SeductiveTracks by Elizabeth Lapthorne Read Free Book Online

mean anything.”
    “Right,” Julian said. “If a different precinct had been
called, different officers would have gone out to write the initial reports and
take notes, but because there are only so many affluent areas, the responding
officers repeat. Logical, but not actually a useful clue.”
    “That’s exactly what I mean,” Matt replied. “But at the same
time, it does give us a clue. Shadow is hitting a specific demographic. It’s a
point to add to the larger picture.”
    “Yeah,” Julian replied wryly as he picked up his file again.
“It shows that she’s only after people who have possessions that make it worth
her time to pinch them. That’s a no-brainer.”
    Matt drank from his water bottle as he continued to stare
out the window, watching two kids chasing each other, giggling, across in the
park. The dark-haired little Asian girl chased her blonde friend, tagged her,
then they turned around and the blonde chased the little Asian girl. Over and
over the two girls chased one another as Matt mentally reviewed what he had so
far gathered from the files.
    “But how far do we let those logical assumptions go?” he
asked aloud a few minutes later, as if there had not been a pause at all. “I
mean, a large number of these cases—more than half—come from the Enforcers’
files. While Shadow doesn’t appear to be selective about whether her targets
are human or Mage, she does seem to lean toward the more complex magical
security workings. Is the fact that ten of the fifteen security systems she’s
hit were made by the same company relevant, or just an interesting side note?
Is the fact that in all but two of the wizarding cases Retrievers were hired to
try to find the articles stolen important?”
    “All but two ?” Julian repeated, astonished. Placing
his file on the coffee table, he stood up, leaned over the table and grabbed
Matt’s legal pad, flipped through the pages and scanned his notes.
    “I wouldn’t think it totally unreasonable,” Matt continued.
“I mean, if someone stole something of mine I’d go to a Retriever and see if
they could find it for me. Assuming it wasn’t Blade—or more likely
Flame—playing some damn prank to piss me off. If it were them, I’d just go
steal something of theirs in retaliation and start an internal war.”
    Julian cut a laughing glance at him, snorted in amusement
and returned to reading Matt’s notes.
    “But do you see what I mean?” Matt continued as he ran a
hand agitatedly through his dark-brown hair, uncaring if he mussed it in his
frustration. “In and of itself, I don’t find it weird that these rich, powerful
wizards hired Retrievers to recover their stuff. These so-called victims are
used to getting their own way and acquiring exactly what they want as soon as
they want it. Hell, they probably just have to snap their fingers and an
underling pounces on the task and delivers what they want without a word being
exchanged. Hiring a Retriever to get your stolen items back would be a typical,
logical thing to do.”
    “From your notes here, most of them failed to recover
anything,” Julian pointed out.
    Matt nodded. “I know. But remember, Will already pointed out
that when Shadow steals stuff she already seems to know where it’s going.”
    “But the couple of items that were recovered…” Julian
continued.
    Matt snapped his fingers and pointed at his partner. “My
point exactly, buddy. Coincidence? Luck? Or just the way things are?” Matt
paced a little from the kitchen back to the couch. “There aren’t that many
Retrieving consultancy firms,” he explained. “Retrieving isn’t an unusual or
rare trait. Being talented enough to be a Retriever is not uncommon, or no less
common than being one of the best in any given field. There’s maybe three or four
firms based here in Chicago. Only one or two of them are used by the crème
de la crème , but again, did you notice it a particular witch, Olivia
Congreave, whose name was