that, but not if she was taking her daughter to five other day cares to do the same thing.
"No, no, no," Jenks slurred from under the glaring light. His eyes weren't open, and I was surprised he was conscious enough to listen, much less comment on the conversation. "Kid isn't socializing. The kid is sucking down emotion like..."
His words trailed off in confusion, and I offered, "A pixy with honey?"
Jenks cracked an eye and gave me a thumbs-up. "Yeah." His eyes closed, and he started to snore. I didn't know why, but I unwound my scarf and covered him. Embarrassment, maybe?
Edden was watching us with a questioning expression, and I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. "Mia's probably trying to spread her daughter's damage around."
Edden made a noncommittal grunt, and I continued to leaf through the information. "The neighbor kid who mowed their lawn said that Mia told his mom she wanted a lot of kids but had to space them out, five years apart," I said. "That would go along with Holly being a banshee. You can't have two kids around like that. Hell, a banshee usually has a kid once every hundred years or so, so if Mia is thinking another one in five years, she must have a really good way to keep from killing people to support her daughter's growth..."
My words drifted to nothing. Either that, or someone with her who knew how to abduct people in a way so that they never went reported as missing. Someone like a homicidal maniac capable of serial murders. Sort of like Remus-someone who would enjoy hunting people and bringing them back for his wife and darling baby to drain. That might be why Remus was in good enough health to beat up an FIB officer, feeding his two tigers well enough that Mia could plan on adding to her little family. This was really not good.
Edden was quietly waiting for me to come to just that conclusion, and I closed the file. Numb and feeling sick, I glanced at Jenks, out cold, then to Edden, silently waiting. "I'm not doing this," I said, dropping the packet on his desk. The draft shifted Jenks's hair, and the pixy grimaced in his drunken stupor. "Banshees are dangerous-apex predators. And I thought you didn't want my-excuse me-our help."
At my blatant accusation, Edden reddened. "Who is going to bring her in, then? The I.S.? I talked to them this morning. They don't care." His eyes went everywhere but to mine. "If we don't bring her in, no one will," he muttered.
And he would want justice, seeing that she had something to do with his son being in the hospital. Frowning, I slid the file back off Edden's desk and onto my lap, but I didn't open it. "Next question," I said, my tone clearly stating I wasn't taking the job-yet. "What makes you so sure the I.S. isn't covering it up?" I wasn't about to get on the I.S.'s bad side for a paycheck. I'd done that before, and was smarter now. Yeah, it had felt great showing up the I.S., but then Denon took my license and I was stuck riding the bus again.
Edden's expression went tight. "What if they are?"
My face scrunched up, and I fingered the file. Yeah, it left a bad taste in my mouth, too.
"According to the woman I talked to at the I.S.," Edden said, "there should be a trail almost eighteen months long on this woman, starting with several simultaneous deaths at the time of Holly's conception and continuing on to today. That's probably when the Tilsons were murdered. Ms. Harbor is devious, clever, and has a tremendous knowledge of the city. About the only thing going for us is that she won't leave Cincinnati. Banshees are highly territorial and dependent upon the people they've been siphoning off for generations."
I bobbed my foot and looked at the essay I had written. "Why did you ask me to write this if you already knew it?" I asked, my feelings hurt.
"I didn't know it yesterday. You were sleeping, Rachel," Edden said dryly, then hid his slight guilt behind a sip of coffee. "I talked to Audrey something or other in records this morning. She was going to make me fill out a year's worth of forms until I dropped your name." A faint smile replaced his concern, and I relaxed.
"I know her," I said. "You can trust what she said."
Edden laughed, making Jenks mumble in his