"Blakeley stopped by again while you were gone." Daryl told Andy as he took his seat at his desk. "She got called out to another murder scene, same m.o. stabbed 13 times in the chest in a pattern. Did Xander know anything about ghosts?"

"Quite a bit actually, he's going to see about getting a banishing thing going and gave me a run down on the things a ghost can do. Including telekinesis and manifesting solid objects. Beyond that, standard investigation stuff, figure out why it might be interested in this or now these, victims in particular, which will help find it."

"He did call them supernatural cops and Prue agreed our jobs are a lot alike. It's the end game that's different, instead of arresting, they have to destroy the perpetrator. I'm getting why, how do we incarcerate a ghost?"

"And I thought wrapping my head around demons and Magic being real was already a pain, I'm barely ready to acknowledge them and now a ghost. So let's do what we do, investigate. Who are the victims?"

"Already on it, the first victim was the son of a former District Attorney who died awhile back and the new one is Judge Renault."

"The son of a D.A. and currently sitting Judge both murdered and a fingerprint that links to an executed serial killer." Andy grimaced. "I don't think you have to be a cop to connect those dots, Jackson's going after people responsible for stopping him the first time around. And he's willing to accept substitutes."

"More people than a D.A. and a Judge were responsible for stopping him." Daryl pointed out grimly. "The cops who investigated, the techs who gathered evidence. He was executed, which also means the executioner. It could be a long list of potential victims."

"And no idea which one he'll go after next. We can't even warn them because they won't believe us."

"Is this what the sisters have to deal with?" Daryl wondered. "Trying to protect people from demons, when people don't want to believe demons actually exist or worse, are trying to kill them? It must be so frustrating."

"That's pretty much what I'm feeling right now, that and helpless." Andy agreed. "I wonder if it's possible to track a ghost magically? Something to ask the sisters. I'll go over after work and fill them in, maybe between them and Xander they can figure something out."

"If they can, it could save a lot of lives." Daryl agreed. "Too bad you didn't think of it when you were talking to Xander earlier. The work day ends in a couple hours, let's finish going through the files and you can take those over at the same time."

Andy nodded and pulled a file of an unsolved case towards him and began looking for more weird. It was going to be a long couple of hours, maybe Blakeley would have a new lead when she got back that would help.

Cordelia pulled up in front of the Manor as she returned from picking up Prue's dry cleaning just as her phone signaled a text coming in. She waited until she was in the house and had handed the suit to Phoebe before pulling her phone out and checking the message. Her eyebrows shot up. "Why is Wesley sending me information on a banishing ritual for a ghost?" She exclaimed.

Phoebe looked surprised and then glum. "Because we're too late, the ghost has done something that probably attracted the attention of the police, which means Andy or Daryl went to ask Xander questions and he's trying to find a way to deal with the ghost."

"Too late." Cordelia's lips twisted. "Someone's dead, I knew it was a possibility. Ghost of a serial killer, but to know. That's different."

"It means we lost another innocent."

"We can't save everyone, we've been learning that lesson for a long time." Cordelia nodded. "But it still kicks us in the teeth when it happens."

Phoebe squared her small shoulders. "Let's see if we've got the ingredients for that ritual and go from there. Prue will be home soon and we're going to need her help anyway, she's the one with the active power, not me."

"Xander too, they can fight the ghost if necessary, while we do the ritual." Cordelia followed Phoebe up to the attic and they began checking the sisters' supplies.

"How are we going to banish a ghost when we don't know where it is?" Cordelia asked. "Is there something in your Book about tracking ghosts?"

"Only if we have something that they left ectoplasm on. That's a ghost's equivalent of skin, which is individual to each ghost according to the Book." Phoebe answered. "If we had that, we could track them easily."

"The cops might, but wouldn't know." Cordelia said. "Anything the ghost touched could have something left on it. You should call Andy and see if he can check if the ghost left something at the scene.

"Good idea." Phoebe went to call Andy while Cordelia continued checking and gathering ingredients. Phoebe returned about ten minutes later.

"We were right, two victims so far." Phoebe said grimly. "And a knife left at the first scene with a weird fingerprint that might be the ghost's."

"I hope that's enough to track him. You guys have all the ingredients on Wesley's list. Now we just need that knife and than we can deal with the serial killer ghost."

"Let's get everything ready, it'll save time later." The two friends grimly began preparing the ritual, hoping they could stop the ghost before he killed a third time.

Xander left work a few minutes before Prue, he hadn't seen her after Andy had come by, so he hadn't had a chance to fill her in on the potential ghost problem, he hoped the ghost hadn't killed again but wasn't optimistic.

The Hellmouth taught harsh lessons, one of the biggest, always be prepared for the worst.

And another was that it can always get worse.