Lights passed Detective Casimir’s car. Pan leaned her head against the window and watched them go. Most of the lights belonged to houses, where other Scaldin lived and prepared for sunset’s eventual takeover. At that moment, the sun still lingered on the horizon, but it sank lower with each passing distance marker.

Other cars drove by, and on occasion, the detective moved into the other lane and passed a slow car. Casimir drove at a medium pace, nice and smooth. He kept his car at a consistent height as it hovered along the highway.

In the country, Casimir’s car used its retractable wheels. It bumped and rattled on dirt roads. Pan had forgotten how bumpy wheeled transport could be. She couldn’t lay her head against his windows then. Now, nothing stopped her.

They passed a park, lit by spring festival lights. Gold lights bled into pink and purple and green…

Pan’s eyes opened. Full dark served as a backdrop for city lights.

“Get a good nap?” the detective asked.

Pan glanced over at Casimir and found him driving one handed. He’d propped his other arm up on the door and put his head in his hand.

“I wasn’t asleep,” Pan said.

“Yes, you were. I think you were out for nearly an hour.”

“I can’t sleep in cars.” Pan narrowed her eyes.

“I think you can.”

“No, I can’t. I’ve never slept in a car in my life.”

“Whatever you say. Well, we’ve got about thirty minutes left. I’ll try to drop you as close to the Arcane’s Complex as I can. In the meantime, let’s discuss the ghosts you talked to.” Casimir straightened in his seat and put both hands on the wheel.

That was more like it, Pan thought.

He should have a more active role in driving. No rest for this man.

Pan worked her memory and considered all the ghosts they’d spoken to that day. In one day, Pan spoke to more spirits than she usually did in a week – maybe in three weeks. It was harder than she had expected. Casimir claimed he picked only the essentials, only the people with desirable powers and semi-suspicious deaths. Pan didn’t buy it. The man was way too thorough. On the plus side, she wondered how he would ever find the time to check on her family tree. There was no way he could unless he planned to stay up all night.

He might.

“What do you think about the people we talked to?” Casimir asked.

“I think they all died of natural causes,” Pan hissed.

Their day started in the morning with three elders, dead within the week at the hospital. Two strokes and one surgical complication counted as natural to Pan.

In the afternoon, Casimir dragged her all over the city, on foot, to speak to four other elders. One died in her sleep, found days later, and another, a man, fell down the stairs. The last two died together while meeting for a weekly board game. It was picture perfect. Their lives might be material for a movie.

Pan had found the woman. The ghost talked for ages, unwilling to let Pan be on her way. They never found the man. He’d moved on, probably too embarrassed to stick around the site of his clumsy death. The last two, Pan would have loved to talk with. They weren’t there.

Finally, Casimir drove Pan out to the closest country town, a full two hours away. The woman died in her garden, and her family claimed that someone spoke to her before she died. Someone indeed spoke to her. It had been mail delivery. Then, the woman promptly had a heart attack.

Casimir chuckled softly. “Alright. Alright. I can see that you’re cranky. Full day for you, I guess. If you ask me, your people don’t know how to use you. We could keep you very busy down at the station.” Casimir gave Pan a sidelong glance.

Pan stared at him. “Lucky me. Oh, how I would love to be this busy every day.”

Casimir laughed. “Past your bedtime? It’s only 21:00. I’ll have you home by 21:20. Want me to drive over the pedestrian section to get you right to your door?”

At first, Pan thought Casimir told a joke, but at second study, he seemed serious. Pan could get a ride right to the steps of the Arcane’s Complex in a rule bending vehicle. Her feet ached. Her head ached. Her damn hand tingled again. Pan wanted that ride.

“Yes, drop me off on the steps.” Pan crossed her arms and sat back. She looked out the window.

“You got it,” Casimir said. He gave her several moments of silence. “I had my team call your mother. She doesn’t remember her grandmother very well, and of course, I couldn’t talk to your grandmother. She’s passed on.” Casimir sighed. “Your mom and I had a nice little chat about your great grandmother and…other things. Your mother’s pretty worried about you.”

This man had a team. Of course, he did. And, they’d already looked into her family connections. Pan stiffened.

“Did you hear me? I said your mom is worried about you. You could call her.”

Pan shook her head. “No, not tonight.”

Casimir paused as he took a busy turn. The car moved through the intersection and got onto a familiar road.

Casimir said, “Your mom hasn’t heard from you in two years. I’ve heard some arcanes disappear from their families’ lives for a while, but that’s unreal. Why don’t you call?”

“They’ve got my sisters. That’s all they need.” Pan watched the side streets tick by.

She knew other arcanes kept in contact with their families. Aria saw her parents once a month, but that was different, she was their only child.

Casimir said, “They miss you, specifically. You as a person. Your sisters can’t replace that.”

Pan looked at her lap. She thought her sisters might be quite annoyed if she suddenly returned to the family fold. She was the only arcane since her now deceased grandmother, and her frugal parents were so excited by Pan’s ascendance to arcane-hood that they’d bought her quite a few new things. Pan received a send-off to make any sibling jealous.

She tried not to think about it.

“You got real quiet. What are you thinking about?”

Pan looked up. They sat at a traffic light, and Casimir stared back.

“Nothing.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Casimir turned his eyes to the windshield and watched the light. He waited for it to change. “Your grandmother was the only other arcane in your family. She had three kids and somehow managed to produce no arcanes. She has one arcane granddaughter and that’s it.”

“Yes.”

Casimir pressed the gas. “She could see what animals see. That must have been some power. Your mother told me stories. Apparently, your grandmother used Porza to prank family members. I think I’d be pretty mad if I got sprayed by one of those little buggers and my own grandmother was to blame.” Casimir turned slowly onto an empty street. Then, he eased into the turn that led to the pedestrian walk and squeezed between the poles.

Pan smiled. “I like Porza. They’re fluffy and cute and never sprayed me.”

“No, she liked you, like all grandmas do.” Casimir crawled his vehicle over the walk. It bumped on wheels once again.

A few people glanced at the police car and got to the sides of the road.

Casimir said, “You lost your grandma when you were twelve. She went in the hospital around the same time you did.” He pulled close to the Arcane’s Complex. He drove right up to the steps and stopped. “You missed out on seeing her one last time. She died during your discharge test.”

Pan narrowed her eyes. “Bad timing.”

“It’s tough, not to say goodbye.”

Pan half smiled. “That would be tough, but I did say good-bye.” She touched the door handle.

Casimir grabbed her arm. “You talked to her ghost?”

“Not really. I laid in my bed, and her spirit came and laid on top of me.” Pan looked skyward, up through Casimir’s windshield. “She was a spirit, covered in sticks and leaves, bits of fur and feather. She floated into my room, and I hid under covers. I felt her lay on top of me. It wasn’t enough weight to feel like a real person, but it was there. I think I would have felt it whether I could see ghosts or not.

Casimir breathed, possibly for the first time since she’d spoke. “I can’t tell whether that’s nice or…not. I hope you can get some good sleep. I’ll try to make the next set a little smaller, nothing out in the country hopefully.”

Pan nodded. She slid out of her seat and stood in the night. She closed the door. It clicked shut with a satisfying pop.

Casimir waved once and pulled away. Pan gave him a belated wave. She didn’t know if he saw it.

With a sigh, she climbed the stairs and entered the complex. Waiting on a bench, reading some digital magazine, Pan found Kat. A glimpse at Kat’s screen showed some holiday decorating nonsense. Nonsense that Pan might find fun when she got her own little house in six years or so.

“How’d it go?” Kat rose from her seat.

“Good.”

“You look tired.” Kat gestured to Pan’s face, but her eyes flicked to Pan’s hair.

Pan ran her fingers through her inky strands. Her fingers got stuck. She stared at her tangled hair with much scorn.

“You need a wash or at least a brush.”

“I’m too tired,” Pan complained. “I just want to collapse on my bed. I saw a lot of ghosts today, but I don’t think I’ll need to take anything to help me sleep.”

“Hard work is a good sedative. So, I can expect you to sleep nice and sound? You don’t need anything?” Kat asked. She held the tablet so that Pan couldn’t see any more springtime decorations.

Pan cocked her head. “Yeah. I’m going to sleep sound.”

She plodded off towards her room. She climbed the stairs and almost tripped on the first few steps. She reached her room but didn’t really register the journey. Pan thought ahead. She wanted to sleep, but she couldn’t just konk out and forget the day.

Pan had to play her game. Scaldigir’s unexpected reaction to the graffiti ticked down the minutes till discovery. Casimir might find out Pan. Sotir might find out Pan. Two very wrong outcomes with unknown futures. Pan couldn’t fathom what the Scaldin would do to her.

She just wanted to be found by the right person. She had to awaken that murderer.