie, for one. She’s a spitfire. She believed in marriage for life. Mark disagreed.’
‘He initiated the split?’
‘That’s the way he portrayed it.’
‘Who else had a beef with Mark?’
‘Easier to ask who didn’t,’ Liam muttered. ‘Noah and Mark had a few issues.’ He looked at me reluctantly. ‘And Elena,’ he admitted finally.
I’d seen Liam, Elena and Archie hanging out. They were friends, and it felt like a big deal that Liam was willing to admit that they’d had a problem with Mark.
‘And David.’ Marissa joined the conversation, though she stared determinedly past my shoulder.
Liam nodded. ‘Yeah, I guess David too. Though it’s hard to see him doing anything about it.’
‘What about drugs?’
They met each other’s eyes and looked away again. Neither of them looked at me. Okay then.
Then the living room door burst open, and Manners was on his feet with a gun drawn before I could blink.
