Brenda called her father first thing the next morning after getting showered and having her morning coffee. He'd left another message on her answering machine the night before, telling her that if she was too busy to visit him that it was okay, that he was pretty sure he'd be around for a few more years. The guilt trip had only been in jest, but it had worked nonetheless.

Brenda had always been much closer with her father than with her mother. She'd followed his footsteps as much as she could in life, and he'd always been the one she felt the most able to talk to. Her mother seemed like a distant, beautiful but alien creature. Brenda's parents had been divorced for more than ten years now. Her mother had felt neglected by her father's dedication to his career. She simply hadn't been able to understand.

Brenda cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she listened to the ring, and finally heard her father's voice answer.

"Hi, it's Brenda," she said immediately.

"Brenda?" he repeated slowly. "That name sounds familiar. Do I know a Brenda? It's been so long."

"Dad!" she shouted indignantly.

"You know I'm just kidding, hon. It's good to hear from you. You've been busy, huh?"

"Yeah, really busy. I'm sorry, but I just don't know when I'm going to have time to have dinner with you at this rate. I was just handed a really important case," she said, truly regretfully.

"I figured it was something like that. Do you think you'd have time for a quick lunch?"

"Sure!"

"Why don't you come and pick me up at eleven, then? And we'll go to our usual place."

"Sounds good. I'll see you then. I love you."

"I love you too, Brenda."

Brenda's lunch with her father was cut short when she was called back to the station to consult with the FBI about her progress in the case so far. Once she was finished with that, she decided to go and pay a visit to Simon Graymir.

His apartment wasn't difficult to find, and she was relieved to see that all of the apartment numbers had buttons on the buzzer before the security door. Since it was mid-afternoon on a Sunday she hoped that meant he would be home, rather than off at whatever job he had. She pushed the button and waited. After a minute or so with no response, she tried pushing it again.

"Yes?" a very groggy male voice asked.

"Simon Graymir? I'm Detective Wild with the Denver Police, and I'd like to speak with you," she said into the buzzer.

There was a pause, and then finally, "Would you mind coming back at night?"

Brenda hesitated, heaving a reluctant sigh. There was no reason to insist on barging into his apartment while he was obviously trying to sleep, she supposed. He must work nights. "What would be a good time?" she asked.

"Any time after nine, I'll be ready."

"Thank you." She waited, but there was no reply.

She supposed now was a good time to go and review Chuck E. Cheese's security tapes from her office.

She watched for the most part with the tapes on fast-forward. She saw Jennifer and Grace come in, but she didn't notice anyone who appeared unusual for a customer at a kids' restaurant. There was a small section where the tape became fuzzy, which she skipped past, only to come to the point when Grace went into the cheese maze. A bit farther along the tape, Jennifer was frantic and in tears. Brenda couldn't find anything else helpful on it. No one came close to fitting the descriptions Sanji had given her.

She rewound the tape back to just before the section that was full of static, and set it aside to view the next tape. She found even less on the other tape, although it also had a section of it that was full of static for some reason.

She picked up both tapes and headed back to the lab, where she found Tom and Jesse in front of the TV. It looked as though they were playing video games on Tom's Playstation. "Are you very busy?" she asked with a smirk.

The word 'Pause' immediately appeared on the television screen as both men turned to look back at her. "We can make time for you," Jesse said, looking back at her.

"Could you help me with these tapes? They're in need of some cleaning up."

"I can do that for you," said Tom, rising from his seat to come and take the tapes from Brenda.

"Thanks. I haven't found anything useful on them, but I'm hoping what I need is still on there." It had to be, of course. "I think I'm going to have to get an artist to talk to the owner of Seventh Dream," she said.

"You should ask Charlie," Tom suggested. "She's the best."

"Thanks. I'll do that. And after I give her a call, I'm gonna pick up some food. Do you guys want anything?"

"Burrito," Jesse said immediately.

"Burrito," Tom agreed.

"Taco Bell it is." Brenda began dialing on her cell phone as she headed out toward her car.

After a quick dinner in the office going over her notes, Brenda had agreed to meet Charlie at Seventh Dream Metaphysical Supplies. When Brenda got there, she found a few goth kids wandering about the shop, and was greeted by Sasha once more. The girl's wide blue eyes made her look so young. How did someone her age manage to work a graveyard shift and go to high school?

"You're back. Did you need to talk to Sanji again?"

"Yes. Actually, I have someone else on her way down here, a sketch artist. I was hoping he could help her draw a portrait of the woman he told me about last night."

Sasha nodded. "Why don't you come on to the back, then?" she said.

Brenda followed Sasha to the back room, and found Sanji sitting on a matt, cross-legged, with his eyes closed.

"Oh, he might be a few minutes," Sasha said, glancing in Sanji's direction. "Go ahead and sit down," she instructed. "Do you want some tea?"

Brenda nodded. "That'd be great."

Sasha passed through another doorway, and Brenda wondered if perhaps Sanji lived in the building he ran his shop out of. It wasn't long before Charlie was peeking her blonde head into the back room from the shop. Brenda smiled and waved her over.

"Is that him?" Charlie asked quietly.

Brenda nodded. "He's not quite ready.

Sasha came out of the other room with a steaming pot and a single tea cup. She spotted Charlie and paused. "I'll go get another cup," she said, setting down the pot and the one cup before turning back.

"You're not having any?" Brenda asked.

"Nah," Sasha said, waving her hand dismissively.

"You know, you don't have to stay if you have anywhere to go," Charlie said. "I'll be okay to do the sketch on my own."

Brenda nodded. "I do have someone else I'd like to meet with tonight."

"Go on, then. I'll be fine."

"Just . . . I wouldn't recommend getting a reading done," Brenda told the other woman, lowering her voice to a whisper. "They're a little bit dark."

"But now you just got me curious."

"Well, I warned you," Brenda said with a grin, deciding to take her leave to pay Simon Graymir another visit.

Simon was ready for her this time when Brenda pressed his buzzer. "I'll be right down," was his immediate response.

Brenda supposed at this point in time that he wasn't obligated to let her into his apartment. She waited patiently in the vestibule, and very soon, a man who just had to be him came out.

His hair was a light ash blond, short but just a little bit wavy. A set of glasses magnified his blue eyes, and he was of slight build, and dressed rather strangely in a white renaissance style shirt with a sash. He looked a bit awkward and eccentric, but was not unattractive, Brenda decided.

Brenda extended her hand toward him. "Simon Graymir? I'm Detective Wild."

He shook her hand very lightly and briefly, letting go of her hand quickly. His fingers were icy. "Nice to meet you. I'm actually expected by some people at this club, but if you'll come with me, we can talk there," he explained. "My car's a little bit too messy to hold another person, though," he added, looking a bit embarrassed.

"We can take my car if you want," Brenda offered.

He shook his head. "Why don't you follow me? It's not far, and that way you don't have to drop me off back here later."

"All right," Brenda said, quickly dismissing the notion that he was trying to get rid of her. If he'd wanted to avoid her, he simply could have avoided being home when he'd told her to arrive.

She climbed into her car and followed his Geo Metro approximately six blocks before he parallel parked along the street. She did the same, and met him outside a brick building that had a line of goths winding around it.

Simon went to the back of the line and Brenda joined him there, looking around at the goths ahead of her, dressed in black velvet and lace and vinyl, with their black hair and pale faces and intricate artwork drawn on their faces with black eye-liner. Brenda felt a bit out of place in her blue jeans and white blouse and minimal make-up.

"So, what was it you needed to talk to me about?" Simon asked her.

Brenda looked around them, and although she didn't like the public nature of their conversation, it didn't appear anyone was paying much attention to her. "I was given your name by Sanji, saying you'd purchased some incense from him," she began.

"Simon! What are you doing in line?"

A, incredibly striking blonde woman hurried to Simon's side. Her hair was pulled away from her face in a French twist, and she wore a slinky black velvet dress. Her blood red lips were full and shiny as if they were moist. Her dark brown eyes looked from Simon to Brenda.

"I have this detective here to talk to me," he explained, "and I thought it would be better to talk out here than in the noisy club."

"I'm Brenda Wild," Brenda offered to the blonde woman.

"I'm Liz, and it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope you'll enjoy my club. Come inside, both of you. You can use my back room," she told them.

Brenda and Simon followed Liz into the club and through the crowd of dancers and the loud, pounding music, into a small, dimly lit room containing a leather couch, where Brenda and Simon sat down on opposite ends. "Can I get you anything, dear?" Liz asked Brenda, without bothering to look at Simon.

Brenda wasn't about to drink while still conducting interviews. "Just some water, thanks."

Liz smiled and headed out the door, leaving Brenda alone with Simon.

"What was it you were saying earlier?" he asked her.

"I'd been given your name by Sanji, saying you'd purchased some incense called Blue Lotus Dream. It was found at the scene of a kidnapping."

"When did he say I bought this incense?" Simon asked.

"Not terribly recently. About six months ago," Brenda told him.

"I think he has me mistaken for someone else."

"Are you sure? He seemed to know you. He said you were a regular customer there. It's been a while, are you sure you couldn't have forgotten?"

"I am," Simon nodded. "But I'd remember spending a thousand dollars on incense."

"A thousand dollars?"

Simon nodded. "I don't have that kind of money. I definitely don't make enough money that I could spend like that and not remember."

Liz entered the room then with Brenda's water. After handing it to her, she smiled and hurried out of the room.

"I guess that was why so few people had purchased it," Brenda said after smiling at Liz and taking a sip of her water. Looking into Simon's eyes, she was fairly certain he was telling her the truth. "But Sanji seemed so confident that it'd been you. He said you'd bought it to cleanse your home of evil spirits."

Simon shook his head, frowning deeply. "Our memories aren't always reliable," he said gently. "He could just have remembered me because he's so used to seeing me in there."

"I suppose." Brenda would have to pay Sanji another visit to try to get clarification.

"But listen, it sounds like this kidnapping has some occult connections . . . I'd like to help you if I can. I can act as a consultant. But it's just that I don't have a lot of money . . ." he turned away from her, looking somewhat ashamed. "If you'd be able to pay me . . ."

"I think that could be arranged, if you can find out for me what sorts of things this incense is used for," Brenda told him. She had enough authority to hire a consultant for things like this.

"Thanks. Here's my card," he said, handing her a white business card with his name and the label 'Occult Consultant' with his phone number and a list of prices on the back.

"Thanks. Let me give you mine, too," she said, reaching into her pocket for another of her cards. She'd been giving them out a lot recently. "I guess I'll go and try to talk to Sanji again."

He nodded.

She turned and headed out the door. As she wove her way through the crowd, she felt a hand touch her shoulder, and turned to find herself staring into Liz's brown eyes.

"Are you leaving already?"

"I'm afraid I still have a lot to do tonight," Brenda explained.

"Well, I hope you'll come back again soon," Liz told her before turning away to join a companion who looked incredibly out of place in the club.

The woman was a bit shorter than Liz, with black hair, but she was dressed in flannel and jeans, and she wore no make-up. She wore an angry scowl as she looked around herself at the other club patrons.

She fit Sanji's description.

"Excuse me," Brenda said, stepping toward the woman. "Is your name Sasha?"

The woman turned toward Brenda, her eyes full of suspicion. "Yeah. What do you want?"

"I'm Detective Wild, and I need to ask you some questions."

Sasha stared at Brenda, unmoving.

"Did you purchase some incense called Blue Lotus Dream some time ago?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Some of it was found at the scene of a kidnapping."

"Those fuckers! I'll fuckin' kill 'em!" Sasha snarled, clenching her fists.

Brenda stood still, not certain what to say. She felt she might be more likely to find something useful through this woman than through Simon.

"I bought it for a couple' a kids," she said.

"Can you tell describe them at all?"

"They smelled like blood."

Brenda tried to hide her frustration at everyone's inability to come up with a remotely helpful description of another person. "I see. Do you know who they are? Where I can find them?"

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill 'em," Sasha repeated to herself, and then sighed. "Usually under the overpass, over by I-70 and Airport Road. I'll take you to 'em if you want."

"Yes, please," Brenda said, moving toward the door along with Sasha. "Do you know what they wanted with this incense?"

Sasha shook her head angrily. "I didn't ask. I just needed money and a place to stay. And anyway, they seemed pretty scared."

"Scared?"

"Yeah," Sasha replied as they came outside. "Give me your keys. I'm bad at giving directions."

"How about if I follow you?" Brenda suggested.

"If you don't mind me walking. I don't have a car," Sasha told her with a shrug.

Brenda groaned. She knew better than this, but she needed Sasha to lead her to the kids she'd bought the incense for so she could get some answers. She reached into her pocket and withdrew her car keys and gave them to Sasha.

To Brenda's disappointment, although not to her surprise, Sasha wasn't the best driver. Brenda found herself constantly demanding that Sasha slow down, and Brenda still reflexively pressed downward on her right foot, as if she had a brake on the passenger side of the vehicle.

Brenda was quite relieved when they reached the underpass with themselves and Brenda's car intact. Sasha got out and led Brenda to a battered chain link fence, where she squeezed through an opening that appeared to have been torn out of it. Brenda followed Sasha across a field and toward a small, red brick house. "He smells like blood again," Sasha muttered.

Sasha went to an open window and crawled through.

With a sigh, Brenda followed.

Huddled inside the dusty, run-down, furnitureless house were two teenagers, a boy and a girl, with pale faces and black hair. Their clothing was black and ragged, and they both wore dark eyeliner and black lip stick. They were both a bit emaciated, and had similarly structured faces.

"All right, you little shits," Sasha snarled. "You better tell me what the hell you did with that shit I bought you, right now."

They stared, wide-eyed, at Sasha. In the incredibly dim light, she looked so feral that she almost appeared to have claws.

Brenda quickly stepped forward. "I need to know what you did with some incense called Blue Lotus Dream. Sasha tells me she bought it for you."

"You better answer her," Sasha warned.

The boy nodded slowly. "We used it. For a sex ritual. It was supposed to bind our souls together," he explained, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Did you use all of it?" Brenda asked.

"Yeah," the girl said in a soft voice.

"Were either of you at Chuck E. Cheese yesterday?"

Both of the kids burst out laughing.

Brenda waited for them to regain their composure before continuing. "I guess that means no. Is there anyone else who might've had access to the incense you bought? Could someone have taken some of it?"

The boy shook his head. "No, we couldn't afford very much of it. We used all of it in our ritual."

Brenda was realizing she wasn't having a lot of luck here, and it seemed likely that the person she needed was the other person that Sanji had mistaken for Simon. "All right. Can I see your ID's, please?" she asked them.

Both kids reluctantly handed over their ID's.

Brenda copied down the information with the intent of running a check on them later. Both of them had the same last name, she noted. She hoped that was because they were married. She didn't want to contemplate the alternative. When she was finished, she handed back the ID's. "Can I find you here if I need to ask you any more questions? I might need a bit more help. You're not in any trouble," she added.

Both kids looked relieved.

"From her, you're not," Sasha said.

Brenda's cell phone began to ring.

"I can find my own way home," Sasha said. "I need a minute with these two kids," she said, glaring at them murderously.

Brenda was reluctant to leave the two teenagers alone with this angry woman, but the boy waved at Brenda to leave them alone.

By the time Brenda had crawled back out the window, her cell phone had stopped ringing. She dialed into the voicemail as she headed for her car.

"Detective, it's Simon Graymir. "I found out what that incense is used for. It looks like it has three different purposes. The first is to get control over a person, through a family member. The second is for communication with one's family member from afar. The third is to strengthen the bond between twins, through intercourse. Please give me a call if you have any questions."

Brenda grimaced. Twins. That was why they'd had the same last name. She shuddered as she climbed into her car and began her way back to Sanji's shop.

The shop was fairly crowded when Brenda arrived, and Charlie appeared to be long gone, but Brenda found Sanji easily enough.

"Miss Wild," he said. "What can I do for you?"

"Can we talk in private?" she asked him, glancing around at all the people.

He frowned, and nodded. "I think the only place private at the moment is in the alley, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," she said, following him out the front door and around the corner.

"Now, what is it you need," he asked her patiently.

"I've talked to Simon, and he doesn't remember buying that incense," she said.

Sanji looked confused for a moment, and then he frowned intensely. "I will speak with him," he said.

"Do you think it's possible that maybe someone else bought the incense around the same time Simon was in your shop? Can you remember at all?" she asked hopefully. It seemed her investigation was running into a brick wall.

"It's possible," Sanji said in a tone that implied that he did not believe in the possibility himself. "But let me speak with Simon, please. Come back here tomorrow, and we'll try to straighten this out."

"All right," Brenda said, not sure why Sanji believed speaking to Simon would help the matter. Simon had seemed quite certain he'd never bought that incense.

"You look like you should get some rest," he said.

"I'm sure I should. I guess it's a good time to do that." After all, it seemed she'd run out of leads for the night. "Thank you for your help." Brenda reached out and shook Sanji's hand.

Sanji blinked in surprise for a moment before clasping her hand in return with a startled smile.