Erskine gasped. "I'm wounded! I am offended, Solomon, that you would think I'd plot anything. That I'm even capable of taking advantage of my position like that, shirking my duties just to go around plotting things. Do I plot, Skulduggery?"

"Not really. But you do scheme."

"Am I scheming anything right now?"

Skulduggery shook his head. "No. I have to agree with Solomon. You're plotting."

Erskine threw up his hands. "Attacked from all sides! I give up. Look, as long as everyone I'm supposed to fire is gone by tomorrow, and the Sanctuary doesn't burn down or explode, I'm in the clear, right?"

"So one would hope." Skulduggery reached up to adjust his hat. "Now, if that's all, gentlemen, I have a list of places given to me by one Ephraim Tungsten that need investigating, and a teenage detective-in-training to train."

Erskine waved him off with a nod. "Yes, yes, go do your detective thing. We'll have beaten Lucifer by the time you get back."

"I wouldn't mind seeing that. Gabe?"

~~

The first three potential safehouses Tungsten put together for Marr were dead ends. It took Skulduggery, Gabe, and Valkyrie the rest of the day to determine that, during which Valkyrie complained bitterly about being forced to go to school herself the next day - until she remembered that it was a teacher workday, and a holiday for the students. Skulduggery chose to believe her, and Gabe didn't seem to have any objections either. So he picked her up in the Bentley bright and early on Monday morning, only to discover she was dragging Fletcher along for the ride.

"Why?" he asked when the two had a moment alone.

Valkyrie shot him a look. "Because he's my boyfriend, and you're supposed to do things together with your boyfriend, and he wanted to come along. Is that a problem?"

"No," Skulduggery answered slowly. "Not until his hair scares potential witnesses away."

Valkyrie punched him on the arm. "Be nice."

"I'll be perfectly nice to the potential witnesses. It's your boyfriend I'm worried about."

"Your boyfriend's an Archangel."

Skulduggery hesitated. "Touche?"

"Oh, shut up. Fletcher needs some work, I know, but he's not going to get it if we keep leaving him behind. Come on, let's get going."

The next place on the list was a support group center for abused women. Skulduggery parked across the street from the building, illusive brow furrowed. "That's a problem."

"What's a problem?" asked Fletcher, glancing out the window.

"They're not going to take kindly to men striding in with questions about someone who will have undoubtedly passed herself off as someone they need to help."

"I'll go in," Valkyrie volunteered.

"No. Marr would recognise you. You're not going in alone."

"I could always take Tanith."

"And we run into the same problem of Marr recognising you both."

"Yeah, but she's not going to try and kill me with Tanith there. We could chase her out and you guys could apprehend her out on the street."

Skulduggery shook his head. "That draws far too much attention and puts too many innocent people in danger. I'd rather Marr not know how close we are, or even that we've located her. I wonder if Saffron would be willing to do a favour for us."

"Saffron?"

"Necromancer who isn't really a Necromancer following Solomon out of the Temple. I think she likes him. Maybe she'd do us a favour if she thought Solomon was the one asking for it."