more and more, faster and faster. This one didn't do that."
"Because it's stuck on a timetable?" I asked.
Karen took a deep breath and let it out slowly, giving herself time to think.
"More that the thing is in a new host body," she said. "When the murderer's just a human being, the first kill is the hardest. There are inhibitions to overcome. The second time, it's easier, and so on. With the rider, it's in a new person. There are fresh inhibitions that come with the new personality. Whoever it was in before could have killed twenty people, but Amelie Glapion hasn't killed anyone she loves. Not yet."
"Didn't seem to make much difference for me," Aubrey said. There was an edge to his voice.
Aubrey blinked, sat back in his chair, and drank his lager. I felt a rush of profound gratitude to Karen for pulling even a little of the poison back out of him. He hadn't been able to overcome the rider, but he hadn't been thoroughly ineffective. Fighting a losing battle isn't the same as being powerless.
He caught my eyes and smiled. I felt a little blush rising in my cheeks and turned away. When I looked back up, he was still smiling a little. Ex coughed.
"Then the question is," Chogyi Jake said, "when did Legba take Amelie Glapion?"
"Yes, how long ago did it take her," Karen said. "And how strong-willed is Glapion. And how much power has it regained. There are a lot of variables, and there isn't a way to get good information."
"What would we do with it anyway?" I said. "It's not like we can get the wards up on the new house any faster than we're doing. The only thing I was thinking... can we skip grabbing Sabine and head straight for Amelie Glapion?"
"No," Karen said. "If we go straight for the rider, it will spook and kill the girl, and it won't matter how much Grandma wants to stop it. I can promise you that."
"That's happened before?" Ex asked.
"Close enough," Karen said.
A fast tapping sound came from the tabletop, almost like a phone set to vibrate. I was a little surprised to see that my fingers were making it. I considered my hand. Yeah, I thought. The smell of this ain't quite right. But Karen's certainty carried me. This was her show, after all. She was the expert. We were just the hired help.
"From here, we have several options to pick the trail back up," Karen said. "None of them are great. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the tools I had when I was with the bureau."
"Tools?" I said, latching onto the word.
"Databases. Surveillance teams. Numbnut beat cops to go canvass neighborhoods," Karen said. "Running solo, or even with a small team, just doesn't have the same range, but we'll do the best we can."
Chogyi Jake, Aubrey, Ex, and I all exchanged glances. Karen frowned.
"Am I missing something?" she asked.
"We may have some other resources," I said.
IT MIGHT have been petty of me, it might have been small, but the surprise and pleasure on Karen's face made me feel like I was worth something.
"Let me read this back, dear. Sabine Glapion," my lawyer said from the other end of the cell connection. She spelled out both names, then went on. "Granddaughter of Amelie, sister of Daria. Approximately sixteen years of age, but not attending school."
"I know she was in New Orleans last night, and I have reason to think she's still here."
"All right. Just whereabouts? You don't want her contacted?"
"Just where she is," I said. "I'll take it from there. But sooner would be good."
There was a small, sharp sound on the other end of the connection. It had a finality to it, like something being closed.
"I'll get back to you as soon as I have something, dear," she said. "If anything else comes up, you'll let me know?"
"Absolutely," I said, then dropped the connection.
"You think that's actually going to work?" Karen said. I could hear in her voice that she wanted to believe, but didn't quite dare to.