Thanks to the fact that she had hacked into the database already once the day before, it didn't take her long to get inside again; clearly, the police so far hadn't notice the fact that someone who wasn't supposed to was going through their files, since the security hadn't been changed at all, this lack of attention making Willow roll her eyes.
"No wonder they're not able to get anything done", she then told her girlfriend, the taller woman sitting on the sofa next to her and going through some of the old books they had at their home, looking for demons who used fire, "their security is a joke."
"Or you're just too good", Pat shrugged, briefly looking up at her and smirking before she focused on the book again, grumbling under her breath about the ridiculously small print.
"Why did they always use such tiny print back then?" she then asked the witch, the annoyed sound of her voice and her next words making Willow giggle slightly. "Did they all have perfect eyesight or what? No consideration for poor one-eyed people like me…"
"They had to put as much information as possible on as little paper as possible", Willow informed her once she had managed to stop giggling, even though she was aware of the fact that she probably told her something she'd already known, anyway. "Paper was expensive back then, you know."
"Of course I know", Pat let her know, turning the page and frowning at a rather ugly picture of some two-headed demon, then looking at her girlfriend again as she spoke on, now smirking slightly again. "I was there, remember? If some of the people I hung out with while I was still human would see how we handle paper today, they'd shit bricks."
"Language", Willow reprimanded in reply, giggling once more when the demon rolled her eye, then looked down on the book again and turned to the next page, letting out a noise of dismay when she saw the picture there, prompting the witch to take a look at it as well.
"You'd think a demon who's so… well equipped… would bother to wear pants", she then commented, making the black haired woman nod enthusiastically; then, the couple grinned at each other before they both focused on their tasks again, the room falling silent for a while, the only noises being the rustling of the paper as Pat turned the pages and the sounds of typing Willow produced as she looked through the files once more, looking for the right one and mentally cursing the silly naming system the police was using.
Finally though, she found the right one, smiling to herself when the information she'd been looking for appeared on the screen, proud that she had done it once more; quickly, she read through what the police had added to that file so far, her smile fading when she realized that there was no connection between Jane and this man, at least not at the first glance.
"Dammit", she muttered to herself, prompting the demon to look at her and ask her what was wrong; with a sigh, she gestured at the screen, sounding miffed when she replied, her words making Pat frown with dismay as well. "I was hoping I'd find some connection between Jane and this guy, but there's nothing… He didn't go to college, he was an employee at the video rental store, in his mid-thirties…"
"So he does choose them randomly", Pat figured, prompting Willow to nod glumly; even though she wasn't sure it'd be of any use, she focused on the file once more, quickly finding the entry for the evidence which had been found at the crime scene and had been sent to the lab, not surprised when she found nothing of interest there – past experience had shown that, even if the police did find some stuff related to demons, like teeth or bits of skin, it usually ended up discarded as irrelevant, due to the fact that it wasn't of human origin.
"Nothing else of interest here", she finally let her girlfriend know, logging out of the database and giving the laptop a sour look, as if it was the machine's fault that she hadn't found any new important information; carefully, she put it back on the table, then picked up one of the books and opened it, wondering if it was even making sense to go through it though – after all, the only information they had about the culprit so far was that he was using fire to kill, and she knew that there had to be hundreds of demons like that.
"I wonder if he has a lair somewhere", Pat now distracted her from those ponderings, making her look at the taller woman questioningly, the demon shrugging before she spoke on. "Well, I doubt he's just hanging out on the streets all the time, he must have some sort of hiding place. Maybe we should get a map and find out if there are any suitable locations close to the spots where the two were killed…"
"That's a good idea", Willow agreed, "I think Buffy has a map of the town at her house… We should give her a call and ask if we can come over."
"Yup", Pat gave back, already reaching for the phone; she quickly dialled Buffy's number, knowing it by heart, not surprised when the Slayer took the call after the third ring, smirking though at the fact that the blonde greeted her with "Hi Willow, what's up?"
"Well, I'm Pat, not Willow", she let Buffy know, smirking again when she heard the blonde clear her throat in reply, "but something really is up, and we need that map of Sunnydale you have at your home to check something. Mind if we come over?"
"Oh, no no", Buffy reassured her at once, "just drop by whenever you want, I'm so bored here anyway, I could need some company. Is this about the new flamey guy in town? Giles told me about it."
"Yeah, it is", Pat confirmed, "there've been two victims so far, and we need that map to see if we can figure out where he might have his lair."
"Makes sense", Buffy agreed, "so, as I said, come on over, I'll be waiting for you!"
"Alright, see you in a few then", Pat smiled, then said goodbye and hung up; the moment she had done so, Willow got up from her seat and made her way into the small anteroom to put on her shoes and jacket, the demon following her after a second, the couple leaving the apartment and heading for Buffy's house not even a minute later.
When they arrived at Buffy's home a short time later, the Slayer clearly already had been waiting for them, opening the door before they even had rang the bell and smiling brightly at them, asking them if they wanted anything to drink while she led them into the living room and offered them a seat there, the map they had requested already spread on the table.
"I'm so glad you guys came", she let them know after they had declined her offer for something to drink and had made themselves comfortable on the couch, Buffy herself taking the armchair she preferred, "I'm bored out of my mind here! Dawn's at school, I only leave the house for training at the Magic Box… If I don't feel better soon and can go back to college, and on patrol, I think I'll lose my mind."
"I imagine", Willow showed some sympathy, "but you are feeling better by now, aren't you? At least you look better already…"
"Thanks", Buffy smirked, "but I'm still awfully weak, you know, I did some cleaning today and after an hour, I had to sit down and catch my breath."
"Well, that's still better than last week, right?" Pat wanted to know, smiling slightly when Buffy nodded after a moment; then, she changed the topic to the unpleasant matter at hand by asking what they had found out about the flamey guy so far, making both of them grimace as they had admit that so far, they barely knew anything.
"He must be quite strong", Willow let her know, "Jane was a petite girl, but the second victim was a guy in his mid-thirties, quite well-built if the picture in the police file was a recent one. And he knows how to be stealthy, according to those files, no one in the buildings nearby saw or heard anything."
"That doesn't mean much though", Buffy sighed, "you know how the people here are…"
"Yup", Willow agreed, "but even the people here tell the police if they heard someone scream or something, but that didn't happen."
"So he must be fast, too", Buffy mused out loud after thinking about this quite good point for a while, "or maybe he knocks them out from behind and then kills them… Or maybe, they knew him."
"Well, the guy did work at the video rental store", Pat pointed out, "so he must've known quite a lot of people. Maybe we should ask the other clerks there if they noticed anything strange about their customers lately?"
"Good idea", Willow agreed, momentarily feeling like scolding herself for not thinking of this earlier; then, she shrugged it off and gestured at the map, reminding her girlfriend of the reason they had come here by stating that they should have a look at it now. Nodding her agreement, Pat asked Buffy if they could mark the spots where the two victims had been found and, after the Slayer had nodded as well, if she had a pen; once this had been provided, all three of them bent over the map, quickly finding the locations where the corpses had been found and marking them, silence filling the room afterwards as they all studied it.
"Hm", Buffy finally let out, making the couple look at her, "those spots are quite far from each other."
"Maybe his lair's somewhere in between?" Willow suggested, pointing out the area she was talking about, pouting when after looking at it, Buffy frowned, clearly not sure if her best friend was right.
"That's an area of single family homes", she pointed out the reason for her doubts, "wouldn't that be a rather bad hiding place? If he looks all demony, there's way too much danger to be seen by the people living there."
"Well, maybe he doesn't", Pat was the one to answer that, making them both look at her, "I mean, look at me, I don't look all demony unless I want to. It might be the same with him."
"Or he's not even a demon", Willow added, "it could be a witch, or a warlock."
"Alright", Buffy nodded, "good points, even though I don't like the thought of someone walking around out there, looking perfectly normal, and killing people with fire at night."
Those words made Willow think of the button she had found at the second crime scene, and for a moment, she nearly shuddered; then, she pushed those thoughts aside again, telling herself that they were silly, and nodded as well, then focused on the map once more, managing to sound perfectly normal when she spoke up.
"We should look if all of the houses there are sold or rented, or if any families have moved out shortly before the killing started", she suggested, "then we can check the officially empty houses for hints."
"Is it hard to find that out?" Buffy wanted to know, not surprised when Willow shook her head, smirking slightly when she replied. "Not at all, I'll just have to check the population register, they're usually pretty up to date."
"You do that, then", the Slayer gave back, smiling as well, "you can take the map along if it'll help…"
"You do have a computer and internet access, right?" Willow asked as an answer, briefly wondering if Buffy wanted them to leave again already, something which seemed highly unlikely, considering how she had complained about how boring it was to stay at home alone while Dawn was at school.
"Yeah", the Slayer now confirmed, grimacing as she realized that it had been quite silly to forget that small, but important detail. "And I can't believe I just forgot that", she thus added, "wait, I'll go get Dawn's laptop…"
With those words, she almost jumped up from her seat and hurried upstairs; it didn't take long until she came back, setting the laptop up on the living room table in front of the redhead before she made herself comfortable again, watching how Willow started the computer and waited impatiently for it to finish booting. Finally, the machine was ready to be used, and the witch did just that a second later, her fingers moving over the keyboard with the usual speed, both Buffy and Pat watching her interestedly, waiting to see what she would find and if those findings would be of any use when it came to finding their new foe.
