The smug bastard. He’s got me there. I give him a smile that barely conceals my gritted teeth. “I’m not going to answer any more of your questions. I think I’ll call Agent Storm first.”
“Look here, girlie,” he snaps. “I am a Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard, and if I have questions, you’ll answer them.”
“Yeah, whatever. Your questions don’t seem to be doing either of us much good.”
“I don’t appreciate your attitude! There is a girl dead and her best friend is missing. Where is your respect?”
A girl is dead. Suddenly I feel the need to sit down, but I stay where I am, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. “Is it Rachel who is dead?”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you asked me where India was. She must be the one who is missing.”
“It sounds to me like you know more than you are letting on. Your name was on her wall calendar. Why did she want to meet up with you today? Were you in it together? If you know where she is, you had better tell me this instant!”
“I don’t know where she is.”
“Some psychic you are,” he says scathingly. “Or maybe you’re just a liar. I think you had better come with me.”
Chapter 5
DIANA
I really really do not want to go with Detective Inspector Zael. I have a feeling he will throw me into a cell somewhere and I might not see daylight for days. Heck, what if the human police decide to search me? What if they see my navelstone? What if the whole thing escalates into some awful scenario far beyond what it is now?
The rush of adrenalin surging through my body is making me tremble, and I am doing my best not to let him see it. My finger hovers over the secret alarm button, wondering whether to summon Theo. But what could he do? DI Zael is a police inspector. Even Theo can’t get me out of this. And it might make matters worse.
I don’t want Zael to think Theo is involved. I don’t want to give him a reason to shut down Theo’s magic shop. Zael looks like he would do it in a heartbeat.
“Okay, just let me tell my boss and use the ladies,” I tell Zael.
“Be quick about it,” he snaps.
I walk into the passageway behind the counter that leads to Theo’s workshop and his apartment. As soon as I am out of earshot of DI Zael, I call Storm. I tell him what has happened. Storm sounds busy, like he doesn't have time to talk.
This is not how I imagine our first call in three weeks would go. Our conversation is far too hurried and urgent for me to feel any of the butterflies I had expected to feel given that I had been dying for an excuse to hear his voice.
I hang up, and a minute later Storm calls DI Zael. I hear DI Zael’s phone ring, and I head back out to the store front.
DI Zael looks furious when he has got off the phone to Storm. “You had better be there at Agency Headquarters at 4:00 pm sharp missy, or you’ll have me to answer to,” he says as a parting shot.
By 3:00 pm Theo has finally made his way down to the store, nattily dressed in his usual brown tweedy suit that he somehow manages to look perfectly good in. I explain the situation to him. He agrees to take care of Beastie while I head out.
“And I promised Mozz I would play a game with her, but she seems to have disappeared for a bit. Can you tell her I had to leave?”
Theo does his best not to smile. “She really has got you under her thumb. She’s probably forgotten already.”
“She hasn’t. She remembers these things.”
“I’ll tell her,” he says, a twinkle in his eyes.
AngelBeastie follows me to the door, rubbing my ankles, and then meowing ferociously when it becomes clear I have no intention of taking her with me. She finally hisses at me in disgust and retires to her spot atop the bookshelves, no doubt to mull over some way to punish me later.
I arrive at Agency Headquarters with only a few minutes to spare. The receptionist gives me the directions to the incident room, which I find not far from Storm’s office. Storm is in there with his team — Agents Leo Kane, Remi Bronwyn and Aiden Monroe — along with Detective Inspector Zael and some other guy I have not yet met.
I pause outside the glass walled office and take a moment to appreciate Storm. The man looks like he has stepped out of a fashion magazine spread called Detective Style. It’s more to do with his good looks and athletic grace than to do with time spend in front of the mirror. Someone should carve him in marble for posterity. Hell, if we’re dishing out wishes, can someone let me start by running my fingers though that cropped black hair of his and rumple it a bit. He is too tasty to look so perfect all the time.
He looks especially perfect as he faces off with the obnoxious DI Zael. The two are having a heated discussion about something. Remi sees me and she waves at me to come in. I ease myself into the room and shut the door behind me quietly.