Midnight Smoke (The Firebrand Series Book 3) Read online

  ‘They went after the safety deposit room,’ Lukas murmured, as much to himself as anyone. Lord McGuigan stiffened and shot him a grim look but nobody else spoke. Pralk sighed heavily and didn’t disagree.

  He led us down a wide corridor as impressively designed as the main hall. Paintings lined the walls; I was no art expert, but I was fairly certain I recognised some of them. Doubtless they were originals and worth a considerable amount but the bank robbers had ignored them. That sent a trickle of worry down my spine. If they hadn’t stolen money and they hadn’t stolen priceless artwork, what the hell were they after?

  We turned left into a waiting room. There was another door at the opposite side and beyond it the Talismanic Bank’s safety deposit room. Rows upon rows of narrow steel lockers lined the walls, each one with an identifying number and a small keyhole. To get to the contents, the lock had to be opened. As far as I could tell, most of the lockers were untouched – but not all of them.

  Lady Sullivan took the lead, pushing past Pralk and banging into his shoulder as she stormed into the room. She knew exactly what she was looking for. She pivoted on her heel and stared and her nostrils flared. That was the only indication that the robbery had affected her personally. With her arms swinging, she marched straight out again into the corridor, her back to us. It was obvious that she needed a moment or two to compose herself.

  The rest of us entered the room. Lord Fairfax’s expression was like granite, while Lady Carr had turned pure white. Lord McGuigan was just the opposite; his cheeks were now a mottled shade of puce. Lukas’s fists clenched and unclenched. Pralk made sure not to meet anyone’s eyes.

  I noted all their reactions and then slowly looked around the room. By my count, ten of the boxes had been stolen, their shiny metal doors hanging open to display their lack of contents.

  ‘The robbers used violent threats to get hold of our keys,’ Pralk said dully. ‘As you all know, our keys on their own wouldn’t allow access to the boxes’ actual contents. We hold the keys to the lockers. The clients hold the keys to the boxes within. The bastards didn’t waste time trying to break open the second locks for themselves, they simply slid the boxes out and dumped them into a bag.’

  It made sense. If the robbers took the boxes with them, they could take all the time in the world to unpick the locks to open them.

  ‘Exactly whose boxes were stolen?’ I asked. I had a feeling I already knew the answer but I wanted to be sure.

  Pralk pointed to a line of adjacent lockers. ‘These three are held by Lord Horvath.’ I sneaked another look at Lukas. He didn’t so much as twitch, but I could feel the waves of rage emanating from his body. ‘These two belong to the Sullivan clan. This one is Lady Carr’s. The bottom two are Fairfax, and the locker in the corner is maintained by Lord McGuigan.’

  ‘And the last box?’ I asked, nodding towards the one empty locker that Pralk hadn’t mentioned.

  ‘That box,’ Pralk enunciated carefully, ‘is used by this bank.’

  Huh? I gave him a long look as I tried to decipher his thoughts. Other than anxious despair, he wasn’t giving much away. I pondered matters for a moment or two and then said, ‘The robbers knew which boxes to go after. How is that possible?’

  Every pair of eyes turned to Pralk and he swallowed. ‘We have very strict privacy protocols. I don’t see how anyone could know who owns which box.’

  ‘Unless they worked at this bank,’ Lady Carr snapped. ‘This is an inside job. It has to be.’

  Pralk shook his head adamantly. ‘That’s not possible. My staff are beyond reproach. Two of my employees are dead, for goodness’ sake! If you’re suggesting that someone who works here cares so little about their colleagues that they’d risk their lives, you have no understanding of how we work.’

  I sighed. I understood that Pralk didn’t want to believe the worst of his staff but right now there was no other explanation for what had happened. ‘You’ll have to give me a list of all your employees and their details,’ I said.

  ‘Damn right,’ McGuigan growled. Tufts of fur were springing out on his skin. First Lady Sullivan and now him. It was unusual for an alpha werewolf to lose control so openly but these were extraordinary circumstances.

  Pralk looked defeated. ‘Fine,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll get you a list.’

  ‘I also need to know the contents of each safety deposit box,’ I said, addressing everyone else.

  Nobody answered immediately, then Lady Sullivan turned to face us. She seemed determined not to enter the room again, as if she couldn’t confront the facts of the burglary for a second time. Instead she hovered at the threshold and fixed me with a steely glare. ‘I don’t think that’s necessary,’ she said. ‘The contents are immaterial.’

  I spotted flickers of relief on both Pralk’s and McGuigan’s faces.

  ‘Agreed,’ Fairfax said. ‘You don’t need to know what is in each box in order to retrieve them.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous.’ I stared at them. ‘Once the robbers get hold of the contents, they’ll dispose of them. I can’t keep track of what ends up on the black market and track it back to the thieves if I don’t know what I’m looking for!’

  ‘I can’t speak for the others,’ Lukas said stiffly, ‘but what is in my security boxes won’t end up on the open market, no matter how black that market happens to be. It will be passed on in private sales to very specific individuals or…’ His voice trailed off.

  ‘Or what?’ I prodded.

  ‘Or used against us in some way.’ He lifted his gaze and his eyes met mine.

  I frowned. I hadn’t particularly cared what was inside each box, other than to use the knowledge to help me track the robbers down. Now I was genuinely curious.

  ‘Blackmail is a distinct possibility where we are concerned,’ Lady Carr said.

  Lord McGuigan’s shoulders dropped. ‘Yeah,’ he mumbled.

  Fairfax nodded in agreement.

  I glanced at Pralk. ‘What about you? What was in your box?’

  ‘It would be better,’ he stated firmly, ‘if the contents were not advertised in any way, shape or form. They could prove … embarrassing to the bank.’

  Each of the supernatural leaders had been guilty of shady dealings in the past. I had no evidence of anything illegal, but I’d always known that they all – Lukas included – danced a thin moral line from time to time. From the way they were acting, there was far more to this than mere dubious possessions that might cast them in a bad light. None of them wanted anyone to know what they’d squirrelled away. No wonder someone had been desperate to steal their stuff; whatever had been nicked was obviously very valuable.

  I hardened my expression into granite. ‘I shouldn’t have to remind any of you that there are nine corpses lying out there. Some of those corpses belong to your own people. Whoever is responsible for those deaths did this because of what’s inside those damned security deposit boxes. You will tell me what was in them.’

  ‘You can’t force us to speak,’ Lady Sullivan said mildly. ‘Even someone with your abilities can’t compel the likes of us to talk.’

  I turned a cold-eyed stare in her direction. ‘Do you want these killers found? Do you want your possessions returned?’

  ‘Of course, but—’

  ‘There are no buts.’ I glared. ‘You will tell me what was stolen. All of it.’

  Lukas folded his arms across his chest. ‘We’ll tell you privately. No one else is to know.’

  ‘We can’t tell her!’ Lady Carr snapped. ‘She’s with the fucking police. This is exactly what she wants. It’ll give the human authorities a hold over us that we won’t be able to alter. Handing over this sort of information could affect us adversely for generations!’

  Bloody hell. What was in the damned boxes? I drew in a long breath. ‘I won’t tell anyone other than the two members of my team about what has been stolen. They will keep their mouths shut. And none of us will use the information against you, as long as the items don’t present
a risk to the public either now or in the future. I give you my word.’

  ‘With the best will in the world, DC Bellamy,’ Pralk said, ‘you can’t promise that. You’re a detective constable on the lowest rung of the police force. If your superiors demand to know what’s been taken, you’ll tell them.’

  ‘No,’ Lukas said, his black eyes trained on me. ‘She won’t. DC Bellamy is wholly honourable. If she gives us her word, she won’t break it.’

  Lady Sullivan gave a grudging sniff. ‘I have to agree about DC Bellamy’s honour,’ she said. ‘Reluctantly. And I want the fuckers who did this brought to heel. They can’t get away with it. What happens if they advertise what they’ve stolen?’

  Lord McGuigan blanched.

  ‘If she doesn’t find them—’ Lady Carr began.

  ‘She will,’ Lukas said.

  I nodded. ‘I will.’ It was a big promise but I wasn’t sure there was anything else to offer. Safety deposit boxes or not, there were nine dead bodies outside. Given what had occurred at both Tower Bridge and the London Eye, and my belief that those events were a diversion for what had happened here, this robbery had been planned for a long time. But this was my home turf. And the perpetrators wouldn’t get away with what they’d done.

  Chapter Five

  Pralk set me up in a small room on the second floor. While the werewolves from all four clans inspected it for any sign of listening devices, I located Fred who was taking statements from the shaken bank employees who’d escaped unscathed.

  ‘There were three robbers in total,’ he told me. ‘All of them were armed and wearing what appeared to be body armour. They left in a florist’s van that was parked outside. I’ve got uniforms trying to locate it through ANPR and CCTV.’

  I suspected that these bastards were organised enough to have avoided being caught on camera or by the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system, but we had to start somewhere. ‘That’s good,’ I said. ‘Well done. Are you getting anywhere with the witnesses?’

  He grimaced. ‘Not yet. The gang entered the building at 1.34pm. They were inside for less than nine minutes and were wearing masks from start to finish. The best anyone has come up with so far is that two of them were male and one was female. Only the female spoke and her accent was pure Cockney. They’ve all remarked upon it.’ He pulled a face. ‘That’s all we have in terms of identification so far. We won’t get any fingerprints – they were all gloved up.’

  Figured. ‘And the CCTV footage from inside?’

  ‘I’ve had a copy burned off and sent to Liza. She’s going through it back at the office.’ He paused and gave me a sidelong look.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘DSI Barnes has already been in touch. A team from CID are on their way.’ He fiddled with the buttons on his jacket. ‘I think they’re planning to take over the investigation.’

  I grimaced. There was no doubt that we’d require help to catch the bank robbers but I hated to think that I’d have to answer to someone else after being pretty much autonomous for the last few months.

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘We’ll deal with that if and when it happens. A lot of people are going to be very unhappy about today. That the supes have been targeted specifically is a no-brainer, but the diversions the robbers created to keep Lukas and the alphas away from here affected other parts of the city too. There won’t be a lot of sympathy for either the wolves or the vamps – people think they’re too wealthy so there won’t be many who sympathise with them having had some valuables stolen. However, there’ll be a lot of anger that a tourist bus was hijacked and a landmark shut down.’

  ‘Mmm.’ He pulled out his phone. ‘On that note, I’ve got something for you.’ He held up the phone and showed me a photo. ‘This was found at the foot of the Eye.’

  I squinted, then I remembered the object that had fallen past Lukas and me when we’d been attempting to clamber upwards. ‘Fake fangs,’ I said.

  ‘Yep.’ Fred sighed. ‘The sort you can buy in any fancy-dress shop or market stall.’

  So the would-be jumper hadn’t been a vampire after all. That was interesting. He’d certainly been acrobatic enough to pass for one.

  ‘You were right about the werewolves on the bus as well. They’ve all been taken into custody and the hostages were released unharmed. The “wolves”,’ he drew air quotations around the word, ‘were drama students. They thought they’d been hired by a film production team and it was some sort of televised prank. They’re obviously not the sharpest tools in the box.’

  ‘Do they know who hired them?’ I asked sharply.

  Fred shook his head. ‘They’re claiming it was all done online.’

  ‘Great.’ I sighed and pushed back my hair. ‘Keep on with the witness statements. Something useful might turn up.’

  ‘What did they steal?’ Fred asked. ‘What were the robbers after?’

  ‘I don’t know yet,’ I said. ‘But I’m about to find out.’

  ‘Whatever it was, I bet it’s valuable.’

  ‘Whatever it was,’ I returned, ‘it’s hush hush. I’ve agreed with the supe leaders that we’ll keep the contents of the boxes to ourselves. You can’t tell a soul what’s been stolen.’

  Fred’s mouth dropped. ‘What? How do find what’s been nicked if we can’t speak to anyone about it?’

  I grimaced. ‘Yeah. I know.’

  He would have continued to complain bitterly if Scarlett’s figure hadn’t come into view. Her stilettoes click-clacked across the floor less than ten metres from us and Fred’s head jerked up. He watched her every move, his cheeks flaming red. He still wasn’t over her even though their relationship, such as it was, had been little more than a game to her.

  Scarlett didn’t even glance at Fred but she did offer a brief, grim smile at a group of hovering wolves who were eyeing her up. Her smile was more crooked than it used to be, although her hip sashay was just as pronounced. She’d lost a fang when she’d tried to attack Ted Nappey, the grave-robbing bastard who’d caused so many problems a couple of months earlier. Scarlett had elected not to replace the tooth and oddly the gap made her more alluring. And she knew it.

  My gaze drifted over to Lukas, who was frowning at a stray bullet hole in one of the bank’s walls. Vampires liked to play, I reminded myself. I gave myself a little shake. ‘I’ll catch up with you soon,’ I promised.

  Fred gave me a distracted nod.

  ***

  Pralk’s office was exactly what I’d have expected of a bank manager: dark-green leather chairs, mahogany panels, framed certificates and an expensive aroma. What surprised me was the wall displaying employee photographs and the small plaques beneath each one. Employee of the Year 2009 was a smiling female goblin who looked as if she were about to burst out into giggles at any moment. Employee of the Year 2010 was a bespectacled male goblin with a serious expression and a perfectly styled cravat. He’d gained the same accolade for three further years, most recently in 2019. Each photograph was unique but he had the same expression on each occasion, albeit with slightly more wrinkles.

  I gazed at the wall. There was a photograph for every year of the last twenty. The fact that Mosburn Pralk displayed them in his office implied that he was proud of his staff. I passed a hand over my eyes. Heartbreakingly, I recognised the face from 2017. She’d received a bullet to her skull only a few hours ago. I sighed.

  The first supe leader into the room was Lord McGuigan. Unlike the other clan alphas, he’d been born human and turned to a werewolf when he was twenty-two. He was now almost sixty years old, with a lined and scarred face that told the tale of every one of those thirty-eight lupine years. He was vain enough to dye his hair, keeping it a mahogany brown although it was cropped close to his skull. Of all the alphas, he was the one I knew the least about. He kept his cards close to his chest and rarely revealed anything about himself. I sincerely hoped that wouldn’t be the case now.

  I gestured to the empty chair in front of me. ‘Have a seat.’

  ‘I
’ll stand,’ he grunted. ‘This won’t take long.’ He glowered at me, as if all this were my fault. ‘We’re not as rich as the other clans. That’s no secret. But if you tell any of them, or if you even hint to anyone else about what has been stolen from me, then—’

  I held up my hands. ‘I’ve already told you, I won’t breathe a word unless I’m concerned that the objects are dangerous.’

  He huffed; he still didn’t believe that I’d keep my mouth shut but he didn’t have a whole lot of choice. He had to tell me what was inside his box.

  ‘Go on then,’ I said, when it became clear that he wasn’t going to volunteer the information unless I prodded him. ‘What was inside your security deposit box?’

  He crossed his arms and looked at me defiantly. ‘Nothing.’

  For fuck’s sake. ‘Lord McGuigan, we’ve been through this. I need to know—’

  ‘I’m telling the truth,’ he said. ‘Nothing was in there. There used to be a collection of diamonds and some cash, but we’ve had a few problems with some of our investments lately so I divested a number of our assets to bring us into the black again. Including what was in that box.’

  I stared at him. ‘If there was nothing inside in the box, why make such a big deal about keeping it quiet?’

  ‘It was the others who were protesting the most. Not me. Besides, do you think I want them to know that I had nothing in there?’ he demanded irritably. ‘They’ve all got expensive secrets to keep and I have nothing. They already look down on me because I wasn’t born a wolf. I can’t have them knowing that I’m as poor as a church mouse as well. I’m very aware that pride is my sin, detective, but I have good reasons for that pride. I have to maintain appearances. My clan has to maintain appearances.’

  I licked my lips. ‘Are you struggling for money?’

  He held himself stiffly. ‘We have recouped many of our losses. I kept the lease on the box because I planned to fill it again at some point with a proper insurance policy. It is fortunate that I hadn’t got around to it yet.’ His mouth tightened. ‘But three of those wolves who were slaughtered out there were mine. All young. All zetas with promising futures ahead of them. They were good kids who’d done nothing to hurt anyone. I’m told Fairfax’s beta was in the bank and she decided to fight back against the robbers. My wolves followed her lead. It wasn’t their fault. She outranked them and, despite clan differences, werewolf hierarchy means they would have felt compelled to follow suit.’ He gazed off into the distance. ‘But they deserved better than to be cut down by some greedy idiots. If you don’t find them, I will…’ His voice trailed off.