“How long?”
“Long enough that this world is almost completely unfamiliar to me.”
Saga blinked at the ambiguity of that statement, and Avery could see her trying to work out something in her head before she considered the phone in her hand. “So a mobile phone is…em…” Saga surveyed the room for something to aid her, then gave up. “You know, how about I explain it later and just get a few more angles so we have a full picture of it all?”
Avery stepped back to allow Saga to move past her toward the bed. “It doesn’t need to be perfect. The images will help me re-create the scene in my mind’s eye.”
A few more snapshots. “Think I got a good view of it. As much as I can, anyway.”
“Excellent.” Avery felt as if she’d been holding her breath the entire time. “Then I can clear the room.” She merely snapped again and the smoke outlines dispersed, leaving the room a little hazy but otherwise unmarked by the magic that had whirled within it just a few moments prior. “Let’s go.”
“We’re leaving?”
“Depending on Miss Walker’s answer to some simple questions, yes, we will be leaving.” Avery opened the door for Saga, gesturing for her to exit first.
Bewildered, Saga slid past her but waited for the taller woman to take the lead before starting down the hallway.
“Miss Walker,” Avery called ahead of them, and as they stepped into themain sitting room once more, Rachel was exiting the kitchen to meet them.
“Is something wrong?” By the smell coming from the kitchen and the way she was drying her hands on a towel, it seemed she had started cooking after their initial interview. Not really the action of a guilty party.
“You mentioned Valentina had sounded inebriated the night she called you. Could it have been for any other reason beyond substance abuse?” asked Avery.
Her brow knitted. “Like what?”
“Brain swelling, a concussion, an injury or illness that could potentially cause disorientation,” Saga suggested helpfully. “Did her family have any history of brain disease?”
“Uh…no. I mean, Val and I didn’t really talk a lot about medical stuff—but I don’t think anything like that runs in her family.” Her attention bounced between the two women, and her confusion was beginning to melt into concern. “Was she injured? Did you find something that suggests…” Her eyes grew wide, and she raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh God. Did she hit her head? Is that why she was talking like that? Oh my God, I am an idiot, I should have called an ambulance. I should have… I thought she was drunk, I swear, I thought she was drunk.”
“Miss Walker,” Avery coaxed again. “Are you familiar with the cerebral hemisphere?”
The question felt so out of left field, it shocked Rachel into the present. “Is that like the Bermuda Triangle?”
Avery could see Saga out of the corner of her eye, pressing her lips together in order to stifle amusement. She shook her head. “No, not at all.” She nodded respectfully. “We’ll take our leave, Miss Walker. Some officers will be by later today to collect the boxes of Valentina’s things. Unless you have any objection, in which case they will be by after they have acquired a warrant.”
Rachel shook her head. “No, by all means. I wasn’t sure what to do with it all anyway.”
“If we have any follow-up questions, we’ll be sure to reach out to you.Pleasant day to you.”
The two left without further word, leaving Rachel standing in the middle of her living room, bewildered, and a pan of sautéed vegetables momentarily forgotten in her kitchen.
“You think whoever did this had to have intimate knowledge of the human brain,” Saga concluded as they reached the elevator and she was confident they were out of earshot.
“They would have had to if they wanted to get it out intact,” Avery answered simply. “You gave me an idea back there… All this time, I’d been thinking that there were no marks on the body because they’d been glamoured, but what if there were no marks on the body because the brain and the fake brain were switched…magically?”
Saga stared at Avery as the doors opened again to the ground floor. “You would have more knowledge in the magical capabilities department there than I would.”
“Right…” Avery led them out, giving a polite nod to Sanderson Fitz as they passed by before she spoke again, lower but still audible. “Alchemy, possibly? They may have thought they could exchange the brain for something that magically was meant to hold similar properties.”
“Kind of like those adventure films where the hero tries to trick a booby trap by switching out the treasure with something of equal weight?”
Avery stopped walking, and Saga realized her mistake.
“I take it they didn’t have the cinema where you were,” Saga concluded quietly.
“There is so much of what you just said that I don’t understand.” Avery cast a glance at the Bowery. “But the long and short of it, even if we don’t know what kind of magic they used, I’d be willing to bet, we’re looking for someone with working medical knowledge of physiology. Possibly even a doctor.”
“We?” Saga echoed, surprised.
