Murder at the Kinnen Hotel by Brian McClellan Read Free Book Online Page A

months back. Adamat, why am I here? I’ve been demanding to see you since they brought me in here yesterday and no one will listen to me. You said I wasn’t a suspect.”
    Adamat looked for someplace to hang his hat. He gave up and kept it in hand. “I was taken off the case.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Someone wants you to take the fall for this, Ricard,” Adamat said. “Someone who can make it happen.”
    “Of course they do! That’s why they tried to frame me. But I didn’t do it, and … “ Ricard trailed off. “You mean someone in the police?”
    “Or someone who can exert a great deal of influence on them. The commissioner himself took me off the case and handed it to his incompetent nephew.” Adamat thought of telling Ricard what the commissioner had said about seeing him to the guillotine, but that would have been cruel. Ricard didn’t need to hear that now.
    “So I’m strapped to the millwheel, am I?”
    “It appears so.”
    “Shit.”
    “Indeed. Who would do this?” Adamat asked.
    “Who wants me dead, you mean?”
    “Dead? They don’t just want you dead. They want you discredited and imprisoned. I want to know who wants you out of the way so much that they’re willing to kill innocent people—people like Melany—to do it.”
    A slow realization began to spread across Ricard’s face. Adamat waited for the candle to light behind his eyes. Ricard had always had the habit of being willfully naive. Everyone was a friend to him, a possible business partner or lover. It had gotten him into trouble on many occasions—but the attitude had also made him a wealthy man.
    “What have you been up to, Ricard?” Adamat asked. “We haven’t spoken since … for a while. Last I read in the papers your latest attempt at unionizing the dock workers had been shut down by the police.”
    Ricard waved dismissively. “That was months ago.”
    “And you’re doing something new?” Adamat urged.
    “Yes. I’ve decided to go straight to the top. I’ve managed to get a bill sponsored in the House of Nobles that calls for limited legalization of labor unions. It’s a small thing, really, but vital to the future of unionization. They’ll be voting on it in the House of Nobles next week.”
    “Is that why you rented a room so close to the House?”
    “It is,” Ricard said. “I’ve been in the city all week trying to gather enough support for the nobility to vote it through.”
    “Why haven’t I read about this in the newspapers?”
    Ricard snorted. “Because the Wian family owns most every newspaper in Adopest, and they’re vehemently against unionization. Everything comes down to a vote by the nobility, but if it has no popular support no one will agree to it.”
    Adamat scratched his chin, looking at the embers of the coal stove, and shook his head. “I don’t see how this is important enough to kill over.”
    “The biggest businessmen in Adro are against unionization. It’ll force them to pay higher wages for both skilled and unskilled labor. It’ll cut millions out of their profits. Some of these blood suckers would kill over a thousand krana, let alone what unionization will cost them.”
    “I can see that,” Adamat agreed. “Can you give me a list of names?”
    “What names?” Ricard asked, looking up.
    “These businessmen. The ones who are the most vocally against you.”
    “I thought they took you off the case?”
    “They did. But something new has come up and I may have the opportunity to poke at your case.” Adamat forced a smile. “For old times’ sake.”
    The look on Ricard’s face was almost worth the shit Adamat would get in if the commissioner found out Adamat was going anywhere near Ricard.
    “Bless you,” Ricard said. “Yes, hold on. I’ll write them down.”
    Adamat waited while Ricard had listed a half dozen family names as well as nineteen particular individuals. He memorized the list over Ricard’s shoulder, but folded it and put it in his pocket in case he