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An unmarked car sat in ot out of the taxi, paid off the cabby, and nodded at the driver of the car, Detective Rudolph Rudy&039;s clean-cut good looks hadn&039;t faded in the year since he&039;d started with Special Investigations, Chicago&039;s unspoken answer to the officially unacknowledged world of the supernatural But the time had hardened him a bit, made him a little less white around the eyes

Rudolph nodded back, not even trying to hide his glower He didn&039;t liketo do with the bust several months back Rudy had cut and run, rather than stick it out next to me Before that, I&039;d escaped police custody while he was supposed to be watching ood reason to escape, and it wasn&039;t really fair of hih the day

"Heya, Detective," I said "What&039;s up?"

"Get in the car," Rudolph said

I planted my feet and shoved my hands in my pockets with a certain nonchalance "Am I under arrest?"

Rudolph narrowed his eyes and started to speak again, but the er seat cut his said, nodding at s you out today?"

"Murph wanted us to ask you down to a scene" He reached up and scratched at several days&039; worth of unshaven beard beneath a bad haircut and intelligent dark eyes "Hope you got the time We tried at your office, but you haven&039;t been in, so she sent us down here to wait for you"

I shifted Mort Lindquist&039;s books in my arms "I&039;m busy today Can it wait?"

Rudolph spat, "The lieutenant says she wants you down there now, you get your ass down there Now"

Stallings gave Rudolph a look, and then rolled his eyes for my benefit "Look, Harry Murphy told me to tell you that this one was personal"

I frowned "Personal, eh?"

He spread his hands "It&039;s what she said" He frowned and then added, "It&039;s Micky Malone"

I got a sickly little feeling in s&039;s jaitched "You&039;d better come see for yourself"

I closed et frustrated I didn&039;t have tih Mort&039;s notes, and sundohen the spirits would be able to cross over from the Nevernever, would come swiftly

But Murphy did plenty for me I owed her She&039;d saved my life a couple of times, and vice versa She was my main source of incoations, a post that had traditionally resulted in a couple ofand then a speedy exit from the police force Murphy hadn&039;t buo&039;s only professional wizard as a consultant She was getting to where she had a pretty good grasp on the local preternatural predators, at least the ot hairy she still called ative consultant I guess the computer records system doesn&039;t have numerical codes for demon banishone toe to toe with one of the worst things anyone but a wizard like me was ever likely to see, only the year before - a half-ton of indestructible loup-garou They&039;d taken so Murphy&039;s partner Micky Malone had gotten ha for one last job when Michael and I took down that deh, he&039;d decided that his liood cop, and retired on disability

I felt guilty for that - maybe irrational, true, but if I&039;d been a little smarter or a little faster, maybe I could have saved those people&039;s lives And maybe I could have saved Micky&039;s health No one else saw it that way, but I did

"All right," I said "Give me a second to put these away"

The ride was quiet, except for a little noredthe way Rudolph&039;s radio squawked and then fell abruptly silent I could s, and knew that it was likely my fault