“Oh, yes it is—” began Tobin.
Kadin realized she couldn’t let her brother do all the talking for her, so she continued. “Yes, it is. We’re done, Dahran. Stay away from me.”
Dahran threw the newspaper at Kadin’s feet and stalked off. Tobin uncocked the ject—Xanidova, Kadin realized—and ran down next to Kadin. “Are you okay?”
Kadin shifted her position so her weight was no longer on the arm that had cracked. She looked at her palm and found the same concrete swirls she had been staring at as dents on her skin. “I think he broke my arm.”
Tobin reached out and took hold of her wrist, which even Kadin could see was twisted at an odd angle and had swelled to twice its normal size.
“He definitely did,” said Tobin. “Come on. Let’s get you to the ER.”
Kadin leaned over and gave her brother a one-armed hug. “You’re not going to ask what all that was about?”
Tobin shook his head. “I don’t need to. There’s nothing you could have done that would warrant the beating that ass was giving you.”
“And Xanidova—”
“Would that be the ject that shouted through the entire house that I needed to go save you?” Tobin sighed. “Yeah, that, we probably need to talk about.”
Kadin gave Tobin her first real smile of the morning. “I love you. But you’re going to need to hear both stories. I’ll tell you on the way to the hospital.”
Chapter 15
Kadin spent most of Saturday at the ER. Despite the odd angle of her arm, her emergency came in second place to the five burn victims from a fire on the other side of town. Fortunately or unfortunately, this gave her a lot of time to talk to Tobin.
He took the news about Baurus kissing her in stride. “I always knew you were born for greatness, Kay.”
“I don’t think having my picture blasted all over the paper for kissing a duke counts as greatness.”
“No, but if you can catch the attention of nobility, you can do anything.”
Kadin closed her eyes. “You need to stop saying things like that.”
“I know Grandmother tried to drill your ordinariness into your head, but—”
“No, I mean…” Kadin shifted in her chair and cringed as pain shot up her arm from the motion. “I think it upsets Octavira.”
Tobin fell silent, no doubt thinking of his wife’s outburst two nights before. Eventually, he said, “Do you think Octavira is unhappy?”
Kadin looked her brother in the eyes. “I don’t know. If you’d asked me a week ago, I would have said she just hated me. But I think it’s something more than that.”
Tobin leaned back in his chair. “When I first met Octavira, she was a nurse at my practice. She was so smart and interested in medicine, and we had so much in common to talk about. She dreamed of being a surgeon, but she didn’t have the money for med school. I fell in love with her and asked her to marry me, and for a while, we were happy. But slowly, she stopped wanting to talk about my job or the latest medical research. I thought she just wasn’t interested anymore.”
“I saw she had taken a surgery textbook out of the library,” said Kadin. “That’s why I got her the present I did. I thought—”
“I know. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Tobin sat back up and put his elbows on his knees. “I went to talk to her. I told her that if she still wanted to go to med school, we’d work it out, but she just yelled back that there was no point because she couldn’t work, and besides, who would take care of the children? And of course, she’s right. I think by marrying her, I ruined her life.”
Kadin reached out and rubbed her brother’s shoulder, an awkward task, since the arm next to him was the broken one. “You didn’t. You said yourself she couldn’t afford med school anyway, and it’s not easy for a woman to have a man’s career.”
“Our society is so messed up,” said Tobin. “Why can’t women have children and husbands and jobs?”
“I don’t know,” said Kadin. “I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Me neither, but I guess I do need to figure out how to work on making things better for Octavira.”
“Probably.” Kadin took a deep breath and broached the one subject they’d been avoiding. “Speaking of Octavira, she didn’t hear Xanidova yelling, did she?”
“I managed to convince her it was the neighbors,” said Tobin. “The last thing Octavira needs to know is that you brought a revolver into the house, much less a magic one.”
Kadin couldn’t help agreeing with that. “You don’t seem surprised about the magic. Most people I talk to refuse to even believe it exists. But you knew it did, didn’t you? How?”
“I didn’t know,” said Tobin. “Not for certain. But I’ve had my suspicions for a long time. And I know well enough to stay away from it, as you should.”
“I tried to. Believe me, I did. But it keeps popping up in my investigations, and Daimon Gates says—”
“Daimon Gates?” Tobin’s head whipped around to look at her. “You’re not supposed to know Daimon Gates. Did he give you the revolver?”
“He’s the only magic expert in the city.” Kadin’s voice was hot. “How do you know him?”
Tobin’s eyes flashed. “He—”
“Miss Kadin Stone?”
Kadin was relieved for the receptionist’s interruption. She couldn’t recall a time her brother had looked as angry with her as he did at that moment. The nurse only wanted to take her vital signs and tell her she had to wait for a while longer, but they did give her some pain medication. When she returned to her brother’s side, she was too woozy to continue the conversation. She found herself staring at the television in the corner of the waiting room, which showed coverage from the race Kadin had planned to attend with Dahran only a few days ago. Apparently “her” racer, the Yellow Comet, had won, though she couldn’t see the appalling yellow color of his hair on the black-and-white screen.
When Kadin’s turn finally came, she found the setting of her arm wasn’t nearly as painful as she thought it would be, and after the cast on her arm dried, Tobin made a show of signing it in order to cheer her up.
The pain pills the ER doctors gave her knocked her out, so it wasn’t until Sunday that she had to deal with further fallout from her eventful weekend. Arm still throbbing, she listened to Octavira’s lecture about how she needed to be more responsible. Kadin wasn’t sure whether Octavira was more upset that Kadin’s relationship with Dahran had exploded—thus keeping Kadin in the house until she found another man willing to marry her—or that the phone had been ringing off the hook all day Saturday. Either way, since Kadin knew from Tobin’s words that Octavira’s anger wasn’t as sister-in-law-specific as Kadin had previously thought, she was able to take the angry words more in stride.
Kadin looked at the list of people to call back Octavira handed her and was surprised to see only two names on it: Olivan and Trinithy. Apparently, they had each called several times.
Kadin called Trinithy back first.
“How could you do that to Dahran?” Trinithy’s voice was an accusing whine. “He’s, like, absolutely perfect, and you cheated on him.”
Kadin didn’t know which false statement to address first. “I didn’t exactly cheat on him. The paper exaggerated things—”
“Oh, I’m sorry, so that’s not a picture of you and a duke kissing on the front of the Society pages?”
“And Dahran’s not perfect. In fact, he—”
“For Deity’s sake, Kadin!” Trinithy sounded so annoyed, Kadin would have thought she had personally offended her friend. “I’m not interested in another one of your ridiculous explanations about how a man is not good enough for you. You’re too picky, and I hope you die single and alone!” With that, Trinithy hung up the phone.
“Ka-a-a-a-din!” Olivan sang with delight when Kadin finally got him on the phone. “Haven
’t you been a busy girl this weekend?”
Kadin sighed. “Are you going to yell at me too?”
“Are you kidding me? You kissed a duke. This is like my dream come true. Who’s been yelling at you?”
“Oh, Octavira, Trinithy. Dahran showed up yesterday and broke my arm.”
Olivan was silent for a moment. “He did what?”
“Well, I hadn’t gotten around to breaking up with him yet, so it’s understandable that he was upset—”
“Kay, that is no excuse for violence. Please tell me you are not blaming yourself.”
“No, not exactly.” Kadin cringed at how weak that sounded. “I mean, no. He was allowed to be upset. He was not allowed to hurt me.”
“That’s my girl.” Kadin could hear the beam in Olivan’s voice. “Now, on to important matters. Is Baurus DeValeriel a good kisser?”
Kadin slumped against the kitchen counter. “I don’t even know. I ended it so fast. I was so taken aback, and I knew Dahran would be angry, and—”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Olivan surprised her with his understanding. “You’re not used to having actual nice guys pay attention to you.”
“Do you think Baurus is a nice guy?”
“I do. So what are you going to do if he tries to kiss you again?”
“I doubt that’s going to happen. No guy likes being rejected.” Besides, Ralvin’s going to tell him to stay away from me.
“I dunno, Kay.” Olivan drew out his words. “The guy seemed pretty into you in the click. You could be a duchess.”
Kadin laughed out loud. “I doubt that’s going to happen. I’m not exactly duchess material.”
“Fine, suit yourself. Look, Kay, I gotta go.”
“Sure thing. Plans with Vinnie?”
“Ugh, no. He’s all busy. What do you think he’s up to all the times he’s not around? Does owning the paper take that much time?”
He’s off running the country, and yes, that takes a lot of time. “I dunno, Ollie. But you see him at least three times a week. Isn’t that enough?”
“No, it’s not.” Olivan sighed. “I suppose that means I’m in love.”
“Aw, you’ve been in love before. It’ll be okay.” In the four years she’d known him, Olivan had had any number of crushes and romances, though she had to admit that none of his previous relationships had lasted six months.
“It’s different this time.” There was a wistful pause. “Okay, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“See you.”
Kadin had some trepidation about heading into work the next day. She put concealer over the bruise on her face, though given the size and color of the mark, she could only do so much. And of course, she couldn’t hide her broken arm.
People are going to ask what happened, and I can hardly tell them Dahran did it. He’ll deny it, and people will say I’m trying to ruin him.
She found herself wandering down to the lab in search of a friendly face, not that she was sure Jace was a friendly face at this point. She wasn’t sure of anything regarding her relationships after this weekend.
Jace was in the back room when she arrived, and he grunted a hello in response to her greeting. She saw him hovering over a microscope, and a body, presumably from the case Fellows planned to pull her in on this week, lay on the table.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” said Jace. “Make yourself at home.”
Kadin leaned against the counter and tried very hard not to look at the papers scattered everywhere. The dead didn’t necessarily have a legal right to privacy, but Kadin felt she should respect it all the same. Nonetheless, one caught her eye—the blood test for birth control pills in Coelis Crest’s blood. Aside from all the results being negative, it took her a minute to figure out what struck her about it.
“Jace? Is this a standard birth control testing form?”
The sound of running water came from the back room. “You mean Miss Crest’s?”
“Yeah, why does it have seven test results in it?”
Jace appeared in the doorway, drying his hands. “Those are the standard tests. Used to be five, but they changed it about a year ago.” His eyes came into focus as his gaze fell on her cheek and face. “Deity, what happened to you?”
Kadin shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
Jace came over to her and laid a gentle hand on her chin. He tilted her face up so he could get a better look at the bruise and hissed. “It was that asshole White, wasn’t it? I certainly hope you’re pressing charges.”
Kadin looked into Jace’s green eyes. She didn’t think she had noticed the color before. She felt heat rise to her cheeks as she realized she was standing too close to him.
Kadin stepped back, and he let her go. “Yes, because that always goes well for women. It’s fine. My arm will heal, and Dahran and I are finished. I’m more concerned about this.” She thrust the paper in his face.
“Why are you concerned about that?”
“Because Isidri Tell told me he was providing faked birth control results to Coelis Crest. He even provided copies of the most recent ones, but they only had five tests on them.”
Jace took the paper from her and shut it in a folder. “Well, you already knew he was lying. He must have performed Miss Crest’s abortion. Taking money for falsifying birth control results is shady, but abortion is a serious crime.”
“I guess,” said Kadin. “It seems like a lot of effort to go through when the truth was she wasn’t on any pills.”
“You think there’s something more insidious going on?” asked Jace.
“I’m a homicide detective’s aide. It’s my job to think there’s something more insidious going on. I’m just thinking…”
Jace raised an eyebrow, waiting.
“Herrick Strand spent a year away from Queen Callista before he killed her. What if Isidri Tell hadn’t seen Coelis Crest in as long? What if that’s why the test slips were out of date?”
“That’s a pretty big stretch, Kay.”
“I know. I just… It feels right, you know?” She flashed him a smile, which hurt her bruised cheek more than she wanted to admit. “I’m going to go do some investigation on this. Talk to you later.”
Before she could turn away, she found herself close enough to Jace to look into the green of his eyes again. “Be careful,” he said.
“Of course.” She said the words off-handedly, trying to ignore the intense look on his face.
Jace put his hand on her good arm. “I mean it. If Tell is a mage, you could be in a lot of danger. Bring backup.”
“A lot of good backup will do against someone who can stop hearts,” she whispered. “But I will.”
Jace nodded and let her go. “Good luck.”
Kadin returned to her desk, and when she saw Fellows was absent, she snuck back into his office. She had decided the best source of evidence would be the guest list for Baurus’s gala. Fellows had confiscated her copy the week before, so she had to assume it was amongst his papers.
She didn’t remember seeing Tell there, but there had been a whirlwind of people she didn’t know. That a common doctor would attend was unlikely, but Kadin had to imagine the Society of Mages had their ways to finagle invitations. Or maybe he had been smuggled in with the help.
Kadin felt a pang of guilt as she cast her gaze upon Fellows’s clutter-free desk, but she refused to let that stop her. She could not let Tell get away with murder.
She started with his top drawer. Just envelopes. The list wasn’t in an envelope. She almost shut the drawer before the return address on the top one caught her eye. Why is Fellows receiving mail from CrimeSolve?
She knew it had nothing to do with the case, and she should leave it alone, but somehow, she found herself picking up the top envelope and pulling out its contents. Inside was a pay stub for a substantial amount of money. Fe
eling a chill run down her spine, she looked in the next envelope and the next. They were all the same.
I don’t understand was her first thought, but even she knew she was being naive. These payments were why Fellows wanted her to stay off the case. This was how CrimeSolve got the diary. Fellows must have been on the take, collecting a paycheck from the bigger detective agency for letting them get credit for solving cases.
Barely knowing what she was doing, Kadin took one of the pay stubs. I’ll decide what to do about this later. For now, the guest list.
She opened the file drawer and rifled through it until she found the not-so-surprisingly thin file for the Crest case. Inside was Kadin’s copy of the guest list. She took it and hurried back to her office. She hid the CrimeSolve pay stub in her desk and pored over the guest list.
As she got further down the list, she worried she might have been mistaken. Isidri Tell wasn’t among the guests or the serving staff. But then, five names from the bottom, under the vague header “Other admitted persons,” she found his name.
I should bring this to my higher-ups before doing anything. That was proper procedure, after all. Except her higher-up was Fellows, and he wasn’t going to listen to her. She could go to Inspector Warring, but she hated to go above Fellows’s head before she had a chance to decide what to do about his CrimeSolve pay stubs.
Besides, she did have the authority to arrest people on her own.
Backup. Kadin remembered her promise to Jace. I need to bring backup.
She called down to Personnel.
Chapter 16
“Fellows is on the take?” Olivan was, perhaps unsurprisingly, delighted at the piece of gossip. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know, Ollie. If I tell anyone, it’ll ruin his career. But I can’t let it go on. Oh, turn here.” They were approaching Dr. Tell’s office.
“I mean, you could.” Olivan turned onto Tell’s street. “You’re letting Dahran get away with beating you.”
“That’s different. That only hurts me.”
“And who does Fellows collecting an extra paycheck hurt?” Olivan swerved into a curbside parking spot with ease.
Staying on Top Page 13