"Don't answer it," Lena said sleepily. "Go back to sleep."
Janos was silent for a moment, wrestling with temptation. In the end, however, duty won out over sleep and with a long sigh swung himself out of bed.
"Isn't there another inspector in the constabulary they could call on?" his wife asked, watching through half-closed eyes as he dressed.
"There are dozens of other inspectors," Janos replied, pulling on his boots. "However, they've sent for me, and so I must do as I'm ordered."
Descending the stairs, he removed his hat and coat from their pegs by the door, and slipped into the hot night. A boy waited for him outside, breathing hard. "Inspector Souan, you've got to come with me!"
"So I gathered," Janos remarked drily, shivering slightly as a cool breeze blew in off the river. "Where are we going, lad?"
"Valentia manor, Inspector. It's about Lord Amres."
"What about it?"
"He's dead, Inspector."
The thin smile on Janos' face vanished in an instant. "We must hurry."
A party of constables and soldiers had already assembled at the River Gate by the time Souan arrived. A horse was waiting for him, and Janos clambered awkwardly into the saddle. With a clatter of hooves on cobblestones the riders made their out of the River Gate and down the switch-backed road to the stone bridge across the River Valans. Souan was no great horseman, and as they reached the far bank he found himself hanging on for dear life as the pace increased to a gallop.
After what seemed an age, but was in truth little more than fifteen minutes, dark and sleeping countryside gave way to the bright lights of Valentia manor. The riders passed through the grounds gate and at last came to a halt before the manor's arched portico. In the commotion a groom appeared and held the bridle of Souan's horse as the inspector thankfully dismounted. He paused for a moment, standing unsteadily on legs that felt like jelly, before making his up the wide stone steps to the portico. "Where is Lord Amres?" he asked the crowd which was gathered before the manor's large double doors.
"This way, Inspector," someone said, and the crowd parted to allow Souan inside. The halls through which he passed were lined with Valania's richest and most powerful men and women, who stared silently as Janos passed. Meeting their gaze, he recognized the fear in their eyes and knew at once all shared the same thoughts. If Lord Lucenzio di Amres could be killed here, no one was safe. Who would be next?"
Souan was led through the great public spaces of the manor to the wing where the family's private apartments were located. Lucenzio di Amre lay where he had been found, his body sprawled half-out of his bedchambers in a pool of blood. Souan squatted beside the corpse and gently turned it over onto its back, revealing a face frozen in a horrified grimace and eyes clouded in death. Amres had been stabbed several times in the chest, which indicated he had been attacked from the front, but examining further Souan could find no defensive wounds or signs of a struggle. Janos sat back on heels, thinking. To be attacked from the front Amres must have seen his attacker, but the absence of a struggle suggested he had nonetheless been surprised. Could he have known the one who killed him?
"Are the manor grounds secure?" he asked one of the soldiers who had been standing by the body.
"Yes, Inspector."
Souan nodded. "Who discovered His Lordship?"
The soldier indicated a fair-haired boy who was sitting cradled in the arms of a well-dressed woman. "His nephew, Stephan de Aurin."
Janos felt a pang of sympathy for the youth, who he could see was scarcely older than his own Emily. "My apologies, my lord," he said with a stiff bow. "I am sorry for your loss. Could you tell me how you discovered your uncle... like this?"