Jim Butcher - White Night

"What you've done to the others," Anna said, her voice thread "You don't have to do this. Not to anyone."

"The others?" I demanded. I probably sounded at least half as disgusted as I felt. "You think I came here to kill you?"

She blinked at me a few times. Then she said, "You came here, broke down my door, and pointed a gun at me. What am I supposed to think?"

"I did not break down your door! It was unlocked!"

"You tore apart my ward!"

"Because I thought you might be in trouble, you twit!" I hollered. "I thought the killer might be here already."

A woman let out a couple of choking gasps. After a moment, I realized that it was the person Mouse had pinned down, letting out breathless laughter.

I lowered the gun and put it away. "For crying out loud. You thought the killer was coming for you? So you laid a trap for him?"

"Well, no," Anna said, now looking somewhat confused again. "I mean, I didn't do it. The Ordo… we hired a private investigator to look into it. It was her idea to trap the killer when he came here."

"A private investigator?" I looked over at the other woman and said, "Mouse."

My dog, tail waving gently, backed off right away and trotted over to stand beside me. The woman he'd been holding down sat up.

She was pale—not the sickly pallor of no time in the sun, but the color of the living, healthy skin of a tree beneath the outer bark. Her lean face was intensely attractive—more intriguing than beautiful, with wide, intelligent eyes set over an expressive, generous mouth. She had a slim build, all long legs and long arms, and wore a simple pair of jeans along with a black Aerosmith T-shirt, and brown leather Birkenstocks. She propped herself up on her elbows, a tendril of wheat-colored hair falling to almost insolently conceal one eye, and gave me a wry smile.

"Hello, Harry." She dabbed her fingers at a little bloody spot on her lower lip and winced, though there was still amusement in her voice. "Is that a new staff, or are you just happy to see me?"

And after my heart had skipped a couple of beats, I blinked and said, in a very quiet voice, to the first woman I'd ever everythinged, "Hello, Elaine."

I sat on the love seat while Anna Ash made coffee. Mouse, ever hopeful to cadge a snack, followed Anna into the kitchen, and sat there giving her his most pathetic, starving-doggy body language and wagging his tail.

We sat down together with coffee, like civilized people, a few minutes later.

"Ms. Ash," I said, taking my cup.

"Anna, please."

I nodded to her. "Anna. First, I wish to apologize for frightening you. It wasn't my intention."

She sipped her coffee, frowning at me, and then nodded. "I suppose I can understand your motivations."

"Thank you," I said. "I'm sorry I blew up your ward. I'll be glad to replace it for you."

"We put a lot of hours in on that thing." Anna sighed. "I mean, I know it wasn't… expert work."

"We?" I asked.

"The Ordo," she said. "We worked together to protect every one's home."

"'Community' project. Sort of a barn raising," I said.

She nodded. "That's the idea." She bit her lip. "But there were more of us, when we did that."

For just a second, the capable exterior wavered, and Anna looked very tired and very frightened. I felt a little pang inside at the sight. Real fright isn't like the movies. Real fear is an ugly, quiet, relentless thing. It's a kind of pain, and I hated seeing it on Anna's face.

I found Elaine watching me, her eyes thoughtful. She sat on the sofa, leaning forward so that her elbows rested on her spread knees. She held her cup in one hand at a slight, negligent angle. On anyone else, it would have looked masculine. On Elaine, it only looked relaxed, strong, and confident.

"He truly meant you no harm, Anna," she said, turning to our host. "He's got this psychosis about charging to the rescue. I always thought it gave him a certain hapless charm."

"I think we should focus on the future, for the time being," I said. "I think we need to pool our information and try to work together on this."

Anna and Elaine exchanged a long look. Anna glanced at me again and asked Elaine, "Are you sure?"

Elaine gave a single, firm nod. "He isn't the one trying to hurt you. I'm sure now."

"Sure now?" I said. "Is that why you veiled yourself when I was here earlier?"

Elaine's fine eyebrows lifted. "You didn't sense it when you were here. How did you know?"

I shrugged. "Maybe a little bird told me. Do you really think I'm capable of something like that?"

"No," Elaine said. "But I had to be sure."

"You know me better than that," I said, unable to keep a little heat out of my voice.

"I trust you," Elaine said, without a trace of apology in her tone, "but it might not have been you, Harry. It could have been an impostor. Or you could have been acting under some form of coercion. People's lives were at stake. I had to know."

I wanted to snarl back at her that if she so much as thought I might be the killer, she didn't know me at all. If that's how it was going to be, I might as well get up and walk right out of the apartment before—

And then I sighed.

Ah, sweet bird of irony.

"You were obviously expecting the killer to show up," I said to Anna. "The sleeping spell. The ambush. What made you think he might be coming?"

"Me," Elaine said.

"And what made you think that?"

She gave me a dazzling, innocent smile and imitated my tone and inflection. "Maybe a little bird told me."

I snorted.

Anna's eyes suddenly widened. "You two were together." She turned to Elaine. "That's how you know him."

"It was a long time ago," I said.

Elaine winked at me. "But you never really forget your first."

"You never forget your first train wreck, either."

"Train wrecks are exciting. Fun, even," Elaine said. She kept smiling, though her eyes turned a little sad. "Right up until the very last part."

I felt half a smile tug up one side of my mouth. "True," I said. "But I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't try to dodge questions by throwing up a smoke screen of nostalgia."

Elaine took a long sip of coffee and shrugged a shoulder. "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours."

I folded my arms, frowning. "Sixty seconds ago, you said that you trusted me."

She arched an eyebrow "Trust is a two-way street, Harry."

I leaned back, took another sip of coffee, and said, "Maybe you're right. I put it together after the fact, when I was making notes of our conversation. I couldn't remember noticing anything about the woman on the love seat, which doesn't happen to me. So I figured it must have been a veil, and came over here because it was possible that whoever was under it was a threat to the Ordo."

Elaine pursed her lips, frowning for a moment. "I see."

"Your turn."

She nodded. "I've been working out of L.A., taking a lot of cases referred my way—like this one. And Chicago isn't the first city where this has happened."

I blinked at her. "What?"

"San Diego, San Jose, Austin, and Seattle. Over the past year, members of a number of small organizations like the Ordo Lebes have been systematically stalked and murdered. Most of them have appeared to be suicides. Counting Chicago, the killer's taken thirty-six victims."

"Thirty-six…" I ran my thumb over the handle of the coffee Cup, frowning. "I haven't heard a word about this. Nothing. A year?"

Elaine nodded. "Harry, I've got to know. Is it possible that the Wardens are involved?"

"No," I said, my tone firm. "No way."

"Because they're such easygoing, tolerant people?" she asked.

"No. Because I know Ramirez, the regional commander for most of those cities. He wouldn't be a part of something like that." I shook my head. "Besides, we've got a manpower shortage. The Wardens are stretched pretty thin. And there's no reason for them to go around killing people."