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I had bad dreams

They were the usual fare Flairl spread her arms, eyes closed, and fell slowly backward as dozens of fine cuts opened all over her skin The air became a fine pink spray I turned from it, into a kiss with Susan, who drew me down and tore out my throat with her teeth

A wonize shook her head and drew her hand froht The dream-scenery faded to black in the wake of her motion She turned to me, dark eyes intent and said, "You need to rest"

Mickey Mouse wokenoisily, his little hand on two and the big hand on twelve I wanted to s ainst a little creative violence now and then, but you have to draw the line somewhere I wouldn&039;t sleep in the same rooot up, got dressed, left a e for Murphy, another for Michael, fed Mister, and hit the road

Michael&039;s house did not blend in with ley Field It had a white picket fence It had elegantdressings It had a tidy front lawn that was always green, even in the o summer It had a few shady trees, a lot of well-kept shrubberies, and if I had found a couple of deer grazing on the lawn or drinking from the birdbath, it wouldn&039;t have surprisedrod loosely in ing on a string tinkled happily The gate swung shut on a lazy spring behind me I knocked on the front door and waited, but no one answered I frowned Michael&039;s house had never been empty before Charity had at least a couple kids eren&039;t old enough to be in school yet, including the poor little guy they&039;d named after me Harry Carpenter How cruel is that?

I frowned at the cloud-hazed sun Weren&039;t the older kids getting out of school shortly? Charity had so her kids to come home to an empty house

Soot a sick, twisty feeling in the pit of ainst the door, and Listened I could hear the slow tick of the old grandfather clock in the front room The heater cycled on for a moment, and the vents inside whispered There were a few sounds when a bit of breeze touched the house, the creaks of old and co else

I tried the front door It was locked I stepped back off the porch, and followed the narrow driveway to the back of the property

If the front of the Carpenter home would have qualified for Better Homes and Gardens, the back would have been fit for a Craftse tree centered on the back lawn cast lots of shade in the suone I could see the fortresslike tree house Michael had built for his kids in it It had finished walls, an actual , and guardrails anywhere anyone could possibly have thought about falling The tree house had a porch that overlooked the yard Hell, I didn&039;t have a porch It&039;s an unfair world

A big section of the yard had been bitten off by an addition connected to the back of the house The foundation had been laid, and there ooden bea ould eventually be walls Heavy contractor&039;s plastic had been stapled to the wooden studs to keep the wind off the addition The separate garage was closed, and a peek in the ed me that it was pretty well filled with lumber and other construction materials

"No cars," I muttered "Maybe they went to McDonald&039;s Or church Do they have church at three in the afternoon?"

I turned around to go back to the Beetle I&039;d leave a Michael a note My stoet a second for the duel, it was likely to be a bad evening Maybe I should ask Bob to be my second Or maybe Mister No one dares to ainst the th of the back of the house

I jumped like a spooked horse and scrae at the back of the yard so that I could get a look at the roof Given that in the past day or so no less than three different parties had taken a poke at e

I got to the back of the yard, but couldn&039;t see the whole roof from there, so I clambered up into the branches, then took a six-foot ladder up to the main platform of the tree house From there, I could see that the roof was empty

I heard brisk, somewhat heavy footsteps below me, and beyond the fence at the back of the little yard I froze in place in the tree house, Listening

The heavy footsteps padded up to the fence at the back of the yard, and I heard the scrape of chain link dragging against dry leaves and other late-winter detritus I heard aexhalation Then the footsteps caainst a wooden step, and the tree shivered al up

I looked around me but the ladder was the only way down, unless I felt like ju It couldn&039;t have been more than nine or ten feet down Odds were I could land ed the ju, which wouldwould have to be a last resort

I gathered init directly at where the ladder loith a pinpoint of bright red energy

Blond hair and the top half of a girl&039;s angelic young face appeared at the top of the ladder There was a quiet gasp and her blue eyes widened "Holy crap"

I jerked the tip of the blasting rod up and away froy "Molly?"

The rest of the girl&039;s face appeared as she climbed on up the ladder "Wow, is that an acetylene torch or so?"

I blinked and peeredin your eyebrow?"

The girl clapped her fingers over her right eyebrow

"And your nose?"

Molly shot a furtive look over her shoulder at the house, and scrambled the rest of the way up to the tree house As tall as herarms She wore a typical private-school uniform of skirt, blouse, and sweater-but it looked like she&039;d been attacked by a lech with razor blades where fingers should have been

The skirt was essentially slashed to ribbons, and underneath it she wore black tights, also torn to nigh indecency Her shirt and sweater had apparently endured the Blitz, but the bright red satin bra that peeked out from beneath looked new She had on toobut too young to drive, but it was there She wore a ring of fine gold wire through one pale gold eyebrow, and a golden stud protruded from one side of her nose

I worked hard not to s would have ih to be hurt by that kind of opinion, and I had a vaguethat ridiculous at one time Let he who hath never worn parachute pants cast the first stone

Molly cla backpack down on the wooden floor "You lurk in tree houses a lot, Mister Dresden?"

"I&039; for your dad"

Molly wrinkled up her nose, then started re the stud from it I didn&039;t want to watch "I don&039;t want to tell you how to investigate stuff, but generally speaking you won&039;t find him in tree houses"

"I came over, but no one answered the door when I knocked Is that nor, dumped the backpack out onto the floorboards, and started sorting out a long skirt with a floral print, a T-shirt, and a sweater "It is on errands day Mom loads up the sandcraith all the little snot-nosed Jawas and goes all over town"

"Oh Do you knohen she&039;s due back?"

"Anytiled out of the tattered skirt and tights in that e to acquire sometime in their teens The shirt and pink sweater went on next, and the ripped up sweater and, to ht red bra caot tucked back into the backpack

I turned irl as well as I could in the limited space The link of handcuff Anna Valmont had slapped onto my wrist chafed and pinched I scratched at it irritably You&039;d think I&039;d been cuffed enough tiotten myself a key by now

Molly took a ipe fro the makeup from her face "Hey," she asked a runted and wavedthe cuff around

"Hey, neat," Molly said "Are you on the la in a tree house, so the cops won&039;t find you?"

"No," I said "It&039;s kind of a long story"

"Ohhhh," Molly said wisely "Those are fun-tiotcha"

"No!" I protested "And how the hell would you know about fun-time handcuffs anyway? You&039;re like ten"

She snorted "Fourteen"

"Whatever, too young"

"Internet," she said sagely "Expanding the frontiers of adolescent knowledge"

"God, I&039;m old"

Molly clucked and dipped into the backpack again She grabbedof s theive me the juicy details," she said "You can say &039;bleep&039; instead of the fun words if you want"

I blinked "Where the bleep did you get a bunch of cuff keys?"

She looked up at me and narrowed her eyes "Think about this one Do you really want to know?"

I sighed "No Probably not"

"Cool," she said, and turned her attention back to the handcuffs "So stop dodging the issue What&039;s up with you and Susan?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I like romance Plus I heard Mom say that you tere a pretty hot item"

"Your ed "Sorta As much as she ever would She used words like &039;fornication&039; and &039;sin&039; and &039;infantile depravity&039; and &039;moral bankruptcy&039; So are you?"

"Morally bankrupt?"

"A hot iteed and said, "Not anymore"

"Don&039;t move your wrist" Molly fiddled with one key for ait "What happened?"

"A lot," I said "It&039;s complicated"

"Oh," Molly said The cuffs clicked and loosened and she beamed up at me "There"

"Thanks" I rubbed my sore wrist and put the cuffs in my coat pocket

Molly bent over and picked up a piece of paper She read it and said, "Ask Michael about duel? Whiskey and tobacco?"

"It&039;s a shopping list"

Molly frowned "Oh" She was quiet for a ?"

I blinked at the girl again "Was there a PBS special or soraphy of my life?"

"I snuck downstairs so I could listen to Dad tell Mom what had happened"

"Do you eavesdrop on every private conversation you can?"

She rolled her eyes and sat down on the edge of the platfor interesting in a public conversation, do they? Why did you guys split up?"

I sat down next to her "Like I said It was complicated"

"Coives her - an i eerous for her She could lose control and hurt someone"

"Oh," Molly said, and scrunched up her nose again "So you can&039;t s could happen And then she&039;d be a full vaether?" Molly asked

"Yeah"

She frowned "God, that&039;s sad You want to be with her but the sex part-"

I shuddered "Ewg You are far too young to say that word"

The girl&039;s eyes shone "What word? Sex?"

I put rinned and enunciated "But the bleep part would hed unco my hands "Basically Yeah"

"Why don&039;t you tie her up?"