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Chapter 5

I CALLED MAJOR WALTERS OF THE ST LOUIS POLICE DEPARTMENT, who had been in charge of our security at the airport the day before I called from the only land line phone in the Unseelie sithen The phone was in the queen&039;s office Which always looked to me like a black and silver version of Louis the Fourteenth&039;s office if he had liked going to Goth dance clubs for the dissipated rich It was elegant, dark, expensive, and exciting in that chill-up-your-spine way; ht It was also a little claustrophobic to rey in too small a space, as if a Goth curtain salesman had persuaded them to cover every inch of the room with his wares

The phone hite and always looked like bones on the secretary&039;s black desk OrI did not understand the ht I&039;d asked Barinthus, as alked to the office, if she&039;d given hi so oddly, and he&039;d said no No clues

Why was I calling the St Louis police when the faerie lands are technically in Illinois? Because Major Walters was the current police liaison for the lands of faerie and the huo, there&039;d been an entire police unit assigned to us Why? Because not everyone in Areed with President Jefferson&039;s decision to bring the fey to this country The local people ere going to be close to us were especially upset They didn&039;t wantto live in their state At that ti police departh ere technically located in Illinois, police probleot the joyous duty of protecting us fro the perimeters of our lands so we couldn&039;t sneak out and wreak havoc If the courts of faerie hadn&039;t coovernht have never made it into this country No one wanted to reat human-fey war in Europe We&039;d shown ourselves entirely too powerful for comfort

What no one really understood about us - froto keep the fey, any fey, fro themselves were threats and oaths to and fros and queens But the police did keep the hu bad happened, the police presence was reduced, until they left altogether, and we only called on them when they were needed As the local humans realized that we mostly wanted to be left alone, we had to call on our private police less and less Soon, the police assigned to us had other jobs in other areas of the police force until they were needed for faerie duty, as it came to be called Cole detective or officer The last time he&039;d been used was overnment-owned farmland, the locals had been cut out twice Once by the feds and once by us All right, by the queen I&039;d have taken a platoon of soldiers into the ht my father&039;s killers

After the liaison was so ineffective with ht the post had been abandoned But I&039;d been wrong

Doyle had found out that Major Walters was still our liaison The last remnants of a unit created by Thoh a rank as major in the job Major Walters had volunteered for the job, because the last person to have it had also done our security at press conferences, and that had landed Walter&039;s predecessor a large salary as chief of a big corporation&039;s security Executives like to be guarded by souarded royalty It adds a certain panache to the resu job lined up I wondered how the big corporation felt about Walters after yesterday It looks great on your resuet injured on your watch Nope, probably the executives would be a little nervous about being guarded by soet shot at by one of his own officers Hu up No, they liked to bla to recoup He&039;d need to redeeuards and I knew that he&039;d had no chance to prevent what had happened, the hue He&039;d take the fall It was siht

Christine, my aunt&039;s secretary, was petite, well-endowed, and more plump than was the fashion In her day she&039;d been perfect Her blond hair curled over her shoulders, and her youthful face was eternally beautiful One of our noblerown tired of her To stay in faerie she needed to be useful, so she learned shorthand and coically savvy people in either court

She suggested that we call the Bureau of Huical, I suppose, but they were more useful for social difficulties or diplo done, don&039;t call a politician or a bureaucrat Call a cop

I took a deep breath, said a little prayer to the Goddess, and dialed the nuiven hness," he said

He must have had caller ID "Not exactly," I said "Princess Meredith, actually"

His first words had been professional, his next held the hint of suspicion "Princess, to what do I owe this honor" In fact, he sounded positively hostile

"You sound angry at me, Major Walters"

"The newspapers say you don&039;t trust ood enough for your guard detail"

I hadn&039;t expected him to be so blunt He was more cop than politician "I can only say that I never even hinted to the media that I doubted your men"

"Then e barred from the second press conference?"

Hmm, that was a sticky wicket "You and I both know that it was a spell that made your officer shoot at ical remnants on him"

"I&039;m safer here in the sithen, but your officers won&039;t be Soirders and beay all over the place Put that same spell caster inside the sithen, inside faerie, with no day on the bespelled"

"What about the hu bespelled?"

"They aren&039;t are"

"So we just aren&039;t up to your standards, is that it?" He was angry, and I wasn&039;t sure why

The queen&039;s secretary ive me a hint She flashed the headline of the St Louis Post Dispatch: POLICE FAIL TO PROTECT THE PRINCESS Oh

"Major Walters, I&039;ve just been shown a newspaper My apologies for not understanding the effect this situation was having on your life I was a little too preoccupied with ies, Princess I need h to protect you at public events"

"Howto scapegoat you?"

"That&039;s not your business," he said, which was alood as a yes

"I think we can help each other, Major"

"How?"

"You sitting down?"

"Yeah," and that one as not happy

I told him the briefest version I knew about the reporter and Beatrice, and that the queen had given it to me to clean up

There was utter silence on the other end of the phone for so long that I finally said, "Major, you still there?"

"I&039;m here," he said, in a hoarse voice

"I&039;otten so horribly co with your plans"

"What do you know about my plans?"

"I know you want to be chief of security at a certain place of business when you retire early next year I know you took the job as liaison to us for your resuet shot at probably didn&039;t win you any points at your soon-to-be new job"

"You know a dao, not sure if it was compliment or insult "But what if I show, plainly, that I have utter confidence in you, Major Walters?"

"What do you want froh to walk on

"I want a Criot the criic, on this one"

"Didn&039;t you just lecture er from enchantments if we came into your place?"

"Yes, that&039;s why I want only you, the CSU, and uards can protect you individually froroup"

"The entire depart crucified in the press, especially the St Louis press"

"I know that now Let&039;s show theuards don&039;t believe all that bad press I do have confidence in you, Major Walters You and a good forensic unit How about it, Major? Do you want to play, or do I leave you out of this? I can pretend I didn&039;t call, and just start with the chief of police"

"Why didn&039;t you start with him?" Walters asked

"Because you&039;re my police liaison I respect that title You&039;re who I&039;m supposed to call Besides, you&039;re almost more motivated than I am to solve this case"

"What makes you say that?"

"Don&039;t be na&iu heat They&039;ll hang someone for it, and it will most likely be you Let me show the department that you still have my trust and they&039;ll back off They&039;ll be desperate to solve this second violent episode and have soive you anything I ask for"

"You seem to knoorks"

"Politics is politics, Major, and I was raised in the thick of it" I sat on the edge of the desk and tried to get htened so the intervieith the queen Funny that, but now my ars Iinstantly was one of the biggest envies I had "I need a cop, Major Walters, not a politician I need so even as we speak That valuable evidence ht thisthis mess than the political ramifications of it I think you&039;re that man, and now that your political star runs beside mine, you are doubly motivated"

"What makes you so sure of that? What makes you think I won&039;t cut ht about that, and said, "The look in your eyes yesterday at the airport when you were angry with having to share leadership with Barinthus The fact that you showed anger toto toadie to h as major, but you&039;re more cop than politician, Walters And if you kne little I like politics, you&039;d knohat a co for soood at a lot of things that I don&039;t enjoy, Major Walters As I&039;ain "If we don&039;t solve this, rass, and no amount of confidence shown in me, by you or anyone else, will save it"

"And if we solve it" I said

He laughed, a deep chuckle "Then I&039;ll be the depart over theer salary Yeah"

"Are you my man, or do I pretend that I didn&039;t make this call?"

"I&039;et me some CSU out here as soon as possible"

"What do I tell the Chief about why you&039;re letting us into your precious faerie land?" he asked Oh, yeah, he was definitely a better cop than politician

"Explain that whoever did this has diploation to happen out of our mutual desire for cooperation and justice"

"You want the bastard who did it, don&039;t you?"

"Yes," I said

"You probably don&039;t re the crowd back - but I saw you the day your father died They gave you his sword"

If I&039;d had any doubts that I&039;d called the right person, that one sentence took the this bad guy won&039;t catch your father&039;s killer"

"That is a very insightful remark for a man I&039;ve only met twice"

"Well, I&039;ve been the uniform on faerie duty off and on"

"My htful, uncoht this guy, and if faerie princesses have drinks with lowly police majors, I&039;ll tell you why I becahtful "You lost someone, and they didn&039;t catch the bastard who did it"

"You knew that already" He sounded accusatory

"No, I swear I didn&039;t"

"Then that was a hell of a guess"

"Let&039;s just say that those of us who bear a particular wound recognize it in others"

He uess we do What will you be doing while I et everyone out there?"

"I&039;ll be questioning witnesses"

"You know, it&039;d be nice if I were there for the questioning"

"Most of the fey whoare ones who almost never travel outside of faerie They&039;re a little shy around humans, especially hureat huo," he said

"I&039;et used to it"

"What?"

"How you guys look so young, but you rerandfather took a boat here"

"Not irl"

"Poor my ass," he said

"I&039;ll let you knoe learn anything that&039;s useful from the witnesses"

"I&039;d like to decide what&039;s useful and what&039;s not"

"Then hurry up, Major, but I do not promise that any fey will talk to you I can&039;t even promise that you&039;ll be in the room when I question everyone Some of them will si?"

"So that when the press follow us around we can stand shoulder to shoulder and show that you are helping solve this case And bring the officer who shot at me with you"

"Why in the naets a chance at this, too"