Three

Everyone crowded into the bedroom, Jon glancing suspiciously between the bed and Jace and Clary as he entered, Clary decided not to dignify the implied, and paranoid, accusation with a response.

Instead, she spread the girl's journal across the covers, trying to let as many of the group see it as possible. She flipped through the pages, most of it was neat, orderly. Legible handwriting that detailed a normal, mortal life. The unreasonable demands her mean boss made of her on a day-to-day basis; her one snide co-worker who still had nothing on the rudeness of the customers; the guy she liked at her gym who misheard her name when she introduced herself and how she'd let him call her Christy so long now that she had no idea how to go about correcting him.

The toward the end it changed abruptly, becoming erratic and scared, filled with stories of sightings of terrifying monsters no one else could see. It would look, to the mortal police, like a decent into madness. To the Shadowhunters who knew better it looked worse than that.

"So, whatever happened to Simon is happening again?" Jace was trying for nonchalance but Clary could here the tension in his voice.

"Maybe not, maybe she really did just go crazy." Izzy didn't sound convinced enough of her own comment for anyone to bother arguing with her.

Alec plucked the journal out from under Clary's hands, "Why is this even still here though? Mundie police collect evidence, right?" He glanced at Clary for confirmation that he was understanding police procedure correctly, "Shouldn't this have been taken?"

Jace snorted as he smoothed the bedcovers, fixing the slight disturbance Clary had made when she'd put the journal down on top of them, "Because a Mundane is going to read through that and conclude that it's vital proof that she was eaten by demons?"

"Hodge told Alec and I that her death was officially ruled as a dog attack," Jon said from the back of the group, "I guess in that context 'crazy lady' doesn't seem relevant."

Alec handed the journal off to Simon and consulted the piece of paper Hodge had given them the addresses on, "We still have two apartments to check, it's not time to draw conclusions yet, this discussion can be shelved until after we have all the facts."

He lead the way out of the bedroom and out of the apartment, the rest of the group trailing behind, Jace stopped to straighten a picture on the wall then fell into step beside Clary. He called over his shoulder to Simon, who'd fallen furthest back, "Bring the girl's journal, it could have something in it that we missed."

Simon didn't answer until everyone had filed out of the apartment and the door had been re-locked behind them.

He shoved the journal into Jace's chest with enough force that it would have sent a mundane sprawling, "Her name was Cora. Not 'mundane'. Not 'crazy lady'. Not 'the girl'. Cora. It was written on the first page, none of you even looked."

Clary suddenly felt sick. No, she hadn't looked, too focused on finding out how Cora had died to think much at all about what she'd been when she was alive.

Simon's face was still white with rage, he backed away from the group, not looking anyone in the face, "You can finish your bout of home invasion without me, I'm going home. I'm done with your elitist bullshit for tonight."

He stalked down the hall and disappeared from sight. Clary was about to go after him, but Izzy beat her to it, after a couple of steps she turned back "I'm going to…" seemingly unable to find an adequate end to her sentence, she jerked her chin in the direction Simon had gone. Her voice sounded uncertain, but her face was set defiantly, as though waiting for someone to try and stop her. When no one did she left without another word.

OOO

The search of the other two apartments was a quiet affair, Simon's parting words obviously weighed on the minds of everyone else just as they were weighing on Clary's.

Her myriad of secrets meant that she'd never really gotten close to any of the mundanes she knew, but she'd thought her atypical upbringing had spared her from the superiority complex most Shadowhunters were bred into. Shame coiled thick in her chest, she was supposed to be better than this.

Always your father's daughter a nasty voice whispered in the back of her mind.

Jace still held Cora's journal in his hands, "So, since neither Lee nor Amy's apartments yielded any information or potential causes," everyone had gone out of their way at the second and third residences to make sure they knew the names of the victims, "I for one, am really looking forward to telling Hodge that we have absolutely nothing except this." He brandished the journal in the air, "Which is practically nothing."

Jon sighed, "As fun as that conversation sounds, Clary and I have to get home. Our mother has been threatening to ground us for eternity since that's the only way she'll ever get a chance to see us anymore. She's only kind-of joking."

He was right, the sun was starting to sink below the horizon and if they missed another family dinner they'd probably find themselves barricaded in their rooms like fairy-tale princesses.

"Fine." Jace turned to Alec, "Guess it's just me and you then."

Alec turned faintly pink, "Actually, I also have somewhere to be."

"Where?" Jace asked suspiciously, "And with who?"

Alec looked as though he'd be happy to be late for an appointment in hell if it would get him out of this conversation, "With—. It's none of your—. I don't have to—. I'm going." Alec spluttered, he turned sharply on his heel and marched away.

Jace watched him go with a fond expression on his face, "His ears have gone an alarming shade of red." He looked down at the journal in his hands, "Guess it's just you then, Jace." He shot a mock accusatory look at Clary, "Staggering loyalty you're showing here by the way, glad to know I have a girlfriend who's got my back."

Clary shrugged and went up on her toes, "You could always dump me for someone better."

He shook his head at her attempts to reach him and leaned down to bridge the distance between their mouths, "Impossible." He mumbled against her lips.

Jon made a retching sound from somewhere off to their left.