“That would be logical if your theory is correct. But that's a big ‘if,' baby.”

“I know it is. For me, though, it's like what you said when we were investigating Jimmu. I can see there's a pattern here somewhere; I just can't quite make it out. But I know who my money's on.”

“Jane,” Ryu said, using his most long-suffering tone. “You can't keep blaming everything on Jarl.”

“Really?” I asked, raising my chin to meet his eyes. “I still believe there was more to Jimmu's murders than we know, and I think that one of these days we're going to discover that it all traces back to Jarl.” Ryu made a noise as if to protest, but I didn't let him interrupt me. “Don't you think it's strange that Jarl sent someone here to keep an eye on us? And why is Phaedra's lot always divided into two groups, one of which is with us and one of which is always missing? It's like one group is spying and the other is on call to act on whatever is uncovered.”

Ryu shook his head, as I knew he would.

“And why haven't we talked about the note in front of Phaedra? None of us trust her, Ryu. Not even you. How far does that distrust extend, if not to her boss?”

“There's a difference between not trusting Jarl or Phaedra, and thinking that they committed those murders in Chicago. We have nothing connecting them to anything. And yet, if I'm correct, what you're insinuating is that there's not only a connection between Jarl and these murders, but also a connection between Jimmu's murders and what's going on right now. You do realize how crazy that sounds?”

“Okay, so it's a stretch, but—”

“Jane, what part of ‘We investigated every aspect of Jimmu's crimes' don't you understand? Do you think we're inept?”

“No, I don't think that at all. I just think that our enemies are smart, Ryu. Maybe smarter than we are.”

Ryu took a deep breath. I knew he was frustrated with me, but I wasn't going to back down.

“So how do you think Jarl is involved?”

I took a deep breath, carefully ordering my thoughts. I knew I had a tendency to spout off and sound like a conspiracy nut, so I had to choose my words carefully. “Because I think Jarl is the mystery sponsor. You said yourself he's the spymaster. What if he was brought a rumor regarding Conleth, but he squashed it and took over the investigation himself? When he found Con already living in a lab, he took it over using magic and money. He's got an instant guinea pig, no muss, no fuss.”

Ryu looked at me like I'd just barfed cockroaches.

“That's so ridiculous I don't even know where to begin. No member of the Alfar would ever risk our discovery like that. We've guarded the secret of our existence with an avidity that has been entirely unscrupulous. Any human who discovered us, and attempted to share their discovery, was neutralized. Along with anyone he or she could have told. Back in the day, we wiped out entire villages protecting our secret.” I frowned but Ryu didn't let me interrupt. “I'm not telling you this to debate the moral implications of our actions. I'm telling you because it's the truth. Besides which, what you're saying doesn't make sense. How could he have gotten involved in such an enterprise? And kept it hidden?”

I thought about Ryu's words. There'd been something Morrigan said to me months ago, when we were at the Compound, that had been really important at the time in terms of the murders we'd been investigating. I'd gone over and over everything that had happened, almost obsessively, because I still didn't get why Jimmu had done what he'd done. The other supes seemed happy to write the nagas off as mad racists who took advantage of an opportunity to kill halflings. But I knew there was more to their murders than just hate. I felt it in my little half-selkie bones.

Anyway, Morrigan's fateful words had obviously stuck with me because they helped me figure out that I'd seen a disguised Jimmu in Rockabill. But now they took on an entirely different connotation.

“Ryu,” I interrupted, twisting my neck around to peer up at him. “Remember how, way back when, Morrigan tipped me off about where I'd seen Jimmu by saying that thing about ‘teams of scientists'? ”

“Yeah, 'course.”

“Well, think about it for a minute. I mean, even at the time I thought it was weird that she'd say that. We're talking about supe fertility, and she brings up the fact that they don't do things like humans with science. There's a million different things she could have said, so why that?”

Ryu thought about it a second and then nodded, albeit grudgingly, as he followed where I was leading.

“Like she had it on her mind,” he replied.

“Exactly. And now we're suddenly investigating a laboratory that tested on a halfling. What if it was something that had been brought up to her and Orin by Jarl? They would obviously dismiss the idea; she said ‘science' like it was the craziest thing she'd ever heard.”

“But she still had it on the brain.”

“So, what if Jarl brought up using human science to Orin and Morrigan, and they immediately pooh-poohed his idea? Jarl's not the type to let something go. What if he decided to do everything by himself? If he was trying to start up some fertility experiment using halflings, that would explain Peter Jakes's assignment…”

“But even if Jarl did want to experiment on halflings,” Ryu broke in, “why kill them?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.” My brain shut down as it crashed headlong into the brick wall of reality. “Yeah, that makes no sense. Why kill your lab rats?”

Ryu reached under my towel to stroke a hand over my belly. “It was a clever idea, baby,” he murmured, his lips following his words, pressing into the soft lobe of my ear.

Which only reminded me of the bloodied ears Jimmu had collected, and I shuddered.

Ryu pulled away, frowning at me as I started to apologize. “Sorry, Ryu. I was thinking of the ears Jimmu hacked off of those bodies…”

And with that, my brain leaped gracefully, like a gazelle, right over the top of that pesky old brick wall. I made a weird, low noise that sounded like a barn owl hooting. Ryu blinked at me and I blinked back, startled by my own noise before I remembered what I'd just thought.

It's a long shot, but worth looking into…

“Ryu, what happened to the bodies of Jimmu's victims?”

“Sorry?”

I sat up in Ryu's arms, feeling my towel slip but not caring.

“What happened to the bodies of Jimmu's victims? Were they buried, cremated, what?”

“No idea,” my vampire breathed, his eyes now focused on my bared breasts. I pulled up my towel and, hopefully, his attention.

“We need to find out what happened to the bodies. Can we find that out?”

Ryu's eyes flickered to mine before he reached out to tug at my towel. I held on to it, waiting for an answer.

He sighed. “I'm sure we've got all of that information with each victim's file. We can check as soon as we get home…”

I stood, eager to check out my hunch. Ryu looked up at me and then reached out a hand as if he wanted help getting up. But when I took it, he pulled me down hard and we were again lying on the soft sand.

“Snack first,” he murmured, as he flipped me over effortlessly so that I was lying beneath him. His mouth found my nipple as his hand dove between my legs, causing me to yelp.

“Files later,” Ryu mumbled into the soft flesh of my breast.

I was about to protest when I remembered that this was as much about keeping Ryu's power topped up as it was about getting nookie. He'd been throwing a lot of mojo around this afternoon, so he was just as in need of a power fix as I'd been. And we needed every member of our team at top spec.

So I let the pleasure wash over me even as I tamped down my impatience to get home and look at those files, tightening my body around his fingers so that I would come more quickly. Ryu's tongue was already at my throat, preparing me for his bite.

I gotta admit, it felt really fucking good.

But I'd never felt so much like a goddamned granola bar in my entire life.

“Ryu,” I called, three and a half hours later. We were back in Boston and I was huddled over Ryu's desk with all of his files on Jimmu's halfling victims. He'd told me numerous times that he'd gone back and investigated each of the halfling murders, but I hadn't realized he'd been this thorough. Everything was in these files, including what happened with the corpses of the deceased…

“Ryu! This is important…”

Ryu came in from the kitchen, where he'd been ordering Thai food.

With another weird triumphant hoot that made both of us pause, I handed him the papers I'd pulled out of the files of each of Jimmu's victims. Ryu turned his body and leaned back on the edge of his desk while I avidly watched him read.

He went slowly through each piece of paper as my body thrummed with impatience. Finally, he looked up and shook his head ruefully.