"Where did you get these?" He flicked through the cards with a slight frown. "It's very old-fashioned to store information in this form these days."
"They were stolen from the premises of a dead man. Maybe he didn't trust computers."
Stane snorted. "It's far easier to steal information from these things than it is from computers."
"Says the man who hacks for fun and profit."
He grinned. "Well, yeah, but I'm an extraordinary inpidual. The common man generally isn't as clever as me and my kind."
His kind meaning hackers and black marketeers, not werewolves, obviously. "If we haven't already overwhelmed you and your computers with requests, could you do a search through these and see if there's any link – however tenuous – to Lauren Macintyre?"
"Sure. Could take a while, though. There's a fair few names in here, by the look of it."
"I know, and I'm sorry, but it could be the only way we're going to track down our sorceress." And maybe the only way to save Mirri. But there was no point adding that. Stane would do his best, as usual. "We need to know the minute you find anything."
"Speaking of findings, I managed to get the autopsy results for the body parts and teeth the cops found at the storage place that blew up." Stane reached over to the second of his desks and flicked a screen. Several documents flashed onto it. "Long story short, the bits did belong to Genevieve Sands. Problem is, she was dead long before this blast tore her apart. The coroner picked up evidence that the body had been frozen."
"Just like the real John Nadler." My voice was grim. "It's beginning to look more and more likely that we're dealing with not only a full-body face shifter, but one capable of taking multiple male and female forms."
"If that is the case," Azriel said, "then it is possible the clothes we saw in Lauren's wardrobe might well have belonged to her alternate male identity."
I glanced at him. "Yes. Which means that cuff link might yet lead us to her, even if a search through the index cards doesn't."
He raised an eyebrow. "How? It is an inanimate object, and in and of itself can provide no clues."
"To you and me, yes. But to someone who has psychometry skills, maybe it can. We have to go see Adeline Greenfield about her apparently resurrected brother; maybe she can point us to someone who can help."
"Why not ask the Brindle?" Tao said, voice a little strained, but overall sounding a whole lot less tense than a few moments ago. "Surely they have witches capable of that there?"