Despite what I’d said to Detective Fahy, we weren’t absolutely convinced this was a setup. It seemed likely. The scheme was classic Seanna—clever enough, but overly complicated. Yet we couldn’t rule out the possibility she had been murdered. There was certainly no shortage of suspects. I was only glad Gabriel and I had been an hour’s drive up the lake.

We found blood below the window. It was a small pool, as if the person climbed down to the second floor and then hung off the balcony before dropping to the ground. A partial shoe print marred the edge. I took a photo of the imprint, but there wasn’t enough to identify the shoe size.

The blood dripped for a few yards south, headed into an alley, and then stopped, as if the person had paused to bind the wound. We were examining the blood trail when Lloergan gave a jowl-shuddering sigh.

“Getting bored, girl?” I said. “You can go wander if you like.”

Her look oozed reproach, and she glanced to the side just as two figures rounded the corner. It was the dryads from the abandoned amusement park.

“Blood!” the boy said.

“A clue!” the girl said, jogging over to us.

“Wrong crime,” I said.

“You have more than one?” she said. “That’s hardly fair. You ought to share.”

“They are,” he said. “They’re sharing with us. Even if they don’t want to.”

“Can we switch mysteries?” she asked. “Please?”

Lloergan sighed again and lowered herself to the ground, as if to wait out what was sure to be a long conversation.

“How did you find us?” I asked.

The girl lifted a brow in what was probably meant to be a crafty look, but she managed it as well as a three-year-old trying to be mysterious. “We have our ways.”

“Secret fae ways,” the boy said.

“We came to speak to you because we have a problem,” she said. “A lack of clues.”

“Complete lack.”

“Utter lack.” She held out a notebook. “We’ve tried. See? We went through the fun house with a fine-toothed comb.”

“We did?” the boy said.

“It’s an expression.”

“It makes no sense.”

“They never do,” she said. “But we searched and searched and found no trace of a crime. I know you said it was long ago, so we asked other fae. We’ll keep asking, but so far?”

“Nothing,” the boy said.

“So we came to find you. Even if it meant traveling to the city.” She shuddered.

“Not fond of the city, I take it?” I said.