“There was a man who followed her. Always at a distance. I’ve scanned all their paths and he was close, but never beside her. I don’t think they ever spoke until the end.”

“Let me guess. He was subtle enough about it that nobody accused him of stalking her like prey.”

“Everyone had their eye on her, but no, I don’t get a sense that anyone was wary of him. He’s still here in the village. Nobody knows that he’s a rapist and a murderer. He only did it the once.”

Ram Odin covered his face with his hands.

“I didn’t expect you to be so moved,” said Rigg.

“I’m hiding my eyes from the future. I don’t have to have any time-shifting ability to know what you’re planning to do.”

“I have no plan yet, so you can’t possibly know.”

“I do know,” said Ram Odin, “even if you don’t know it yet yourself.”

“Oh,” said Rigg. “What am I planning, then?”

“There are two courses of action you could follow,” said Ram Odin. “The first is to find her body, wherever it’s buried—I assume it’s buried, and that you know where.”

“Yes and yes,” said Rigg.

“You find it—tomorrow, say—and then the family has an answer to the mystery. She’s dead, and here in the village, not in some other town. But you won’t like that plan because it leaves more questions than it answers.”

“And also, if I go finding the body, people will think I put it there.”

“I suppose they might,” said Ram Odin. “Though you’d have to have been no older than five at the time.”

“They can’t read my age through this mask,” said Rigg. “Finding the body is just too hard to explain.”

“I wish you’d do it that way, though, compared to the other thing.”

“You think I’ll go back in time and prevent it,” said Rigg. “And you have a powerful argument against it, yes?”

“I think saving the life of a young girl, keeping her from being raped and murdered—I’m always for that. Even if she’s not extraordinarily pretty. Is she, by the way? Or is that just fond memory that has made her flawless?”

“She’s more beautiful than I imagined. Extraordinary. Unforgettable.”

“Now you’re teasing,” said Ram Odin.