“The short answer is… We don’t know. He takes his victims weeks prior to their discovery. The McKenna girl escaped. Losing her might have broken the pattern.” He tapped a card on the table’s edge. “Or, it’s possible the dead girl Letitia claims to have seen with the kelpie was taken in time to be sacrificed on schedule.”

I waved a finger through the air. “The Garzas can’t wave a magic wand and tell us?”

“No.” Reluctance flavored the word. “The purported victim’s body won’t be found for a few weeks, and if we’re truly ahead of him, then by the time that girl is found the next will have already been taken.”

Nodding that I understood, I still battled the feeling we had abandoned the poor girl, though a corpse was all we could have reclaimed had we stayed and searched for her.

“We’re here because Miguel’s magic said this is where the kelpie is or will be soon.” He tilted his head. “The fact is, there are too many variables. We don’t know enough about Charybdis to pinpoint any one thing as breaking his pattern. The conclave has never been a step ahead of him before.” He flexed the card in his hand until it almost bent in two. “Coming to Mississippi so soon after a kill may be part of his process. He may be here scouting the area while he searches for potential complications prior to moving his operation here.”

We were talking about a glorified horse thinking in terms that would be alien to an animal. This wasn’t a run-of-the-mill kelpie, we knew that, but this wasn’t the bipedal fae Thierry saw exit the portal either. Did that mean the portal fae was controlling the kelpie? To what end? What did he gain through having another creature commit murders on his behalf? Where did the circle fit into things? Why was Tennessee the target? We didn’t have enough information to do more than guess, and guessing made for sloppy detective work.

We needed more from the Garza brothers. This was a good start, but it wasn’t enough. We needed a means of tracking the person holding the kelpie’s reins. The only way I could think of to do that was offering up the kelpie itself. Charybdis’s magical signature permeated his victims’ bodies long after death, but the trace was so faint I wasn’t sure the witches could use the bodies we had recovered so far. Not to mention I couldn’t very well sneak them into a secured conclave facility or smuggle one out for them to cast over. Our best bet was capturing the kelpie or, gods forbid, finding the remains of the Alabama girl before the conclave did, when they would be freshest.

Rolling my head on my neck, I rubbed my sore nape. “How long until the Garzas give us an update?”