Ghost Light

“Exactly,” she said.

Ceff leaned in, though careful not to touch, and we studied the map.  Each address was marked by a small red pin on the screen.  Tapping the pin opened a window with the full name and address of the victim’s family.

“You’re a genius,” I said.

“I know,” she said.  Jinx flipped her hair and grinned.  “You can use Flyover to see the sites in relation to landmarks.  Tap this to add field notes.”

When Jinx had first insisted I upgrade my phone, I resisted.  Using a touch screen was difficult while wearing gloves, but this little app had me glad I’d finally caved.  This morning while talking to clients, I’d assumed the abductions were scattered randomly around the city.  But the pins on the map told a different story.  Fae in all city districts had been targeted, but the locations were not completely random.

The kidnappings were clustered around graveyards and cemeteries.

“Your theory appears to be correct,” Ceff said.  “The children who were taken all lived within walking distance of a burial ground.”

The major difference between graveyards and cemeteries was that graveyards are often small and located beside a church.  Cemeteries are larger, public burial places.  The primary difference for supernaturals was that graveyards were always on hallowed ground.  Large cemeteries, on the other hand, often had unconsecrated land where criminals were typically buried.  Traditionally, this area was at the rear of the cemetery, but as cities grew so did the number of deceased.  Most cemeteries now encompassed land not part of the original.  If hallowed ground had been a problem for our kidnappers, then they would have stuck to the large cemeteries.

But that train of thought was a dead end.  The pins indicated activity around both cemeteries and graveyards.

“Yes and our kidnappers don’t have an aversion to hallowed ground,” I said.  I pointed to two church graveyards marked by a cross.  “That rules out any demon involvement.”

Some demons have a taste for human flesh.  It was rumored that human children were a sought after delicacy.  Knowing demons weren’t involved was a relief, but it didn’t bring us any closer to catching the kidnappers.

Harborsmouth was a huge, old city.  There had to be hundreds of graveyards and cemeteries.  Even using the app to focus on the most concentrated areas of kidnappings, we were left with too many locations to search.

I growled and slammed my fist on the counter.

“I know,” Jinx said.  “I spent forever dipping crossbow bolts in holy water.  Why can’t it ever be demons?”

My roommate was pouting because she wasn’t going to get the chance to hurt some demons on this case?  Some things never change.  I ducked my head and stifled a laugh.

I took a deep breath and looked up into Ceff’s handsome face.  He tilted his head to the side and blinked at me, fork paused halfway to his mouth.

“You wish for demon involvement?” he asked.

He gave a slow, disbelieving shake of the head and this time I did laugh.  Ceff wasn’t aware of Jinx’s love hate relationship with demons.  She loves to hate them, especially one demon in particular.

“No, I’m glad we’re not dealing with demons,” I said.  “But if Jinx is going to fight something, she’d prefer it had pointy horns and a forked tail.  You should see her at target practice.”

It was true.  Stick horns on the target and Jinx nailed it every time.

“You never know when a demon might walk through your door,” she said, eyes gleaming.  “It’s best to be prepared.”

Jinx patted her back where a crossbow was slung over her shoulder.  The weapon looked incongruous with her frilly apron, but then again, that was Jinx all over.

“Yes, but we don’t shoot clients, right?” I asked.  “That was the deal.”

Jinx shrugged one shoulder and cleared our plates off the counter, dumping them into a sink of soapy water.  One of these days Forneus, a demon attorney and sometimes client, and Jinx were going to kill each other.  I couldn’t always be around to break up their fights.

I just hoped the demon didn’t pick today to come through our doors.  Jinx was tired, hung over, and heavily armed.

I yawned and stretched.  It was time to get back to work, but where to start?  I flipped through the case file one more time.  Nothing helpful there.  If only I could narrow down the most likely burial grounds for a wisp hideout.

“Perhaps our theory is flawed,” Ceff said.  He was still looking at the map displayed on my phone.  “We know that the wisps acted as bait, luring the children away from their beds, but we haven’t asked why.  What motivation would they have to bring them to a cemetery?  There are many stories of your people tricking foolish travelers, leading them deep into bogs and over cliffs, for their amusement, but why capture so many young faeries?  Once at the cemetery, what do they do with the children?”

It was a good question, one I had no answer for.  I sighed and ran my hands through damp hair.