slayers_desire | its a tourist trap

He stops, looking back at the room with the corpses. "I don't know. If the police find this place, it could be seen as tampering with the evidence, if we did. But if we don't, they might connect it to him somehow."

"I don't want to interfer with the job that the police have to do." April sighed, running her hands through her hair. "But I really don't want Spike to get framed for this either."

"Then we should probably take it, and try to leave the body how we found it." It isn't going to be an easy task. Or a clean one.

"Or... I could try burning it. Make sure that the body's intact, but the coat's not recognizable."

Both scenarios sound uncomfortable. She doesn't want to disturb the body. And feels really torn about this.

"Maybe they won't get any clues from the coat."

He doesn't really want to do either one, himself. "Maybe there's another way. Not burning the coat, but going over it really closely and getting rid of any... hair, or skin, or anything else that might link him to owning it. What feels right?"

"That feels more respectful. You think you could manage it?"

"I can try." And it means he won't have to touch the body, either.

He approaches again, shutting out the smell and focusing his microvision on every millimeter of the duster. Occasionally his eyes flare and a tiny burst of heat is sent out, seemingly doing nothing except leaving small sooty smudges here and there. There's not a lot to destroy, but he goes over it three times to make sure he didn't miss any.

April watches Clark in interest. Even with the tense situation, she can't help smiling at his display of control over his powers.

When he is done, and they can leave, she takes his hand. "Thank you."

"I just hope I got it all. Do you want to call in an anonymous tip, once we're a ways away?"

"Yes. I think that is a good idea." April is glad that Clark is here with her. There is so much that he provides to the situation.

He picks her up for the short hop back to the ground outside, from the bell tower. "You know, we followed the first trail back here. I wonder if there were more murders committed here that the police missed."

"It is quite possible. We were the first to discover this scene, so there could be others waiting to be found."

Once they're on the ground, he switches his vision yet again, examining the old marks and stains on the ground to see if there's anything incriminating left after the elements have taken their toll. After all, no one knows how far back the murders go just yet.

As difficult as it was to follow the trail here, it gets even more difficult to find more at the scene. But there is another trail. Older. It is so faint that Clark almost misses it.

"Anything?"

"Maybe." He knows there's something there, but it takes him long, long minutes to pinpoint it. Finally he kneels, looking down at the ground. "Yeah. I think so. It's hard to tell; it's so old."

"Oh dear. That will make it difficult to follow." April follows him to the spot where he is looking at the ground.

"Yeah. It's really hard, even for me." The trail is nearly invisible, and it's going to take time to track.

"The dead spirits are still here." It is the only suggestion she has got.

He looks up at her. "Do you want to risk it?"

"I am not really sure what else to do. Unless you have another suggestion?"

"Not really." He straightens, turning to face her fully. "It's your decision."

April takes his hand again for strength. "I am strong with you at my side. The darkness can't frighten me with you as my light."

She takes a couple of deep breaths, then focuses her attention to the spirits near the church. "They weren't killed here. The other couple was. They were brought here from where they were killed."

He gives her hand a squeeze of reassurance, then listens as she contacts the spirits. "So the old trail is theirs?"

"Yes. They can take us down it."

He nods slowly, filing this away in the growing mental list of things they've learned about the case. "All right. Let's go."

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