Staying on Top Page 3

  “This is ridiculous,” Dahran said for the fifth or sixth time as Baurus turned into the Imperial District. “My legs are longer than hers. I shouldn’t be cramped back here.”

  Kadin wanted to be enjoying the trip in the luxurious vehicle she suspected cost more than her annual salary. The seats were the softest leather she’d ever encountered, and the drop top allowed for a lovely view of the starry night. Instead, she felt her cheeks flush redder every time Dahran complained. She wondered what Baurus thought but wasn’t brave enough to look at him to find out.

  Eventually, they turned into the long drive leading up to the DeValeriel estate. As Kadin took in the grand residence with its marble columns and red-and-black heraldry, she realized she hadn’t been to Baurus’s home before. The view gave her a thrill she didn’t quite understand, and since their arrival meant an end to Dahran’s whining, she had never been so glad to see a place in her life—at least until she saw the yellow car parked on the curb. I guess CrimeSolve beat us here.

  Baurus pulled the convertible up behind the CrimeSolve car and hopped out. Kadin hurried to follow suit.

  “You’re double-parked!” she said.

  “Eh, the valet will take care of it.” Baurus flashed her a grin. “Besides, it’s not like anyone can leave. This is a murder investigation.”

  You left, thought Kadin, but she was well aware that the rules that applied to normal people didn’t apply to Baurus DeValeriel.

  Baurus bounded up the stairs of his manor, and Kadin looked back to make sure Dahran had extricated himself from the back seat before turning to follow. As soon as Baurus reached the door, someone on the other side opened it. Kadin recognized the man as Baurus’s butler from the duke’s house in the Merchant district.

  “Your Grace has returned.” The butler gave a small bow and a reproachful look. “Things are rather chaotic here.”

  Baurus’s grin widened. “That’s why I brought the best homicide detective in Valeriel back with me.”

  “Why, thank you,” said Dahran.

  Baurus didn’t spare Dahran a glance. “I didn’t mean you. Oh, hey,” he said to his butler. “If you see a surly-looking pretty boy with a medical kit, let him in as well.”

  Kadin stepped into the grand hall after Baurus, unsurprised to see a plethora of people in formal wear. She tried not to stare overmuch at the gowns, but she could tell that the finest dress in her closet could not hold a candle to these shimmering, one-of-a-kind creations. Baurus zeroed in on a pretty woman with light-brown hair and wearing a sequined purple dress, whom Kadin recognized as Lady Elyesse Imbolc.

  “Where’s Bay?” asked Baurus.

  Lady Elyesse cringed. Even scrunched up, her delicate features remained beautiful. “By the bar. She’s not taking any of this well.”

  A buzz of conversation surrounded Kadin as she followed Baurus to wherever the bar was. She told herself that these people were not talking about her. They had witnessed a murder and had better things to worry about than a commoner in their midst, but she still felt horribly plain, even in her best date clothes.

  Baurus led Kadin and Dahran into a room off the main hall, where a permanent bar was set up. Baurus must host a lot of galas to dedicate a whole room to a bar. Of course, I knew that. Ollie tells me about all of them. And these days, I even listen.

  The black-and-red-clad bartender handed a clear beverage to a woman in her late thirties with a dark-brown pixie cut, but before she could take it, a man with fiery-red hair whisked it away from her. “I think you’ve had enough, Bay,” he said.

  “I don’t.” Beatrin Oriole snatched the glass back from the man and downed it in one swallow. “I don’t know why you care, anyway. Shouldn’t you be off collecting horrible rumors to spread all over the city?”

  Aha. This must be Garson Grey, society writer extraordinaire. Rumor had him in a relationship with Beatrin Oriole back when she was Beatrin DeValeriel, and from the look on his face, the feelings between them were not entirely in the past.

  “Probably, but I hate seeing you like this.” Grey glanced back at the doorway. He nodded at Baurus then turned back to Beatrin. “Looks like your brother wants to talk to you.”

  The duchess looked up, bleary-eyed. Her gaze brushed past Baurus and landed on Kadin. Beatrin turned back to the bar and buried her head in her arms. “Of course, he had to bring her.”

  Grey glanced from Beatrin to Baurus and back again. “Well, I think I have some gossip to collect. Murder and all. Very exciting.” He gave the top of Beatrin’s head a small smile. “Let me know if you need anything, Bay.”

  The duchess mumbled something that sounded like “Don’t call me that.”

  After Grey left, Beatrin sat back up and wobbled around to face Baurus. “Nice of you to come back, brother.”

  Baurus scowled. “I told you. I needed to go get Kadin.”

  “And of course, you couldn’t have called like a normal person,” Beatrin slurred.

  Kadin had her doubts about whether anyone at this gala had the faintest idea what it was like to be a normal person, but from what she could tell, Baurus, at least, thought of himself as ordinary. Dukes who thought themselves above commoners didn’t show up in said commoners’ living rooms.

  “Of course, I called first,” said Baurus. “No one answered the phone.”

  Beatrin gave an exaggerated sigh and had to balance herself against the bar as she listed to the side. “So you went out in person. I called a real detective agency, one that actually answers their phone at all hours for an emergency.”

  “Valeriel Investigations has a twenty-four-hour—”

  Kadin waved at Dahran to be quiet. She had a sinking suspicion that Baurus had not tried to call Valeriel Investigations. He had tried to call her, which she found unsettling on a number of levels.

  Kadin cleared her throat. “So can we see the body? Interview the witnesses?”

  “Absolutely!” said Baurus at the same time that Beatrin said, “No.”

  “Bay, don’t be difficult.” Baurus turned to Kadin. “She found the body, so she’s understandably somewhat upset.”

  And drunk, thought Kadin, though she couldn’t blame the duchess. Kadin had met any number of people who had found dead bodies in the past six months, and a good proportion of them had been drunk by the time she arrived.

  “Lady Beatrin,” said Dahran, “if we could ask you a few questions—”

  “I’ll talk to the real detectives, thank you very much.” Beatrin turned back to the bar and beckoned the bartender for another drink.

  Baurus shook his head but still appeared chipper. “She’s going to regret all that drinking in the morning. She gets the worst hangovers. Come on. I’ll take you to where we found the body.”

  As the three of them left the room, Kadin thought she heard Beatrin mutter, “Where I found the body.”

  They crossed back out into the main hall, where the tension among the nobles had intensified. Lady Elyesse joined them and kept pace with Baurus as he headed toward the black marble staircase.

  “When are you going to let everyone leave?” she asked. “The investigators have been here for over an hour. They’ve gotten everyone’s names. Are you really going to keep us on lockdown all night?”

  A frown marred Baurus’s face. “The investigator I want on this case just got here. People can leave when she says they can go.”

  Elyesse looked back at Kadin, her mouth curved in a wistful twist. “You’re going to be difficult, aren’t you?” she said, and Kadin wasn’t sure whether Elyesse addressed Kadin or Baurus.

  “Don’t be silly, Ely.” Baurus leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m never difficult. Keep everyone calm for a bit longer. You’re good at that.”

  Elyesse gave Baurus an indulgent smile and headed back into the crowd. Baurus started up the staircase, and Kadin followed. She marveled
that she had gotten better at walking in heels over the last six months. Not that long ago, she would have tripped over her stilettos as they dug into the plush red carpet.

  Kadin glanced down the stairs just in time to see the door open and the most handsome man she had ever known walk into the foyer. Jace Combs might have been wearing common clothes—ones that didn’t even match, as if he had thrown them on in a hurry when she’d called, which he probably had—but he could never look out of place at a gathering such as this. His soft blond hair and angelic features seemed more out of place at the run-of-the-mill office building.

  Too bad that he’s married to the world’s biggest sub-D and that he’s a class-A jerk. She regretted the thought as soon as it came out, especially because it wasn’t true. Jace wasn’t the cheeriest guy she knew, but he cared about helping people and solving crimes. He didn’t have anywhere near Dahran’s level of self-centeredness.

  Employed. Good-looking. Interests in common. Likes me, Kadin reminded herself as she waved Jace over.

  “What’s going on?” Jace spoke quietly enough that only Kadin could hear him. “And why are we here if CrimeSolve is?”

  Kadin responded in equally hushed tones. “Lady Beatrin called CrimeSolve, and Baurus called us.” Or showed up in my living room, as the case may be. “We’ll just have to collaborate.”

  Jace snorted. “CrimeSolve doesn’t collaborate, but that’s fine with me. I like to stay out of these high-profile murder cases.”

  Kadin glanced up the stairs. Baurus had reached the top and was turning left. “I don’t think we have a lot of choice. Baurus wants us on this case, and what Baurus wants, Baurus gets.”

  “We’ll see,” said Jace as he and Kadin rounded the corner after Baurus and Dahran. “For my part, I’m going to take whatever samples I can now because I doubt I’ll be seeing that body again after tonight.”

  After a walk through two separate wings, Baurus turned into a bedroom. Inside were three people wearing yellow-and-black CrimeSolve uniforms, standing around a frilly mauve-and-mahogany bed with a body lying on it.

  Kadin had investigated homicides for six months, but still the sight of a dead body made bile rise in her throat, even when there was nothing grisly about the scene. The slim-but-curvy form of blond bombshell Coelis Crest might have been sleeping for all the visible physical damage. But something about seeing the lifeless form of someone Kadin had seen in life—at least in films—so many times disturbed her.

  Dahran didn’t seem to notice the body. He stared at the man with the shiny “lead detective” star badge on his yellow-and-black jacket. “Varell Clout,” said Dahran. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “Dahran White.” Clout’s voice held as much menace as Dahran’s did. Clearly, the two had interacted on cases before.

  Judging by the glower on his face, Kadin knew Dahran wasn’t about to take the lead on this case any time soon, so she figured she’d better. “You moved the body. I thought she was found in the closet.”

  Clout turned to look at her, although Kadin decided that ogle was a better word to describe the way he took in her form. “You finally got yourself an aide, did you, White? The girl’s not bad, but I bet you could have done better.”

  Dahran looked about ready to punch Clout when Baurus stepped between them. “The girl is the lead investigator on this case. Thank you for your assistance, but it will no longer be necessary.”

  Clout smirked. “And how do you plan to solve a murder with no evidence from the crime scene?” He pointed to the camera his colleague held. “Jumper here’s got all the clicks. And your girl looks sweet and all, but I doubt she can solve a real crime.”

  Now Baurus looked like he wanted to slap the smile off Clout’s face, but he held himself back. “I’m sure she’ll manage just fine.”

  “Baurus.” Kadin noticed Clout’s eyebrows go up at the familiar way she addressed the duke. “He’s right. We need the information in those clicks, especially if Lady Beatrin won’t cooperate.” She turned to Clout. “I’m willing for us to work together on this. I’m sure my boss, Detective Caison Fellows, will be able to smooth out any jurisdictional issues.”

  “Caison Fellows is your boss?” Clout chuckled, though Kadin didn’t see what the joke was. “Well, then, little lady, I suppose we can share the case with you, at least for tonight. Where would you like to begin?”

  Chapter 4

  “Why did you tell CrimeSolve you were the lead investigator on this case?” Dahran hissed as they proceeded back down the hallway toward a pair of rooms Baurus had set up for interrogations. Jace and the forensic analyst from CrimeSolve had remained with the body, and Clout and the other detective from CrimeSolve engaged Baurus in terse conversation. “You’re not the lead investigator. You’re an aide.”

  “I didn’t tell them that!” Kadin whispered back. “Baurus did. At least it made Clout willing to work with us. Well, it did once I dropped Fellows’s name.”

  “That’s another thing,” said Dahran.

  Phew. He thinks the way Clout reacted to Fellows’s name was weird too. Maybe together we can figure out why.

  The look on Dahran’s face, however, was anything but conspiratorial. “Why are you on such familiar terms with the duke? You think he cares anything about you? He’s a duke, for Deity’s sake, and you’re… you.”

  So much for “Kay, you’re amazing.” “Are you seriously jealous of a duke? Believe me, I’m well aware that he’s practically royalty, and I am… not.”

  “You don’t see the way he looks at you?”

  Kadin glanced at Baurus, and as if Dahran’s words cued him, Baurus turned and met her gaze. The light that shone in his eyes said he wanted to stare at her all day.

  She broke the stare, and Baurus went back to looking where he was going. I can’t believe I mean anything to him. Royalty-commoner dilemma aside, we hardly know each other. So what if he brings out emotions in me no one else does? The urge to argue with Dahran is not a good emotion.

  “I notice you don’t care about how Clout looked at me.” What was that I was just thinking about not arguing with Dahran?

  Dahran dismissed her complaint with a pff. “Please. Clout was just checking you out. That’s normal. It’s not like he has any intentions. He’s married.”

  That shut Kadin up. Does Dahran really think Baurus has intentions toward me? The thought made her heart flutter in a way that felt half like nausea and half like amazement. She had never sought wealth or a title, and the thought of obtaining them made her stomach churn, but the idea of Baurus himself wanting her filled her with a strange kind of nervous elation.

  Because he likes me for me, not for who I pretend to be... He brings out the worst in me—the difficult, argumentative side I try so hard to hide. And he still likes me?

  Don’t be ridiculous. He wants you to solve a murder for him, not marry him. But even that was impressive. For as long as Kadin could remember, society—largely in the form of her grandmother and then Octavira—had instructed her to get married. Solving crimes had never entered the picture as a legitimate, long-term option.

  Kadin barely avoided bumping into Clout as she noticed the entourage had stopped.

  “I think you can tell most of your guests they may leave,” said Clout. “We’ve got a list of their names and will be in touch in a few days.”

  “Who are we planning to question?” Kadin asked then mentally kicked herself for sounding so weak. She spoke again in a stronger voice. “We want to speak with Philindra Dixie and Mandrick Pane before they leave, as well as Duchess Beatrin, of course.”

  Kadin wanted to smack the smirk of Clout’s face, though judging by Baurus’s expression, he might beat her to it.

  “Who exactly did you think was in this room, Miss Stone? We at CrimeSolve are not amateurs, after all.”

  Kadin chose to ignore the implication that detectives from Valerie
l Investigations were amateurs. “We’ll take Dixie first, and you can talk to Pane.”

  Clout’s bushy eyebrows rose. Kadin knew she was giving him what he wanted—to talk to the alleged lover first—but Kadin suspected any real leads would come from the best friend.

  Clout opened the door in front of him, and Baurus led Kadin and Dahran into the next room.

  “I’ll send in Philindra, and I guess send everyone home,” said Baurus. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Thanks!” Kadin gave him what she hoped was a professional smile, but from the way he blinked and smiled back, she had come off as friendlier than she intended.

  Baurus clicked the door shut behind him, and Dahran glared at Kadin. “See? What was that about?”

  Kadin looked anywhere except at Dahran, which meant gazing about the opulent sitting room she found herself in. The carpet was a fluffy white, and she wondered if the room was never used or if the servants worked day and night to keep it that pristine color. Considering the lack of dust, she suspected the latter. The wallpaper featured a red-and-gold pattern that matched the brocaded chairs and loveseat.

  “He just thinks I’m a good detective because I helped him out on that case a few months back.” Kadin wondered if her words counted as lies if she put enough effort into believing them.

  Dahran set his jaw. “Caison Fellows solved that case.”

  Kadin had to hold back an amazed laugh. Dahran had been in the room with her when she’d solved the case. Why is he always undermining my abilities?

  Trinithy’s advice on similar situations ran through her head. “It’s not about you, Kadin. It’s about him. He needs to feel like the man in the relationship, and you need to stop taking that away from him.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter what Baurus says or wants,” said Kadin. “What matters is what I want.” And there you go, making it about you again.

  Dahran didn’t seem offended. He had that same smile she’d seen on her doorstep earlier that night. “And what do you want, Kay?”