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The Ipsissimus drew in a breath ‘That’s quite some theory’

Maybe, but it felt right I knew it in my bones

‘He wouldn’t get very far,’ Maidical null, as you say, there are thousands of witches and only one of hiic to stop him’

‘But,’ Winter said, with a troubled expression, ‘how ot to that point?’

I sat up straight ‘Fewer now that we have regained the element of surprise He doesn’t know that we knohat his plans are We lost the upper hand by accident ere in Dartain’

‘The o is in place,’ the Ipsissimus said

I shook my head ‘Even with the best will in the world, so The police need to back off from the coven’s homes Everyone needs to lay low Then, when Blackbeard arrives for his supposed interviee take him down before he so ic, we just need a baseball bat to whack him over the head with Job done’

A fleeting smile crossed Winter’s lips ‘You make it sound very easy It will be even easier if we can find out his real identity and get to hiets close to the Order’

The Ipsissi at crematoria but there are a lot of theuidelines, as you would iine So far there’s been no one whoto burn the bodies of coven members, we haven’t found it yet’

‘Maybe he works soet to the required teested

‘Heto conduct their enquiries without tipping hiet somewhere If we broadcast a photofit of the man, we certainly would’

I sighed ‘But if we do that, we could well be unleashing hell What about thesomewhere It can’t just disappear into thin air’

‘All the letters have been sent to a PO box The police have discovered that it’s registered under a fake identity’ The Ipsissirim ‘A Mr Ripper’

I rolled inative, is he?’

Winter cocked his head ‘You named him Blackbeard because he has a … black beard’ Touché

‘I’m here,’ Maid nulls I’ve ures who may or , really’

I raised my eyebrows ‘There are bloodlines we can follow?’

He slumped into his chair ‘No It appears to be a condition that just occurs at randoh nulls for us to conclude any definitive evidence about the about them The trouble is that absence of evidence doesn’t equate to evidence of absence’

We lapsed into silence There had to be soh the problem of Blackbeard’s real identity Winter, Maidht hard enough, I was confident they’d come up with an answer

Rather than tax my brain pointlessly when there were others around who could do it for me, I leaned back in my chair and yawned The past few days had been considerably etic than I liked If it weren’t for the creepy stuffed animals, I’d probably have asked the Ipsissimus if I could bed down for a quiet nap but, with all those dead eyes staring atso

Brutus, slightly braver now that none of the stuffed creatures had twitched, ventured out towards the horned cat, sniffing warily He raised a paw and struck it sharply on the head then backed away again, as if more disturbed by the stuffed cat’s lack of response than that it looked like Dr Frankenstein’s favourite pet Why anyone ever thought that taxider was beyond me I loved Brutus to bits but if he died before round or…

I shot to my feet ‘Pets!’

The others stared at me in alarm Winter’s eyes flicked fro to this time, Ivy?’

‘You! I’ency flood ated the crematoria, yes?’