Jim Butcher: Proven Guilty

I shook my head and started to tell him where to stick his mystery when someone knocked at the door.

Murphy stood on the other side and smiled at me. “Hey.” She held up my shotgun. “Thomas wanted me to bring this by. Said to tell you he was getting his own toys from now on.”

She offered it and I took it, frowning. “He didn’t even clean it off.”

She smiled. “I swear, Dresden. You can be such a pansy.”

“It’s because I’m a sensitive guy. You want to come in?”

She gave me another smile, but shook her head. “No time. Got to see the first shrink in half an hour.”

“Ah,” I said. “How are things playing out?”

“Oh, there’s a long investigation and evaluation to be done,” she said. “Officially, of course.”

“Of course,” I said.

“But unofficially…” She shrugged. “I’m losing SI. They’re busting me down to detective sergeant.”

I winced. “Who’s getting the job?”

“Stallings, most likely. He’s the next most experienced, better record than most of the department, and he’s respected.” She looked away “I’m losing my seniority, too. All of it. So they’re partnering me with their most experienced detective.”

“Which is that?” I asked.

“Rawlins,” she said, her mouth moving in a tight smile. “He did so good on this one they promoted him to SI.”

“No good deed goes unpunished,” I said.

“Ain’t that the truth,” Murphy sighed.

“That a bad thing? He seems like a decent guy.”

“He is, he is,” Murphy said, scrunching up her nose. “But he knew my father.”

“Oh,” I said. “And it’s possible you have issues.”

“Remotely,” she said. “What about you? You okay?”

I met her eyes for a second and then looked away. “I, uh. I’ll be okay.”

She nodded, and then simply stepped forward and hugged me. My arms went around her without me telling them to do it. It wasn’t a tense, meaning-laden hug. She was my friend. She was exhausted and worried and suffering, and she’d had what she valued most sullied and stained, but she was worried about me. Giving me a hug. Assuring me, by implication, that everything was going to be all right.

I gave as good as I got for a while. When we broke the embrace, it was at the same time, and it wasn’t awkward. She smiled at me, just a little bittersweet, and glanced at her watch. “I have to get moving.”

“Right,” I said. “Thanks, Murph.”

She left. A while later, my phone rang. I answered it.

“Everything work out?” Thomas asked. “With the girl?”

“Pretty much,” I told him. “You all right?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Need anything?” Like maybe to talk about how he was feeding on people again and making money at the same time.

“Not especially,” he told me. I was pretty sure he had heard the unasked question, because his tone of voice carried an unyielding coolness, telling me not to push. Thomas was my brother. I could wait.

“What’s up with Murphy?” he asked me.

I told him about her job.

He was silent for an annoyed second and then said, “But what’s up with Murphy?”

I glowered and slouched down onto my couch. “There isn’t anything up with her. She isn’t interested.”

“How do you know?” he asked.

“She told me.”

“She told you.”

“She told me.”

He sighed. “And you believed her.”

“Well,” I said. “Yes.”

“I had a talk with her when she drove me home,” he said.

“A talk?”

“A talk. I wanted to figure something out.”

“Did you?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“That you’re both stiff-necked idiots,” he said, his tone annoyed, and hung up on me.

I glowered at the phone for a minute, muttered a couple of choice words about my half brother, then got out my guitar and labored to make something resembling music for a while. Sometimes it was easier for me to think when playing, and the time drifted by. I played and mulled things over until someone else knocked. I set my guitar aside and went to the door.

Ebenezar stood on the other side, and he gave me a nod and a cautious smile when I opened the door. “Hot enough for you?” the old wizard asked.

“Almost,” I said. “Come in.”

He did, and I grabbed a couple of beers, offering him one. “What’s up?”

“You tell me,” he said.

So I told him all about the last few days, especially my dealings with Lily and Fix, Maeve, and Mab. Ebenezar listened to it all in silence.

“What a mess,” he said when I finished.

“Tell me about it.” I sipped at my beer. “You know what I think?”

He finished his beer and shook his head.

“I think we got played.”

“By the Summer Lady?”

I shook my head. “I think Lily got suckered just as much as we did.”

He frowned and rubbed at his head with one palm. “How so?”

“That’s the part I can’t figure,” I said. “I think someone set Molly up to be a beacon for the fetches. And I’m damned sure that it was no accident that those fetches took Molly to Arctis Tor when it was so lightly defended. Someone wanted me there at Arctis Tor.”

Ebenezar pursed his lips. “Who?”

“I think we got used by one of the Queens to one-up one of the others, somehow. But damned if I can figure out how.”

“You think Mab really is insane?”

“I think it would be hard to tell the difference,” I said in a sour voice. “Lily thinks so. But Lily wasn’t exactly widely famed for her intellect before she became the Summer Lady.” I shook my head. “If Mab really is loopy, it’s going to be bad.”

The old man nodded.

“And since you can’t swing a cat without hitting a cat’s-paw lately, I think maybe someone was trying to use Mab for something. Like all the others who’ve gotten set up around here.”

“Setup?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Starting with Victor Sells a few years ago. Then those FBI creeps with the wolf belts. I think that someone out there wants to get things done without getting his-”

“Or her,” Ebenezar said.

“Or her own hands dirty,” I continued. “Consider all these things running around with more power than they should have had or better connected than they should have been. The Shadowman, the hexenwulfen, the Nightmare, the last Summer Lady-and that’s just for starters. The Red Court sure are a hell of a lot more dangerous than anyone thought they would be.”

Ebenezar frowned, nodding.

“I think whoever is backstage moving things around tried to use Mab and got more than they bargained for. I think that’s what the attack on Arctis Tor was about. Maybe they tried to put her down before she turned on them.”

“Which she would,” Ebenezar said.

“Of course she would. She’s Mab. She’d keep any bargain she made, but she isn’t the kind who takes orders real well.”

“Go on, boy,” Ebenezar said gently. “You’ve got facts. Where do they lead you?”

I lowered my own voice to a whisper. “A new power is moving around out there. Something big, smart, strong, and sneaky as hell. Something with a lot of strength and magical know-how.” I licked my lips. “Put that together with the evidence of varied powers. Wolf belts handed out to those poor FBI bastards. Black magic being taught to small-timers like the Shadowman and the Nightmare. Vampires cross-training one another in sorcery. Hellfire used on Arctis Tor. And, of course, the White Council’s highly placed traitor. All of that together doesn’t point to just one person. It indicates an organization.” I regarded the old man steadily. “And they’ve got wizards on the staff. Probably several of them.”