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“About as well as you’d expect. They’re seriously worried tourism is going to be affected if this run of murders continues. And yes, they’re well aware that the fault is their own.”
“There hasn’t been much in the local newspapers about them yet.”
“No, but that’s never stopped the news from spreading.”
Thanks in part to the gossip brigade. Nothing seemed to escape their notice. Maybe I should have asked them what the hell Aiden was up to.
“Were you able to glean anything from last night’s murder?”
He grimaced. “Not really. Ashworth is of the opinion that something must have gone wrong, as it lacked the finesse evident in the previous two.”
Which was putting it mildly. “What about the victims? Any progress on identifying them?”
“The buried victim was Joseph Banker, who went missing four days ago. His parents confirmed the watch was his today.”
“I take it they didn’t view the remains?”
“Gerard did, against our advice.” Aiden grimaced again. “That went as well as might be expected, too.”
“What about the others?”
“No progress as yet, although last night’s victim did at least have teeth, which should help. Ciara’s completed the facial reconstruction image of the victim found at the crossroad, and Maggie’s going through our missing persons files to see if we can find a match.”
“That sounds like you have quite a number of people who go missing.”
“We get two or three a week, on average. Most of them have simply gotten lost, but there’s always one or two a month we never find. I suspect most of those have deliberately disappeared.”
“One or two a month is a scarily high number over a year—I’m surprised it hasn’t made the news.”
“It’s not that high—not when you consider that, on average, over ten thousand people in Victoria go missing each year.” He glanced at me. “Did you and Monty manage to track down that shifter?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Monty didn’t update you?”
“He said that he and Ashworth were staking out a possible hideout, but other than that, no.”
I quickly told him what we’d discovered and then added, “He probably didn’t mention the shifter because we have no body and no immediate way of tracking the other two.”
“And the specter? Have you any idea why she killed that shifter or why she’s haunting your movements?”
“No, and no. But given she’s a White Lady, she’s obviously out for revenge.”
“On the shifters, or the demon?”
“Possibly both, given they appear to be connected.”
He grunted. “What about Belle? Could she attempt to talk to the specter?”
“Not without her cooperation.”
He frowned. “She can’t summon her as she does other spirits?”
“She could, but without the name or something personal of hers, she also risks summoning every other spirit in the immediate area.” And even if she did have one or both of those things, our specter was capable of magic. It was quite possible she’d already warded herself against a summoning.
“What are the chances of the remaining shifters returning to that house?” he asked.
“About as likely as Ashworth surviving an entire night in Monty’s company.”
Aiden laughed. “That I can believe.”
