Steele-Faced (Daggers & Steele Book 6) (23 page)

Steck waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t expect you to win. Not that I doubted either of you, but with the lack of preparation and the odds generally stacked against us, I didn’t have high hopes. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.”

It was my turn to lift an eyebrow. “Please tell me there hasn’t been another killing.”

“There hasn’t,” said Steck. “At least not that I know of. But that doesn’t mean I’m not at my wit’s end. We’ve had two disparate individuals murdered, two attempted murders on police officers, and yet despite all that—” He frowned and flicked his hands at the poker table.

“No fraud,” said Shay. “At least nothing obvious.”

“Exactly,” said Steck. “You don’t know because we brought you in at the last minute, but our sources were solid. One of the participants was bound to try
something
during this tournament, make a move to win this thing through dishonorable means. And yet nobody did!”

“Whoa, whoa,” I said, holding up my hands. “Slow your horses. Shay and I might not have noticed anyone cheating at cards, but that’s a far cry from saying this tournament was
honorably won.
Two people are dead. Shay and I are alive only because of our wits, quick reactions, and apparently, an unnatural cold tolerance. Someone spiked my drink. I suspect they did the same to Jimmy on the first day. Perhaps Ghorza, too, although I’m not as sure about her. It may not be fraud, but I’d call that a serious damn conspiracy.”

“Sorry,” said Steck, hanging his head. “You’re right of course. I misspoke. It’s just not at all what I expected when I organized this sting.”

“You expected a more traditional con,” I said. “Like where someone miraculously gets dealt the one and only card that could win them the game on the last play of the tournament.”

“You think Ghorza cheated?” asked Shay.

“She was one of our original suspects,” I said. “And what are the chances she would score a straight flush on the river? I haven’t done the math, but I’m sure it was miniscule. But it’s more than that. Ghorza, Wanda, Theo, and I
all
had fantastic hands that final round. It’s almost as if someone
wanted
us to all go in at the same time.”

“Wait,” said Steck. “Are you suggesting the dealer, Patty, orchestrated this?”

“Someone spiked my drink yesterday,” I said, “so she wouldn’t be the first of the ship’s crew to turn traitor.”

Steck held up his hands.
“Really?
I mean…okay, look guys. I’m feeling extremely out of my element here, so I’m going to follow your lead. Tell me how you want to handle this, and I’ll help any way I can.”

Steele gave me a nod. “Daggers.”

Nice of her to let me be the man and make the decisions—though I knew perfectly well she was capable of doing it herself. “First things first. The tournament is over, so there’s no point in us staying undercover any longer. Captain Heatherfield and Boatswain Olaugh said they were behind our investigation a hundred percent, and I plan on holding them to that. Steck. I want you to gather any information you can on Patty and our bartender that just left. If there’s any suspicion, or any connections to our players, I want to know. Meanwhile, Steele and I are going to pay a visit to Ghorza. See if she has any suspicious equipment or chemicals in her room. Depending on how that goes, we might be paying a few more of our competitors visits. Johann, mainly.”

“You got it,” said Steck. “I’ll see what I can do.”

I got the location of Ghorza’s stateroom from him before he left. I eyed my drink, but chose not to tip the rest of it back.

“Ready?” I asked.

Shay nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Together, we headed out through the casino and up to the promenade deck. Ghorza’s quarters were on the opposite side of the ship as ours, room one fifty nine. I patted my sport coat as we approached, wishing I had my badge with me now that I’d officially ditched my cover. Daisy’s presence would’ve provided me an additional comfort.

It’s possible Shay noticed me caressing my coat and read between the lines. “Any particular way you want to approach this? Do you want to come out as cops right away, or hold off on that until we need it?”

“Well, I was thinking—” I paused, my ears perking. “Hear that?”

Shay tilted her head. “Yes. Yelling. Is that…
Ghorza?”

We rushed forward to find the door to her stateroom open. I burst into the living room where I found a bucking beast with three backs.

Jimmy had his hands wrapped around Ghorza’s neck, choking and shaking her and shouting barely intelligible, rage-filled threats. Ghorza fought back, gripping the big man’s shirt, pushing and trying to loosen his grip to little avail. Her face resembled her dress in its hue. Meanwhile, Vlad clung from Jimmy’s back, holding him in a headlock and hanging on for dear life as Jimmy pitched about wildly. The broken glass remains of a coffee table littered the floor, and blood seeped from a nasty cut in Jimmy’s arm.

I darted forth and lashed out with a kick, catching Jimmy in the back of the knee. I followed it with a punch aimed at Jimmy’s head, but the big man buckled and twisted and I ended up catching Vlad in the side of the face. The elf grunted and lost his grip, falling to the floor with a thud.

Jimmy pushed Ghorza away, sending her tumbling over one of the room’s loveseats, before swinging a wild roundhouse punch my way. He wobbled as he threw it, possibly from lack of oxygen.

I made him pay. I ducked under it, letting the punch sail over me. When Jimmy twisted back toward me, my fist greeted him solidly in the underside of his jaw.

Teeth clacked. Pain shot through my knuckles. Jimmy crumpled and crashed to the floor.

Ghorza groaned and gasped as she lifted herself from behind the couch she’d knocked over.

Vlad similarly rose slowly, holding the side of his head and stretching his jaw. “Gods. What the hell…?”

“Sorry about your face,” I said. “I was aiming for this guy.”

I crossed to Jimmy. His current less-than-cognizant condition allowed me some investigative liberties. I lifted his shirt.

“Bingo. Shay. Come check this out.”

My partner stepped around the broken glass and took a gander. She whistled. “Looks painful.”

A wicked purple and yellow bruise stretched across Jimmy’s ribs, right at the height where a length of rebar swung from my hands might’ve impacted him.

35

I cracked the door and walked into the cell. My feet clattered off the smooth metal floor, the sound echoing off the bare walls before finding its exit through the bars at the front. Jimmy sat on a bench affixed to the wall, his hands cuffed and resting in his lap. He looked up at my approach. Other than a scrape across his temple and his bandaged arm, he didn’t look much worse for wear, but his shirt hid the damage I’d done to him yesterday.

“Howdy, Jimmy,” I said. “Feeling any better?”

The big man had remained unconscious while we’d transported him to the brig. I wasn’t sure how much he remembered.

“Sod off,” he growled.

“Now, now, Jimmy,” said Shay, joining me. “That’s really no way to talk to officers of the law.”

Jimmy’s brows furrowed. “You’re
cops?”

“More than that,” I said. “Detectives—Jake Daggers and Shay Steele. Yes, I know Steele here with her disarming smile and sultry beauty doesn’t look it, especially not in that dress, but she’s one of the best investigators in the city. And me? Well, with a face like mine, I’m surprised you didn’t suspect anything, but I’ll take the compliment. If nothing else, it makes me feel better about my undercover skills.”

“Fine. Whatever,” said Jimmy. “What do you want?”

“We were hoping we could chat,” said Shay.

Jimmy snorted. He stared at the floor. “Yeah? Well, keep hoping.”

“It might be in your best interests, Jimmy,” I said. “If we chat, perhaps you can shed light on the events of the past few days. If not…well, then Shay and I are forced to come to our own conclusions. You’re not particularly going to like them.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Jimmy.

“Why don’t you break it down for him, Detective Steele.”

Shay nodded. “First off, we caught you red-handed attacking Ghorza in her stateroom. That alone gets you an aggravated assault charge, although depending on how we prosecute it, we might be able to elevate it to attempted murder. And you might as well make those charges double, because based on Detective Daggers’ testimony, we know it was you who attacked him in the ship’s engine room last night. Of course, none of those charges hold a candle to
actual
murder, and, well…let’s just say a guy your size could’ve snapped Verona’s neck like a twig. The fact that you were snooping around in the engine room will help convince a jury you’re the snooping sort. The kind of guy who pokes around people’s baggage in a luggage compartment and wouldn’t hesitate to drive a knife into one of Johann’s thugs’ backs.”

Jimmy’s head snapped up. “Wait, what?
Luggage compartment? Thugs?
What the heck are you talking about? I did
not
murder anyone in a baggage hold.”

“So you’re admitting to killing Verona, then,” I said.

“What? No! I did
not
say that. I mean, I admit I attacked Ghorza. At least…I think I did.”

“You
think?”
I said. “What the hell do you mean you
think
you did?”

“I…well…” Jimmy shook his head and averted his eyes. “I mean…look, I just—”

“Spit it out, man!”

“I don’t remember, okay!” shouted Jimmy, spittle flying from his lips. “There? Are you happy? I don’t know!”

“Oh, come off it. You weren’t that drunk.” I breathed in deeply to confirm my own suspicions, but I didn’t get any whiff of alcohol from him. I didn’t remember smelling any on his breath during our fight in Ghorza’s quarters, either.

“I didn’t black out from drinking,” said Jimmy. “At least…not from the booze.”

“Maybe you should elaborate on that,” said Shay.

Jimmy shook his head again. “As if you’d believe me.”

Shay glanced at me. “We might.”

“It’s…well…gods this sounds crazy.” Jimmy sighed. “I think somebody drugged me. More than once. Look, it’s no secret I enjoy a few stiff drinks every now and then. I’ve probably had more than my fair share over the last few days, but I know how liquor hits me. And messing with my mind? Making me sweat and setting my head on fire? Playing with my memories? Nuh-uh. That’s something else. Someone’s been feeding me something. I don’t know who, and I don’t know what, but they have.”

I returned Shay’s glance. “Jimmy, I’m not normally the type to buy into stories about magical fairies and alien encounters, but in this instance, I believe you. Not only because it matches the hints you dropped when we chatted in the lounge a couple nights back, but because someone spiked my drink yesterday afternoon, too. I think I experienced some of the same symptoms as you. But here’s one of our problems. That evening two nights back when we met in the lounge? That’s the night Verona was killed. And you went missing right around the time she was murdered.”

“What?” said Jimmy. “You can’t be serious. I didn’t kill her!”

“If you expect us to believe that, then you’d better start talking,” said Shay. “We saw you at the opera that night, seated next to Ghorza. You had a fight and left. What were you arguing about?”

“The same thing we are,” said Jimmy. “I thought I’d been drugged before I got kicked out of the poker tournament. I’d seen Ghorza that morning, looking like she’d been trampled by a horse. I wanted to see if she’d been drugged, too. I danced around the issue, ‘cause I didn’t want to tip her off that I knew, but she got sore with me and I left.”

“Where’d you go?” I asked.

“Down to the lounge. I got a drink from the bartender. Probably wasn’t the best idea, seeing as I still wasn’t feeling too good at that point, and darn it if that drink wasn’t spiked, too.”

“You blacked out?” asked Shay.

Jimmy nodded and pointed at me. “Next thing I remember, you showed up. I tried to play it cool, but I honestly had no idea what was going on.”

“Why didn’t you mention anything?” I asked.

“Why would I?” said Jimmy. “I didn’t know you were cops. And like I said, I was out of it. I was trying my best to stay upright.”

I did some mental math. “From the point you left the opera to the point I met you in the lounge was maybe an hour and a half. Plenty of time for you to head down to the pool and kill Verona.”

“What?” said Jimmy. “I’m telling you, I didn’t kill her. I blacked out in the lounge. I couldn’t have gone anywhere. I must’ve been there the whole time.”

“Must’ve?”
I said. “So you’re saying you don’t remember if you stayed there or not?”

Jimmy started to stammer. “Well…no. But…look, I know how you cops think. You think I had an opportunity to kill her. But I had no reason to want her dead.”

Shay snorted. “Verona knocked you out of the poker tournament, Jimmy. A tournament with a twenty thousand crown buy in. You must’ve been pretty angry about that.”

“Angry, yes. At myself. For playing like a fool. I told your pal here the same thing in the lounge. And yeah, I was pissed about losing the money, but killing Verona wouldn’t have helped me in that regard. It’s not like she had my money with her. The ship held that, in escrow, right? I’m assuming they still do.”

“Anger alone can be a pretty good motivator,” said Shay.

Jimmy waved a hand. “Oh, come on. I know I come across as tough, but that’s just my persona. I don’t lash out in anger.”

“Seriously?”
I said. “You expect me to believe that? You attacked me without warning in the engine room, and you tried to choke out Ghorza in a fit of rage. And those aren’t guesses. We
know
you did it. There’s not even a shadow of a doubt in the latter case. Motive is irrelevant, if still a point of curiosity.”

Jimmy stared at the floor again. “I… I…”

“Admit it, Jimmy,” I said. “You’re a loose cannon. A raging menace. You have a serious drinking problem. Verona, an old, snooty elf spinster, took you for a ride for more coin than most people see in their entire lives, and it pissed you off. You whacked her out of spite, didn’t you? Is that why you murdered Johann’s man, too? Unadulterated rage?”