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"Monica," I told her "There are powers in the universe that most people don&039;t even know about Powers that we still don&039;t fully understand The s in a different light than regular people They cohtly different way This sets them apart Sometimes it breeds unwarranted suspicion and fear I know you&039;ve read books and seen movies about how horrible people like me are, and that whole &039;suffer not a witch to live&039; part of the Old Testas all roses But we really aren&039;t any different froave herto do that, you&039;re going to have to give ive you my word that I won&039;t disappoint you"

I saw her take this in and chew on it for a while, while staring down at her hands,

"Victor," she said at last "Victor Sells"

"All right," I said, picking up ht have gone that you can think of, offhand?"

She nodded "The lake house We have a house down by " She waved her hand

"The lake?"

She beamed at me, and I reminded myself to be patient "In Lake Providence, over the state line, around Lake Michigan It&039;s beautiful up there in the autumn"

"Okay, then Are you aware of any friends he ht have visited, anything like that?"

"Oh, Victor wasn&039;t on speaking terms with his family I never knehy He didn&039;t talk about them, really We&039;ve been married for ten years, and he never once spoke to the that down, too "Friends, then?"

She fretted her lip, a gesture that seemed familiar to her "Not really He was friends with his boss, and some people at work, but after he was fired "

"Uh-huh," I said "I understand" I continued writing things down, drawing bold lines between thoughts to separate thee before I was finished writing down the facts and h about this kind of thing

"Well, Mr Dresden?" she asked "Can you help e and nodded "I think so, Monica If possible, I&039;d like to see these things your husband collected Which books and so on It would help if I had a picture of hiht like to take a look around your house at Lake Providence Would that be all right?"

"Of course," she said She seemed relieved, but at the same time even more nervous than before I noted down the address of the lake house and brief directions

"You&039;re aware of ht be less costly for you to hire soot quite a bit of savings, Mr Dresden," she told me "I&039;m not worried about the money" That seemed an odd stateenerally nervous e fifty dollars an hour, plus expenses I&039;ll send you an iteood idea what I&039;uarantee that I work exclusively on your case I try to handle each of my customers with respect and courtesy, so I can&039;t put any one of them before another"

She nodded to me, emphatically, and reached into her purse She drew out a white envelope and passed it over to me "There&039;s five hundred inside," she toldFive hundred dollars would take care of last ood bit of this et into this bit with nervous clients wanting to preserve the anonyht Cash always spends

"That will be fine, yes," I told her I tried not to fondle the envelope At least I wasn&039;t crass enough to dump the money on my desk and count it out

She drew out another envelope "He took s with him," she said "At least, I couldn&039;t find them where he usually keeps the in the envelope, , or char A third envelope caanized "There&039;s a picture of him in here, and my phone number inside Thank you, Mr Dresden When will you call?"

"As soon as I know so," I told her "Probably by toood?"

She alht herself, and smiled directly at my nose instead "Yes Yes, thank you so lanced up at the wall "Oh, look at the tio School&039;s alain, as though embarrassed that she had let such an important fact about her slip out

"I&039;ll do whatever I can,her to the door "Thank you for your business I&039;ll be in touch soon"

She said her good-byes, never looking me in the face, and fled out the door I shut it behind her and went back to the envelopes

First, the money It was all in fifties, which always look new even when they&039;re years old because they get so little circulation There were ten of them I put them in my wallet, and trashed the envelope

The envelope with the photo in it was next I took it out and regarded a picture of Monica and a man of lean and handsoy eyebrows that skewed his handsole His smile hiter-than-white, and his skin had the smooth, dark tan of so ainst Monica&039;s paleness Victor Sells, I presume

The phone number ritten on a plain white index card that had been neatly trimmed down to fit inside the envelope There was no naot outdirectory and looked it up

I noted that down as well I wondered what the wo out first na to hand oes to show that people are funny when they&039;re nervous about sos, ly foolish forto rub that in when I spoke to her again

I trashed the second envelope and opened the last one, turning it upside down over my desk

The brown husk of a dead, dried scorpion, glistening with solaze, clicked down ontoset through the base of its tail, so that if it orn, it would hang head down, tail up and curled over the dried body to point at the ground

I shuddered Scorpions were symbolically powerful in certain circles of belief They weren&039;t usually syood or wholesome, either A lot of petty, mean spells could be focused around a little taliss are supposed to be worn, the prickly legs of the thing would be a constant poking and agitation at your chest, a continual reer at the tail&039;s tip ive the wearer a hug Its crablike pincers would catch in a man&039;s chest hair, or scratch at the curves of a wo Not evil, as such - but you sure as hell weren&039;t likely to do happy shiny things with ic with such an iteotten involved in so that had absorbed his attention The Art could do that to a person - particularly the darker aspects of it If he had turned to it in despair after losing his job, maybe that would explain his sudden absence from his home A lot of sorcerers or wanna-be sorcerers secluded themselves in the belief that isolation would increase their ability to focus on their ic It didn&039;t - but it did make it easier for a weak or untrained mind to avoid distractions

Or maybe it wasn&039;t even a true talisman Maybe it was just a curiosity, or a souvenir from some visit to the Southwest There wasn&039;t any way for me to tell if it was indeed a device used to iies, short of actually using it to atte such a dubious article, for a variety of good reasons

I would have to keep this little un-beauty in ht well ht not I looked up at the clock A quarter after three There was tiues to see if they had turned up any likely John Does - who knew, ht be over before the day&039;s end - and then to get to the bank to deposit ot outup hospitals - not really my routine line of work, but not difficult, either, except for the standard proble the telephone: static, line noise, other people&039;s conversations being louder than , it will

Once I thought I saw so out of the corner of my eye, a twitch of motion from the dried scorpion that sat on my desk I blinked and stared at it It didn&039;t move Cautiously, I extendedabout for any traces of enchant It was as dry of enchantment as it was of life

Never let it be said that Harry Dresden is afraid of a dried, dead bug Creepy or not, I wasn&039;t going to let it ruin my concentration

So I scooped it up with the corner of the phone book and popped it into the ht, out of mind

So I have a probles So sue me