Scam artists, like spies and politicians, were well trained in the art of disguising their true expressions with false ones. Russell was careful to portray only what he wanted to portray on his face and in his body language.

“Crime scene?” He repeated, widening his baby blue eyes and tipping his head slightly to one side.

They had nothing on him and everyone knew it. Lord Mordred had obviously been sent, or taken it upon himself, to elicit some kind of evidence which could be used in a trial. Russ had never stood trial before, but he had had some experience being interrogated. The only thing they could prosecute him for was trespassing, which wasn’t a major crime by any stretch of the imagination. Since he didn’t have a criminal record, they ought to just let him off with a warning. Other than coincidence, there was no evidence that Russell had taken the missing jewels. He’d made certain of that.

Mordred’s sarcastic and scathing comments didn’t bother him in the slightest. He was used to that. Russell let him talk, giving himself the opportunity to hear all the evidence against him and have some time to think. When it finally seemed like his lordship was done, Russ smiled sheepishly.

“I totally get that,” he said apologetically. “But I swear, I don’t know anything about any missing jewellery. This is all just a misunderstanding. I didn’t pick any lock… your, er,” he glanced guiltily at the door, as though concerned about getting the guards into trouble, “your guard friend didn’t shut the door properly. They all walked out before I could talk to them properly, so I followed them out to insist they went to find my father. Maybe not the smartest move, but I wasn’t trying to escape. As for why I didn’t say anything when I was first picked up…” he shrugged. “It’s my first time being arrested. Honestly, mate, I was kind of stunned.”

All reasonable. There was no way of checking if the guard had shut the door properly; it was just his word against Russell’s, and if Mordred decided to strip search his prisoner then he would find that there were no lock-picking devices in the cell.

“Um…” He bit his lower lip. “When you say it all like that, about coming through the front door, it all seems so super obvious. I wasn’t really thinking. I – I miss my mum and I just wanted to meet my dad. I’m sorry.”

‘You’ve convinced me,’ Spyra mumbled in awe.

‘You’re easy to convince, pet.’ Russell had a feeling that Mordred wasn’t going to be so easy. This could be a looooong conversation.

Russell
_{Your move bro'}