Midnight Smoke (The Firebrand Series Book 3)

by Helen Harper

  ‘You will what?’

  ‘I will not say it aloud.’ He pulled back. ‘Just fucking find them.’ He turned and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

  I remained where I was for a moment, staring at the closed door. It surprised me that his coffers were all but empty; the McGuigan clan had a veneer of respectability, and it certainly maintained a large number of smart properties. Not to mention that affluent humans who were bitten and then turned often bequeathed their money to the clans. I suspected that, unless he was telling the truth about recouping the wealth he’d somehow lost, I’d have to keep a close eye on the McGuigan clan. The supes cared a great deal about the face they presented to the world. Lord McGuigan would go to any lengths to appear on a financial par with his peers.

  The door opened again and this time Lady Sullivan entered. She glided in, shaking out her full skirt before she took the seat in front of me. ‘What did you say to McGuigan?’ she enquired. ‘He stormed out with a look on his face as if you’d threatened the size of his manhood.’

  I leaned back in my chair. Of all the werewolf alphas, Lady Sullivan was by far the most dangerous. She didn’t intimidate me, but she possessed a ruthless streak that I was wary of.

  ‘The whole point of this set-up,’ I said, waving a hand around the small room, ‘is to keep the conversations private. I won’t tell you what I discussed with Lord McGuigan any more than I will tell Lord McGuigan what I discuss with you.’

  Lady Sullivan raised an amused eyebrow. ‘I’m not asking you to tell me what’s in his safety deposit box. I already know that. He has nothing. His entire clan is on the verge of bankruptcy and he came here last month and emptied whatever he had to sell.’

  I kept my expression as blank as I could and said nothing. I wouldn’t allow my expression to confirm what Lady Sullivan already knew. She watched me for several long seconds, then shrugged elegantly. ‘Very well,’ she murmured. ‘You wish to know the contents of my boxes.’

  ‘Yes.’

  She smiled sweetly. ‘The first one contains a number of valuables. Diamonds and the like.’

  I sighed. ‘I need you to be more specific.’

  ‘Yes, I rather thought you might, though I don’t see why. All you need to do is keep an eye on anyone selling large numbers of precious stones. Any thief worth their salt will be already breaking up the settings to dispose of the individual stones.’

  Again, I refrained from speaking. There was no point in getting into an argument with Lady Sullivan because eventually she’d tell me what I needed to know. We both knew it. First, however, she needed to make this display of her power. I really wasn’t in the mood to play ball and rise to her bait.

  Her pleasant expression didn’t so much as flicker. ‘You are the most exasperating creature, DC Bellamy.’ She leaned forward. ‘And when I say creature, I mean creature. You are not human. Your DNA results proved that.’

  This time I was forced to respond. Some time ago, I’d allowed her to swab my cheek for my DNA. I wondered how long she’d been sitting on the report. ‘You promised to give me a copy of those results,’ I said stiffly. ‘That was the deal.’

  ‘I will have them couriered to your office.’

  ‘Great,’ I said, without altering my tone of voice. ‘I will expect them within the week.’ I folded my arms. ‘Now tell me – and in as much detail as you can – exactly what was in your security boxes.’

  ‘As I said, the first box contained numerous valuables.’ She ticked off her fingers. ‘Two exquisite Fabergé eggs. The jewellery worn by Empress Alexandra during her execution, including several heavy rings and a quite wonderful necklace.’ She passed over a photograph of the items and I studied it carefully.

  ‘May I keep this?’

  She inclined her head. ‘You may.’ She paused and I knew we were about to get to the important stuff. ‘The second box contains a box of hair clippings, nail clippings and shed skin.’

  Goddamnit. I knew it would be something icky like that. My stomach dropped as I remembered Ted Nappey, the crazed human who’d also had a gruesome penchant for body parts. His motives centred around a potion he’d discovered in an old book called Infernal Enchantments. Infernal indeed. I sincerely hoped that Lady Sullivan wasn’t about to tell me she was planning something similar.

  ‘Go on,’ I said grimly. ‘Tell me why you were keeping them.’

  ‘You don’t need to know why.’

  I met her gaze. ‘Tell me.’

  Lady Sullivan clicked her tongue. ‘If you insist.’ She tapped her fingernails on the arm of the chair. I was convinced it was purely to irritate me. Then she smiled again. ‘The samples all belong to a werewolf by the name of Bradford Carr. Before you get all hot and bothered that I’m storing DNA belonging to another clan, you can relax. He’s long since gone. He died in the 1950s, long before DNA was ever thought of.’

  I bit back a retort. I wasn’t the fluff-headed cop she seemed to think I was. DNA was first isolated in the nineteenth century and the double-helix model was completed in 1953. We might not have had the means to test and track DNA until more recently, but it had certainly been known of for far longer than she’d said.

  ‘Where did you get the samples from?’

  She laughed, a crystal-clear tinkle that echoed around the small room. ‘From his body, of course. Where else?’

  I glowered and waited for her amusement to subside.

  ‘You ought to have more of a sense of humour, Emma,’ she chided.

  ‘It’s DC Bellamy.’

  Lady Sullivan waved a hand. ‘Whatever. To answer your question, one of my predecessors took the samples after Bradford Carr died. Nobody else thought to do it, not even the Carr clan. And nobody else knows that we have them.’

  ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Why do you have them?’

  ‘There,’ she said softly, ‘we get to the crux of the matter. I’m not supposed to have them. Lords Fairfax and McGuigan would not be pleased if they knew, and Lady Carr would be apoplectic.’ She started tapping her nails on the chair arm again. ‘In fact, it’s quite possible she would declare war on us.’

  I folded my arms. ‘That explains why you don’t want to reveal what you have. It still doesn’t explain why you had such things in the first place.’

  ‘If I lunged towards you and sank my teeth into your flesh, you would be incredibly unlucky to be turned into a werewolf as a result. Perhaps one in a million people are transformed because of a single bite. It’s almost never happened. Receive two bites and your chances increase, especially if those bites come from different wolves. Three bites and your fate is sealed.’ She paused. ‘Unless you were Bradford Carr.’

  I waited. She tapped some more.

  ‘Like Lord McGuigan, he was originally human. He was bitten three times before he turned. As many like him discover, neither the biting nor the transformation are pleasant processes.’ She shuddered delicately. ‘Bradford was bitten four times, twice by Carr wolves, once by a Sullivan clan member and once by a Fairfax delta. He was the strongest werewolf we’ve ever known. Until his death, the Carrs ruled the roost. Even the vampires couldn’t compete with his power. The rest of us bowed and scraped at his knee.’

  I raised an eyebrow. ‘Did you?’ I asked, unable to help myself.

  For the first time Lady Sullivan scowled. ‘How old do you think I am?’ she snapped. ‘I wasn’t born until several years after he passed away.’ She realised I’d baited her deliberately and a spasm of annoyance crossed her face, this time directed at herself. She’d revealed more of her vanity than she’d wanted to.

  Her eyes flashed before she returned to her story. ‘Bradford Carr’s feats and power are well documented. He is no secret, even to those outside the supernatural community. Google him, if you wish,’ she sneered.

  ‘Is that why you kept samples from his body?’ I asked. ‘Because he was some kind of super wolf?’

  ‘We believe he was a … super wolf, as you so crudely describe him, because he
was bitten four times. Nobody else has been able to replicate that – every single wolf in every single clan has been turned by the third bite. We kept his DNA in the hope that one day science can explain how future Sullivan werewolves can also receive four bites before they are transformed. To use your own words, we’re hoping to be in a position to create a super clan. We are unable to manage it now, but one day we will.’

  No wonder she didn’t want anyone else to know what she had in her possession. Lady Sullivan’s ambition for her kith and kin was strong indeed, and it was potentially very dangerous. I had no clue as to the legality or otherwise of holding historical DNA or using it for experimentation, and I didn’t know how much of a threat her plans were. Nor did I know what I could do about them.

  ‘It’s very important that Bradford Carr’s DNA is recovered and returned to us,’ Lady Sullivan said. ‘I would be disappointed if it went astray, or if these thieves were never found.’ Her tone of voice suggested her disappointment would stretch to dismembering my body and burying its various parts in the four corners of the world so I could never resurrect again.

  I ignored the unspoken threat. I wouldn’t reveal what she’d told me, but if the thieves were found and the contents of all the safety deposit boxes recovered, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hand the DNA samples back to her. It was a moral question I’d have to consider in more depth later.

  ‘Thank you for both your honesty and your time, Lady Sullivan,’ I said.

  ‘You’re welcome.’ She rose to her feet. ‘Before I go, and while we’re on the subject of werewolf bites, there was an accident last night that you should be aware of.’

  I passed a hand in front of my eyes. Of course there was. ‘A bite?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes. Just one. It was only a nip and there is virtually no chance that the receiver of the bite will have any adverse lupine effects.’

  There was more to this than she was telling me. ‘But?’ I prodded.

  ‘But,’ she answered smoothly, ‘it was Devereau Webb who was bitten.’

  I stared at her. ‘What?’

  ‘Devereau Webb was bitten by one of my wolves last night.’

  ‘Devereau Webb? The Shepherd? The guy who runs a petty crime gang out of London and who was desperate for his niece to be turned into a werewolf?’

  ‘That’s the one,’ she replied cheerfully. She dipped into a mock curtsey. ‘Have a lovely day, detective.’

  Chapter Six

  I checked my watch before Lord Fairfax came in. It was almost 5pm. No wonder my stomach was beginning to grumble – I’d not had anything to eat since my rushed breakfast en route to my uncle’s house, and I wasn’t convinced that a Ginster’s pasty and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps counted as a proper meal. I sighed. There was too much to do for me to stop and eat.

  I ignored the hunger pangs and nodded at Fairfax when he opened the door and peered in with a dark, questioning expression. ‘Come in,’ I called. ‘Have a seat.’

  He obeyed, although his body language indicated that he was doing so under duress. I looked him up and down, noting the dried blood on his shirt. He’d been helping remove the dead bodies from the ground floor. ‘The werewolves who were shot,’ I said quietly. ‘One was from the Fairfax clan?’

  He nodded, a jerky movement that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a wooden marionette. His hands gripped the chair arms tightly, and I saw that his fingernails were shaped into claws rather than the perfect manicure that he normally favoured. Like the others, Lord Fairfax was struggling to keep it together. Under the circumstances, I could hardly blame him.

  ‘Toffee. It appears that she was shot first. She probably tried to stop the robbers in their tracks,’ he said. ‘It’s the sort of thing she’d have done. She always acted without thinking. The other wolves would have followed her lead, even though they were from the McGuigan clan.’ He sighed heavily.

  ‘Toffee?’

  ‘She is one of my betas.’ His shoulders dropped an inch. ‘Was one of my betas. Had been for years. I didn’t know she was going to the bank today.’ His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I didn’t know. She wasn’t supposed to be here.’ He glanced away, staring at a spot on the wall until he composed himself again.

  I waited until his gaze returned to mine. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be sorry, DC Bellamy. Be angry.’ A muscle ticked in his jaw. Fairfax was doing well to keep his emotions in check but I suspected he was feeling the events of the robbery more deeply than any of the others. No doubt that was because of losing Toffee.

  I nodded solemnly. ‘You had two safety deposit boxes. What was in them?’

  ‘The first is personal to me and unrelated to the Fairfax clan.’

  Interesting. ‘Go on.’

  He gave me a defiant look. ‘It contained around ten grand in cash. And three passports.’

  I sat up. ‘Whose passports?’

  ‘Mine.’ Fairfax folded his arms.

  ‘Are they current passports?’

  ‘Yes.’

  As far as I knew Fairfax didn’t possess dual – or triple – nationality. Getting full answers from him was like drawing blood out of a stone. ‘Under your name?’

  ‘They are my passports.’

  I drew in a breath. ‘With respect, Lord Fairfax, that is not what I asked.’

  His expression was stony. ‘Is all this completely necessary?’

  ‘Yes. As I’ve already stated, unless the contents of the safety deposit boxes pose a danger to others, I won’t reveal what they are. Neither will I take action against anything that is illegal.’

  A muscle ticked in his cheek. ‘There was a Swiss passport in the name Johannes Muller, an American one for Michael Hatt, and a South African passport for Arnold Steenkamp.’

  Definitely illegal passports, then. Surprise, surprise. ‘I take it that you don’t legally possess multiple nationalities and identities.’

  Fairfax sniffed. ‘Your assumption is correct. I procured these documents at various points and for various reasons.’ He folded his arms. ‘Not because I’m some sort of international villain but because sometimes I like to travel without having to declare that I’m a werewolf.’

  That made a lot of sense. It wasn’t easy to take a holiday abroad when you were a supernatural creature. Few people were happy about sharing the confined space of an aeroplane with someone with the potential to turn furry and attack them, even though the likelihood of that happening was miniscule. But there was more to this; I’d lay money on Lord Fairfax having the passports as his own personal insurance in case he needed to make a quick exit from the country because his werewolves had decided to turn against him. Or for some more nefarious reason. I was learning more about each of the alphas than they’d ever have wanted.

  ‘Very well,’ I said. ‘What about the second box?’

  ‘It contains the only surviving copy of William Shakespeare’s play, Love’s Labours Won.’

  I blinked. As far as I was aware, that particular play had been lost to the annals of history. ‘Why would you keep that hidden?’

  ‘The main character is a werewolf. The play is a nasty piece of propaganda against our kind and should never have seen the light of day. It’s been hidden for centuries. To suddenly produce it now, like a rabbit out of a hat, would cause far more problems for us than we could handle.’

  I remained astonished. ‘But…’

  Fairfax glared at me. ‘You only wanted to know what was inside the boxes, DC Bellamy. I’m not here for an existential discussion about the contents. I’m merely informing you of what they are.’

  He had a point. ‘Very well. Thank you for your time.’ I paused. ‘And I am truly sorry about Toffee.’

  He grunted and left.

  The last werewolf to enter the room was Lady Carr. The petite alpha belched loudly as she sat down. I strongly suspected that she’d been saving it up until she was in front of me but I refrained from commenting; it wasn’t worth it.

  ‘I’ll
give you five million pounds right here and now if you tell me what’s in the others’ boxes,’ she said, without preamble. ‘We’re in a bank, after all. It’ll take me less than ten minutes to arrange the transfer and you’ll be set for life.’

  Wow. ‘No, Lady Carr. I won’t be doing that.’ I gave her a long look. She matched it, unwilling to back down until she was sure that I couldn’t be bribed. ‘Tell me what was in your box.’

  She sniffed. ‘How do I know you won’t blab about it to Lord Horvath? You and he are engaging in amorous congress, are you not?’

  I felt my cheeks warming. Irritated with myself, I snapped, ‘First of all, that’s none of your business. Secondly, I think I’ve just proved that I’m trustworthy.’

  She settled in her chair. ‘Ah, I see,’ she said. ‘You haven’t yet thumped thighs with the fanged freak.’ She smirked. ‘It’s only a matter of time, you know. Once you have, you’ll do whatever he wants. Look at your boy – Fred, is it? If that Scarlett crooks her little finger, he’ll do whatever she wants and he’ll also tell her whatever she wants to know.’

  My temper rose. ‘I can assure you, Lady Carr, there is a definite line between our professional and personal lives. Everyone else has played ball so far. I must insist that you do the same.’

  ‘Alright, alright. Don’t get your knickers in a twist over a tiny tease,’ she tutted. ‘He’ll make you scream though, you know. He’ll run his fingers down your body, cup your breasts and lick your…’