Free Alex Verus 5: Hidden by Benedict Jacka

brownish glow of earth magic as the woman recast her spells, rebuilding her defences. The pattern was familiar . . . “Caldera?”
    Caldera had been about to advance again, but now she stopped. “Who are you?”
    “Who am
I
? What the hell are you doing?”
    “This is private property,” Caldera said sharply. “Identify yourself.”
    “I’m not talking to you in the dark. Switch the damn light on.”
    There was a suspicious silence, then Caldera moved to the wall and light flooded the room with a click. We stood and blinked at each other for a moment. “Verus?” Caldera said in disbelief.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “What are
you
doing here?”
    “I asked first.”
    “This isn’t a bloody playground,” Caldera said in annoyance. “You’re on Council property.”
    Caldera is thirty or so, with a round face and red cheeks. She’s half a foot shorter than me and a lot wider, with a body that’s heavy with fat and muscle, and she’s a Council Keeper of the Order of the Star, which in magical terms is something like a cross between political investigator and military police. Caldera’s on the “military police” end of the scale, but I’ve worked with her a few times over the past year. I wouldn’t say we’re friends, but she’s always kept her word and I’d trust her more than any other Keeper I can think of. Whether she felt the same way about me was another question, although given the circumstances it looked as though I might be about to find out.
    “I don’t know about the Council property part,” I said, “but I do know that a friend of mine lives here.” Stretching the truth twice in one sentence, but Caldera probably didn’t know that . . . “You have any idea where she’s gone?”
    “When did you last see her?”
    Just last night, we were having an argument alone in the woods right before she disappeared . . .
Yeah, that was going to get a great reaction. “Why are you asking?” I said, then raised my hands. “Okay, okay, look. There’s a mage living here by the name of Anne Walker, as I’m guessing you already know or you wouldn’t be here. My apprentice has been trying to call her all day and she hasn’t been picking up, so I headed over to see if she was all right.”
    “Then what was the idea of picking a fight with me?”
    “You started it.”
    “You’re a suspect at a potential crime scene,” Caldera said. I noticed she said
you’re
instead of
you were
. “You make a habit of attacking Keepers on official business?”
    “For all I knew,
you
were a subject at a potential crime scene. And if you’re acting in your capacity as a Keeper, maybe you should announce that first. Seriously, this is what, the second time you’ve had a go at throwing me around? Were you disappointed you didn’t get a good enough fight the first try?”
    Caldera made an exasperated noise. “I don’t have time to argue with you. Let me do my job, all right?”
    “There’s something I’d better show you first,” I said, becoming serious. “If you’re here for the same reason I am, you’re going to want to take a look at this.”
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    O nce in Anne’s bedroom, Caldera made a beeline for the overturned table and crouched next to it, frowning. “Did you touch anything?”
    “No.”
    Caldera twisted her neck to stare at me. “You sure?”
    “This is how it looked when I got here.”
    Caldera grunted and turned back to the scattered debris. I stayed quiet and didn’t bug her. “I’m going to make a call,” she said at last, rising to her feet. “You stay here. If you do a runner I’ll arrest you. Clear?”
    “The threats don’t help, you know,” I said mildly. “Yes, you’re clear.”
    Caldera went out into the entry corridor and I promptly started looking into the futures to eavesdrop. A brisk contest of stealth and perception took place between hypothetical future me and hypothetical future Caldera, which ended with me