It would be interesting to watch them work.

Interesting to observe their reactions.

Interesting to find out just how good they were.

TEN

None of them were taking the situation lightly, especially when Hollis related the information offered by her dawn visitor as they all ate breakfast downstairs. The innkeeper, Ms. Payton, had given them a rather private corner and large table to themselves and well away from the handful of other guests staying at the moment, either out of common sense or because Finn had charmed her the previous day.

Hollis thought it could have been either.

“Megan Hales.” Bishop frowned briefly, then said, “If I’m not mistaken, she was the granddaughter of one of the Hales elders. Our researchers have gotten that far in tracing at least some of the family lines, but I don’t remember anything about her leaving town suddenly.”

“Last summer,” Hollis said. “Suddenly last summer. Wow. Tennessee Williams, right? Anyway, it was before any of us—well, before most of us—had even heard of Salem.” She didn’t waste a glare at Bishop.

Diana said, “She must have taken being jilted hard if her family believed she’d just left town and stayed out of touch all these months. How old, do you think?”

“Twenties at a guess. Early. I took everything Very Seriously at that age.” She spoke as if it were eons before rather than a relatively few short years. “But getting horribly murdered isn’t what anybody expects to cope with at any age.” Hollis knew her voice was calm, but she felt jittery.

“And at least two more victims since she was murdered,” Bishop said. “The one you sensed yesterday, possibly Cole Ainsworth, probably dead now, and a third one taken even more recently. Dead or being held or tortured.”

“That’s what she said.” Hollis was frowning. “Yet we haven’t had word of anyone else being missing. Does that bug anybody besides me? I mean, small town and all.”

“Yes,” Miranda told her.

“Ask the crows,” Quentin muttered, his thoughts following a different tack. “Does anybody know if Nellie talked—I’m tired of saying communicated—to the one on her balcony last night?”

“She did,” Bishop confirmed. “The crow’s name is Tia, and she not only agreed to our request but let Nellie know that the crows are already—I believe the phrase used was ‘patrolling the valley’—looking for anything they consider to be unusual. Easier for them to see what there is to see in the valley; not as easy on the mountain slopes, though they’re likely patrolling there as well. Nothing was said about knowing the location of a grave or of human remains.”

Quite suddenly, Hollis pushed away the small plate containing the half-eaten jelly doughnut that had been intended to finish off her far more substantial breakfast. “Damn. They’re carrion birds, aren’t they?”

Miranda said, “Not exclusively. They eat insects, grain, fruit, small mammals. The eggs of other birds.”

Hollis frowned and pushed the jelly doughnut another inch or two away. “And here I was wanting to respect them.”