City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

let Valerie’s killer get away. I didn’t care who had ended her life; no one was allowed to act like that. Not in my city. Not under my watch.

It seemed to take an age but it was probably little more than an hour before Anna strode through the door, kitted out in her full police regalia. Lizzy, Julie, Cath and the runner who Timmons had sent to fetch them all trailed behind her; they’d now been seconded to the cause.

In our southern side of Manchester, Anna had taken it upon herself to become the police commissioner, dealing with everything from stolen goods to the odd neighbourly fist-fight. She investigated the problems and left it to me to mete out justice. I crossed my fingers and hoped she was ready to deal with murder as well as petty crime. After seeing Valerie’s body, I was ready to mete out an entirely different kind of justice.

Fortunately, Anna didn’t waste any time. ‘Right,’ she said briskly. ‘I take it all the hotel residents are still here?’

Timmons nodded. ‘Some wanted to leave but we’ve told them to stay in their rooms.’

‘Good. We need statements from each of them. What they saw or heard during the night, what they knew of the victim and her plans for yesterday, and when the last time was that they saw her.’ Her expression was stony but there was a professional air about her that was immediately reassuring. ‘In over eighty-five percent of murders, the victim already knows their killer. Everyone here is a suspect.’

Timmons fidgeted. ‘Uh, the manner of her death…’

Anna swung her eyes onto him and I could swear he cowered. ‘Yes?’

He cleared his throat. ‘It looks like it was a…’ He shuffled and dropped his gaze.

‘A vampire,’ I finished for him. Out of the corner of my eye, I noted Julie stiffening. Good. Her reaction suggested that she was shocked by the information; that meant it was unlikely that she’d had anything to do with it. The last thing I needed was for her to be on anyone’s hit list.

‘I was not informed of that,’ Anna frowned. ‘But it doesn’t change anything. Our initial investigations will remain the same.’

Timmons coughed.

‘What?’ Anna snapped.

‘Well,’ he started, shuffling slightly. I grimaced. I knew exactly what he was going to say. The witch hunt was about to begin and it would apparently start with him. Bugger. ‘The thing is, if all my residents are considered suspects then shouldn’t all vampires be too? They’re the ones who should be held to account.’ He didn’t look at Julie. ‘She should immediately be placed under…’

I interrupted him before he could complete the sentence. ‘I think it would be extraordinarily helpful if Julie could examine the body first, before we start with the interrogations.’

Anna flicked me a look. ‘I’d prefer to call them interviews,’ she said. ‘Before we get to the thumbscrews and water-boarding, that is.’

‘Interviews, yes,’ I agreed hastily. ‘Anyway, as a vampire, Julie might have some insights into Valerie’s … death.’ I nudged Timmons. ‘That’s what you were about to suggest, right?’

It wasn’t. He knew and I knew it but he wasn’t prepared to argue about it, not with Julie standing in front of him with her arms folded and her fangs a mere foot away. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Yes. That’s what I was going to say.’

Julie looked unimpressed.

‘I’ll lead the way,’ I said, before she could be the one to start the trouble. I grabbed her elbow and steered her towards the stairs. ‘This way!’

As soon as the stairwell door clanged shut behind us, Julie wrested her arm away from me. ‘He was about to say that I had to get out of his hotel. He was about to say that, because I’m a vampire, I’m a suspect too and I should be under lock and key.’

‘I don’t think he was planning to say that at all,’ I demurred, lying through my teeth.

‘Don’t bluff me, darling. I’m not stupid.’

I sighed. ‘Okay. Yes, he probably was about to say all that, but once we start down that road chaos will ensue. The last thing any of us need is for every vampire in the city to be placed under suspicion. We need to work on a presumption of innocence, not guilt, otherwise I can imagine what the other vampires will do when they’re accused by anyone who passes them by. We don’t need that kind of hassle. Relations across species are fragile enough without entire ethnic populations being accused of murder.’

Her eyes narrowed but she didn’t argue. I breathed out.

‘Anyway,’ I said, moving the subject to slightly safer ground, ‘I have a bone to pick with you in private. What the hell did you think you were doing going to Monroe and telling him I needed his help?’

‘You did need his help, darling.’ She glanced at me critically. ‘You still do. In fact, he should be here now. This affects him as well as us. All those vampires you’re so keen to protect live in his part of the city, not ours.’

I opened my mouth to tell her that I’d go in search of Monroe as soon as things were wrapped up here but, before I could, the door behind us opened again and a voice called out. ‘Wait up!’ Cath bounded up the stairs towards us. ‘I’m coming too!’

I was well aware of the teenager’s bloodthirsty nature. ‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea,’ I said.

‘I’m the only one here who knows anything about medicine.’

‘Darling,’ Julie drawled, ‘I don’t think you’ll be able to bring a corpse back to life, no matter how well trained you may be in first aid.’ In the absence of any qualified doctors or nurses, Cath was our best option at stitching up wounds and doling out medication. She didn’t have a lot of experience but she had more than the rest of us. Unfortunately that wasn’t saying much.

Cath paused to give Julie a glare. ‘Unless you can find us an expert in post-mortems, I’m the