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I turned on a s table and hoped that the room wouldn&039;t burst into fla sound and stirred before settling again

I turned the phone on and let the dial tone sound in the room&039;s silence "I know you&039;re awake, Miss Valmont And you know that I saved your ass back at the Marriott So if you don&039;t sit up and talk tothe cops to come pick you up"

She didn&039;t

"Bastard," she muttered With the British accent, it ca the covers to her front Her shoulders were bare "Very well What do you want?"

"My coat, for starters," I said "But since I doubt you&039;re pal it, I&039;ll settle for the name of your buyer"

She stared at me for a moment before she said, "If I tell you that, it could killyou over to the police"

She shrugged "Which, while unpleasant, won&039;t kill me Besides, you intend to turn me over in any case"

I scowled at her "I saved your life Twice"

"I ah me for a moment before she said, "It&039;s so hard to believe Even though it happened to me It seems - mad Like a dream"

"You aren&039;t crazy," I said "Or at least, you aren&039;t hallucinating or anything"

She half laughed "I know Cisca is dead Gaston is dead It happened to the very quickly "I just wanted to finish it So that they didn&039;t die for nothing at all I owed it to thehed "Look, I&039;ll make this easy for you Was it Marcone?"

She shrugged without focusing her eyes "We went through an intermediary, so I can&039;t be sure"

"But was it Marcone?"

Valuess, I would say it was The buyer was soreat deal of money and local influence"

"Does he know that you know?"

"One doesn&039;tprecautions to prevent it It&039;s i about Marcone, you know that he isn&039;t going to pay you off and let you walk aithout delivering," I said

She rubbed at her eyes "I&039;ll offer to return it"

"Good idea Assu"

She glared at"What do you want from me?"

I picked up a box of tissues from behind a bunch of yellow cotton on the table and offered it to her "Infor It&039;s possible you&039;ve heard or seen soht help ht be able to buy you some time to leave town"

She took the box and blotted her eyes on a tissue "How do I know you will deliver on that promise?"

"Earth to Larceny Spice, come in Larceny Spice I&039;ve saved your life twice I think you can safely assu her lip "I - I don&039;t know"

"This is a li breath "All right All right, let me clean up a little Get dressed I&039;ll tell you what I know"

"Fine," I said "Come on There&039;s a shower in the bathrooet you towels and stuff"

"Is this your house?"

"Friends&039; But I&039;ve stayed here before"

She nodded and fished around until she caht before She slipped into it and rose She had long, pretty, and bruised legs, and as she stepped onto her right leg she let out a pained cry and fell forward I caught her before she could hit the ground, and she leaned into ht foot from the floor

"Bloody hell," she wheezed "I ht" She shot lance "Hands"

I jerkedpleasantly se?"

She shook her head, balanced on one leg "I don&039;t think so Lend me your arm a moment"

I helped her hobble down the hall and into the bathroo some more towels out of the linen closet, then passed theh a mostly closed door She locked it behind her and started the shower

I shookFather Vincent&039;s phone nu tired and strained "Vincent"

"It&039;s Harry Dresden," I said "I knohere the Shroud caot intercepted by a third party and they have it now"

"You&039;re certain?" Vincent demanded

"Yeah"

"Do you knohere it is?"

"Not exactly, but I&039;, maybe sooner"

"Why will it take until this evening?" Vincent asked

"Well, uh It&039;s a little hard to explain," I said

"Perhaps the police should handle the rest of the investigation"

"I&039;d advise against it"

"Why?"

"I have some information that indicates your mistrust may not have been misplaced"

"Oh," Vincent said His voice sounded worried "I think we should meet and talk, Mister Dresden I&039;d rather not discuss this over the phone Two o&039;clock, at the room we spoke in last?"

"I can probably do that," I said

"Until then," said Vincent, and hung up

I paced back into the living roo paper with coffee and a doughnut One of the sliding glass doors that had previously led to the back patio was open, and on the other side was a lot of bare wood and plastic-the addition Michael was building The rasping of a saw cah the open door

I stepped out and found Father Forthill at work He&039;d taken off his coat and collar He had a short-sleeved black shirt underneath He wore leather work gloves and safety glasses He finished sawing a bea "How is Father Vincent?"

"Sounds tired," I said "I&039; we don&039;t have so on first"

"I worry for him," Forthill said He held up the beam to the top of ould eventually be a"Here, hold this forin a few nails, clenching several in his teeth "And Miss Val to cooperate with us"

Forthill frowned, taking a nail from his lips "I really wouldn&039;t have expected that from her, fro personality," I said "The ladies can&039;t resist"

"Mmmm," Forthill said, around the nails

"It&039;s the only decent thing to do And her back is against a wall, right?"

Forthill drove the nail in and frowned He looked at me

I looked back at hio check on her"

I got about halfway across the living room before I heard a car door shut, iine I ran to the front door and threw it open just in ti down the street and out of sight

I fu "Son of a bitch," I snarled I punched the door frame in sheer frustration I didn&039;t punch it very hard I was angry, not looking to break my own knuckles "The old stumble and bump and I fell for it"

Susan stepped up beside ood man But an idiot where women are concerned"

"First ratitude for you"

Susan nodded "No good deed goes unpunished"

I stared at her "Are you laughing at ht face But her voice sounded a little choked "No"

"You are"

Her face turned pink and she shook her head

"Laughing at my pain"

She turned and walked back to the living room and picked up her paper She sat down and held it up so that I couldn&039;t see her face Choked sounds came out from behind the paper

I stalked back out to the addition, growling Forthill looked back atto break Or hit really hard," I told him

His eyes sparkled "You&039;ll hurt yourself Here, hold this for me"

I lifted another cut board into place, while Forthill reached up to haed up, and showed reen lines

"Wait," I said, and snapped my hand over to his arm The board slipped out of my other hand and bonked , but tugged the sleeve up

Forthill had a tattoo on the inside of his right arm

An Eye of Thoth

"What is this?" I deed his sleeve back down "A tattoo"

"Duh, a tattoo I know that What does itI had done when I was younger," he answered "An organization I belonged to"

I tried to calanization?"

Forthill blinked mildly at me "I don&039;t understand why you are so upset, Harry-"

"What organization?"

He continued to look confused "Just several of us who took our orders together We were barely more than boys, really And we&039;d - well We&039;d happened on to soer events of our day And records of others A vaether No one believed us, of course"

"Of course," I said "What about the tattoo?"

Forthill pursed his lips, thoughtful "I haven&039;t thought about it in so long Well, the next ot the tattoos We swore an oath to be alatchful against the forces of darkness, to help one another whenever we could"

"Then what?"

"After the hangovers faded, ent a very good distance out of our way to y saw the"

"And then?"

"And then no other supernatural events presented themselves over the next few years and the five of us drifted apart Until I heard from Vittorio-from Father Vincent last week, I hadn&039;t spoken to any of them in years"

"Wait Vincent has a tattoo like this?"

"I suppose he could have had it reht be the sort to do that"

"What about the others in the group?"

"Passed away over the last several years," Forthill said He stripped off one of the work gloves and regarded his weathered hand "Back then, I don&039;t think any of us thought ould ever live to be so old"

The wheels spun in , and why On pure intuition I stalked to the front of the house, gathering up s on the way Father Forthill followed me "Harry?"

I walked past Susan, who set her paper aside and stood up to follow ot to the front door and jerked it open

The engine of Michael&039;s white pickup rattled to a halt as I did, and he and Sanya got out of the truck They looked a little rumpled and unshaven, but fine Michael blinked atyour car toward the highway What&039;s going on?"

"Get anything you need for a fight," I said "We&039;re going"