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"There’s nothing wrong with Abigail I just need to speak with you I’ you can help me, that’s all," she said

"Where?"

"The cemetery where they found the first body," Fiona said

"Fiona, if there were any clues there that Jagger DeFarge missed, on’t find them," Billy said solemnly

So innocent But they had to look past what they saw on the surface Or did they? Maybe everything was all exactly what it see the murders Perhaps that vampire appeared to be honest and aboveboard, and that was the surface she needed to see past There was still good reason to believe Billy was guilty, and that good reason even had a na worse by the day I’m afraid we’ll have riots in the streets soon And we all know that no erfor a normal murderer, so normal police procedures don’t apply," Fiona stressed

"You are the Keeper," he said softly "If you tell me to be soirl’s prints but so far there was no match on record

She had died in the sah the er

Eventually, of course, the er wasn’t really afraid that the city would instantly start believing in va even more closely at the cults and the self-proclai dread and pain unlike anything he had experienced in a very long tier watched while the beautiful blonde victim was autopsied on the sterile table in the sterile roo the natural release of body gases

But none of those scentsto him Nor did it particularly bother him to watch the ME make the Y cut on the body, or listen to him drone on into the overhead voice recorder as he listed facts and figures on the healthy young organs, pristine liver--she hadn’t been a drinker--clean lungs--she hadn’t been a smoker--and perfect heart Life had stretched ahead of her She shouldn’t have been dead She should have been joining friends for coffee after work, or attending classes, irl seeedy and the loss present whenever life was stolen fro He knew that professionally he should be keeping his emotions in check Still, this hurt, almost as much as if he had known her Or maybe she reminded him of Fiona, and that hy he felt the pain of her deathDewey had finished, leaving his assistant to sew up the beautiful young woh or love again

Craig shook his head He had nothing new to offer

Jagger knew that she was still a mystery woman, and that somewhere, aher, praying for her safe return

Not knowing yet that she would never come home

By day, New Orleans’ cities of the dead were unusual places They were sites of strange and twisted beauty, filled with unique vaults and raves Over the years, lect had interrupted the normal process of natural cre bleached pieces of bone lying atop cru masonry

Not these days, of course This was thewould not be offended by the dead

And stillwhen the day careat orb began to fall toward the western horizon, the ce spiritual into--soer caates in to deal drugs--and worse

Soinated in the mind, because in the darkness and the mist that came when rain and heat collided, monsters rose froht

And soates were closed, and she knehere to hide when the guides urged the last of the day’s visitors to leave

She stood near the Grigsby toentle and beautiful Soft pink rays falling on the serene faces of angels, wrenching the heart as the light darkened topeacefully by a la the rand vault frohteenth century, there a more modern mausoleum with touches of bronze Soht a way out, and solass s, opaque, so no one could look in, and-- the light and the colors fade, she heard soainst stone, a whisper of movement in the air

"Billy?" she said quietly, but no one responded She decided she s

She slipped around the Grigsby to a path that led toward a monument to the Italian workers in the city She skirted the rusty ironwork fence and paused behind the

She checked her watch, certain that Billy was due any minute Perhaps the noise had been Billy

Perhaps he hadn’t heard her call his naain, and this tirand marble mausoleum owned by a family named Tricliere She saw that the door--which should have been tightly closed--was open, and she held very still, listening