The rain petered out, so Danielle absent-mindedly folded up the umbrella. Then, her ears caught on - it was still coming down. Ten feet away. In every direction.

Just not on her.

She looked up. No giant umbrella. Just raindrops, diving out of her way.

She knew those footsteps. Kara approached, hair wet, looking a bit resigned. Her eyes looked past Danielle. "I've brought a friend."

No footsteps, this time. Danielle turned, in no great hurry. There stood the Mistress of Magic. The cone of dryness, or whatever, stretched out to her. She'd left the stage attire behind - just plain old slacks and a spring jacket. "Kara trusts you," she began in a matter-of-fact tone. She'd give Zatanna this much: it was a better intro than a warm smile just now…

National Allied. A lofty name for a modest business hugging an alley. Kara peered through brick and mortar, and let slip a small smile at their luck. "Nobody home. No alarm system. Windowless office in the back." The trifecta, as Danni would put it. Not that Kara would ever set foot in a racetrack. The subject of Danielle's cousin the horse trainer came up, once.

"Does he treat his horses well?"

"I…don't go there."

Danielle sat impatiently by a well-worn desk. The seldom opened file cabinets cast harsh shadows from the fluorescent bulb. Kara bent over her, staring past her skull, looking for damage. Images of brain hemispheres flickered from her phone. Zatanna sat opposite them, going over Danielle's notes. Kara stood up straight.

"Well, I don't see anything that looks like a hemorrhage. But then, I'm not a brain surgeon, am I?"

Danielle rolled her eyes, and got up to stretch.

"It may not matter much if you were."

That got their attention. They turned towards the magician.

"Danielle, what you did was brave. And stupid." Danielle looked aside, as Zatanna stood up.

"And brave." The girl returned her gaze. "This sort of thing…it can leave a mark that a CAT scan may not find." Zatanna produced a business card out of thin air, and slid it across the table to Danielle. "Though perhaps this fellow can." Danielle read the name, before sliding the card into her shirt pocket: Charles McNider, M.D.

Danielle unwittingly sniffed at the wet alley smell coming from her hair. Kara eyed Zatanna, and forged ahead.

"Danni, you got dragged into something lousy this weekend. And you came through. But you've hardly slept in two nights. Please - hit the showers, hit the sack, and let us take it from here."

Danielle picked up her notepad, and found what she was looking for. "Let me call this guy. He may have ties to Phil. I can bluff my way pretty good over the phone. I may even get a number for Phil out of him. I don't want to feel like a - footnote to all this." Zatanna shrugged. Danielle sat down, and picked up the receiver of a phone probably older than her…

They all stared at the number on the yellow pad. "Wow", Kara whispered. "Give me 90 seconds on the phone with Phil, and I can tell loads about where he is. All that background noise tells a story." Danielle seemed less impressed. "So you're playing the part of a new age, hippy chick customer. And that's what it'll sound like to him - playing a part. He'll get nervous, chuck the phone and get a new one. I know what to say. How to say it." Danielle then pointed to her own throat. "But I'm stuck with this. He'll know it's me, and hang up even faster." Zatanna, seemingly lost in thought, suddenly brightened up.

"Ladies - I do lure in people with the sound of my voice for a living".

Danielle bowed her head, and whispered, as the magician dialed Phil's supposed number: "Pick up. Pick up. Pick up."

Kara sat by Zatanna, her ear an inch away from the phone, eyes closed. Was she even breathing?

Zatanna's voice was as good as promised. A leisurely, refined murmur. It reminded Danielle of a Youtube video where Jacqueline Kennedy gives a tour of the White House. You didn't rush someone like that.

Kara gave the thumbs up sign. Zatanna wrapped things up with "Well, I'm sorry you can't make it to the festival, Mr. Ives. But thank you for your time."

Kara was almost smug. "Gaines Supermarket. Doing a little grocery shopping. Heard the name over the P.A. system."

Danielle saw the hitch in this plan. "Anything else? Aren't there, like, plenty in this state?"

"Umm…'Jones to the front desk'?"

Kara had glimpsed Phil in a group shot, on the Book of Face. It would do. Danielle watched her thumb fly down the screen, as she narrowed the Gaines stores down to four. How many phones Kara had killed doing that?

At least she still had her keys. She jangled them in her pocket. "Well, I'm gonna take your advice, Kara. Shower. Nap. Happy hunting, guys. Meet me at Jacob's Books later? They're open until 9. I'd go stir crazy at the dorm." She headed for the door.

"Danielle."

Right. Deity-like magical being with questions. Danielle turned towards 'Z'.

"You never said how you figured out…where Kara is from."

Danielle didn't look away. "Kara, would you mind if I not played that particular card right this very second?"

Kara walked up to her roommate, and locked eyes with Zatanna. "There's no hurry."

The magician gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Danielle breathed again.

Zatanna smiled.

Uh oh.

"Teews smaerd."

Kara's voice echoed from the bottom of a 100 foot well.

"Hey!"…