"Did you see the pentagrams on the trees?"
The question was strange enough that they both stopped being angry and paid attention. I pointed the pentagrams out, and like all good illusion, once I showed them, they could see it. The emperor has no clothes.
"So?" Wilkes said.
"So, this was a circle of protection, of power. Something was called here to kill her."
"The marks on the trees could have been here for days," Wilkes said.
"Test the blood on the pentagrams," I said. "It won't be hers, but it will be fresh."
"Why isn't it the victim's?" Henderson asked.
"Because they used the blood to seal the circle. They had to have the blood before the death."
"It was a human sacrifice then," Henderson said.
"Not exactly," I said.
"This was a troll kill," Wilkes said. He didn't sound sure; he sounded desperate.
Henderson turned to him. "You keep saying that, Wilkes. You keep saying it was trolls."
"That biologist herself said it looked like primates. It sure as hell wasn't a person. There aren't that many primates running around the Tennessee hills."
"She said humanoid," I said.
They both looked at me again.
"Dr. Onslow said humanoid. A lot of people assume humanoid means primate, but there are other options."
"Like what?" Wilkes said. His beeper went off. He checked the number, then looked at me. "Excuse me, Captain Henderson."
Henderson looked at me. "Do you and the sheriff have some sort of history, Ms. Blake?"
I frowned. "History? How?"
"He was very certain that you shouldn't be anywhere near this body. He was also very certain that this was a troll kill. Very certain."
"Who called you guys then?"
"An anonymous tip."
We looked at each other. "Who suggested I get to join the fun?"
"One of the EMS crew. The man's usual partner met you last night."
I shook my head. "I don't know him."
"His regular partner is a girl. Lucy something."
That explained Lucy's medical knowledge, and why she wasn't working on the day of the full moon. Don't want to be around fresh blood with the moon almost full. Too tempting. Too chancy.
"I remember her vaguely, I guess." I remembered her more than vaguely, but the last time I'd seen her was just after I'd murdered someone, so I was going to be fuzzy on the details. For one awful moment, I wondered if Henderson had been trying to trick me and the body was really Lucy. But the height was wrong. The woman had been tall, not my size. Most of the women that Richard dated were short. I guess if you've got a body type you like, you stick to it. My choice of victims seemed to be a lot wider.
"Why did they need a power circle, Ms. Blake?" Henderson asked.
"To keep in what they called."