“You know my partner?” she said, hurriedly swallowing before she spoke. The whole “don’t talk with food in your mouth” was a lesson she hadn’t learned growing up. There had usually been an absence of food in that mouth.

“He’s the dark-haired young gentleman, isn’t he?”

Severn did have dark hair. So did Kaylin. Kaylin nodded, wondering if she should save the second pastry for later.

“He wears that very unusual belt; it’s striking and so bright. I think it’s lovely, if possibly slightly inappropriate for normal office wear. Oh, don’t mind me,” she added, slightly flustered. “My thoughts were elsewhere.”

Belt? Kaylin decided against saving the pastry and bit into it while she thought. So far, so good: no ghosts. Kaylin privately suspected that Mrs. Erickson was lonely. As far as anyone in the department knew, she lived alone, and if she had ever had children, none of them visited. Not that background checks of average citizens who were not in any way considered a threat were common—but Mrs. Erickson was, if slightly frustrating on busy, chaotic days, nonetheless well-liked.

Two years ago, the old woman had failed to enter the office. People had been slightly surprised at her absence, but thought little of it. But she failed to arrive the next day, and failed, again, on the third day. In a row.

Since Mrs. Erickson wasn’t young anymore, mild relief gave way to concern, and one of the Hawks finally went round to check up on her; her reports were filed with a clear address on them, and the address hadn’t changed in all the years she’d made her trek to the Halls of Law.

She had fallen down the stairs to the basement and had injured her leg. Not her hip, which Red said would have been far worse for a woman of her age, but her leg. It was sprained, not broken, and the Hawks had gone round to dredge up money to buy actual crutches, which they then took to her home—along with a basket of various kinds of food, similar to the food that she generally brought with her.

But in the investigation, they learned that she was, and had been for decades, living alone in the small house. She had no pets—she said she liked both cats and dogs, but cats refused to stay in her home because it was haunted, and dogs required more physical energy than she had these days, where these days had been the case for as long as Kaylin had been with the Hawks.