There was a small cut on his cheek below his left eye but otherwise he appeared unharmed. He folded his bony hands together and regarded us solemnly. ‘They stormed inside and shut off the power at the circuit box. That caused our back-up security system to kick in, and half the doors in the building locked automatically as a result. I was upstairs in my office. By the time I managed to over-ride the system and get down here, the robbers were already leaving.’
‘Did you get a look at any of them? Did anyone see their faces?’
He shook his head. ‘No, they were wearing masks. Of course, we have CCTV footage but I’m not sure what good it will do.’ He gestured helplessly. ‘We don’t know if they were supes or humans.’
Lukas leaned forward, his black eyes inscrutable. ‘DC Bellamy was enquiring about what was stolen.’
Pralk’s skin took on an ashen tone. ‘You’d better come with me and see for yourselves.’
We trooped through the destroyed room, following in Mosburn Pralk’s wake. I noted several bodies, none of which were covered. Two dead werewolves lay in the centre of the bank’s main hall and the third was near the exit, as if he’d either been trying to escape or had come in as the shooting started.
I looked away from the unnatural angle of the body of one of the golden-skinned bank employees, then the pixie’s corpse drew my gaze. She was lying on her front with her arm outstretched towards the front door, as if she were reaching for it.
The robbers didn’t have to kill so many people. Chilled, I wondered if it had been part of their plan from the beginning. Everything about today seemed designed to throw us off balance and these deaths compounded that feeling.
‘I’m afraid it wasn’t money they were after,’ Pralk said. ‘Not in the first instance, anyway. The vaults are on a timer, and our insurance would have more than covered any losses. And as I said, the power cut caused most of other doors to lock automatically. But not all of them.’ He spoke stiffly and I could tell that he took the robbery as a personal attack. The bank was his baby; no doubt he had sacrificed a great deal to rise to his current position. Whether he would still be manager this time tomorrow was another question.
‘They went after the safety deposit room,’ Lukas murmured, as much to himself as anyone. Lord McGuigan stiffened and shot him a grim look but nobody else spoke. Pralk sighed heavily and didn’t disagree.
He led us down a wide corridor as impressively designed as the main hall. Paintings lined the walls; I was no art expert, but I was fairly certain I recognised some of them. Doubtless they were originals and worth a considerable amount but the bank robbers had ignored them. That sent a trickle of worry down my spine. If they hadn’t stolen money and they hadn’t stolen priceless artwork, what the hell were they after?
We turned left into a waiting room. There was another door at the opposite side and beyond it the Talismanic Bank’s safety deposit room. Rows upon rows of narrow steel lockers lined the walls, each one with an identifying number and a small keyhole. To get to the contents, the lock had to be opened. As far as I could tell, most of the lockers were untouched – but not all of them.
Lady Sullivan took the lead, pushing past Pralk and banging into his shoulder as she stormed into the room. She knew exactly what she was looking for. She pivoted on her heel and stared and her nostrils flared. That was the only indication that the robbery had affected her personally. With her arms swinging, she marched straight out again into the corridor, her back to us. It was obvious that she needed a moment or two to compose herself.
The rest of us entered the room. Lord Fairfax’s expression was like granite, while Lady Carr had turned pure white. Lord McGuigan was just the opposite; his cheeks were now a mottled shade of puce. Lukas’s fists clenched and unclenched. Pralk made sure not to meet anyone’s eyes.
I noted all their reactions and then slowly looked around the room. By my count, ten of the boxes had been stolen, their shiny metal doors hanging open to display their lack of contents.
‘The robbers used violent threats to get hold of our keys,’ Pralk said dully. ‘As you all know, our keys on their own wouldn’t allow access to the boxes’ actual contents. We hold the keys to the lockers. The clients hold the keys to the boxes within. The bastards didn’t waste time trying to break open the second locks for themselves, they simply slid the boxes out and dumped them into a bag.’
It made sense. If the robbers took the boxes with them, they could take all the time in the world to unpick the locks to open them.
‘Exactly whose boxes were stolen?’ I asked. I had a feeling I already knew the answer but I wanted to be sure.
Pralk pointed to a line of adjacent lockers. ‘These three are held by Lord Horvath.’ I sneaked another look at Lukas. He didn’t so much as twitch, but I could feel the waves of rage emanating from his body. ‘These two belong to the Sullivan clan. This one is Lady Carr’s. The bottom two are Fairfax, and the locker in the corner is maintained by Lord McGuigan.’
‘And the last box?’ I asked, nodding towards the one empty locker that Pralk hadn’t mentioned.
‘That box,’ Pralk enunciated carefully, ‘is used by this bank.’
Huh? I gave him a long look as I tried to decipher his thoughts. Other than anxious despair, he wasn’t giving much away. I pondered matters for a moment or two and then said, ‘The robbers knew which boxes to go after. How is that possible?’
Every pair of eyes turned to Pralk and he swallowed. ‘We have very strict privacy protocols. I don’t see how anyone could know who owns which box.’
‘Unless they worked at this bank,’ Lady Carr snapped. ‘This is an inside job. It has to be.’
Pralk shook his head adamantly. ‘That’s not possible. My staff are beyond reproach. Two of my employees are dead, for goodness’ sake! If you’re suggesting that someone who works here cares so little about their colleagues that they’d risk their lives, you have no understanding of how we work.’
I sighed. I understood that Pralk didn’t want to believe the worst of his staff but right now there was no other explanation for what had happened. ‘You’ll have to give me a list of all your employees and their details,’ I said.
‘Damn right,’ McGuigan growled. Tufts of fur were springing out on his skin. First Lady Sullivan and now him. It was unusual for an alpha werewolf to lose control so openly but these were extraordinary circumstances.
Pralk looked defeated. ‘Fine,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll get you a list.’
‘I also need to know the contents of each safety deposit box,’ I said, addressing everyone else.
Nobody answered immediately, then Lady Sullivan turned to face us. She seemed determined not to enter the room again, as if she couldn’t confront the facts of the burglary for a second time. Instead she hovered at the threshold and fixed me with a steely glare. ‘I don’t think that’s necessary,’ she said. ‘The contents are immaterial.’
I spotted flickers of relief on both Pralk’s and McGuigan’s faces.
‘Agreed,’ Fairfax said. ‘You don’t need to know what is in each box in order to retrieve them.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’ I stared at them. ‘Once the robbers get hold of the contents, they’ll dispose of them. I can’t keep track of what ends up on the black market and track it back to the thieves if I don’t know what I’m looking for!’