“But when you spoke to the police, you said she encouraged you. That’s not the same as telling you.”

“My children were dead. Dead! And I used the wrong word, so fucking sue me, you son of a bitch. I was devastated.” A practiced sob. “My world…ripped apart.”

“By your own hands.”

“No! She did it. She…she took me over. It was her idea—”

“You said it was your idea. You thought of it—”

“No!” Sullivan flew to her feet, spittle flying. “I didn’t! I didn’t think of it! It was her idea! Hers! All hers!”

Again, the scene went dark. A few others passed by…the arraignment, the hearing where she’d been denied bail, the failed insanity bid, two attacks by fellow inmates who wanted her punished as much as I did. Then it ended.

Trsiel released my hand.

“Nothing,” he said. “The Nix has crossed back.”

“Huh?”

“She’s returned to the ghost world, probably right after the crime. So long as she’s there, the link between her and this partner is severed until she returns to this dimension.”

“What if we kill her?”

Now it was Trsiel’s turn to go “Huh,” though he did it only with a frown.

I continued, “We kill Sullivan, she goes to the ghost world, and hooks into the Nix there.”

He continued to frown.

“What?” I said. “You don’t think it’ll work?”

“Well, yes, I’m not sure it’ll work, but I’m still stuck on the first part of the solution.”

“Killing her? Oh, please. Don’t give me some cock-and-bull about letting human justice run its course. Screw that. She killed her kids. She deserves to die. That’s what that big sword is for, right? Administering justice. Doesn’t get any more just than that.”

“Yes, well, uh—”

“You don’t want to do it? Here, let me. Be a pleasure.”

For a moment, he just stared at me. Then he gave a sharp shake of his head. “We can’t do it. Even if she were dead, I might not be able to contact the Nix through her.”

“So? No harm in trying. Worst thing that happens, she dies, goes to her hell and, whoops, it didn’t work after all. What a shame.”

“No, Eve. We can’t.”

I strode over to the bars and glared through at Sullivan, then turned that glare on Trsiel. “So her life is worth more than those of the Nix’s next victims? Oh, geez, no, we can’t kill this murdering bitch because that would be wrong. Fuck this! Tell you what, you’ve warned me, right? You’ve done your job. So how about you just pop back over to cloud nine, or wherever it is you guys hang out, and let me do my job.”

“You can’t.”