Mrs. Erickson’s possible magical talent was of interest because it appeared to allow Mrs. Erickson to see the two. Mrs. Erickson’s ghosts were of interest only because Kaylin could see them without the familiar’s help, and their presence seemed to engage the marks over most of Kaylin’s skin.

“Don’t you have a report to write?”

“Tain’s writing it. Records: Esmeralda Noachin.”

Esmeralda Noachin’s final report was gruesome. She had been executed seventy-four years ago, having been found guilty of a series of very gruesome murders. The victims: her family. Three family members, mother, father and younger brother, and one cousin. Four victims.

She hadn’t spoken a word in her own defense; she had refused to answer any questions. She had not reacted to the verdict the court handed down: she was guilty of murder, and she would pay the ultimate price. Even on the day of her execution, she’d been expressionless and silent.

Prior to the murders, however, there had been minor misdemeanors, breaking and entering, attempted theft.

No motive for the killings could be found; one lawyer felt there might be answers associated with her disappearance as a child. But she had always denied being kidnapped; she had claimed that she had gotten lost and couldn’t remember what happened afterward.

“Do you have family names for the other three ghosts?”

Kaylin shook her head. “I only have Esmeralda’s because of Records searches.” She felt a chill take the air around her spine. “Records: search for Jamal, capital crime files.”

Jamal hadn’t been reported missing. There was no information about his disappearance in Records. Many families didn’t trust the Halls of Law; some were involved in petty crimes they didn’t want revealed to officers of that law. But the lack of a missing persons report didn’t mean he wasn’t in Records.

Jamal Rayan had been convicted—and executed—for a series of gruesome murders that had taken place over a century ago, one hundred and fifteen years to be more precise. He had, at the time, been twenty-five years of age. The image Records offered was an adult male, broad shouldered and tight-lipped, hair long and braided down one side. Forty-one years before Esmeralda’s murders. He had killed his family, but his family lacked a father. His mother, his two sisters, and his half-brother—a young child—had been his victims.

Kaylin noted the number of victims, and wondered if four was significant; he’d killed the same number of people as Esmeralda before he’d been sent to his death.

But before his death, he had also been arrested for petty crimes—breaking and entering, attempted theft. His life had not apparently been kind.

“Are you betting that the other two ghosts will have somehow not been dead until they reach a certain age? And that their eventual death leads to the executioner?”

Kaylin nodded.