The woman’s head pulls back, making the loose skin under her neck resemble a gobbler. “Deaths? I don’t know of any deaths, but I suppose you could check the historical society or the library. They keep news archives. Have you asked Eugene? Aisling’s memory can be a bit touch and go, poor thing, but Eugene is sharp as a tack.”
“As prickly as one too,” I mumble under my breath.
“What was that?” she asks. Her pursed lips and narrowed eyes make me think she heard me perfectly. I give the woman a clearly fake smile in return. Felix wraps his pinky over mine and jiggles my hand.
“This is something I’m working on alone for now,” Gray tells her and gathers everything she’s laid on the counter separating us from her work area. “I’ll go over these in my office. Thank you for being so helpful.” I have a feeling Gray added the last part so she won’t be so intimidated if he needs to speak to her again.
We all follow Gray back down the stairs, passing some glass walled offices and the city council meeting room. I’ve always thought the wooden benches make it look like a courtroom, especially with the long bench up front where all the trustee and council members sit.
Gray’s office has a large door with a golden plaque engraved withThe Offices of Mayor Grayson Halescrolled across it. The first room we enter has an ornate desk stationed in the center of a long wall. I know right away this isn’t Gray’s actual office. The young woman rising from the seat behind the desk could be the first clue, but it’s just the general feel that gives it away even before that.
“Mayor Hale, I wasn’t expecting you today,” she remarks, letting her eyes roam over the four of us as we file in behind Gray. Her lips lift when she sees Felix, but her tiny smile slips when she notices our fingers are intertwined.
“We’ll be in my conference room,” Gray tells her, barely looking in her direction.
“Afternoon, Faith.” Felix gives her an easy wave as we pass by. Her smile is back in full force when she responds.
“Hi, Felix. Can I get you guys anything?” she offers politely.
Felix looks at me, then at Nash after I shake my head, letting him know I don’t need anything.
“Actually, can you tell me where the bathroom is?” Nash directs her question to Faith.
“Right back out in the hall, first door on the left.” Faith points toward the door we entered through.
“You can use the one in my office.” Gray dismisses Faith’s response, then pushes open a heavy wooden door that leads to another hallway with a series of doors. “Right in there. We’ll be at the end of the hall.”
When the door closes behind us, cutting off our view of Faith, I tug on Felix’s hand to get his attention. “No wonder she has a crush on you. Gray is about as cuddly as a porcupine.”
Felix pushes his glasses up his nose. “She doesn’t have a crush,” he replies dismissively, but we both know he’s full of it.
Gray is already spreading out the large scroll on a conference table with eight chairs surrounding it. I release Felix’s hand and head over to a corner to hold it down, while Felix takes the opposite corner, allowing Gray to pull down the bottom.
It reads like Greek to me. There’s an irregular square with numbers and a squiggly line, which I’m pretty sure represents the river we walked to a few days ago, but I’m not even certain about that. Gray must come to a similar conclusion, because he releases his end, and it rolls up, snapping at my fingers to return to its usual state.
“Let’s look at the deed history.” Gray pulls out the chair at the head of the table and flips open the folder. Some of the papers are yellow with age, but the parchment and ink seem to have held up fine over the years, so everything is neat and easy to read.
I jot down notes in my phone of the four generations who owned the home before Eugene and Aisling, starting with Robert and Elizabeth Doby.
“There’s not enough here.” Gray flips through the papers again as if he may have missed something.
The door to the conference room opens and Nash slips inside. “What did we find?” she asks.
“Not much, just names,” I answer.
“It’s a start,” Nash says, leaning over Gray’s shoulder to look at the documents. “We can use these names to track their families, either through the historical society like the records clerk suggested, or the magical registry.” Nash meets my eyes.
“Damn, that’s a good idea. It’s almost like you know what you’re doing,” I joke.
Nash smiles. “That’s not news, Bishop.”
Gray gathers up pens and a few pads of paper from his office and brings them back to the conference room after we decide to use both resources. Nash and I move to the opposite end of the table. She uses her phone to pull up magical records using the names Elizabeth and Robert Doby.
Their family bloodline and abilities take us about fifteen minutes to copy down, ending with Eugene and Aisling. It seems they never had children.
Gray is still on the phone when we get done. Once he hangs up, we compare notes. He has more general information, like dates of large storms where people died, some fires, and even years when the loss of crops resulted in famine, but nothing specifically about the Dobys or their property.
“We’ll need to do more research on these names. Hopefully, your local papers have gone digital.” Nash doesn’t sound deterred from the task.
