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Chapter Thirteen

I took a shower, got dressed, and left Tho Butters Thomas settled down on the couch with a candle, a book, and an old US cavalry saber he&039;d picked up in an estate sale and honed to a scalpel&039;s edge I left the sawed-off shotgun on the coffee table within arm&039;s reach, and Thomas nodded his thanks to me

"Keep an eye on hi will touch him"

Mouse settled down on the floor between Butters and the door, and huffed out a breath

I got into the SUV and got out Mort&039;s ical hot spot marked in bloody ink on the map-the spot of sidewalk on Wacker

It was a bitch to find a parking place It&039;s never easy in Chicago, and I had a shot at a pretty good spot on the street, but while the Beetle would have ed just fine, the SS Loaner would have had to smash the cars on either side a few inches apart to fit I wound up taking out a e, walked a couple of city blocks, and proceeded down the street with y that the city&039;s dead had found

I found the spot on the sidewalk outside of a corner pharmacy

It was so sh it before I felt it It felt alic felt cold, like the other dark power I&039;d touched, terribly cold, and oose bumps I stopped on the spot, closed y

It felt strange soy that had been there, but even as an aftertaste of theI&039;d felt dark power similar to this before today-si about this that was unlike the horrible aura surrounding Grevane, or that I had sensed froic in my past This was undeniably the sa sense of corruption I&039;d felt before

That was all I could sense I frowned and looked around There was a spot on the sidewalk that ht have been spilled coffee Aroundto give lares Cars purred by on the street

I checked at the pharht before, and no one had been there or heard about anything out of the ordinary I checked the neighboring places of business, but it was a part of tohere not , and no one had seen or heard about anything out of the ordinary

Most of the tiation business is like that You do a lot of looking and not finding The cure for it is to doI walked back to the SUV and went to the next spot on the map, at the Field Museum

The Field Museum is on Lake Shore Drive, and occupies the whole block north of Soldier&039;s Field I felt a brief flash of gratitude that things usually went to hell during the eek If this had been a Sunday with the Bears at home, I&039;d have had to park and then backpack in froot a spot in the s lot in the same block as the ross inco lot, and slowed my steps for a few strides There were two patrol cars and an ambulance parked outside the Field Museuht be a bitthan the last one

The doors had just opened for noret a ticket My wallet was getting even more anorexic than usual At this rate I wouldn&039;t be able to afford to protect ic Hell&039;s bells, that would be really e

I went in the front entrance It&039;s i my eyes landed on was the croel of the Field Museuest, most complete, and most beautifully preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered They&039;re the actual petrified bones, too-none of this cheap plasticcrap for the tourists The museum prided itself on the authenticity of the exhibit, and with reason There&039;s no way to stand in Sue&039;s shadow, to see the bones of the enormous hunter, its size, its power, its enorly edible

Late October is not the h traffic season, and I saw only a couple of other visitors in the great entrance hall Museum security was in evidence, a couple ofhair and a co suit Theto a couple of unifornized

Iover various exhibits until I could get close enough to Listen in

" da "Never would have figured that this kind of business would happen here"

"People are people," said the older of the two cops, a black et pretty crazy"

The younger cop was a little overweight and had a short haircut the color of steaht have had soument with Mister Bartlesby?"

"Doctor," the security ht," said the younger cop, writing on a notepad "But do you know of anyone like that?"

The security man shook his head "Dr Bartlesby was a crotchety old bastard No one liked hih to kill him"

"Did he associate with anyone here?"

"He had a pair of assistants," the security chief replied "Grad students, I think Young woer cop asked

"Not that I could tell," the security chief said

"Names?" the older cop asked

"Alicia Nelson was the girl The guy was Chinese or so"

"Does the museum have records on them?" the cop asked

"I don&039;t think so They ca have you known the doctor?" the older cop asked

"About twoprofessor doing a detailed exa exhibits It&039;s already been taken down and packed up He was due to leave in a fewcop asked

"One of the Native American displays," the security man supplied "Cahokian artifacts"

"Ka- what?" the older cop asked

"Cahokian," the security chief said "Amerind tribe that was all over the Mississippi River valley seven or eight hundred years ago, I guess"

"Were these artifacts valuable?" asked the older cop

"Arguably," the security chief said "But their value is primarily academic Pottery shards, old tools, stone weapons, that kind of thing They wouldn&039;t be easy to liquidate"

"People do crazy things," the young cop said, still writing

"If you say so," the security chief said "Look, fellas, the et this cleared up as quickly as possible It&039;s been hours already Can&039;t we get the remains taken out now?"

"Sorry, sir," the older cop said "Not until the detectives are done docu will that take?" the security chief asked

The older cop&039;s radio clicked, and he took it off his belt and had a brief conversation "Sir," he told the security chief, "they&039;re re the body now Forensics will be over in a couple of hours to sweep the room"

"Why the delay?" the chief asked

The cop answered with a shrug "But until then, I&039;m afraid we&039;ll have to close down access to the crime scene"

"There are a dozen different senior members of the staff with offices off of that hallway," the security chief protested

"I&039;m sure they&039;ll finish up as quickly as they can, sir," the cop said, though his tone brooked no debate

"Told hed "You want to come explain it to him?"

"Glad to," the cop said with a forced smile "Lead the way" The two cops and the security chief strode off together, presumably to talk to soly skewed perspective on the i a crime scene

I chewed on my lip I was pretty sure that the apparent ic had to be related to each other But if the hot spot was located on a murder site, it would be shut away fro over a rooet a look around, I had to move immediately From what the cops had said, Forensics wasn&039;t there yet The ency the city govern from the ambulance outside Both cops ith the security chief, which would mean that at most there was ht be a chance that I could get close enough to see so

It took me about two seconds to ht, I slipped through the nondescript doorway, down a flight of stairs, and into the plain and unassu hallways meant for the Field Museum &039;s staff instead of its visitors I passed a se, a counter, and a coffee el, a newspaper, and a spiral notebook so in my arms and tried to look like a bored acade yet, but I tried to walk like I knehat I was doing, reaching out with my arcane senses in an effort to feel where the reht be

I chose intersections methodically, left each time I hit a couple of dead ends, but tried to keep close track of where I was going The complex of tunnels and hallways under the Field Museulass of water, and I couldn&039;t afford to get lost down there

It took me fifteen minutes to find it One hallway had been marked with crime-scene tape, and I homed in on it Even before I turned down the hall, my senses prickled with uneasy cold I&039;d found y, and there was a murder scene at its center I heard footsteps and slipped to one side, re quietly with each other about the shortest path outside so that they could s pictures and docu the scene since before anyplace had been open for breakfast, and neither one of theood mood

"Rawlins," said one of them into his radio, "where the hell are you?"

"Talking to some administrator," came the reply, the voice of the older cop froet down here to watch the site?"

"Give me a few minutes"

"Da this on purpose"