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Shiro came out of the office and showed ht at eight"

"After sundown," I noted "I know the place I&039;ll pick you up here?"

"Yes I will need a little time to prepare"

"Me too Around seven" I told theood-bye and headed for the door Charity didn&039;t answerinto the house as I did, two boys and a girl The smaller of the two boys stopped to peer at my car, but Charity appeared in the door and chivvied him inside She frowned at me until I coaxed the Blue Beetle to life and pulled out

Driving hoa was soa was a warlord of the Red Court He&039;d probably fought duels before Which meant that he&039;d killed people before Hell, hs but that had been free-for-all fighting I had been able to find ways to cheat, by and large In a one-on-one duel, I wasn&039;t going to be able to fall back on cleverness, to take advantage of whatever I could find in ht fight, and if Ortega was better than me, he&039;d kill me Simple as that The fear was simple, too Simple and undeniable

I sed, and ers but they wouldn&039;t They were too afraid to let go of the wheel Stupid fingers

I got back towheel, and found my door halfway open I ducked to one side, in case soun pointed up the narrow stairway down torod

"Harry?" called a quiet, female voice from my apartment "Harry, is that you?"

I lowered the blasting rod "Murph?"

"Get inside," Murphy said I looked down the stairway and saw her appear in the doorway, her face pale "Hurry"

I ca out my wards as I did They were intact, and I relaxed a little I had given Murphy a personalized talish my defenses, and it would only have worked for her

I slipped into my apartment Murphy shut the door behind me and locked it She&039;d started a fire in the fireplace and had one of my old kerosene lamps lit I went to the fireplace and war Murphy in silence She stood with her back and shoulders rigid for athe fire Her lips were held into a tense, neutral line "We should talk"

"People keep saying that to me," I muttered

"You pro"

"Whoa, there, hang on Who said I had anything?"

"There is a corpse on a pleasure ship in Burnham Harbor and several eyewitnesses who describe a tall, dark-haired en Beetle"

"Wait a second-"

"There&039;s been a murder, Dresden I don&039;t care how sacred client confidentiality is to you People are dying"

Frustrationto tell you about it It&039;s been a really busy day"

"Too busy to talk to the police about a murder youand abetting a first-degree murder in soain," I ers clenched into fists "I re me in the jaw and arrest me"

"I damn well should"

"Hell&039;s bells, Murph!"

"Relax" She sighed "If that hat I had in er evaporated "Oh" After a moment, I asked, "Then why are you here?"

Murphy scowled "I&039;m on vacation"

"You&039;re what?"

Murphy&039;s jaitched Her words sounded a little odd, since she kept her teeth ground together while she talked "I&039;ve been taken off the case And when I protested I was told that I could either be on vacation or collecting unemployment"

Holy crap The muckety-mucks at CPD had ordered Murphy off a case? But why?

Murphy answered the question I hadn&039;t asked yet "Because when Butters looked at the victim from the harbor, he determined that the weapon used to kill her and the one used on that victiht were the same"

I blinked "What?"

"Same weapon," Murphy said "Butters seemed pretty confident about it"

I turned that over into shake out the kinks in the chains of logic "I need a beer You?"

"Yeah"

I went over to the pantry and grabbed a couple of brown bottles I used an old bottle opener to take off the lids and took the drinks back to Murphy She took her bottle in hand and eyed it suspiciously "It&039;s warm"

"It&039;s the new recipe Mac would kill me if he heard I served his brown cold" I took a pull from my bottle The ale had a rich, full flavor, a little nutty, and it left a pleasant aftertaste lingering in the mouth Make what jokes you will about trendy microbrews Mac knew his stuff

Murphy h Too much taste"

"Wimpy American," I said

Murphy alot wind that there was a link between the killing in Italy, the one here by the airport, and the one this "

"How did they find out?"

"Rudolph," Murphy spat "There&039;s no way to prove anything but I&039;ll bet you the little weasel heard ht over there to tell the you can do?"

"Officially, yes But in real life people are going to start accidentally losing reports and forms and requests if I try to file theot put down hard" She took another angry drink "I could lose my job"

"That both sucks and blows, Murph"

"Tell me about it" She frowned and looked up at my eyes briefly "Harry I want you to back off on this case For your own sake That&039;s why I came over here"

I frowned "Wait ayou with me? That&039;s a switch"

"Don&039;t joke about it," Murphy said "Harry, you&039;ve got a history with the department, and not everyone thinks well of you"

"You mean Rudolph"

"Not just Rudolph There are plenty of people who don&039;t want to believe you&039;re for real Besides that, you were near the scene of and may have witnessed a felony They could put you away"

Obviously ed more beer "Murph, cop, crook, or creature, it doesn&039;t matter I don&039;t back off because some bully doesn&039;t like what I do"

"I&039;m not a bully, Harry I&039; ar"

"With sugar Hell, Murph" I took a drink and squinted at her "Howon?"

"I had solanced up at me "But I can read between the lines"

"Okay," I said "This "

"You aren&039;t backing off, are you?"

"It isn&039;t an option"

"Stop there then," Murphy said "The less you tell me, the less I can testify to"

Testify? Hell There should be soe several kinds of legal land mines at the same tiht cops go into it like it&039;s noret killed I&039;d be really worried even if it were SI"

"Okay," Murphy said She didn&039;t look happy She drank her beer in a long pull and set the bottle on my mantel

I put my hand on her shoulder She didn&039;t snap it off at the wrist "Murph This looks bad already I have a hunch it could get worse, fast I have to"

"I know," she said "I wish I could help"