Zoey drifts off halfway through our second episode. By the time the third starts, there’s a heavy weight in my chest.
“I feel so useless,” I whisper to Bob, running a finger along the bridge of his nose right between his eyes.
“Do you think I’m less important to the team cause I don’t go into the field?” Zoey mumbles.
I didn’t realize she was awake to hear me.
“No,” I say.
“Course you don’t.” She stretches one arm up and yawns. “I can do something none of you idiots can, and I’m more useful from here. So are you.”
“Because here I won’t get in the way?”
“Yup,” Zoey says. “Go to sleep.”
I smile into her pillow and surrender to the pull of the drugs.
David Henley went to bed at eleven. By morning, there’s been no movement.
“Can’t you just go in there and get him?” I ask, rubbing my eyes to dispel the medication fog in my brain. I’m still in Zoey’s room, listening to Griffin and Benji over Zoey’s phone, which she has put on speaker.
“Not unless we know Morrow’s inside him,” Griffin says.
Benji yawns on the other side of the phone. “It’s unusual for a ghost to stay inside a body for extended periods of time so early in a possession. It’s unlikely Morrow has been possessing David Henley much longer than a week.”
“Henley’s still working,” Zoey says. “He has a shift starting at two this afternoon.”
“Makes sense Morrow would keep the job,” Griffin says. “Perfect hunting ground. Who questions a cop picking someone up?”
“Got into his email and pulled his sick day requests,” Zoey says. “Want to hear how boring they are?”
She doesn’t wait for an answer before reading aloud: “‘Requesting sick leave for January thirtieth through February second. Coming down with something. Thanks, David.’” She scrolls. “Next one: ‘Still not feeling well, requesting extension through the third.’ And the last: ‘Feeling better, will return to work on the fourth.’”
Imagining Morrow sitting up in that control room, typing those emails out as Nico hung from that pole, makes the world pull sideways. I need to eat something, but I don’t know if I can keep it down.
“A host rarely maintains even a modicum of composure in their professional lives during a possession,” Benji says. “Morrow probably means to stay with David Henley for a long time.”
I think of Ed, how he was at the bottom of our list of potential hosts. If his neighbors hadn’t made multiple noise complaints, if he hadn’t been fired from his job, we might not have found Morrow before he killed again.
The difference between how Morrow treated his first and second hosts is crazy. Despite his stubborn beliefs, he’s adapted fast. I know the profile said Morrow thinks he’s smarter than he is, but he sure does seem smarter than any of us have given him credit for.
It goes quiet as all of us try to come up with a plan. I can feel Nico’s absence in everything. He’d know what to do.
An idea slams into my head.
“What if you use a sigil?” I ask.
There’s a rustling sound over the speaker, and Griffin answers. “In what way?”
“To set a trap,” I say. “Wait until he goes to work and draw a daisy wheel under his welcome mat. If he’s possessed when he comes home, the mark could trap him.”
“That… could work,” Griffin says. “Benj, you feel ready to do an extraction?”
“I’ve only ever observed,” Benji says. “I mean, I know the theory, and Nico’s been teaching me, but I’ve only been on the team for a year, and I?—”
“I think you’re ready,” Griffin says. “I wouldn’t put you in this position if I didn’t think you could handle it.”
“Could DJ do it?” Benji asks in a small voice.
