"Hey,' he said, clearly surprised.
"Hey,' said Lissa back. "We were wondering if we could talk to you?'
Ambrose ever so slightly inclined his head toward the room. "I'm kind of busy right now.' Beyond him, Lissa could see a massage table with a Moroi woman lying face down. The lower half of her body had a towel over it, but her back was bare, shining in the dim lighting with oil. Scented candles burned in the room, and a calming kind of New Age music played softly.
"Wow,' said Adrian. "You don't waste any time, do you? She's only been in her grave a few hours, and you've already got someone new.' Tatiana had finally been laid to rest earlier in the day, just before sunset. The burial had had much less fanfare than the original attempt.
Ambrose gave Adrian a sharp look. "She's my client. It's my job. You forget that some of us have to work for a living.'
"Please?' asked Lissa, hastily stepping in front of Adrian. "It won't take long.'
Ambrose looked my friends over a moment and then sighed. He glanced behind him. "Lorraine? I have to step outside. I'll be right back, okay?'
"Okay,' called the woman. She shifted, facing him. She was older than I'd expected, mid-forties or so. I guess if you were paying for a massage, there was no reason not to have a masseuse half your age. "Hurry back.'
He gave her a dazzling smile as he shut the door, a smile that dropped once he was alone with my friends. "Okay, what's going on? I don't like the looks on your faces.'
Ambrose might have radically deviated from a dhampir man's normal life, but he'd had the same training as any guardian. He was observant. He was always on the lookout for potential threats.
"We, uh, wanted to talk to you about ...' Lissa hesitated. Talking about investigations and interrogations was one thing. Carrying them out was another. "About Tatiana's murder.'
Ambrose's eyebrows rose. "Ah. I see. Not sure what there is to say, except that I don't think Rose did it. I don't think you believe that either, despite what's going around. Everyone's talking about how shocked and upset you are. You're getting a lot of sympathy over having been tricked by such a dangerous and sinister "friend.''
Lissa felt her cheeks flush. By publicly condemning me and renouncing our friendship, Lissa was keeping herself out of trouble. It had been Abe and Tasha's advice, and Lissa knew it was sound. Yet, even though it was an act, she still felt guilty. Christian stepped to her defense.
"Back off. That's not what this is about.'
"What is it about then?' asked Ambrose.
Lissa jumped in, worried Christian and Adrian might upset Ambrose and make it difficult to get answers. "Abe Mazur told us that in the courtroom, you said or, uh, did something to Rose.'
Ambrose looked shocked, and I had to give him points for being convincing. "Did something? What does that mean? Does Mazur think I, like, hit on her in front of all those people?'
"I don't know,' admitted Lissa. "He just saw something, that's all.'
"I wished her good luck,' said Ambrose, still looking offended. "Is that okay?'
"Yeah, yeah.' Lissa had made a point to talk to Ambrose before Abe could, fearing Abe's methods would involve threats and a lot of physical force. Now, she was wondering if she was doing so great a job. "Look, we're just trying to find out who really killed the queen. You were close to her. If there's anything--anything--at all you've got that can help us, we'd appreciate it. We need it.'
Ambrose glanced curiously between them. Then, he suddenly understood. "You think I did it! That's what this is about.' None of them said anything. "I can't believe this! I already got this from the guardians ... but from you? I thought you knew me better.'
"We don't know you at all,' said Adrian flatly. "All we know is you had lots of access to my aunt.' He pointed at the door. "And obviously, it didn't take you long to move on.'
"Did you miss the part where I said that's my job? I'm giving her a massage, that's it. Not everything is sordid and dirty.' Ambrose shook his head in frustration and ran a hand through his brown hair. "My relationship with Tatiana wasn't dirty either. I cared about her. I would never do anything to hurt her.'
"Don't statistics say most murders happen between close people?' asked Christian.
Lissa glared at him and Adrian. "Stop it. Both of you.' She looked back at Ambrose. "No one's accusing you of anything. But you were around her a lot. And Rose told me you were upset about the age law.'
"When I first heard about it, yeah,' Ambrose said. "And even then, I told Rose there was some mistake--that there must be something we didn't know. Tatiana would have never put those dhampirs in danger without a good reason.'
"Like making herself look good in front of all those terrified royals?' asked Christian.
"Watch it,' warned Adrian. Lissa couldn't decide which was more annoying: her two guys teaming up to spar against Ambrose or them throwing barbs at each other.
"No!' Ambrose's voice rang throughout the narrow hall. "She didn't want to do that. But if she didn't, worse things were going to happen. There are people who wanted--still want--to round up all the dhampirs who don't fight and force them into it. Tatiana passed the age law as a way to stall that.'
Silence fell. I'd already learned this from Tatiana's note, but it was shocking news to my friends. Ambrose kept going, seeing he was gaining ground.
"She was actually open to lots of other options. She wanted to explore spirit. She approved of Moroi learning to fight.'
That got a reaction from Adrian. He still wore that sardonic expression, but I could also see faint lines of pain and sorrow on his face. The burial earlier must have been hard on him, and hearing others reveal information you hadn't known about a loved one had to hurt.
"Well, I obviously wasn't sleeping with her like you were,' said Adrian, "but I knew her pretty well, too. She never said a word about anything like that.'
"Not publicly,' agreed Ambrose. "Not even privately. Only a few people knew. She was having a small group of Moroi trained in secret--men and women, different ages. She wanted to see how well Moroi could learn. If it was possible for them to defend themselves. But she knew people'd be upset about it, so she made the group and their trainer keep quiet.'
Adrian gave no response to this, and I could see his thoughts had turned inward. Ambrose's revelation wasn't bad news, exactly, but Adrian was still hurt at the thought that his aunt had kept so much from him. Lissa, meanwhile, was eating the news up, seizing and analyzing every piece of info.
"Who were they? The Moroi being trained?' "I don't know,' said Ambrose. "Tatiana was quiet about it. I never found out their names, just their instructor.'