Ritual Magic

Find for you?”
    “I don’t know. We’ve got our vic’s fillings. Could you use them to Find the dentist who made them?”
    “Nope. Any of them gold?”
    “Two.”
    Cynna brightened. “Excellent. Forget about Finding the dentist, but gold picks up and holds its wearer’s pattern real well. Since your victim is dead and oh-so-thoroughly gone, I can’t Find him, but I might be able to Find other objects that hold his pattern.”
    “Really? I didn’t know you could do that. What sort of objects?”
    “His home is the most likely.”
    “I was already glad to see you. Now I’m really, deeply glad.”
    “If he’s just moved, I may not pick up his new place.”
    “If you get anything, it’s more than we have now.” Knowing who Friar had killed would either answer some of Lily’s questions or point her at new ones. “Good chance, you think? Fair?”
    Cynna shrugged. “It depends on how much of his pattern I can get from the fillings, on what the house is made of, and on how long he lived there. Brick and stucco absorb pattern well, but slowly. Wood absorbs pattern fast. Doesn’t hold on to it well, but he hasn’t been dead long enough for that to be an issue.”
    Lily headed for the door, opened it, and leaned out. “Fielding!”
    His office was diagonally across the hall from the conference room. She could see him at his desk, eating from a foam take-out carton. Mexican, she thought, judging by the amount of cheese smothering it. He didn’t look up. “What?”
    “I need you to bring me the fillings. John Doe’s fillings.” They were at the morgue, since they were the only remains the victim’s family would be able to bury. If they ever found the victim’s family. “
Now
would be good.”
    “All right, all right.” He shoveled a last forkful of cheesy whatever into his mouth, shoved back his chair, and grabbed his iPod from the speaker it had been plugged into.
    Blessed silence. Lily closed the door, pleased. Two birds, one stone.
    “Tell me what you know,” Cullen demanded suddenly.
    He’d been quiet so long Lily had almost forgotten he was there. “In a comprehensive mood, are you?”
    “About that, of course.” He waved at the murder board.
    “Precious damn little. I need lunch first,” she decided. “Unless you learned something I need to know right away?”
    “Not urgent, but I—”
    “Then it can wait a few minutes. Anyone want something to drink?”
    “No, thanks,” Cynna said. “We just ate.”
    “Okay.” Lily headed for the door. Her lunch was in the refrigerator in the break room.
    Right after they moved into their new house, Lily had started packing her lunch. She’d gotten a look at one of Rule’s spreadsheets. The one that tracked his expenses for their Leidolf guards. Their salaries weren’t large, but there were twenty-four of them plus Scott, who was Rule’s second and had his own line item in the budget. Add that to a fortune per week in groceries, the insurance and upkeep on the five vehicles Rule provided for the guards, and ammo and withholding and utilities and something called WCP—
    “Are you hyperventilating?” Rule had asked.
    “No, but—but you can’t possibly afford that!”
    “I don’t pay it. Leidolf does.”
    “But you said Leidolf’s finances were a disaster.”
    “I never said the clan was broke.” Rule had leaned back in his chair. “Stop and think, Lily. Leidolf is the largest clan. Not all of them pay
drei
, but most do. At the moment, seven hundred and forty-five clan members are providing Leidolf with an income of nearly two hundred thousand.”
    “Yes, and if I ever pulled in two hundred grand a year I’d think I was swimming in money, but that’s, uh . . . fifteen thousand a month? Sixteen? That’s barely a third of—”
    “Lily,” he’d said patiently, “I’m talking about monthly income, not annual.”
    Oh.
    “Obviously that’s gross. After-tax is more like a hundred forty—at least it is now that we’ve paid off that damn tax bill. We do get some income from other investments, but not much. Leidolf owns only two small businesses outright, and only one of those is profitable, and then there’s the tax bill on the North Carolina land and . . . and you don’t want to hear all that, do you? Basically, Leidolf has about one-third of Nokolai’s net income and half again as many clan members to provide for. I’ve started a college fund, but it’s badly underfunded. There are other obligations that