"Alright", Willow mumbled after just ten minutes of staring at the screen, "the population register has even worse security than the police, shame on them. Anyway, one of the families moved out a week ago, and another house was sold shortly before that, so we might find something there."
Wordlessly, Buffy handed her a notepad in reply, and she quickly wrote down the exact addresses of the two houses in question; then, she logged out of the database again and smirked to herself, clearly pleased by how her hacking skills had helped once more.
"We should go there asap, and check those places out", Pat suggested, "maybe right now? If a normal family bought that one sold house, they might not be here now and won't notice us snooping around."
"Very good point", Buffy was the one to answer that, "I just wish I could come with you… I hate it to be cooped up in here like that."
"I know", the demon tried to console her in reply, fumbling for the right words – comforting people had never been something she'd been good at, not even when she still had been human such a long time ago.
"I'm sure you'll be able to go out and hunt nasty, ugly monsters with us again soon", she added after a moment, figuring that this was a good thing to say; to her relief, she clearly had been right, since Buffy nodded, smiling slightly – before she asked her friends if they wanted to leave right now, the slight pleading undertone in her voice making it obvious that she wasn't too happy with the thought.
"Um", Willow gave back, "I guess we can stay a bit longer…" At the last word, she glanced at her girlfriend, relieved to see the quiet agreement there; Buffy smiled heartily again, then asked them again if they wanted something to drink, her smile widening when they both agreed this time.
"I'll be right back", she then let them know, almost jumping up from her seat again and hurrying to the kitchen; the moment she could be sure that the blonde was out of earshot, Willow leaned closer to her girlfriend, keeping her voice low to make sure Buffy wouldn't hear her. "Poor her, she really hates it to stay here all the time… I hope she'll get better soon, or she'll get cabin fever or something."
"Yeah", the demon agreed, throwing a glance towards the kitchen entrance before she spoke on, her voice sympathetic. "I understand her though, I'd go crazy if I had to spend so much time just hanging around at home."
"Me too", Willow grimaced, then fell silent as she heard Buffy come back from the kitchen; to her relief, the blonde clearly hadn't heard them, smiling happily while she handed them the glasses with orange juice, then sat down again, her smile fading as she looked at the piece of paper on which Willow had written the addresses of the two houses they'd check out later that day.
"I don't like the thought of letting you go there alone", she then told the couple, ignoring the fact that it'd be the two of them and thus, they wouldn't be alone, "I should come with you… That's my job after all, my calling…"
"You stay here", Pat firmly gave back before Willow could reply, prompting the redhead to throw her girlfriend a grateful glance, the demon shaking her head at the look Buffy was giving her as an answer.
"And don't try that on me", she then added, "I have to admit I don't like the thought of someone out there who has powers that similar to mine, but if he does use fire the way I do, I'll be just as immune to his as he'll be to mine – so, even if you'd be fine, and you would come along, you'd be in much greater danger of getting seriously hurt than I'll be. So, I'd have to worry about that if you'd be there with me, and that'd distract me from fighting, and heighten the chance to have my firm ass kicked, and we don't want that, do we?"
"No", Buffy grudgingly admitted, then furrowed her brows, giving the black haired woman a look she didn't like at all, making her frown as well with her next words.
"But Willow will come with you", the blonde pointed out, "won't she be in danger and so, distracting you as well?"
"Technically", Pat sighed, "but she can do magic and protect herself, plus, I'll try to keep that guy away from her as well, should we run into him."
"It'd of course be fine for you to come along if you'd have your full strength", Willow now decided to intervene as well, making the Slayer look at her, "but, in your current state, Pat's right, it's too dangerous for you to come along…"
"Alright", Buffy finally gave in, sighing heavily as well, but at least seeing reason, "you're right… I'd only make this more difficult. Promise me you'll be careful though!"
"Of course", Willow reassured her, giving her girlfriend a strict look and prompting her to keep her mouth closed about the fact that usually, she tended to be rather reckless; smiling weakly, Buffy nodded, then sighed once more before she told them they'd better got going, knowing that the mysterious culprit had to be found before he could claim yet another victim.
Another half an hour later, the couple had reached the area where the two houses they wanted to check out were located; the one where the family had left a week ago had a "For Sale" sign on the small front lawn, while the other one, on the opposite street, clearly showed signs of someone living there, a welcome mat lying in front of the door and several toys being scattered on the equally small lawn.
"I guess our man is not living in that one", Pat told her girlfriend after looking at said toys for a while, "unless he likes to play with that stuff, all of it clearly has been used."
"Agreed", Willow nodded, studying the toys as well, "and I don't think he'd play with that to make it look that way and then place it here, that's too cunning for a demon."
"Hey!" the demon protested in response, the redhead's eyes briefly going wide as she realized what she had said – before she hurriedly apologized and reassured her girlfriend that she had meant the evil, nasty demons, and surely not her.
"Hmph", Pat let out in reply, then clearly shrugged it off after giving her girlfriend another sour look, gesturing at the house which was for sale and changing the topic by asking the smaller woman if they should check the empty house out, then. Nodding, Willow quickly moved to the closest window of said house and tried to peek inside; to her dismay, the previous owners had left their curtains though, the fabric obscuring the view and making it impossible for her to see more than a few vague shapes.
"Dammit", she thus mumbled, turning to give the taller woman a dismayed look, "whoever lived here before didn't take the curtains when they moved out! Who does something like that?"
"The people who lived here before?" Pat shrugged, quickly looking around and hoping no one would see her before she moved to the front door and tried the knob, not surprised to find it locked.
"Keep an eye out", she instructed her girlfriend while she pulled out her wallet, briefly making Willow wonder what she wanted to do – before she realized what the taller woman had in mind when she saw how she removed one of her bank cards, bending it a bit before she nodded to herself, then carefully inserted the card into the thin gap between the door and the frame.
"Cross your fingers that this'll work", she mumbled, her brows furrowing with concentration, "it's been a while since I did that."
"I surely hope so", Willow gave back, her gaze moving back and forth between what her girlfriend was doing at the door and the sidewalk; to her relief, no one was around to see Pat break in, at least not on the street, the witch hoping that no one in the neighbour houses was at home and was watching through the window.
"Hurry up", she thus muttered to the demon, quickly looking at her again, despite her worries smiling slightly when she saw the look of concentration on Pat's face; nodding, the taller woman jiggled the bank card in the gap once more, then smirked as a clicking sound could be heard, quickly turning the knob afterwards, her smirk widening when the door swung open immediately.
"I still got it", she then proudly let her girlfriend know, making her nod – before she quickly stepped into the house, the demon following her a second later, closing the door behind herself before she looked around.
Aside from the curtains, the previous owners also had left several pieces of furniture, covered with white sheets; dust was collecting in the corners, and the house had the smell of a place that hadn't been aired out for quite some time.
"They're not gonna sell this house if they don't take care of it", Willow made it clear that she had noticed that as well, wrinkling her nose while she moved from the anteroom to the kitchen, the smell being even stronger there and causing her to shudder.
"How can this place smell like this after just a week?" she then demanded to know as she heard her girlfriend join her; shrugging, Pat looked around, then moved from the kitchen to the living room, eying the covered furniture there, letting out a heavy sigh afterwards, turning to look at her girlfriend with a look of dismay on her face.
"He's not here", she stated what was quite obvious, "so that was a waste of time…"
"I was afraid this would be the outcome of this little break-in", Willow sighed, looking around the almost empty room as well, knowing that her girlfriend was right, grimacing as she thought of what this might mean.
"If you don't find this guy on patrol tonight, he'll kill again", she let the taller woman know, making her nod with a frown on her face as well; momentarily not sure what to do, she scratched the back of her head, then spoke up again, her words making the redhead's face light up, even though she didn't guess the reason for this correctly. "Maybe you should come along, and do some locator magic… Would that make sense?"
"It'd be kinda like throwing out a big net", Willow gave back, giving her best to hide how overjoyed she was about this, thinking to herself that, if Pat wanted her to come along and help with finding the culprit, surely she couldn't be the one who had done all this herself, no matter if she had found one of her buttons at one of the crime scenes or not.
"It's worth a try, I guess", she thus added, "too bad we didn't take any of the stuff we found at the spots where he killed, then I could use that…"
Momentarily, she thought of the button again, and realized that she wasn't exactly honest about not taking any stuff; then, she shrugged those thoughts off when the demon gave her a smile and told her that it was worth a try anyway, making her nod before they left the house together, heading back to their apartment to get some rest before they'd go on patrol.