Chapter Seventeen
In Plain Sight
Oliver stared downat the bones laid out across the lab table. Of all the kinds of corpses to enter his lab, bones were the most palatable, though they could be the most difficult to puzzle out. After nearly a century in the ground, Mrs. Elizabeth Abbot was nothing more than a brown skeleton clinging to a few dried bits of skin and shreds of filthy fabric. Her body had been exhumed to be moved to a new location in the cemetery to make room for a road, which, according to the society, was the perfect time to examine the bones of someone who had been killed by a demon. The evidence was written across her body in scratches and cracks, though it would take time to parse out what damage came from the weight of dirt on her grave versus the supernatural.
Glancing over his shoulder to confirm the door was locked, Oliver focused on the jumble of bones. Years ago, he had sat in the head inspector’s office and reached for the most tenuous of connections in a box of bones to show he was no threat to the society. Now, he wasn’t sure if he could make them move while holding onto Felipe, though bones had never needed a tether before.
He closed his eyes and relaxed his shoulders. The bones knew who they belonged to, who they were. The bones could never forget. Bone scraped against metal, slow and shrill. Mrs. Abbot’s bones thumped and rattled for a brief moment as they tumbled over each other, but when Oliver opened his eyes in the silence, they were laid out in repose. The gaps were more evident now where some pieces had been lost to the grave, time, or the demon. Reaching for the tether, Oliver felt its pressure under his heart. Unlike the corporal dead, the bones relied solely on his manipulation and their memory, no soul or tether necessary.
The doorknob turned sharply, and the tenuous connection broke as the fractured cranium fell back apart. A familiar hammering knock followed. “Oliver?”
“One second, Felipe. I have a patient.”
Oliver unlocked the door, feeling a pang of fleeting panic through his chest. Felipe looked past Oliver’s shoulder and started to pull his jacket over his nose.
“Don’t bother. She’s only bones.”
“Am I interrupting?” Felipe asked, his eyes sweeping over Oliver and the body laid out on the table.
“Yes. No, I just was laying her out for examination. She is the supposed victim of a demon attack back in the seventeen hundreds. The case isn’t pressing, but they would like me to see what can be gleaned from her injuries since we can’t examine demons’ bodies.”
Nodding, Felipe stood beside the lab table. Frenetic energy rolled off him as thickly as magic, and for a moment, Oliver feared Felipe might move the bones out of order. Oliver had hoped that finding Newman’s notes would help to lessen the tension in Felipe’s eyes, but it almost seemed worse. The dark circles beneath them had deepened as well.
“Did something happen upstairs?”
“What? No.” Reaching for a carpal, Felipe thought better of it. “But we can safely say Head Inspector Williams is not the murderer.”
“You’re sure?” Oliver asked, keeping his voice level as his shoulders drooped in relief. Few people at the Paranormal Society intimidated him as much as Head Inspector Williams. If the man wanted them dead or gone, there were few who could stand in his way.
“Very. He called me into his office to talk about the theft, and I saw him manipulate water. He didn’t strangle me or Sister Mary Agnes, but someone in the society did. I’m getting very tempted to start asking people their powers.”
“That would be rude and invasive. Besides, there are hundreds of people connected to the society. That would take more time than—” Oliver stopped himself. He didn’t want to think about next Saturday. “Than a proper investigation. The rumor mill is hardly reliable, anyway. Were you able to find Newman’s report?”
“That asshole turned in a summary rather than the full report. I had Gale turn the office upside down looking for it. Before you ask, I already put in a request at the records room in case it’s there. It might take a day or two to find.”
Felipe still looked tight as a spring. “And?”
