“Eira Goff, late wealthy philanthropist and medical scientist. Revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry. She’s the connection between the two victims. I went to her funeral today. Her body is missing.”
A beat. “Theentirebody?”
Avery nodded.
“Kummallinen,” awed Esteri.52
“Mm,” agreed Avery.
They both took a long drink and emptied their mugs.
Esteri refilled both their cups once more, setting aside the now-empty decanter. “Perhaps your body thief and killer are not the same people.”
Avery paused mid-sip before setting the mug down again. “What?”
“Haruspicy typically divines that which we cannot know through the practice of animal sacrifice. So, why would a haruspex gather information on your dead woman by extrapolating information through organs from those who knew her—why not do it from the body of the woman herself? Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe it was alreadymissing. Or perhaps she’s not even dead at all—maybe it’s all a ruse.”
“Someone stole the body of Eira Goff—or faked her death—then replaced her body with a fetch so that no one would notice. But because that body is missing, someone else has been trying to glean information from the organs of those closest to her…but potentially in a way that they hoped wouldn’t actually kill them? That’s your running theory?”
Esteri had been drinking her wine thoughtfully as she listened to the theory told back to her. She set down an empty mug with an air of authority. “No, I just made you realizeIona’srunning theory of haruspicy is stupid if you are missing an entire body.”
Avery pinched the bridge of her nose. “My head hurts.”
Esteri tapped the side of Avery’s mug with a short fingernail. “Take some soup.”53 She retrieved another bottle as well as a fresh decanter to fill. “Let us talk this through. What would the simplest version of this scenario look like?” The old decanter was whisked away and out of sight with a wave of Esteri’s hand, and the fresh one was placed over the flame.
Avery took a long swig of her wine. “Two women murdered, a thirdmissing entirely?”
“No, no, come on, like you used to.” Esteri reached her hands out for Avery’s who finished her wine entirely before obliging. “Close your eyes.” When Avery did not immediately comply, the tulikettu growled. “Close.”
With a dramatic roll, they closed.
“Put yourself intheirshoes. You are someone with the power to heal, which takes great care, empathy, and compassion. You have the brain of a nurse, the heart of a witch, and…possibly the body of a brilliant billionaire who made her money by leading in medical research, and, as far as we know, died of natural causes. Why? What are you doing?”
As Esteri spoke, Avery focused on visualizing. First, she was standing in an endless void of darkness. For a moment, she could see a faint outline of a building in the distance. Her forehead furrowed so deeply, the place between her brows began to ache. What had she seen? What did she know? Then from the shadows she could see the funeral, only this time, the casket was open with Eira fully visible. So many mourners—most at least appearing distraught and deeply wounded by her death. They needed healing, which Avery understood—even centuries after their burial, she still struggled with the deaths of her friends and her mother; she wished she could bring them back. The pain was similar— even if the cause of the wound was old, the grief was still fresh. Again she became aware of the faint outline of the house in the distance. It prompted three slow breaths. Eira had passed only but a week prior.
In this recreation of memory, the casket sat behind the altar encircled by white candles and sprinklings of rose petals, chamomile, and field horsetail.
“If I were a master healer…”
Eira had been the first to pass, by all reports of natural causes—but her body was missing from the funeral home.
“I wouldn’t be able to use my magic to take the organs if I was simply replacing healthy organs with what I believed were better magical substitutes.”
To Avery’s knowledge, if Eira died from natural causes, then Valentinahad been the second to die, but the firstvictim. Her brain had been exchanged for a fetch infused with herbs meant to fight bacteria and inflammation and improve cognitive function. The shadow of Valentina stepped inside the healing circle and offered her brain in her cupped outstretched hands to the altar.
“I would also have to believe that in taking these specific organs, I could help someone else, I could heal…”
Saoirse was this killer’s second victim, and so she too stepped up and held out her heart.
A brilliant medical mind that had known Eira for years and cared for her. A compassionate heart that had loved and cared for Eira since they were young.
Avery’s eyes snapped open. “Am I…trying to bring Eira back?”
45Bengali: Paternal grandfather.
