“Only that, over time, it was one girl here or there, within what is now understood is about a two-hundred-and-fifty-mile radius around this area where the recent bodies were found. Not knowing what this area was, for it is nothing but a clearing, though it would appear from the marks on the bodies, and the girl who was found, that all the women were staked to the ground in it with, perhaps, some ritual being held, and with that large of an area that covered several districts in two counties, it took some time for the local constabularies to realize that they all had a similar problem. However, it was only upon a great number of women going missing at once very recently that the locals established large search parties and came upon the pile of bodies.”

Alfie felt his jaw would crack, he was clenching his teeth so tightly.

He forced them to loosen in order to query, “Were all the women who had recently gone missing killed?”

“They are uncertain if they have all the information, but as of now, at least five more women who had gone missing were not found with the bodies at the clearing. Though, their whereabouts are still unknown.”

Fucking hell.

“There were also the bodies of two men,” Mikaelsson went on, shifted in his seat again, alarmingly having trouble meeting Alfie’s gaze, before he pulled himself together, looked right at Alfie, and stated, “One had had his head crushed by what appeared to be a great force, but it was caved in on both sides, not a weapon or a rock striking him in one. And there are no markings a weapon or a rock were used at all. The other was mauled, astonishingly brutally, indeed, his head was severed from his body by what appears to be the swipe of a claw, as if by an animal. A very large one.”

“A bear?” Alfie queried.

“Bear do roam the Lesser Thicket, especially in unpopulated areas, but I have not seen the body, so I do not know.”

“Are these men known?”

Mikaelsson shook his head. “They have not yet been identified, no.”

Alfie drew in breath and sat back.

“Although there was much confusion and other reaction after the bodies were found,” Mikaelsson went on, “thus tracks and footprints in the dirt were disturbed, it is thought that a number of people fled the area in all directions, men, and some women, one of the women barefoot, which, in tracking, was how they found the last victim. And there did seem to be some animal tracks. Hooves, like a horse. But they were odd. They were only found in a small area of the clearing, no horse tracks leading to or from that area, and there were only hind hoofprints. However, it could be other tracks were destroyed in the commotion of finding the bodies.”

“I’m assuming none of those who might have fled have been found,” Alfie guessed.