He considers the facts -- well, "facts", probably, a lot of them -- as they have been presented to him. They do not make much sense. Everything seems to be running on free association and mysticism.

"Do you speak to Roby often?"

She gestures with her head. If you were Nurse Price, she might just be tossing her hair. "Look over there."

Where she indicates, there's a small hole between the rooms. Not enough to do much of anything; enough to talk.

...it might be worthwhile asking what Roby saw of events. --if they can get a straight answer out of him. It'll probably lead to the hole getting closed up, but that's a small price compared to investigating and hopefully preventing yearly murders.

....aw. "Does he have much to say? I met him a few days ago but he ignored everyone who didn't want to talk about this one specific play."

"He tells me of Lake Hali and the Hyades and the Stranger and the Pallid Mask. Someday, he will finish his work and bring Carcosa, and I will be free."

It's less that Valentine believes any of this about Carcosa, and more that she has one last desperate hope. Magic is the only way that she can imagine that anything about her life will change at all, instead of being trapped in an empty room haunted by the devil.

"Does he tell you the details of his work?"

"He must write the ritual. It is quite difficult, especially since he's not allowed pencils anymore."

Well, at least he's consistent.

...He'd be mad about Oscar giving the patients pencils, but honestly if imaginary rituals give them hope... that's probably fine. Hopefully fine. The murders probably didn't happen with pencils?

..........why do Sal and William Jing have to be in the room..... no okay she knows why. "If I said 'the Dreamlands,' would that mean anything to you."

"No."

"How much could you make out of the devil? Could you describe him enough that we could pick the form out of a line-up? ...Or notice him walking down the street?"

..................He realizes this is a ridiculous question, but.

"I was somewhat distracted by all the blood," she says sharply.

"...Understandable."

"Quite understandably! I also understand if this is something you can't answer, but was he basically human shaped, or did he have the full horns and tail, or something else?"

"Human shaped."

"That's--" he is about to say 'good to know' but honestly he can't think of something more insensitive than saying 'good' in the vicinity of any part of the conversation. "--useful." If Valentine is telling the truth about what she is seeing (which he can't be sure of, but the hopelessness implies it), if the devil is human, that could mean a human other than Valentine is doing it... and trying to pin it on her. For some reason. ...it's not a great theory, but it's something.

...ugh Inaaya forgot to ask Dr. Aarons what time of year the first murder happened. "Has it been the same time of year both times, do you know if the date lines up with anything specific?"

"It was in August last time."

So, it doesn't always line up with Roby's incidents, it just happened to this time.

"Okay. Do you want... I don't know. For me to carry a message out from you, information I can find out and come back and tell you, a hug, I don't know if I can bring physical objects but I might be able to get a book or something..."

"I doubt he'll let me touch you and the only person I care to talk to is dead. --I didn't do it. Do you really think that if I had a knife I would use it on anyone other than myself?"

"I don't think you did," she says with perfect sincerity.

(This is mostly because nobody including Doctor Aarons can see how Valentine possibly could have committed the relevant murders and Inaaya's hypothesis space is somewhat wider than most people's, rather than because Inaaya has strong beliefs one way or the other about whether she'd commit suicide immediately if given an opportunity, but like, it's still true.)

"I am glad someone besides Roby agrees.

"Someday," she says very quietly, "he will bring Carcosa, and I will be somewhere else."

Oh, he feels so mean about planning to tell Dr Aarons that Roby might be an auditory witness, if she's that keen on Carcosa. But it'll be important for solving a murder, so--

...someday Inaaya's going to get her Joan to the dreamlands, and when she figures out how she'll tell Valentine Donovan too. In the meantime, she looks over at William Jing and Sal, and bites her tongue.

Jing Yi heads off to Dr. Aarons's office.