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By Root 632 0

when he finally mentioned Rust's name. If he were known to another member of the force, any flak that resulted from this incident would pass them by and hit that member. Their minds thus relieved, they took him back to Owl and told him to have a good rest of the night. The Doctor wished them the same, and everyone parted on a friendly basis.

Of course, thought the Doctor as he stood at the washbasin bathing his rapidly healing wounds, I'm now known in the New Orleans police department as a pervert. He shrugged. He'd survived worse slurs on his reputation. He examined the damage to his chest. The shape of the runes was already blurring. He was sorry about that: he would like to have copied them and looked up exactly which demon or power Dupre had been using him to summon. Not that it really mattered.

'One down,' he muttered.

His left hand wasn't yet all it could be, and his wrists and ankles were still raw and hadn't quite stopped bleeding. Also, Dupre's powders had poisoned him. His immune system was churning, and he had a fever. He ran the bath, took off his clothes and sat in the cool water, watching the thin threads of his blood twist away and vanish. This stopped shortly, and he felt his overcharged system slowing back to normal and his temperature falling. He leaned his head against the tiles and let himself slip into a light trance. He was like this two hours later when Fitz and Anji burst frantically into the bathroom.

'Oh!' said Anji, surprising both herself and the Doctor with an alarmed blush.

'Where the hell have you been?' Fitz cried. 'We caught the five a.m. flight out of Albany and we called till then!'

'You're hurt!' said Anji.

Fitz sat on the closed toilet lid, leaning forward eagerly. 'Listen, Delesormes Jnr is alive. What's more, he killed his whole family -well, foster family, anyway -'

'Excuse me,' said the Doctor with as much dignity as he could muster,'but can this wait?'

In the back courtyard, a large jack o lantern sat propped in the roots of the live oak, beside a cement chipmunk. Little black plastic bats had been suspended with wire from the tree's lower branches.

'I've started decorating for Samhein,' Laura explained. She had appeared with a breakfast tea tray, as if she had guests every morning.

'Nice,' said Fitz uncertainly.

'Not the chipmunk. He's always here. Can't remember where he came from now.'

The Doctor came into the courtyard and headed gratefully for the tea tray.

Anji intercepted him. 'What happened to you?'

'I spent most of the night chained to a floor.'

'What?'

'By a madman.' He poured himself some tea. 'Did I mention that?'

'Dupre.'

'None other.'

'Where is he now?'

The Doctor looked bleak. 'What's this about a murdered family?' he said, turning towards Fitz.

'I dug up Delesormes Jnr's coffin,' said Fitz. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

'He wasn't in it.'

'Who was?'

'Nobody. A log.'

'A log,' the Doctor repeated thoughtfully.

'Shortly after he supposedly died,' said Anji, 'his foster family were horribly murdered. They appear to have been brutal people.'

'I see.'

Fitz said, 'The murder site didn't look - well, I don't exactly know what a normal murder site should look like. But this definitely wasn't one.' He went on to describe the cabin. The Doctor listened carefully, sipping his tea.

'Anyway,' said Anji when Fitz had finished, 'we did the maths and we think-‘

She was interrupted by Laura's angry shout from the front of the house. A second later, Swan rushed into the courtyard and flung herself against the Doctor. 'He's gone!'

'Hang on!' Fitz reached for Swan's arm, but the Doctor shook his head. He carefully set down his mug of tea, which had somehow survived unspilled, and put an arm around the sobbing woman.

"This is Teddy Acree's wife,' he said softly. 'Swan.'

'Teddy Acree -'began Fitz, but the Doctor shushed him with a look.

Laura had appeared at the back door. Now she rolled her eyes and went back inside. 'See if Laura will make some more tea, would you?' the Doctor said