‘Great idea,’ Kate said warmly. ‘Although we call them the living dead, their cells are still in working order until they get staked, their heads are cut off, or they’re burned. Even more, their cells are actually working overtime to give them that youthful glow.’
‘Ghoul?’ I suggested.
‘Could be,’ Kate conceded. ‘Though they too are living. They simply consume dead flesh, so if one of them had feasted on a week-old corpse they could have left traces. It could be,’ she murmured again. Then she shook her head. ‘No signs of nibbling on this corpse though, so I can’t work out how those cells were present in Marlow’s sternum.’
‘So we could be looking for two suspects?’ Channing asked. ‘An ogre and a ghoul?’
‘Could be,’ Kate said again, her tone unconvinced. She bit her lip. ‘Could also be someone is playing games with the evidence.’
‘You think the killer planted dead cells there to muddy the waters?’ I asked sharply.
‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘All I know is it doesn’t make sense. Unless Marlow has somehow died twice, something weird is going on here.’
‘The gouges, were they straight?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she studied me. ‘Why?’
I shook my head, not quite sure. ‘Marlow was at a really odd height for an ogre to use his tusks on. Why not just use a mace to cave his head in? That’s their MO too. Using tusks, it’s personal. You get blood all over. Something about the set-up isn’t jibing for me.’
Now she was frowning too. ‘You’re right. I should have caught that. Itisan odd height for the killer to have used tusks.’
Like me, she had no explanation for the oddity. Time to clutch at straws. ‘Aura-wise,’ I asked carefully, ‘you got anything for me?’
Kate shook her head. ‘Nothing but pain and the shock of it. Fear. Plenty of fear.’
I winced. Reading that aura must have been horrible. I reached out and touched her hand lightly. ‘Sorry Kate.’
‘I’m used to it.’ She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal but the shadows in her eyes told a different story. Doing the job she did, and being sensitive the way she was, had to be hard. Day in, day out, that shit wears on you unless you find a bright spot in your life.
‘Hey,’ I asked impulsively. ‘You ever go out with the sexy merman?’
Her cheeks heated. ‘I told you, we’re just friends.’
‘Uh-huh. So did you?’
She smiled. ‘For dinner, yes, but just as friends,’ she repeated.
‘Who are you trying to convince?’ I teased, bumping her hip lightly.
‘Definitely me.’ She laughed. ‘Troy is out of my league. Way out.’
‘He is not! You’re beautiful, smart and insanely kind. If anything, you’re out ofhisleague.’
‘You’re sweet.’ She paused. ‘But utterly delusional. Now you’d better head out. Mrs Marlow is due soon.’
‘Okay, thanks for your time, Kate. Appreciate you fitting us in so quickly.’
‘Anytime.’
We headed out, but Channing waited until we were in the car to say explosively, ‘I’m sorry, you’re telling me mermaids are real!’
I couldn’t have stopped the sudden grin that tore across my face if I’d tried. ‘Oh, yeah. That. The Connection doesn’t formally recognise the existence of mermaids, so you don’t get taught about them at the academy.’
‘Why the hell don’t we recognise them as real?’
‘Why does the Connection do anything? Politics. The mermaids snubbed the Connection at the time of its formation, said it would never last and it was a ridiculous pursuit. Since they refused to join, we refused to admit they were real.’
He gaped at me. ‘That’s absolutely absurd. The dragons didn’t join, nor the ogres, and we admit they’re real. They’re not getting snubbed.’
