Ritual Magic

route . . . if the body could be safely handled. “How do we keep the icky magic from crawling on people?”
    “Silk, maybe. It’s worth a try. I’ll need you to check to see if it can get through silk.”
    That was going to be fun. “What did your spell tell you?”
    “Two spells, actually. The first one should have let me see if there was any death magic in the area.”
    “Should have?”
    “The results didn’t make sense.” He was huffing a bit from the climb. “You want the long version? It’s technical.”
    “Later. What was the other spell for?”
    “It’s a way to contact the vic’s ghost, if there’s one around. Nonverbal, since ghosts mostly aren’t good with words. That spell would have let me see what the ghost remembered about his death.”
    “It didn’t work?”
    “No ghost this time. Speaking of ghosts . . .” He paused to catch his breath. “Have you heard from yours?”
    Lily scrambled up the last bit and saw Officer Crown waiting. He looked very curious. She grimaced. She hated it when people referred to Drummond as her ghost. “Not since last night. I could try calling him. He said that wouldn’t work as well this time, but I could try.”
    That was too much for Officer Crown. “You’ve got a ghost?”
    “I have occasional contact with one. Karonski? Should I call Drummond?”
    He heaved himself up onto level ground. “Probably, but you need to check out the kids and Hardy first. Officer, I’d like you to stay here, where you can keep on eye on the scene. We’ve got a serious magical contamination problem. No one can approach that body but me or Agent Yu for now. No one. The mayor shows up, you keep him away.”
    Crown’s eyebrows lifted. “Yes, sir.”
    Lily and Karonski set off at a quick jog. “I’m betting on at least two perps. You?”
    “Probably. The vic looks to weigh around one eighty. He could have been unconscious or drugged, so one person isn’t impossible, but it’s unlikely.”
    “The gag suggests they wanted him alive and aware when they started hurting him.”
    “Yeah.” His words started getting spaced between breaths. “Theoretically one guy . . . might have done the staking . . . if the vic was unconscious. But they had to get him down there first. Hard for . . . one person . . . to do that.”
    “No drag marks.”
    “Exactly.”
    “Why here, do you think? Plenty of dogs, bikers, runners in this park. They performed their little ritual as far from the trails as they could, but still. Why not head outside the city altogether?”
    “Ley line. Might be some other . . . significant factor but . . . the body’s smack on a whopping big ley line that’s . . . close to the surface. That isn’t . . . as easy to find as you might . . . look, you go on. I can’t talk and run, and I need to . . . call our people about . . . the contagion.”
    They weren’t running. They were jogging. “You okay?”
    “I’m pathetic, is what I am. Go.” He flapped a hand at her as she stopped. “I’ll call your Detective Erskine, too.”
    She gave Karonski one more dubious look, but he didn’t seem to be having a heart attack. He was just really out of shape. She nodded and set off. The ground was too rough for real speed, but she could pick up the pace.
    Lily had started running in college because it was a cheap, quick way to get in a workout. When crunched for time, she could get in a run, shower, and dress in thirty-five minutes. Forty-five, if she dried her hair.
    She’d discovered she liked it. Needed it. Running cleared her brain better than anything, with the possible exception of the kind of cardio that took two people. She’d run in exactly one marathon, and while her time hadn’t sucked, she’d decided she wouldn’t do it again. It brought out her competitive instincts, and that messed up the experience. Made her think about the wrong things. This turned out to be a good decision, because these days she usually ran with Rule or one or more of the guards. No way a human could compete with lupi, so it was just as well she hadn’t built her runs around the idea of winning.
    She wasn’t winded when she slowed as she neared the bike trail. A uniform was stationed there, making sure no one wandered toward the scene. She told Lily that a van from a local TV station had shown up at the parking lot.
    No doubt more reporters were on their way. Lily grimaced and picked up her pace again. The trail wasn’t