15
I fumbled the bag open and dragged Bill out. ‘What do you mean, she isn’t here?’
‘She is not here. I detect no trace of her presence.’
‘Bill, she’s been dead for more than five hundred years. There is nothing left of her to detect.’
‘That is not necessarily true. A strong bond was formed between us, and I would know if she was nearby.’
Damn it. ‘I take it you haven’t sensed any trace of her presence anywhere else?’
‘I am afraid not.’
‘Not even at the churchyard?’
‘No.’
I felt, for one awful moment, like hurling Bill into the nearest of the puddles left by last night’s rain. I contained the impulse. It wasn’t his fault that we were apparently barking up the wrong tree.
‘Any sign of them?’ I asked Jay.
He shook his head. ‘Nowhere near here.’
I began to get a bad feeling. ‘Bill
