Read Online Fearless (Scarlet Suffragette, Book 1): A Victorian Historical Romantic Suspense Series by Nicola Claire - Free Book Online Page B

more opinionated.
    I paused in my movements, half off Mary Bennett and half on. My gloves were now covered in blood, and I had a good portion of it over my dress as well. I hadn’t even thought to remove my coat at all. I dreaded to think how my boots fared.
    “At a guess,” Inspector Kelly’s voice announced, I couldn’t determine his state of mind from the even tone, “examining the victim, sir.”
    Sir. His superior. Superintendent Chalmers.
    I began to move again and instantly a large hand wrapped around my upper arm and hauled me the rest of the way to my feet. I glanced down, suppressing a groan at the sight of my clothing, and then straightened my cloak, making a futile attempt to cover the damage.
    My eyes came up and met the disgruntled grey gaze of Chalmers’. His long, white whiskers twitching with unbridled rage.
    “Have a care, Miss Cassidy,” he remonstrated. “What would your father say?”
    He was right, of course. My father would not be impressed. But I had faced men like Chalmers before. Fear was not an option.
    I turned to Inspector Kelly and said, “Her tongue has been removed. It’s not on her person or around the body. Her mouth was slashed,” I added. “Purposefully, and with great care.”
    “What’s she saying?” Chalmers blustered.
    My eyes inadvertently darted to the superintendent’s. His voice was deliberately hard.
    He was a bully. But a bully in charge of the Auckland Police Force.
    “Do we have an identity?” Kelly asked, drawing my attention away from the snorting bull and back to him.
    Again, I’d hazard a deliberate move. But this one I welcomed.
    “Mary Bennett.”
    Kelly nodded his head; a show of understanding and of his thanks. Identity would have been established upon removal from the scene, but having a name always seemed to make a difference.
    “Mary Bennett, you say?” the superintendent murmured. “My Elizabeth knows her well.”
    Auckland, for all its metropolitan guises, was still a small city.
    “And you want to keep this quiet?” Chalmers queried, turning on Kelly, and dismissing me in one last disapproving glance.
    “The nature of the injuries and the timing, so close to the last murder, will cause a riot,” Kelly offered.
    “I don’t know, Kelly,” Chalmers replied, looking back at Mary’s body. “If it gets out that we’ve kept this from the papers, it could all blow up in our faces. It is an election year, you know?”
    “I am aware, sir. But panic is the last thing we need. The last thing the mayor’s office needs.”
    Chalmers looked up at Kelly sharply. The disapproving gaze I’d received now directed at the inspector.
    “Either way,” the superintendent eventually argued, “this could come back to haunt us in a manner you haven’t ever seen.”
    “You’d be surprised what I have seen,” Inspector Kelly offered neutrally.
    I wondered just what the inspector was referring to, but the superintendent’s next words made the puzzle slip completely from my mind.
    “Be it what it would, get Drummond in on this straight away.”
    I let out a small breath of air, the only indication of my disappointment. I looked up at Kelly, his eyes already on me. A wealth of apologies in that one heavy gaze. This hadn’t been his intention. This hadn’t been what he’d meant when he’d told Sergeant Blackmore to keep the crime from the papers.
    How had the superintendent heard of the murder so quickly? When Kelly and Blackmore hadn’t even mentioned his name? Perhaps they inherently trusted him. Perhaps they had no choice in the matter; he was their superior officer, so immediately informed of the crime.
    It didn’t matter. It was irrelevant. I was being locked out of the case.
    “Keep me abreast of your progress, Kelly,” Chalmers demanded, beginning to walk away. “I want firsthand knowledge of how this develops for my Elizabeth,” he said over his shoulder. “And make sure, man, that Miss Cassidy is kept out of the way.”
    My hands