Page 63 of Death of the Glass Angel
“Yes. Thank you for your cooperation.”
The woman shot to her feet. “I’ve given up hope, but if you find him. . .”
“I’ll do what I can. If we learn anything to give you hope or resolution, I’ll see that you hear of it.” Des curtsied and turned away, and Talon followed her onto the street.
“Oh boy,” Talon muttered as the door closed behind them. “This is going to take a while.”
“Better get comfortable,” Des said. “Want to take turns doing the questioning? I bet people will be more inviting towards me.”
“I doubt it. I ooze charm and innocence.” Talon snatched and read the list of names. “People love me.”
“I’m sure they do.” Des teased him.
Flicking the paper upon finding the next name with a residency, Talon walked off. Des sauntered alongside him, tense and alert, peering into alleys and watching any passersby. How quickly she had forgone Gemellus’ suggestion to remain inside her suite.
A couple of hours passed by as they traveled from house to house, interviewing the relatives of the victims. Some slammed the door in their face, others were skeptical, while most seemed happy someone was bothering to look into the case at all. With each encounter, Des noted the victim’s appearance, age, gender, and race, and where they had disappeared. And to her chagrin, people seemed more willing to speak with Talon than her.
He employed this voice when speaking with them, a tone he’d used on her. Calm, comforting, commanding. It set them at ease within seconds.
Des supposed he won this battle, then.
After going through about half the names and en route to their twenty-sixth, Des read over her notes and slowed to a stop mid-street. Talon noticed and turned around. “What?”
“The pattern is clear.” She flipped her journal around and pointed at her notes. “All are male, stormborn cefra, and under forty.”
“And most went missing on the south side or in the mountain pass,” Talon concluded. “But the other half might break the pattern.”
“I think that’s unlikely.”
“You never know. Sometimes you think you have it all figured out, and then a new piece of information shatters everything you believed.”
“Yes, but most left on the list were prisoners,” Des said. “How exactly would we find information on them?”
“Let me take a look, then.” Talon agreed. “There’s a park nearby we can take a break in.”
Park proved an undeserved word. A lot of dirt greeted them, with a few structures for children to play on and a handful of benches beneath trees. At least a pleasant view of the mountain pass beyond welcomed them.
“Splitting up would have made this considerably faster,” Talon sighed. “There goes my day.”
“Did you insist we stay together because you finally realized I’m the most desirable woman in the city?”
“I’d bleed myself dry before I let another man touch you.” He smirked. “Let’s get started.”
* * *
Des sat beneath the tall pine, reading over her notes. The pattern seemed clear as day on a second glance.
“Well,” Talon leaned toward her. “We found the pattern, but we’ve the entire mountain pass to search for bodies.”
Drumming on her journal, Des stared into the distance. Janus owned a book on every city, detailing its architecture, history, and other relevant information. Des had never taken much interest in it, but Weisskopf City, an ancient edifice, had been one of Janus’s favorites, in part for the tunnels said to be riddling the surrounding mountains.
Maybe one was nearby.
“I have an idea.” Des stood, snapping her journal closed and tucking it into her bag. “Follow me.”
“Follow me.” Talon echoed, lazily standing. “Are you going to tell me where to?”
“What if he’s hiding in the old tunnels through the mountain passes? Nobody uses them.”
