Free Dirty Little Misery (Miss Misery) by Tracey Martin Page B

or some thing else. In the Newton victims’ case, the debris left a signature behind that resembled the signature left by F.
    I balled my hands into fists, wishing there was a better way to release my tension. Punching someone would be nice, and Olivia Lee’s face came to mind for having dragged me into this mess.
    “All that means is the people had F in them when they died, right?” I asked. “That’s not exactly shocking.”
    Anna brought up another slide, this one covered with the complex lines created by another type of scan. “Maybe.”
    “Maybe?”
    She looked extremely pleased about something, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “See, here’s where it gets interesting. See this and this?” She pointed at various spots on the scan that meant nothing to me. “All the victims showed this same pattern, but I’ve never seen magic like that associated with F before. I don’t know what it is, but it was something seriously strong.”
    I hoped my sigh of relief wasn’t too obvious. “So the F didn’t kill them?”
    “I wouldn’t make that assumption at this point.” Anna turned off the slides, and the lights came back on.
    Andre had a laptop open and was taking notes. “What about the envelopes you found in the trash? They had F in them.”
    “Yeah, but just residue.” Anna sat down. “There wasn’t enough to get a clear reading off it.”
    Brian rubbed his hands together. “And no other evidence of magic was found on the bodies or at the scene?”
    Andre shook his head. “Nothing, but those people had been dead for at least six hours before we got called in. If there was another weak source of magic around them, it could have dissipated before we got there.”
    “Or been removed.” Brian paged through his papers. “Who found them again?”
    “Michael Stacy’s father. According to his statement, he was dropping off his son’s golf bag that he’d borrowed. Newton PD claims he was in serious shock.”
    “No wonder,” Brian said. “It seems unlikely he’d have tampered with anything if he didn’t try to cover up the scene itself. But it can’t hurt to do some digging at this stage. You might turn up more ideas. In the meantime, the most likely explanation is that additional magic trace Anna found came in on the F. There’s a good chance we’re dealing with someone selling contaminated drugs.”
    I frowned. “Contaminated? Why would someone purposely add extra magic to them?”
    “Could be a lot of reasons,” Andre said. “Preds will often throw extras into the charms they sell to humans, or outright lie about what they’re selling. It’s no different when the charm comes in the form of a magical drug.”
    Anna yawned, stretching out on her chair. “Nope. It’s actually not that different than a human dealer cutting their non-magical drugs with cheaper drugs or other chemicals. Sometimes it’s harmless. Sometimes it’s not.”
    Great. I had heard about that sort of thing happening, and Andre was right. It wasn’t uncommon at all. The Gryphons, as well as various government agencies, often put out PSAs, reminding people why they should only buy charms from trustworthy sellers. Of course, such sellers never included preds, and F wasn’t a legally produced spell in the first place.
    Brian cleared his throat. “All right, here’s how I’m suggesting you approach this. Andre, you should do some digging into the victims’ backgrounds. We need to rule out other motives or possible causes for their deaths. Jess, this case is going to exemplify why Director Lee thought you’d make a valuable consultant. You’re going to need to use your connections in Shadowtown to help us find out about the F.”
    I shifted in my seat. “I don’t exactly have connections in Shadowtown.”
    Brian appraised me, his gray eyes hard through his glasses. “You have stronger inroads there than we do, as evidenced by the satyrs helping to protect you. The satyrs—or certain satyrs—will be the ones