Four:
Aurelia and I walked the perimeter of the crime. The smokey presence seemed to simply appear in the area. I could hardly trace it, almost like the presence was half-concocted. Aurelia frustratingly searched around, sniffing the area discreetly.
“What are you picking up?”
I asked her, and she shook her head and said, “About as much as you are if I am reading your mind correct. This being, whatever it is, seems to simply materialize.”
Her frown deepened and she said, “It’s almost as if it wasn’t here or anywhere, before this spot.”
Aurelia tapped her foot lightly, trying not to draw attention to us. Our position in the tight alley on the opposite side of the victim’s house was still swarming with investigative humans and their recording devices.
“Loathed as I am to say this, we
