Page 53 of Soul Sucker

“The closest one was about thirty miles away.”

“So how did the murderer get to Laney’s building?”

He glanced over at Ella, but she had her head propped up with her hand and seemed to be doodling on the yellow pad in front of her. He’d already handed her some painkillers and another bottle of water but she was too quiet for his liking.

“We don’t even know how the killer is getting his information about the empaths or how he is picking his targets.” Vadim tried to read what Ella was writing, but he couldn’t make it out.

Alexei leaned back in his chair, his Fae-Web spiraling around him. “Liz and I have been considering that and we believe there are only a few possibilities.” He glanced at Liz, who nodded. “Information about empaths isn’t that freely available.”

“Otherworld has that information, as do the current world governments,” Feehan replied.

“That’s a hell of a lot of people,” Vadim said. “And most of them are open to corruption.”

Feehan stiffened. “Not on our side. We all know that the moral code in Otherworld is very different.”

Vadim couldn’t disagree. “Let’s assume that the leak originates in Otherworld then.” He turned to Liz. “Where would such information be held?”

“That’s a great question.” She frowned. “There’s the empath academy, of course, and a central administration department also based in Merton that keeps records of humans who have Otherworld antecedents, or who are empaths.”

“Can you contact them through your Fae-Web?” Feehan asked.

Liz sighed. “No, even our technology doesn’t work well across the divide. We’ll have to go and see them in person.”

“Then you’ll have to do that, Liz.” Feehan wrote it on the board under the word “actions”. “Anything else?”

“Do we have any footage from the security cameras at the apartment complex?” Alexei said.

“Not yet. But I’ve put in a request for them.”

“I doubt our man will show up,” Vadim commented, his gaze still on Ella’s bowed head. “He’s got enough power to evade the cameras.”

Ella finally looked up. “How do you know?”

Vadim met her gaze. “Because I could sense his magic. Is there anything else you’d like to contribute to this conversation, Ms. Walsh?”

She glanced down at her pad. “There’s one thing. I see a pattern here. He’s targeting empaths who are approaching their twenty-seventh birthday.”

Liz suddenly sat forward, her gold Fae-Web shimmering. “And members of your graduating class, Ella.”

“What?” Feehan turned from his contemplation of the board to Liz.

“I just made the connection. All of the victims, including the ones in Russia, graduated from empath college within a year of each other.”

“From the same college?”

“Not exactly. There are a few scattered around Otherworld. Offhand, I know of one for Europeans and two for Americans, and probably at least a couple more for everyone else. But the victims are definitely from the same year.”

“Great.” Ella put down her pen. “It would be good to get a list of all the empaths who graduated with me worldwide, and check up on their well-being. Maybe we’ve missed a few suspicious deaths along the way.” Feehan paused to look at Liz. “Will the central record office at Merton have that information?”

“They should have.” Liz made a face. “The problem is finding it.”

“It should be a priority,” Feehan said. “Ella, would you be willing to go with Liz to visit the college and the records office?”

“If I have to. They don’t like me much over there. I kept trying to destroy their portals when I ran away from school.” She gave Vadim and Alexei a pointed look. “Won’t we need a foreign language specialist to gain access to some of those files?”

Feehan rubbed his hands together. “I’m sure that will help. Until then, we’ll do another check into Peter Jameson’s background, review our victim’s phone and computer records, and wait for the results of the autopsy.”

She winced and Vadim cursed Feehan for his insensitivity. Had he forgotten that Ella had just lost her best friend?

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