Meanwhile, the Ninja Girl played detective in Concrete. Ollie blushed at her skill to make up a story at the hospital, in order to get the address of one of the victims. Soon she dragged her embarrassed boyfriend back to his truck and had him take her to the address she'd just gotten.

"They always seek out people living alone," she explained. "So they can stay in the vacant house."

"Oh..." Ollie muttered, not quite sure he wanted to know anything about it.

He pulled over at the driveway of a small single-story house near Tyee Lake. Claire stepped out of the F100 and headed across the lawn to circle the house. Ollie followed in no hurry, looking around, and joined her at the backyard, where the girl was peering in through the kitchen window.

"They're here," Claire whispered.

She pointed at the backdoor step. There Ollie saw footprints that looked like human at first sight, but they had only three thick toes. The doorknob was smeared with something like honey.

"Yuck," he mumbled.

Claire nodded and waved for him to follow her to the other side of the house. She halted a step before the bedroom window and crouched down to study the ground: more three-toe footprints, but smaller. Ollie leaned in by her and frowned.

"These things have kids?" he asked.

"I'm afraid this one has at least one."

They heard a shuffle inside. Claire glanced in through the bedroom window, just in time to spot a tall, thin shadow crossing swiftly past the door, toward the kitchen. She grabbed Ollie's hand and tugged. They hurried back to the truck.

"Can we leave now?" Ollie said. He looked from over his shoulder past Claire, expecting to see some creepy monster come out the front door.

Claire produced her phone as soon as Ollie started the F100.

Alex picked up right away, still sitting lazily behind the counter, coffee and Reiki book in her hands.

"Hey, Ninja Girl. What's up?"

"They're here in Concrete. A mother with at least one offspring. Maybe two."

"That would explain the spree. Gotta feed the boys. Where in Concrete?"

"Tyee Lake, the house of the first victim."

"Told them to expect us for dinner?"

"They say the beer's on you. I'm going home to get things ready."

"Meet you there in a couple of hours, Ninja Girl."

"Al! You know that I hate it when you call me that!"

"Oops. Sorry. See ya, Ninja Girl."

Alex disconnected, chuckling. She killed her coffee thinking about how excited Claire sounded. Over the last months they'd dealt with a few ghosts and some mischievous goblins. But the girl had never considered them anything more than practice. But now it was a creature. And she felt so ready. She was eager to put to the test all she'd learned. Alex would've liked her to invest all that enthusiasm on any other thing. But she'd learned to accept that trying to keep Claire from treading Bootter's path was in vain. At least for now.