After being transported home on a historic rail and spending the rest of the night in the comfort of his own bed under the cameras, Sao felt completely reconstituted. His mind was refreshed and ready for all the surprises of the new day.

Then after two monotonous hours on the cross-district bus, he wanted to crawl back into bed. Snow was once again falling on Murnau and it wasn’t the lovable fluffy white stuff but a dull, grey wetness that melted into an ooze as soon as it hit the salted ground.

The photo Rai had sent didn’t help his mood.

It was similar to the humiliations of Zed and Ace, and those before them. But this time it was Rip, spiky head thrown back on some tiled floor, probably a bathroom, unconscious with his eyes closed and mouth half open, his shirt pulled off and pants pushed down. His neck was marked with an oval-shaped bite and on his chest was the word WAITRESS scrawled in blood.

That the image had come again was bad enough, but unlike any prior, Rip’s face and hair were also cute with blood. Three thick streams poured down his face from some gash under his hair, and there was also a nasty gash on his arm, a mangled red line from the crook of his elbow to just above the wrist. Whoever had done it was no longer concerned about hiding some telltale bruise.

“One of the pre-Valentine parties was held in his dorm last night, and his friends told the medics he was drinking heavily. Probably thought it was finally safe. At some point he was caught in the bathroom, but he was conscious, and struggled,” Rai said. “He ended up breaking the needle in his arm. So the culprit whacked his head on the stall door a couple times to do what the drugs failed to.”

“That’s quite an escalation in violence.”

“He could have a concussion. I told them he shouldn’t have been discharged.”

Sao massaged his own head, feeling an aching coming on. Rai had arrived by bus hours earlier to see Rip at the hospital, but the boy had already checked himself out. He wrung what he could out of hospital staff and campus security and told Sao to meet him at the police station for their next appointment.

The town’s station was a small, quaint building nestled between a laundromat and a cinema with a marquee sign. The sign was dark; the place wasn’t open yet.

The station waiting room was quiet, full of modern minimalist furniture that looked like they had never been used. Except for all the public safety posters and pamphlets, it resembled a high-end corporate lounge.

“I should have given you your day off,” Rai said.

Sao couldn’t tell if he was joking. He didn’t have the energy to mull over it. “So Rip became the third in the pattern. You mentioned Ayer was held by police overnight. So our culprit is still loose.”

“I don't think Ayer’s innocent.’ Rai sat on one of the thinly cushioned chairs. “He confessed both to us and the local police. He was the one to attack Zed and Ace. This third hit is likely either someone seizing the opportunity to get revenge for themselves, or continuing his mission for him.”

“If it’s someone who cares about Ayer, Traid’s a definite candidate,” Sao said. He tried to settle into one of the chairs but the padding was no better than cardboard. “He’s more or less figured out Ayer’s plan, he knows enough to continue it. So does Jin, I suppose. But Jin doesn't have any attachment to Tinsel and he was disappointed that she was Ayer’s motivation all along. Would he act on either of their behalf?” He frowned. “Neither seem likely to attend the drinking parties.”

“Yeah, Triad’s fast on his feet but he would have a hard time sneaking up on a student in a busy dorm.”

“There’s the other three of Rip’s friend group. Ace did say from the start it was plausible Happy would enact the vampire stunt as a joke.”

“The weird thing is, Happy’s the one who called me, pretty much insisting I rush back. Could be a prank of his, but I don’t think his posse is so loyal to him that they’d let him drag this out.” Rai looked out into the colorless morning, thoughtful. “Maybe he’s scared. It’s likely enough that there are guys besides Ayer - or girls - wronged by him and wanting revenge.”

“Then it could have been anyone.”

“There’s one more person we know who's crucial in all this,” Rai said.

Sao’s temple throbbed.

“So what did you do with the flower?” Rai asked.

“What flower?”

The glass doors slid open.

—

The scarf unwound, the overcoat zipper parted and at last the hat came off. Tinsel emerged from the cocoon of wool blinking rapidly.

“Thanks for coming out so early,” Rai said.

She giggled. “I feel like I should be the one saying that. So how can I help?”

In his sleep-deprived daze, Sao almost asked her why. They were back to investigate on behalf of those who had wronged her. She had every right to berate them, tell them they were on their own, and walk out. If Sao were in her position he would have at least told the detectives that they couldn’t meet him until noon because he wasn’t crawling out of bed hours early for their convenience. He supposed that was one of the many reasons why he wasn’t going to be winning over anybody with love at first sight.

She glanced at him, cautious. He smiled at her. “You have no idea how much we appreciate your willingness.”

She remained standing, turning the hat over in her hand and looking around the police station, from the leaflets to the currently-unmanned front desk. “That guy from yesterday, he’s not out?”

“No, they’re not letting him go yet.”

“I thought that’s why you told me to come here. To talk to him, maybe apologize. He’s innocent, isn’t he? After what happened at the north-side dorm party…”

“Well, yeah, we can rule him out for anything that happened last night. That’s the problem. He confessed to the incidents involving Zed and Ace and we’re pretty sure he was behind those, but couldn’t have done that to Rip. So the question is, who did?” Rai’s eyes narrowed and Sao closed his own. He knew what was coming. “Where were you last night?” Rai asked.

“At home. I mean, in my room in the Alumni House.”

“No events there that night?”

“No. There typically isn’t much in the evenings before Valentines, because all the dorms are doing their own things. The M Island dinner was something of an outlier. They have a holiday that happened to fall on this week...”

“Makes sense. So you were by yourself the whole night?”

“Yes.” There was no fight in their answers. She even sat down, green eyes wide and contemplative. “You’re saying nobody could vouch for me being home, and it’s true. But honestly, if I did go to one of the dorm parties, I would have been seen and everyone would be saying it. I don’t go to parties much in the first place.” She kneaded at her scarf and gave Rai a shy look. “I know how this looks. I learn someone was taking revenge for me and I get inspired, or something, to finish the job for him. But there’s no way I could do that. And if I did, there’s no way I’d get away with it.” Her voice cracked. “Not me.”

Hearing her, Sao’s heart cracked a little too.

“This might be a lousy question, seeing as Ayer was a secret admirer you couldn’t have known about, but are you aware of anyone else who might be willing to take revenge for you, or any one of the girls who were previously posted on Neocam?”

“I really don’t. I’ve actually given it some thought since meeting Ayer.” There might have been tears beginning to spring from her eyes. “I really don’t have any close friends in Murnau.”

“Any casual friends then? Classmates, teachers who showed sympathy for any reason? Dates?”

“There’s really nobody I can imagine here…”

Rai detected that shift in tone. “Someone off-campus. Family? Fiancé?”

It was a joke but her face went red, her freckled nose crinkling. “No. I did have a boyfriend, but he graduated. We broke up around that time, that’s the real reason I had to move back to campus so quickly. The Alumni House had space, and I was always doing stuff there, so it wasn’t a lie that I was there because it was convenient. But I wouldn’t have had to move if–” She squeezed the scarf so taut the strings could have been strummed like a guitar. “He’s not really like Ayer, though. Not from what I know.”

And yet, she sounded hopeful that all she knew was wrong.

“What’s he like?”

“He was sweet, but not pushy or overprotective. But he was always super busy and he was interviewing for jobs in the city and got busier. I was too, I guess we couldn’t spend enough time together, and that’s why we didn’t work out. Although—”

Once again she cut herself off.

“Do you think it would be alright if we spoke to him about this? We won’t show him any of the pictures.”

“If you think it will help,” she murmured, “and the pictures, you can if you think…”

And again, hope had trickled into her tone. Sao’s chest ached. How could a person live with so few defenses?

“Would you be able to give us this guy’s name?” Rai asked.

—

“Tinsel came by?” Ayer peeked out the door.

“She thought you were let out of here already,” Rai said. “Just to confirm: you weren’t actually let out sometime last night, were you?”

Ayer folded his thick tanned arms and took a seat at the meeting room table, where he’d been having some toast and coffee when the cop on duty let them in. What’s question wasn’t pure sarcasm - the police didn’t seem very concerned about restraining their prisoner. “You’re here about what happened to Rip, then. No, unless I sleepwalked, obviously I wasn’t there.” Ayer blanched a little. “What a bloodbath. I do kinda feel guilty.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s gotta be a copycat. They were trying to mimic what I did, only it went wrong. It’s not that easy to draw blood cleanly and painlessly if you’ve never done it before. Sorry, that probably sounds messed up. Whoever it was tried their best. Uh - I shouldn’t say that either.” Ayer pulled his mug over, to warm his hands rather than drink. “How was Tinsel holding up?”

“Surprisingly well.” Rai eyed the coffee enviously.

“Great.” Ayer sighed. “She’s been through enough. You know, I want to thank you guys. I would have continued to chicken out when it came to meeting her if you hadn’t blown my plan up. Like, even though I’m not with her, the idea that she knows my name now, and might even be thinking of me tomorrow, that’s enough.”

“What’s tomorrow?” Rai asked, suspicious.

“Valentine’s.” Sao smiled.

“Valentine’s.” Ayer smiled wider. “Do you think the cops will let me write her a card, if I’m still in here until then?”

Rai looked at Ayer as if he had lost his mind, then at Sao, which Sao didn’t think was very fair. “Shouldn’t you be thinking about writing to a lawyer or something first?”

But Ayer was lost in the prospect of this card, mouthing to himself the words he’d write, tapping out the beat of a song to go with it on his cup of coffee. Rai was staring at him in mild horror. Sao rested against a filing cabinet and wondered if they would hold that pattern long enough for him to rest his eyes for a bit.

This was until an explosive blare came from the direction of the waiting room. The sound was painfully familiar.

—

“Where is that son of a bitch?”

“Move along, sir…”

The car horn went off again. Sao felt it in every inch of his skin. Ahead of him, Rai shoved his way out of the doors, strode across the pavement and slammed a hand on the roof of the low green vehicle. “What is it now?”

“Look who actually showed up.” Happy was without his sunglasses, perhaps because it was such a dark morning, and his eyes sparked like polished blades. “Bet you thought, job well done, time to go home and jerk off. Look what you fucking did.”

Happy hit a button somewhere in the smooth interior and the back seat window began to roll down. Sao caught a few tips of spiked black hair before the window began to roll up again. The passenger had pressed his own button. The game of electronic tug-of-war went on for a while before Happy decided on a different approach.

“Show them your face!” Happy bellowed at his passenger. “This is their fucking fault.”

“Not right now. I’m gonna be late to class. And quit yelling. My head hurts enough already.”

“You probably have a concussion,” Happy said with sudden gravity. “You should go back to the hospital.”

“Yeah, you should take him back,” Rai agreed.

The sudden show of support knocked Happy’s attitude off for a moment. He stared at Rai, without suspicion, but without gratitude either. It seemed a scenario completely alien to him.

The pieces of his pride locked back together the moment Ayer emerged from the station.

“Man of the hour,” Happy crowed. “Look what you fucking did. Are you proud? Does it make you hard, seeing guys messed up like this?” The window went down and Rip’s face slid into view. His eyes were swollen, his lip cut and there was a spotted red bandage taped to his neck. He fumbled for the button for his window and made what sounded like a wet sob.

Ayer surveyed them all calmly. “We all know I didn’t touch him. I was here all night.”

“Don’t try to pretend you aren’t involved. You’re the one who started this. And you’re going to fucking regret it.”

“I started it? What did I start, exactly? You and him, and the other two - maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t have been drugging girls in the first place.”

The car door clicked open. Rai kneed it closed again and turned to Ayer. “Get back in there.” He snapped at the door guard, who had become absorbed with his phone. “Hey, put him back in wherever you were keeping him.”

“All for a shitty little whore who didn’t even know your name,” Happy snarled.

Ignoring the guard’s attempts to turn him around, Ayer looked back with an eerie calm. He eyed Happy, then slowly turned to Rip. “Wow. You let a mouth like that suck your dick, little guy?”

The insult did not register with Rip, who had passed out for a few seconds and only regained consciousness when Happy had launched his body out of the car window, flying past Rai like a leather-clad missile. He didn’t stop until his fist collided with Ayer’s jaw.

—

The day wore on. A few sticks of sunlight managed to pierce the steely clouds over the campus, but to Sao the stinginess of the light only made the place look more forsaken. They walked along the unlit Row, keeping pace with several clusters of students, to their next meeting spot.

“Idiots,” Rai was saying. “I thought kids left those insults behind in eighth grade.”

Sao had left his school entirely before eighth grade. “Happy is as Ayer suggested to us - he likes a show. And Ayer was clearly out to push his buttons. Happy’s the last of his group who hasn’t been revenged upon in any way, no doubt he’s upset.” He paused, unsure he should be defending either. The boys had both left the sidewalk with bruises. “Ayer was nastier than expected, I’ll grant.”

“He was never a saint. Look at what he did to Zed and Ace - was willing to do to all four. He’s basically one of them. And we can’t even give him the credit for stopping the vampire photos, because look where we fucking are today.” Rai scowled, and pushed his fists into his pocket. “Sorry.”

It wasn’t an apology worth debating. They trudged on in silence.

They were on the north side of the campus, overlooking the rectangular field with its fresh coating of grey snow. The LEDs behind the plexiglass sign for Fisher Hall glowed in the murky light. Jin was waiting for them by the front doors, bundled as always in his black hooded sweatshirt.

“So you guys came back,” he remarked tonelessly.

“There was another attack,” Rai said.

“There were before, and they’ll keep happening, probably.” Jin folded his arms, but he came off more uncomfortable than indignant.

“The attack on Rip looks related to the previous two.” Rai was having trouble mustering up real acidity too. It was too cold, too droll a morning for anyone who was not Happy or Ayer.

“And you’re wondering if I know anything. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t go to those drinking things. Even if I was…” Jin’s gaze fell to his ice-crusted sneakers. “You’d be better off asking anyone else. Apparently I’m so blind I can’t recognize a lunatic, even if I’m living with him.”

“So what did you get up to after we left last night?” Rai asked.

“Alibi talk? Are you really doing this? I was in my room trying to work on my app project, but I guess nobody can confirm that’s where I was. My roommate, if you’ve noticed, hasn’t been around.” Jin threw them a sliver of a smile that was slightly unnerving cut into his puffy red face. “Unless you’re going to tell me he was. I thought he was in jail all of last night. Are you sure nobody let him out? No softheaded or bribe-able cop let him out for a walk? He’s crazy, you heard him talk yesterday about that girl. She didn’t shoot him down when she could, that probably just encouraged him.”

“That girl?”

“Tinsel? Weren’t you the ones who figured that out?” Jin scoffed. “Have you bothered to question her about this latest attack? I really can’t believe he’d trash his life for her. She’s not my type, I can tell you that.”

The string of off-color comments rang oddly to Sao’s ear, like notes out of tune. He wasn’t quite sure why. Jin’s face spelled nothing but disgust, but perhaps it was disgust for him and Rai, used to mask some second truth underneath.

Jin began to notice Sao’s lingering stare. “What?”

“I was just wondering,” Sao said, “how long have you known Ayer?”

“Like a couple of months. He got placed with me when he got back from that hospital job in Highland.”

“Not very long. I suppose you couldn’t be expected to know what he was really like.” Sao smiled, and tried to put some heft into it. The effort made him feel like yawning. “But you two seemed to get along so well. He had you helping him collect the pictures for his mission.”

Jin’s cheeks, which had held up in the cold until then, colored slightly. “I guess so. I don’t have a lot of friends, so when he asked…” He shook his head. “No. This is a trick. You must think I’m a moron. He tricked me, so you can do it too, huh? I’m not going to jail over that freak.”

Like Tinsel, he didn’t have many friends. Sao felt for him; there was a time Sao himself had clung to the first person who’d bothered to look his way. He had clung hard, for years. And then he’d lost her in the forest, his brain so underdeveloped and unprepared that he could only conceptualize the event as a dream. Jin’s friendship had just been a few months long, and he was more or less a grown man. He had shrugged the betrayal off painlessly.

But still, there were those discordant notes, scattered throughout in his little diatribe.

Sao pushed down that yawn again. Rai was giving him a look.

“I’d better stop talking before you try to frame me for all the damn things,” Jin muttered, re-shouldering his backpack. “If there is someone out there finishing what Ayer started, you’d better start taking this seriously. Rip got messed up way worse than the other two.”

“You think all that extra violence was trying to send a message?” Rai asked.

“What else could it be?” Jin frowned. When he didn’t get a reply, he headed down the path, glancing back to make sure they weren’t following. He was sorely disappointed.

“One more thing,” Rai said, jogging up next to him. “Do you remember two days ago, in the evening, we ran into you a little further up from here? Closer to the Row, where the crossroads to the Alumni House is.”

“Not really.”

“Maybe you didn’t see us. You ran by-” Rai held his hands up over his own face. “You were yelling sorry, sorry, sorry. It’s not especially relevant to the case, but I was just surprised.” He glanced back. “And Sao was really worried.”

“Oh, yeah. That was Tuesday?” Jin’s shoulders sagged a little. “What a shitty day. My project proposal got slammed by the professor. I didn’t feel like looking at anyone or being polite. Sorry if I scared you. Or…” He looked at Sao, and looked away, at the Row, and finally decided to face Rai. “That’s about it.”

“Sorry to hear,” Rai said. “Well, that’s about it. Thanks for your time.”

They watched him go, tripping every so often on the hardened snow mounds.

Rai blew out a long hot breath. “Kind of a shitty day today, too.”

The yawn Sao had been withholding finally escaped. “Is it strange that I feel if I had ever been a college student, that I’d have been like Jin?”

The response to that was electric. Rai burst into hard, choppy laughter. Puffs of vapor danced around his face, and Sao couldn’t help smiling too. Rai scrubbed a tear from his eye with the back of his glove, then threw the hand out in Sao’s direction, perhaps to push or grab or shake some sense into him — but remembered just in time not to. The action ended with a limp wave. “Better Jin than a Happy or an Ayer. Let’s get out of here. I feel like having a slushie.”

—

The vending machine in the great stone lounge of Eggers Hall was to be a bright spot on an otherwise dismal day. He and Rai spent entirely too long pointing out and looking up the flavors of the neon-colored concoctions. There were an awful lot of berries he’d never heard of before and according to their searches, did not actually exist outside the menu of the Slushie Shop Corporation.

Sao pretended to be interested in the frighteningly named Magma flavor, which was sold out, and bought nothing. Rai selected the pure white Snow flavor. The machine poured a little syrupy mixture and ice into a cup, sealed it with a plastic film and dropped it out of the chute.

The hallway of the second-floor offices was unchanged. The lights off, the monochrome view of bare trees with a sprinkling of snow starting to come down. There was even the same storm of footsteps coming from behind Triad’s closed door.

With one hand, Rai lifted the Snow slushie’s straw to his mouth. With the other he rapped on the door. “Professor Triad, it’s Rai again. Can we talk?”

The pacing continued within. Unlike during their previous visit, there was no attempt to hide them. In anything, the thudding became more rapid.

Rai gave the door a few more knocks, then leaned back against the windowsill. “He was pretty mad at us last night. Well, let’s give him a few minutes.” His brow furrowed with disapproval as the footsteps continues. “He probably shouldn’t be dosing morphine and running around like that.”

“He was taking morphine?”

“According to the bottle I saw yesterday. But he had a whole bunch of medications on that counter in the back.” Rai took a long pull on the straw.

“What exactly does Snow flavor taste like?”

“Snow.”

From inside the room came the sound of shattering glass and a loud thud.

Rai put the cup on the windowsill. “Professor? Everything alright in there?”

There was still noise from within, though it did not sound like the walker was on their feet anymore.

“Perhaps we should call the campus security,” Sao said.

As if he’d spoken the magic words, the footsteps began again, pounding over carpet and wood, upon them before Rai could form an answer. The door flew open and Triad glared out of the stale and humid darkness. It was the first time Sao had seen him close up, in full light, and Sao could now say without doubt that Triad was a very sick man. His black clothing was caked in dust. His hair was plastered thinly to his waxy, sweat-covered face and his exposed blue-white arms were a mess of wiry veins and unhealed needlemarks. He smelled like salt and iron.

The tips of his fingers were red. For a moment, Sao had the bizarre idea that he had painted his nails one of Skogul’s sunset colors. Rai caught on faster. “You’re bleeding.”

Triad looked around him in confusion, his watery red eyes unable to gain purchase on anything that could help. “Maybe. What’s happening?” One long stride took him back into the darkness of the room.

Rai followed him in. “Did you break one of your bottles?” He pulled off one glove and held the glowing hand in front of him like a lantern. “Triad! That’s glass, just leave it–”

All Sao could make out of Rai was the illuminated hand in the darkness, its light flickering off the glass on the ground and over Triad’s waxy translucent skin. The disembodied hand reached toward Triad and a long white arm lashed out like a snake. Rai yelped.

“What happened?” Sao bleated. He patted the walls for a light switch but found none. “What happened, Rai?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” The neon blue hand had caught hold of the wriggling white shape and was pulling it toward the doorway. Rai’s pale grimace emerged out of the dark, his eyes looking pitted. “What is wrong with you?”

Triad appeared in the rectangle of light, led by the hand, an oversized child. He appeared to be lost in weeping. Sao approached him cautiously then backed away. There were no tears in his face; it was just the loud, moaning breaths that gave the illusion of crying. His expression under the shivering wisps of hair was utterly vacant. He might not have been conscious - there was nobody there, no understanding.

“I think he needs a doctor,” Sao said.

Rai pulled Triad’s hand closer, to inspect the damages. “This is what happens when you try to prep a syringe with the lights off. What were you thinking, going for the glass?”

Triad looked at Rai, then to his hand, and perhaps it was the pulsing glow of Rai’s aura that finally soothed him. A faint glimmer of recognition returned to his eyes. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva (though some had already trickled out and down his chin) and spoke. “I did. I’m sorry. It’s nothing to worry about.” He straightened himself up to his full height and tried to peel Rai’s fingers off his arm. “Why are you here? Why are you back?”

Rai’s grip remained firm. “Rip was attacked.”

“Who? Rip?” The light in his eyes began to slide.

“Yeah.”

“But Ayer–”

“Ayer was held by police all night.”

“He was? So that means–” Triad squeezed his eyes closed, and once they were open again he was lost. “Oh. Oh, no. I’ve made a mistake. I need to go. Excuse me, excuse me.” Hollow eyes fell upon the hand still at his wrist. Triad smiled benignly and Sao shivered. There was absolutely no comprehension left. “I need to go.” The smile became strained. “You can’t do this. Excuse me.” His voice became a childlike screech, a sound uncanny from the mouth of such a large man. “I need to go!”

“I think you need medical attention,” Rai said.

Triad’s smile vanished. His second hand came out of nowhere, clamping down on Rai’s shoulder. Rai’s grip loosened and in that instant, Triad threw him out of the office. His full strength took Rai off his feet and sent him flying out the door. Rai hit the windowsill opposite with a full-bodied thump. The slushie went toppling.

“Fuck you,” Triad snarled. “Fuck you. You can’t talk to me like that. I’m a doctor, and you have no authority here.”

His clawlike hand folded around the edge of the door and a shrill fear shot through Sao. He had to move. He darted under Triad’s elbow and dodged out the door. His foot landed in Snow flavored slush.

He looked back. Triad was peering at the floor around him in bleary confusion, looking too late for the rat that had just slipped by. He spotted the trail of white sugary ice on the floor and Sao felt the vacant gaze crawl up his legs and stomach and neck. He kept face averted. He felt for some reason that if he met the man’s eyes he’d find himself drained, flayed, destroyed.

Rai had regained his footing and put himself between them. What he hoped to achieve against a man that could toss him like a sack of flour, Sao didn’t know. He hated that he was, regardless, grateful for any barrier between himself and what Triad had become.

“It’s the stress.” Triad said sadly. “I can’t have stress. I need to make preparations. Go away.” He coughed. “Now.”

The door slammed. The pacing within began anew.

—

The altercation with Triad had unfortunately put Rai in the mood for chatter.

Coming off the adrenaline of the moment, Sao wished more than ever to lie down somewhere for a nap. Instead, he found himself navigating unfamiliar streets alongside Rai, trying to locate the address Tinsel had given for her ex-boyfriend.

“Left here? Does that house count as two blocks? Ugh, I should have rented a car,” Rai rambled.

When Sao had told Marsh they were back in town with a laundry list of suspects to visit, Marsh had offered his vintage convertible. With Rai’s driving habits in mind, Sao had assured him it wasn’t necessary. He only partially regretted it.

The neighborhood they had come to visit was a perfectly clean, attractive acre of suburbs made up of large bungalows with low-fenced lawns. It was about twenty minutes from the campus at a brisk walk, but looking out for ice had tacked on significant delays. Sao’s face felt stiff; the concealer was cracking in the cold.

“You good?” Rai asked.

“I should be asking you that, after what happened this morning.” Sao winced when he remembered the sound of Rai hitting the window, the crunch of the stone ledge digging into his side. Or perhaps the crunch had been from the slushie falling. Still, Rai had wound up with a small cut on his cheek and forehead.

Both of which had healed to near imperceptibility. A Life Fountain’s aura at work.

“Good as new,” Rai said. “Like it never even happened. I wish he’d left some kind of mark so Campus Security would take my complaint seriously. They claimed they checked up on him but - get this - he wasn’t in his office. How convenient for him.”

Sao sighed and scratched the hardened chunk of makeup under his right eye.

“I guess we can’t expect anyone here to take complaints of assault seriously, considering all the crap that’s already been overlooked. Maybe I should take the opportunity to mug someone.”

Sao conceded with a chuckle. “You don’t have it in you.”

“Only because you’re here.” At Sao’s silence, Rai continued with a caustic grin. “I have you talking me out of it before I’ve even tried.”

“Well, here comes a pair of unsuspecting marks. Don’t let me hold you back.”

A couple with a young daughter strolled by. Each parent had one hand full of groceries. Their other hands held that of the little girl between them, who was skipping tirelessly to keep up, singing and thrusting her parents’ hands left and right as she jumped. Sao wondered if he’d ever had that kind of energy, even as a child.

“Watch out for the ice,” Rai warned. The little girl was the only one who bothered to look back.

“Terrifying. You’ve got them on the run,” Sao said.

Rai grumbled that he was kidding and stomped ahead. The air seemed to get a little warmer. The snow even stopped, for the moment.

The address scribbled down by Tinsel was on a corner; a bright blue block of a house with laurel hedges and a very large driveway, all freshly dusted with snow. Rai walked up to the door and rang the bell. The chime could be heard from within, but there was no movement.

Sao did not want to admit he was relieved.

“Are you looking for Irving?”

A portly older man was spying on them over the hedges from a neighboring lawn. In his hands was a shovel.

“Yeah. Have you seen him around?”

“Not recently. Said he was headed out on a business trip. Although, that was a while ago, so he’s probably due back any day now.” The man’s little gray eyes squinted. “You know door-to-door soliciting is illegal in this district, don’t you?”

Rai pulled out his identification. “We’re investigating an incident that happened nearby. It might have involved a friend of his at the university.” He eyed the door. “Looks like someone’s been taking his mail and shoveling his driveway for him. You?”

The man scoffed and thumped the end of the shovel into the ground. “I can barely handle my own. You’re thinking of his girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?”

“She also feeds the cat. Told her she should take the fleabag inside with the cold snaps we get around here, but she says she can’t seem to keep it in.”

“Yeah, that’s not smart. So she can still get into the house? When did you last see her?”

“A day or two ago.” The man squinted again. “What do you mean, ‘still get in’?”

“The girlfriend, is she a redhead? Kind of short, freckles?”

“Oh, no, no.” The man guffawed merrily. “That’s the old girlfriend. I haven’t seen her in, eh, probably a few months now. Why, what trouble’s she gotten into? She always seemed a nice little thing, but not much of a spine.” The laughter cut abruptly. “I shouldn’t be saying, but I suppose you can’t arrest him for this, so listen: Mr. Irving was actually seeing the redhead and the new one at the same time, for a while.”

Rai’s expression was inert. “I guess the redhead found out eventually.”

“Did she ever! I never heard a peep from her before that day, but she really has a pair of lungs on her, that girl. He and the new one locked her out and the crying on that doorstep went on for hours.”

Sao wished that the man would stop talking. He wished that the trip had borne a little less fruit. Had Tinsel really believed, even for a second, that her unfaithful ex-partner had taken up the mantle as her avenger? He supposed the reasoning behind that sort of insanity was that she was still in love. And it wasn’t even the worst he’d seen from a lovesick student in the last few days. He was getting a little sick of the concept. But not as sick as those who wholly fell prey to it. Perhaps Ayer and Tinsel really were destined for each other.

Doomed, not destined, he tried to tell himself. But even with a negative spin on wording, at least they wouldn’t be alone, that much was promised either way. He wanted to kick himself. Now he was jealous.

He wanted more than ever to put his head down somewhere soft and go to sleep.