Free Death & the City Book Two by Lisa Scullard

the other one.

Chapter 24: Undercarriage Of Events

    "So you're looking for where the cracks might start to appear before they do?" Warren asks. "That suggests you're normal now, anyway."
    "I'm just cautious," I shrug.
    Warren is going over the bodywork of my car with a scanner, in one of the old RAF hangars. They've got a small piece of the destroyed grey FTO scanned into a computer, and are analysing the differences between the two.
    It's a coincidence that we're discussing cracks. What I actually just asked him, finally, is if there's a psychological profile on Connor. Not because I'm concerned, like before - but because I'm interested.
    "There was no detectable chitosan in the grey paintwork, or undercoat, on the FTO," Warren muses, preoccupied. "That's a biological crab-shell derivative in the paint on yours which reacts to sunlight, and stabilizes minor fractures before they can become vulnerable. It looks like lack of this element meant the FTO had hairline scratches from normal driving, which exposed enough of the compounds in the undercoat eventually, to make it go ballistic."
    "Cool," I say, the logical side of my brain turned on by science.
    "Plus it looks like it was washed frequently, which wore away the food-grade shellac in the varnish which was its only stability otherwise, and waxed with something which got into the hairline fractures, and reacted with or fuelled something else in the undercoat, acting as an accelerant," he continues. "You're better off as you do just waiting for it to rain, and only adding a bit of pH-neutral soap."
    "I'll put it on my shopping list," I agree, trying to remember what the pH-balance of Xiannu Liquid is, which is what my car usually sees every few months if it's lucky.
    "The way you're being cautious now, anyone would think you'd had a relationship before. So it's a good enough illusion of being normal," he admits. "Obviously, everyone gets monitored carefully. But some of you need less watching than others. Jason Green, they'd like to keep him on because he's a privacy freak and a diligent sort, which is good, but has more women after him than Elvis, which is not good. Plus he's still overawed by money in the world that he doesn't have yet, making him immature and likely to be fickle - but money that he does have, from his regular income, house, bills, insurances etc, are all up-to-date and secure, meaning that in the real world he can handle responsibility. So he needs watching all the time, because you don't know when he's going to be weakened - by the prospect of any of his fantasies coming true getting in the way of the common sense that he does have. Adam Grayson researched us first and dropped a lot of creative hints on the internet. He stalked you on a number of occasions and kept a diary of how he would have done things differently, and covered his tracks better. So he pretty much walked into the job. How he knew you were doing it, is still a mystery. It's possible he went to a police psychic once in the United States, because he also wrote his dreams down and had a small reading list on the subject of remote viewing and psychometry, and was interested in spiritualism and Tarot etc. Head office are going to be interested in any suggestions he has about work in the future, because although he seems to start with pure theory and inspiration instead of facts or evidence, he's got a good instinct and his speculations were all accurate. Also his attitude fits the job. Exorcizing personal demons in his family background aside, he feels it's vocational. But he still needs watching, because a guy who does what his dreams suggest to him can also be unpredictable, unless he's got a very strong moral base. Which is what you and Connor have in common. Both of you can at times be aggressive, volatile, prejudiced and split personality. But both of you are morally secure meaning you don't act without proper facts, research, evidence and information. That's why Connor's being