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“I truly don’t know,” Clancy admitted. “Common sense and those Depression Era photos would suggest that he’d have to be somewhere around a hundred. But you’ve seen him.”
Nelson erased Merlin’s name and snapped the notepad shut. “Did you have an appointment with Professor MacIlwraith?”
“No. I wanted to check in and see how he was doing. Nox is extremely sensitive to violence and death. He might look edgy and dark; he gets that from Sorcha. But she was the beautiful kind of dark and she was good like Lucas. Nox is too. He’s a child of the light—their names literally mean light—and they had a passion for illuminating minds that Nox inherited tenfold. He’s not built for this and I worry about the toll this could take.”
Nelson nodded along until the last part. “You didn’t think about that when you got him a job with the FBI?”
Clancy pressed the side of his fist against his chest and shook his head. “The heartburn this has given me. He’s a genius with symbols and cults are usually…safe. Safer,” he amended. “I thought he’d assist on a few sexy cases, get his face on TV, meet a nice young man, write a few books, get tenure, retire to the country, live happily ever after… He wasn’t supposed to pick up something like this.”
“It’s a good thing he did,” Nelson said as he tucked his notepad into his inside coat pocket, and then buttoned it. “He’s our victims’ best hope. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself. Any thoughts on the other things he ‘inherited’ from his parents?”
“Such as?” Clancy rocked back, looking concerned and conflicted. “And I ask again, what have you learned about Nox, Agent?”
“You’re telling me you haven’t noticed he’s tattooed like a super druid?”
Clancy stared at Nelson for several heartbeats before a smile spread across his face. “I told you Lucas and I were like brothers.” He slid back his coat’s sleeve and flicked open the button at his wrist. He rolled up the cuff, exposing what Nelson now recognized as a sigil and a pagan trinity knot tattooed inside his forearm.
“You’re a druid, too. I should have seen that coming.”
“Don’t worry. There aren’t that many like us,” Clancy chuckled, fixing his cuff. “And most of us don’t hide in plain sight like Nox. We just hide so we can have day jobs and homes in gated communities.”
“That’s why you’re concerned. You’ve had a look at the case and you see the potential for Nox to be exposed. And you by association?”
“Nah.” Clancy shook his head and waved it off. “I know where too many bodies are buried and I married way above my weight,” he said with a wink.
Nelson would ask Nox about that. He wasn’t feeling as betrayed anymore and was learning to ask smarter questions. “So what are you worried about?”
Clancy sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Nox is right, of course. They’re all connected and Samhain is just a few days away. I can provide professional cover for him within the bureau until this blows over, but I don’t know how Nox will take it if he can’t save them.”
“It’ll devastate him,” Nelson agreed. As if he needed more pressure or motivation to find the missing girls before it was too late, the urge to shield Nox from that pain pierced Nelson like a spike.
“That’s why I’m here,” Clancy said quietly. “Have you found anything promising yet?”
Before Nelson could answer, the door next to them opened and chattering students spilled out. They heard Nox encouraging them and offering high fives as they waited and he was beaming when he joined Nelson and Clancy.
“Clance!” Nox pulled him into a tight hug and they clapped each other on the back loudly. “What are you doing here? You haven’t been a working professor for years,” he teased, then ducked when Clancy tried to muss his hair.
“I was worried about you so I thought I’d come by and Agent Nelson has been filling me in.”
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine,” Nox insisted with a quick, questioning glance at Nelson.
“Everything’s fine,” he confirmed.
Nox sighed contentedly. “Good. Can we stop worrying about me and focus on the case? It’s a distraction and Heidi Hansen may have handed us our next big break.”
“That’s good news,” Clancy said, earning a snort from Nox.
“She’s been a godsend. She started a Facebook page to get the word out about Elsa and see what the internet sleuths came back with. Some of the other victims’ friends and family contacted her. They’re just as desperate for information so the page has turned into a mini support group and message board.”
“Smart girl,” Nelson agreed. She could be kicking a hornet’s nest by starting another viral conspiracy and complicating the investigation by opening the floodgates. But she was also providing Nelson with a treasure trove of voluntarily provided information he didn’t need a court order or a warrant for.
Smart Nox.
He was the one who had charmed Heidi and Sharon Cleary and they were using their skills and resources to help them bypass typical investigative barriers. While it was Nox’s nature to be charming and charismatic, Nelson believed his intentions were ultimately good. And it was a damn good thing Nox wasn’t the sort of person to use his powers of persuasion to his own benefit.
“What did Heidi find out?” Nelson asked and Nox made a giddy sound as he brandished his phone.
“The fourth missing witch, Tanya Bradford, had a profile on the same dating site as Elsa and Mila and she had complained to friends and family about an overly aggressive admirer named Adam Tipton. Tanya’s mother passed his name along to Heidi and he had contacted Elsa and Mila, too.”
