Free Fearless (Scarlet Suffragette, Book 1): A Victorian Historical Romantic Suspense Series by Nicola Claire

fisted at my sides.
    “We’re a professional operation, after all,” the superintendent added gruffly. “Let’s try to keep it that way.”

Eight
    In Every Way But Reality
    Inspector Kelly
    Anna’s mouth fell open and then, in the next heartbeat, she was striding towards the superintendent. A fiery glow to her eyes. Her body the fluid and graceful charge of a wildcat; it seemed to mesmerise, to slow down time to this single moment. I stepped in front of her, receiving a second shock in as many hours.
    Soft breasts pressed up against me, as a whoosh of heated air left her mouth. I stared at her lips for too long, then stepped back and straightened my jacket.
    “Anna,” I started.
    “Don’t you Anna me!” she growled in return. “How dare he?”
    “He has every right,” I explained. “Drummond is the official chief surgeon.”
    “And yet, you did not want him to know about this crime.”
    “He has a tendency to gossip,” I offered. “Word will get out now.” Just how long we could get ahead of the papers remained to be seen.
    Anna let out a slow breath of air, as though releasing her anger and disappointment in that one expulsion. She bit her lower lip and turned back to look at the alley. Of all her miraculous talents, her ability to acclimate to any situation was the most impressive. Anger did not rule her as it so often did myself these days.
    “What else can you tell me?” I enquired, desperate to appease.
    If it were my choice, she would be chief surgeon. But it was not my choice. And Drummond was too connected by far to be toppled by anyone else’s hand but the superintendent’s.
    “He did not perform the murder here,” she said slowly, eyes scanning the alleyway and the two walls either side. “Then why the blood at the entrance?”
    I paced back to the opening and looked at the spot Anna had soiled her glove at. The blood was smeared, from Anna at a guess. But it would be difficult to determine now if that was indeed the case.
    “An invitation to enter,” I deduced. “He wanted us to find the body.”
    “He knew you were in Mechanics Bay this morning.”
    I nodded, looking around the street we were on. Noting the closed warehouses, some abandoned, some in operation but loading bays were down the side, out of sight. Some merely vessels for storage, little activity going on within.
    “He brought her here,” I announced, “while it was still dark enough to go unnoticed in such a disused part of the dockyard. Making his escape possible. But he also knew we were in the vicinity.”
    “Why cover your tracks but place yourself so close to a police inspector?” Anna enquired.
    “He is toying with us,” I surmised.
    “Or part of him does indeed wish to be caught. Stopped.”
    I turned to look at her. I did not believe she was that trusting of human nature. Anna had seen her share of the depravity that exists. Her assessment was purely from a psychological standpoint. Her innate ability to understand mankind.
    “The escalation of the crime is concerning,” she said. “Mary Bennett is not so strapping as to offer much resistance. But carrying her body in the darkness of pre-dawn, and placing it in such a difficult to access position, would require strength of a degree.”
    “I could manage such a feat.” The unsaid being, even with my disability. Miss Bennett was a mouse of a woman. Small framed, but fully clothed. It would be difficult, but I could accomplish such a deed.
    Anna looked over at me, assessing my size and build impartially. She was completely the physician now. Trained as she was by her father and not a university.
    “He took care with this one,” she declared. “The slicing of the cheeks, diagonally from the corner of the mouth, matches on both sides. A mirror image. The knife would have been small, but sharp. The slices made with one hand while the other held the skin flat; to avoid puckers or blemishes in the incision.
    “Her thigh is also sliced,” she added.