Glenn’s steps slowed to a halt, and we gazed at Mr. Ray’s secretary. “Those three women were suicides,” he said, “the first one dying by self-mutilation, as Mr. Ray’s secretary appears to have died. I think she was murdered, then doctored up to mimic suicide.”

I glanced at him, wondering if he was looking for ghosts in the fog. Seeing my doubt, he ran a hand over his short, curly hair. “Look at this,” he said, leaning over Vanessa and picking up a limp hand. “See?” he said, his dark fingers circling her thin wrist in sharp contrast to her pale skin. “That looks like a bruise caused by restraints. Soft restraints, but restraints. They aren’t on the woman who made it to the hospital, and I know they had to tie her down.”

Okay. Now I was interested. Maybe Vanessa had been into sex games and it went too far? Leaning forward, I agreed that the soft red ring could have resulted from a restraint, but it was her nails that caught my attention. They had been professionally manicured, but the tips were split and ragged. A woman considering suicide doesn’t pay beaucoup bucks to get her nails done, then tear them up before she can end her life properly. “Where was she found?” I asked softly.

Glenn heard my interest and flicked me a grin that quickly sobered. “Under a dock in the Hollows. A tour group spotted her before she could get cold.”

Not wanting to be left out, Jenks flew from my shoulder to hover over her. “She smells like a Were,” he proclaimed. “And fish. And rubbing alcohol.”

Glenn twitched the sheet with which she’d been covered in lieu of a bag all the way off. “Her ankles have pressure marks, too.”

My brow furrowed. “So someone held her against her will and then killed her?”

Jenks’s wings clattered. “There’s a strand of medical tape caught in her teeth.”

The breath Glenn had taken to answer me exploded out of him. “You’re kidding.”

Adrenaline pinged, and feeling woozy, I looked to see. “I’m not trained for this,” I said when Glenn took a penlight from his pocket and motioned for me to hold her mouth open. Gingerly I took her jaw in my hands. “I’m not going to take a knife to her and poke around.”

“Good.” He trained the light on her teeth. “I don’t have authorization for that.”

The squeak of the double doors pulled my head up. Jenks swore as I let go of Vanessa’s jaw, my swinging hand almost smacking him. Tension flashed to fear for an instant as I saw Denon, my old boss from the I.S., standing in the middle of the floor like the king of the dead.