Cook hurries upstairs to drop off the evidence with Forensics when they arrive back at the station. Alton heads to their squad room and pulls out the chalkboard in anticipation. Captain Waesmaer joins her just as Cook returns.

“Where’s Trageser and Isaacs?” Alton asks, expectantly.

“Still out chasing down a name.” The captain picks up a piece of chalk expectantly. “How much do you trust Krag to have not sent you on a wild goose chase?”

“He might be a vile person at heart, but he knows that his own mess won’t be tolerated if he muddies the waters with us on something unrelated. I wouldn’t call him as dependable as Cosimo the Snitch, but he won’t lie if it doesn’t help his own angles.” Alton does have favorites among their regular contacts.

“Alright then,” Waesmaer puts the first name on their chalkboard: Hendry Wymark. His blocky print is all in capital letters. “Who else are we looking at?”

“I’m suspicious of this vampire who claims some kind of intimate relationship with our victim.” Alton picks up another piece of chalk and adds a second name: Adrien Bellemare. Her handwriting is fluid, almost as if she managed to escape an elven accent in spoken language but not in text.

“Are we sure that she’s a victim?” Cook asks, testing the waters. “If our vampire contacts are right that it’s unusual for her to have abandoned her friendships immediately after turning, then it could be that she was Spawn. She could have been killed in self defense.

“If that’s the case, we should be looking at the official who signed off on her paperwork.” Cook adds a third name: Astyocheia the Traociot.

“That’s a weighty accusation.” Waesmaer stands back to observe. “And a damned hard one to prove now that the victim of that crime is destroyed and not talking to us.”

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“What reasons could she have for not telling us about being forced to become Spawn?” Alton asks. “It would seem obvious for her to want that awful experience avenged.” She grabs a blue piece of chalk and adds a fourth name: Marion Durandal.

“Shame?” Cook suggests, “Perverse enjoyment?”

“Seems unlikely. I’d put that as a point against her having been Spawn.” Alton crosses her arms dismissively. “Let’s examine the connections for a minute.”

Cook grabs the magnets and string. Some are still connected from their last case, and he uses those first. He sticks a magnet directly under Durandal’s name. A long red string connects to another magnet.

“We know, for an absolute fact, that Durandal was turned by Adrien Bellemare. I mean, there’s no reason for him to tell us that if he didn’t. Why set yourself up for being caught in that lie?” Cook sticks the second magnet under the ginger vampire’s name. “We also know that somehow the Traociot is involved in the paperwork that either expedited her turning or covered up her becoming Spawn.” He sticks another magnet to the VEC member’s name, and runs purple strings between her, the victim, and Bellemare.

“We are also fairly sure that Wymark is the last person to see Durandal before her destruction other than the one to do it, or he is himself her destroyer.” Alton attaches a white string between Wymark and Durandal.

“This is a mighty disappointing chart,” Cook admits.

“She’s fresh enough that Doomweaver didn’t notice her vampirism,” Alton shrugs, “and what with their fangs morphing in reaction to the Hunger, we can’t prove her vampirism now.”

“That seems like evidence against the self defense theory,” Waesmaer suggests.

“Maybe,” Cook agrees, “but maybe she was just out kidnapping a victim for her master, and not herself out for blood.”

“But why would someone who’s just being kidnapped go straight for decapitation?” Alton asks, curious. “The way she was destroyed suggests that it was done by someone that knew how to end a vampire.”

“It sounds like you two need a way to prove a person’s will was dominated after the fact.” Waesmaer points skyward. “It’s time to hit the library. I know we haven’t had a case where we had to prove that someone was Spawn with no corpse to speak to for proof before, but we have investigated other Spawn related cases. There’s going to be something in the case files.”

“Ugh,” Alton protests, “Here we go again.”