Chapter 86

"I finally got home yesterday."

Anne, buried in paperwork, lifted her head.

"Sleeping in my own bed was the best. The nice bed I bought myself when I made lieutenant was worth it after all."

For someone claiming she'd slept well, her eyes were hollow and shadowed. Feeling sorry for her, Anne slid her a piece of candy rolling around on her desk.

Inspector Veronica, who would normally have refused, tossed it into her mouth.

"You think I get to go home tonight?"

"I don't."

"Where are they hauling you off to today?"

"Not today. Palace, tomorrow."

Rolling the candy around in her mouth, Veronica turned wide eyes on Anne.

"What? You've got your own case."

"I do. And that case..."

"Ah. Ohhhh."

Veronica finally caught up to where that case had gone and let out a long drawn-out sound as she nodded. She'd let it slip her mind under the crush of work, but the sudden spike in her own workload actually traced back to the same thing.

Out of sympathy, Veronica handed Anne a candy back. Anne took it wordlessly, as if grateful, and popped it in her mouth.

"His Highness the First Prince, this time, in more ways than one..."

Veronica made a show of tapping her temple lightly with a finger.

"...did not exactly exercise sound judgment. Long may His Majesty reign!"

"I heard His Majesty was very angry."

"You'll get to see for yourself when you go."

Veronica glanced around. Everyone was head-down in their own work; nobody was paying the two of them any attention.

Still, Veronica lowered her voice.

"It's not hard to guess."

"Yeah?"

"That famously indecisive man ordered him confined to quarters. Purged him from the Founding Day preparations across the board."

Veronica clicked her tongue. They were already stretched thin on Founding Day preparations, and now, right on the eve of it, the person in charge had been swapped out...

But for all her grumbling, Veronica's face wasn't particularly dark. On her exhausted face, she was barely managing to keep the corner of her mouth from creeping up.

Inspector Veronica's beat covered the district where First Prince Carlisle's favorite bar was. Even before the Adrien Renard business, she'd been among the watch officers who butted heads with the First Prince most often.

"Anne. You know any reporters? You're nobility, right — hook me up with a reporter I can trust."

"I've got a lawyer I can trust."

"A lawyer might come in handy too..."

Veronica's eyes glinted dangerously. Anne gave her shin a light kick.

"Get a grip. He's still a prince."

"That's the problem. I've got evidence of every scene he's caused in the bars up to now — maybe I ought to just leak the whole thing."

"Have another candy."

Anne pushed the candy back at Veronica. Veronica crunched it like it was a cookie. The steady crack, crack was loud enough to make Anne worry about her teeth.

But she didn't spare it much thought. One glance around the room turned up plenty of colleagues wearing the same slightly-unhinged look Veronica had. Anne herself couldn't clearly remember the last time she'd had a proper meal or rest.

Probably that talk with Harold right after the fire had been the last time...

"Ugh..."

"Who's got that file Intelligence shared with us?"

"You mean out of the twenty things Intelligence shared with us?"

It couldn't be explained just by workload.

The mood in the watch was ugly. There was no pinning it on one thing. There were too many things.

Starting with the friction with the First Prince, all the way up to the recent hospital arson. And for reasons Anne couldn't pinpoint exactly, the king had, unusually, flown into a rage.

With her contacts at Intelligence and personal ties to those involved, Anne had a comparatively detailed picture of what had set him off. A few colleagues who had "connections" of their own had probably picked it up somewhere the way she had.

And word had a way of getting out. Plenty of people had seen Harold chasing the arsonist that day. The ones who knew what had actually happened... even with a specific warning to keep their mouths shut, that kind of thing was easier said than done.

"Anyway, Anne..."

Veronica leaned in close to Anne.

Maybe because of all that candy she'd just crunched through, a wave of sweet smell hit Anne — even though their faces weren't that close.

Anne sighed.

"What do you need?"

"It's not what I need, exactly..."

Anne raised an eyebrow. Veronica gave a sheepish laugh.

"Have you ever met His Highness the Second Prince?"

"The Second Prince?"

"Yeah!"

Veronica nodded emphatically.

"The First Prince got confined to quarters, and the Second Prince took over the Founding Day ceremony, right?"

"..."

"And I'm on security detail. I've got a meeting with His Highness in two days, but the thing is, His Highness..."

"Barely does anything public."

"Exactly! I've seen him a couple of times."

Veronica paused.

"I'm not sure if that even counts as seeing him. Every time I've greeted him, he's just hidden behind the First Prince and watched me warily."

"Hm..."

Anne didn't have much to add.

"That's just... what he's like. What chance would I have to meet the Second Prince?"

"More than me, right?"

"Maybe less than you..."

Anne frowned. Second Prince Gerald Adler was... well, no matter how kindly you tried to put it, the best you could manage was "makes little impression." And that wasn't a compliment.

They hadn't been at the academy together, and once Anne joined the watch, there'd been even less chance of crossing paths. The closest she'd come was brushing past him at banquets when her parents had still been alive.

But King Ryan Adler wasn't the sort to enjoy that kind of social event. Nor was the queen. Naturally, the two princes rarely attended either, and that hadn't changed once they came of age.

"Even so, can't you tell me something?"

Veronica took Anne's hand and put on the most pitiful face she could manage. She was on her way to meet a prince who had lived his whole life buried in his brother's shadow, so of course she wanted to scrape together every scrap of intel she could before going in.

Anne popped another candy into Veronica's mouth. This one she didn't bite.

"You don't have to give me that pathetic look. I was going to tell you."

"Anne, you're the best!"

"I haven't seen him myself — take it with a grain of salt. If that's all right."

"That's fine, that's fine!"

Anne's sources didn't run wide. Exactly one: Harold Bertholdt.

As far as Anne knew, it had been a long time since Harold himself had come face-to-face with the princes. But Harold had another reliable source. Grisha Lambert.

And even setting that aside, Harold's read on people was accurate. Harold had disliked him consistently.

"He's the First Prince's brother."

"In what way?"

Anne shrugged.

"In every way."

Veronica looked at Anne. The candy stopped rolling in her mouth. Anne had been smiling brightly as if she were joking, but her eyes weren't smiling.

Seeing those eyes, Veronica nodded.

"Got it."

A sigh followed.

"Nothing's easy, is it. Whether to say blood will tell, or that blood means nothing at all."

"Well..."

Anne's lips twisted into a rare smirk. At Anne's sardonic smile, Veronica's eyes went round.

"Judging by how angry His Majesty got this time, I'd say it's closer to the first."

"..."

Veronica pressed a candy into Anne's hand.

"You have something sweet too. Keep your strength up."

"...This is my candy."

"It was good. Where'd you get it?"

"A new candy shop in the 4th District..."

Veronica clapped Anne on the back with a hearty laugh.

"Next time I'm passing through, I'll pick you up a bag. Thanks, Anne. That helped."

"Hang in there."

"You too."

Once Veronica was back at her own desk, Anne turned back to her stack of paperwork too.

Now that the northern base commander had arrived, they'd be able to have a more thorough meeting on how to coordinate the investigation. Intelligence would send someone too, so she should sort things out with them ahead of time...

Anne flipped through the pages.

The hunt for the arsonist still wasn't going anywhere. Albrecht Bertholdt connection or no, a criminal that vicious couldn't be left loose in the capital with Founding Day right around the corner. He had to be caught as soon as possible, and they had nothing to go on.

"Inspector Archibald."

"..."

"Inspector!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. What is it?"

Rubbing her tired eyes as she worked, Anne finally caught one of her officers calling her and looked up.

"Message from the northern base commander's residence."

"The north?"

Anne looked at the letter the officer handed her. The envelope really did have a northern snowflake on it.

Had something happened? Aside from Harold, Anne had no personal ties to the northern base. If it had been Harold, he'd have kicked the front gate of the Archibald estate open instead of sending a formal letter.

"...?"

The signature on the letter, however, was Harold Bertholdt's. Anne caught herself glancing at the window.

The sky was blue, the clouds were white. Nothing wrong.

"..."

Anne read the letter. She went through the short message carefully, then stood up.

"Anne? Where are you going?"

Veronica called after her. Anne answered as she slid an arm into her coat.

"We've got a lead."

Harold had written that nothing had come of it, but Anne didn't see it that way.

There was information in there that would help. The instincts trained into her at the watch were telling her so.

---

"Sorry to pull you out so suddenly — glad you had the time."

"How was I supposed to read a note like that and not come?"

Anne shot back, incredulous.

Harold didn't so much as blink at the edge in her voice.

"Still, I figured you'd want in."

"Be honest, sir."

"Hm?"

"Who told you to bring me along?"

Anne gave a snort.

"Marquis Roys?"

"..."

"It's not hard to guess who you'd ask."

"Should I be offended?"

"You? No. Marquis Roys, maybe."

Harold laughed and got the carriage moving. He'd apparently told the driver the destination in advance — the carriage set off down the road without hesitation.

"Anyway — witness, informant, whatever we're calling her — she's going to be sitting across from the man who was her little brother's boss. Might not be the easiest conversation for her."

"Just say it plain. You didn't know what to ask."

"Well..."

Harold didn't deny it.

"And having the watch there makes the whole thing look more... official. Like it's actually a proper investigation."

Anne shrugged as she said it.

"Which isn't wrong."

"Grisha said the same. And that she'd probably recognize your face."

"Andrea Doak, right? Then yes, she's seen me."

"You didn't fight or anything, did you? You said it was fine when I brought you along, but."

"Come on."

Anne laughed at that.

"She and I were fine. It was Baron Doak who didn't take to me, not her. Fair enough, honestly."

The bright laugh didn't last long. Her tone quickly turned bitter.

Throughout the conversation with Leopold, Baron Doak hadn't come up. Harold quietly decided he'd better read the room and stay off the subject of the baron.

The carriage headed for the commercial quarter in the Second District. Where Andrea Doak's hospital was.