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I finallya shower like I should have, I went back downstairs to Fletcher's office

I turned on the light and looked out over the familiar mess Papers, books, folders, and pens covered the battered desk in the back of the room, and more of the saainst the walls and on top of the filing cabinets that squatted on either side of the door

The sight of the old host of a s it, or the rest of the house, up yet I didn't knohen I would Soone still hurt ashis things around co that part of him was still here with me

But it was late, and I was tired, so I put ot busy It took h the cabinets before I found what I was looking for: the file on Benedict Dubois's murder

Even though he hadn't killed Dubois, Fletcher, being Fletcher, had coet his hands on about the anized it inrecon on the people he assassinated, the oldtrack of asoffed There was probably e at police headquarters Fletcher had clai was a way to stay ahead of our ene where all the bodies were buried in Ashland - a trait Finn had inherited from him

Tonight, though, I just hoped the file told ht be up to I took the folder over to the desk, flipped on a light there, sat down in Fletcher's creaky chair, and started reading

According to Fletcher's notes, Benedict Dubois's murder had been the talk of Ashland for months - if it could be considered a simple murder Fletcher had chronicled the series of events that had led to his death, all the skirs that had proht it had all gone down Even then, there were pages of infor from the blueprints of the mansion to exactly where Dubois had died Given Fletcher's attention to detail, there was even a guest list of everyone who'd been there that night

I put the list aside to give to Finn to see what connections he uests back then and what Salinawith someone on the list besides McAllister

Finally, I got to Fletcher's recap of that fateful night Benedict, an Ice eleant dinner party at his mansion Just before the soup course, he'd tried to take out Mab by stabbing her in the back with a silverstone knife - only he'd failed Naturally, the Fire elemental had made an example out of him for his foolishness

The ht, until it seee to pop into my mind

Then I got to the photos

Fletcher had soes of Dubois's body You couldn't even tell that the ashy, s in the photos had once been a man It just looked like a collection of blackened bones strung together, topped by a skull baring charred teeth

I'd seen sis myself when Mab murdered my mother and older sister My stomach twisted, and the phanto, as if Benedict Dubois's corpse were freshly burned and still s at my feet

I forced , but there wasn't anything else to discover After she tortured and ood long while

I slid the pictures back in the file, closed it, and put a crystal paperweight shaped like ht be ainto the past, but it didn't tell me what had really happened with Kincaid and Salina or,back in Ashland So I turned off the light and went back upstairs