out of her shock. She wiped her face again, sniffing loudly.
“Will and I just want you to be safe,” Tom said. “And for you to accept things as they are. Like Lucy. She’s found a way to be happy. Can’t you find a way too?”
The carriage rolled to a stop. “I’d rather die than eat this shit and pretend it tastes good,” she said, and opened the door, jumping out before the footman had even lowered the step.
• • •
Max was glad that he’d had the foresight to ask Rupert to make a box in the Nether for him, just in case. It was good to be able to just thrust the door handle and pin into the Iris hallway wall and open a door straight into it.
As Rupert had instructed, when Max said “Light,” the entire ceiling glowed white, exposing the confines of a plain black box. There was nothing inside except a table and two chairs, cuffs attached to the top of the table. He locked Iris’s wrists in them and left without a word, using the same door handle but twisting in the opposite direction to exit into the office at Cambridge House.
He ate alone and went to bed, Kay having left, Amesbury back at his hostel and the gargoyle still sniffing about the park. At least it had the sense to stay hidden whenever anyone came close.
It returned in the small hours and curled up at the foot of the camp bed, waking Max. It was four in the morning. Good. The Iris would be tired and at his least alert.
“Are you going to beat him up?” the gargoyle asked as Max drank some coffee, wanting to be more alert than his prisoner.
“It wasn’t what I was planning to start with.”
“Because I am more than happy to do that for you.”
“I don’t want you anywhere near that man. You know why.”
The gargoyle nodded. “I found the bench.”
“Did it make you feel better?”
The gargoyle frowned at him. “You think I’m stupid, wanting to find it.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid. I just don’t see the point. It won’t bring her back. And before you ask, we are not going to find her children. Nothing good would come of it.”
The gargoyle sniffed. “Go beat that bastard up for me.”
Max drained the cup and pulled the file containing all the pictures they had of the people who’d disappeared. Then he went to the darkest empty corner of the office and used the door handle again.
George Iris was slumped forwards, his head resting on one arm. Max could see from the red skin on his wrists that he’d tried to free himself. He jolted upright at the sound of the door closing, blinking away the disorientation as best he could.
“I’m going to ask you some questions. The way you answer them will affect the case I present to your Patroon. If I think you’re lying or holding anything back, I’ll go and get some tools and ask the questions again.”
“I’m sure there’s a clause regarding the use of torture in the Split Worlds Treaty,” Iris said, swallowing hard.
“There is. It says that Arbiters are allowed to use it on puppets who kidnap innocents.” Max dropped the file on the table and sat down opposite Iris. “You probably made plans before you fell asleep,” Max said, “but there’s nothing you can say here that will convince me you’re innocent. I have enough evidence to push for your immediate expulsion from Society.”
“So why bother with the questions?”
I want to know whether I need to ask for your legs to be broken first. That was what gargoyle wanted him to say. Max ignored it. “I like to be thorough.”
Iris sighed. “There’s barely any point to this. I’m the head of a powerful family and my Patroon will be very motivated to protect me.”
“Your Patroon can’t protect you from my boss.” He opened the file and spread the photos out on the table. “These are the one hundred and twenty-three people who have gone missing from the city of Bath and surrounds over the past one hundred and sixteen years. I know there are more, but let’s start with these.”
Iris scanned the images, his face impassive.
“How many of these people did you steal to order for your patron?”
“That’s a rather bold assumption.”
“If you’re going to fight me on every question, you’ll be chained to that table for a very long time. I can go and sleep, eat, drink. Go to the bathroom. You can’t.” He