The office was silent when Myra arrived. It was already noon and she carried a small paper bag full of medication that she pretended was just a bag of colorful candy. She threw it on her desk and straightened her back before sneezing like an elephant.

  "A cold is just what I ordered," she mumbled, hoping that everyone had forgotten how to tell the time. "Did you two find something yesterday?"

  Her ears still rang with the sound of the heart monitor she spent most of the night listening to, but it was not something she was ready to talk about.

  "You don't know, do you?" Ronns returned rolling his chair closer to her.

  "What don't I know this time? Did I forget someone's birthday again?" She could hear the Captain's voice from across the hall. He was talking to someone on the phone, and he was not happy about it.

  "Well, the thing is..." Ronns lowered his chin and prepared to spill the beans.

  "It happened again," Kallis cut in, forcing Ronns to lose his momentum. He did not show his face but was nervously clicking his pencil in the rhythm of his own heartbeat.

  "What did you say? What has happened again?" said Myra, keeping back a powerful sneeze. Her thoughts had been scattered all morning, and she was desperate for some solid ground to land on. At that moment anything was possible because she was not yet ready for such surprises.

  "The murder happened ag-"

  "Same spot, same body, same crime," Ori cut him off the moment he crossed the threshold of the office. His face showed a curious disposition as if he was finally intrigued by the way the events were unfolding.

  "How… why?" Myra raised her eyebrows as far as they would go and began tapping her foot on the floor. "Same place, you sure?"

  "You were nowhere to be found Tamon," yelled the captain as he squeezed passed Ori. "Why were you not answering your phone? How do you suppose we make any progress if you show up to work whenever you please? You are not in kindergarten people, and I'm not the ice cream man. Have you any idea what the commissioner will do to me?"

  "I can explain, Captain, I did not mean to b-" she began but the Captain did not let her make any excuses. The people higher in the food chain seemed to have put more pressure on him than he cared to admit.

  "I've had it with you," the Captain continued his critic, with reading glasses lodged onto his forehead and his tie loosened enough so he could breathe when the blood pressure acted up. "The Bureau will take the lead on this from now on. That's what he's here for anyway," he added pointing at Ori with a roll of paper he had in his hand for some reason.

  The line that labeled the redness of his cheeks rose above his ears like a glass being filled with wine. "Isn't that right Mr. Avenonilanis?" he added, now in a much restrained tone.

  "Yes sir," returned Ori, trying his best to look unbothered by Myra's menacing eyes. “I’ll take all further responsibility on this case.”

  “Good. At least one of you is a grown-up,” he added and slammed the door behind him.

  “Seriously?” Myra groaned. “This is turning into a nightmare. I am either dreaming or I’m dead. Am I dead?”

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  “Perhaps,” said Ori, and took a seat on the only empty chair in the office, before dusting it away with great care. It looked like it hasn’t been used for a while, like a mausoleum for someone that was not coming to work. He felt their eyes on him, like he was intruding on sacred ground, and wondered whose memory he was about to stain. “I believe that as of this morning, time is of the essence. We cannot allow for another insurrection to happen. One mistake is enough to keep the public on edge.”

  "The crime scene?" Myra said after the dust finally settled. "What happened?"

  "The victim had been chased down, with three cuts on the back and two stabs to the neck. The body looked the same, was dressed the same, and had a similar set of injuries along the soles of the feet. There's hardly anything new in the evidence collected so far, but I fear there will be even less of it now. The heavy rainfall from last night made it impossible."

  “Shit,” she said quietly, half-remembering what she’d seen the night before, how close she was to it. She could not help but wonder if she could have been a whiteness of it all. “He had gotten good at killing the same person over and over again," she added, looking at the whiteboard with the places and faces that had anything to do with the case. “He won’t stop unless we stop him.”

  "The crime scene is fairly close to the previous one as well," said Kallis. "So the whole thing could have happened in an identical order. By the way, I went to see the club in Galari last night, and they told me no one even goes near it anymore. It’s just a concrete slab. The area around it had been pretty deserted since the incident, so there was no surveillance. Also, the Visker side was a waste of time because the bird association had nothing to show me but birds. The only thing I learned was the difference between a South Blue-green Ramsel and a Lokarel songbird, and I don’t know what to do with that information."

  Ronns giggled and shook his head slowly. "At least that's something. The only footage I came across was from a kiosk, not far from the park entrance. Safe to say, it was not pointed the right way. The only thing we may be left with is the footage from the station. I gathered what I could, but it should be enough to compare it with the old one, in case our killer came that way."

  "That sounds like a good idea," Myra said, before sneezing again. "We should think about how the killer got there as well. We had no such luck before."

  "And what about you?" Kallis insisted. "Did you find anything?"

  "I, uh... got nothing," she said in a dark tone. "I looked through their security footage this morning and all I saw was more rain." She scratched her nose and prevented another sneeze. "You know, come to think of it, it rained the first time as well, though not as badly. I can’t help but wonder if it’s related somehow."

  "What if it’s magically induced to hide evidence?" Ronns inquired, eyeing Ori for an answer. ”Can that be done?”

  "I wouldn't put it past anyone," the wizard returned, looking at the window. "Though the weather doesn't let itself be controlled so easily. It would take a lot of effort and still may fail at any time. Perhaps our killer just watches the forecast before heading out."

  "Hahaha, I knew you were funny deep down," Ronns said joyfully but straightened his face the moment Myra kicked his foot.

  He was, after all, befriending an enemy.

  “So we have nothing?” Myra said, a little defeated. “No way of tracing him back, no tangible evidence. How’s that even possible?”

  “It’s a perfect blindspot,” said Ori. “The killer knows that. He planned his attacks and probably studied all his victims beforehand. He has perfected a crime and we cannot expect him to make a mistake now.”

  "Alright people," Myra said standing up. She'd forgotten about the state she was in that morning, so the sudden move made everything go black before her eyes and she had to keep herself from fainting by grappling the chair. "We keep on digging, anywhere we can, and especially the train station footage. It is our best hope right now. And you magic man," she paused, letting her sight clear up. Ori's presence reminded her of a creature from some ancient horror film, taking space like a hat hanger in a church. "Oh, sorry, I forgot. It's you who gives the orders now."

  He smirked, grimly as always. "Well, I believe we are due another visit to the morgue."

  Myra said nothing in return. His voice put her out of place, the sheer calmness of it, and the hints of satisfaction that came from knowing she no longer had a say in things. She walked past him like a ghost and waited for the elevator as if she wanted it to lead her straight to the underworld.

  "I did not have the intention to hijack your case," Ori said once he caught up with her. "We both want this over so we can go about our own business. Right?"

  "Sure thing," Myra returned putting on the biggest smile she had in store. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t drag on.”