“No.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “Mary cut off all contact with me. She said it was for the best.” Her tears gathered, spilling over the reddened lower lids. “That she was finally able to set me free.”

“And when was that?”

She looked at him, seemingly unaware that she was weeping. “April, I believe.”

“And there’s been no contact since? Letters? Phone calls? Has anyone reported seeing her?”

“No.” A tear etched its way into a wrinkle. Finally registering her tears, Emma pulled a tissue from her sleeve and dabbed at her cheek. “We kept to ourselves, Officer. No one in Pemkowet knew Mary’s story. We wanted to keep it that way.”

“I understand,” Cody said, circling back to an earlier question. “About this Raymond—do you know where she met him?”

“Oh!” She dabbed at her other cheek. “Yes, I’m sorry. She met him at Our Lady of the Lake.”

“The Catholic church?” Cody couldn’t keep a note of surprise from his voice.

“They have a youth ministry,” Emma Sudbury said, as though it explained everything. “There were children there. And it was the anniversary.”

“What the hell would Ray D be doing at a Catholic church?” I wondered aloud. It didn’t exactly seem like the haunt of choice for a meth-dealing ghoul.

“Our relationship with faith is a complicated one, Daisy,” Stefan said quietly. “Raymond would not be the first of his kind to seek to reconcile it. And I have spoken with Father Domenico. He strikes me as an enlightened fellow who is sympathetic to the unique needs of his parish. Indeed, given your particular circumstances, I’m surprised you have not sought him out.”

Again, huh.

“My mom was raised Lutheran,” I said. “I think she was afraid the Catholics might try to exorcise me or something.”

“Some might,” he admitted. “Not all.”

“Is there anything else you can remember, ma’am?” Cody asked Emma. “Anything at all Mary might have said?”

She shook her head, then reconsidered. “She said Raymond meant to keep her like a queen.”

“But not where?”

“No.” She regarded the damp tissue wadded in her hand. “No, Mary didn’t want me to know. She is in trouble, isn’t she? Something bad has happened.”

“It’s possible,” Cody said gently. “But we don’t know the extent of your sister’s involvement.”

Emma Sudbury took a deep breath, releasing it in a long, shuddering sigh. Her gaze shifted to Stefan, and her voice took on a note of bitterness. “You’re like her, aren’t you? Why aren’t you broken?”

Stefan met her gaze without flinching, his pupils fixed and unwavering. “We remain what we were, my lady. I fear your sister was broken before her death. My circumstances differed. I was not.”

“But you died?” she asked him. “Died, and came back?”

He inclined his head to her. “I am Outcast, yes.”