Page 113 of The Shadows Between Us
“So it was when we started the investigation, Your Majesty, but we now know the young nobleman was murdered.”
CHAPTER
24
My stomach drops once more, but I allow nothing but surprise to flit across my face. “Hektor’sdead?” I ask.
I note that Constable Hallas watches my face with a perceptive eye. Looking for any tells. She’s a woman with hard features. A slightly too large nose, eyes too close together, a square chin. She has her ebony hair swept out of her face in a neat bun.
“For several years, I’m told,” she says. “Some days ago, his body was discovered in the Undatia Forest. Apparently there have been a series of mudslides in the area. A couple of horsemen found and reported the body.”
“Hold on a moment,” Kallias says. “Who is this Hektor?” He directs the question to me, and I understand the true meaning:Who is this man to you?
“My first lover,” I answer.
“And his murderer!” the baron flings at me.
“One more word out of you, Drivas,” Kallias says, “and I will have you sent to the dungeons.”
The guards surrounding him step inward, ready to pounce on the baron should the need arise.
“Your Majesty,” the constable says, “with your permission, I have some questions for Lady Stathos.”
Kallias turns to me.Defersto me.
How would it look if I sent them away without a word? No, I must appear innocent.
“I will answer her questions.”
The constable steps forward. “Do you admit, then, to having a relationship with the deceased?”
“Yes, we were intimate, but not for years now. What happened to Hektor?”
“There was naught left of him but bones by this point.”
A sob breaks out of the baron, but he doesn’t say a word to accompany it.
“We identified him by the family crest he wore on his finger,” the constable continues. “I had the remains examined yesterday. One of the ribs was nicked. Definitely points to a knife wound. I’m told you carry a knife on your person at all times.”
I startle backward, as though affronted. “You’re not seriously suggestingIkilled him? Andwhotold you I carry a knife?”
“Your sister.” Hallas pulls a notebook from her pocket and glances through it. “A Chrysantha Stathos.”
“Yes, I know my sister’s name,” I say bitterly. Chrysantha. The bane of my existence. Why won’t she just die in a hole? “Many people carry knives. Why should that matter?”
“That alone doesn’t, but the remains of a wooden chest were found with him. And one of the planks bore the initialsAS. Those are your initials, are they not?” Hallas asks the question like she’s done every single other one. Coolly, unemotionally, as though she really couldn’t care about the answer. Even though she already knows the answers to all of them.
I dare a glance at Kallias. He’s looking me over with the most peculiar expression. One I cannot place. As though he’s seeing me anew.
He can’t believe her!
I lose the strength in my legs and topple slightly. Kallias is there, though, holding me up.
“Surely plenty of people in the kingdom have the initialsAS,” Kallias offers.
“Perhaps,” Hallas says. “But not all of them also had a relationship with the deceased. Who ended that relationship, Lady Stathos? It was Hektor, was it not? He broke your heart, and you retaliated by stabbing him, locking him in a chest, and then burying him in the forest.”
Oh gods.
