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Chapter Fourteen

Wow," Butters said, fiddling with the control panel on the SUV "This thing has everything Satellite radio stations And I bet I could put er on this player And, oh, cool, check it out It&039;s got an onboard GPS, too, so we can&039;t get lost" Butters pushed a button on the control panel

A cal Helsinki"

I arched an eyebrow at the dashboard and then at Butters "Maybe the car is lost"

"Maybe you&039;re interfering with its computer, too," Butters said

"You think?"

He s his seat belt for the tenth ti, Harry I , don&039;t I&039; Happy, even"

I pulled off the highway The green lawns and tended trees of the industrial park hosting the Forensic Institute appeared as the SUV rolled up the ramp "Try to relax, Butters"

He jerked his head in a nervous, negative shake "I don&039;t want to get killed Or arrested I&039; arrested Or killed"

"It&039;s a calculated risk," I said "We need to find out what Grevane wanted with you"

"And we&039;re taking me to work why?"

"Think about it What would have happened if they&039;d found youransacked, and Phil&039;s corpse lying in the ue or on the lawn outside?"

"Sootten fired," Butters said

"Yeah And they would have locked down the building to search for evidence And they would have grabbed you and locked you away so at least"

"So?" Butters asked

"If Grevane cleaned up what happened at the ue, it means he didn&039;t want too much official attention focused there Whatever he wants fro" I pulled into the industrial park "We have to find it"

"Eduardo Mendoza?" he asked me

"Offhand, I can&039;t think of any other reason for sohborhood assistant ot to be interested in a corpse at the ue, and that one was the only one that seemed a little odd"

"Harry," Butters said, "if this guy really is a necromancer-a wizard of the dead-then why the hell would he need a plain old vanilla science nerd like me?"

"That&039;s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question," I said "And we have another reason, too"

"The ht?" Butters asked

I nodded at him and parked in the lot next to Butters&039;s ruined little truck "Right I need to knohat killed him Hell, any information could be useful"

Butters exhaled "Well I don&039;t knohat I&039;ll be able tois more than I have now"

He looked around warily "Do you think do you think Grevane or his buddy is out there right now? Watching for you know me?"

I pulled open un Then I reached behind me and drew out oing to ruin their whole day"

He chewed on his lip "You can do that, right?"

I took a look around and said, "Butters, trust ood at, it&039;s ruining people&039;s day"

He let out a nervous little laugh "You can say that again"

"If there&039;s one thing I&039;htly on the aret in and out as quick as we can, get you back under cover I think we&039;ve got it under control"

I killed the SUV&039;s ignition and pulled out the key The truck shuddered, and a warbling, wailing sound came from the dashboard For a second I expected someone to shout, "Red alert, all hands to battle stations!" Instead there was a hiccup of sound from the truck, and then a s The door is ajar The door is ajar"

I blinked at the dashboard It repeated the warning severala little slower and lower pitched each time, then droned into a basso rumble, followed by silence

"That was not an oht," Butters replied in a faint voice "Because stuff is alwaysup around you"

"Exactly," I said I tried to think of a way to wring positive spin froyet you out of here"

"Okay," he said, and the pair of us got out of the SUV and headed for the Forensic Institute As we approached the door, I started li on my staff a little, as if I needed the support Butters opened the door for me, and I hobbled in with a pained expression on my face as we approached the security desk

I didn&039;t know the guard on duty He was in his , squinting a little, and ere well inside his eyebrows lifted "Dr Butters," he said, evidently surprised "I haven&039;t seen you in a while"

"Casey," Butters said, giving him a jerky nod of the head "Hey, I like the new haircut Is Dr Brioche in?"

"He&039;s working now," Casey said "Roo to avoid a lecture," Butters replied dryly He clipped his identification to his coat "I forgot to file sooes out, Brioche will scold me until my eyes bleed"

Casey nodded and looked me over "Who&039;s this?"

"Harry Dresden," Butters said "He&039;s got to sign off on the forms He&039;s a consultant for the police department Harry, this is Casey O&039;Roarke"

"Charmed," I said, and handed hiet h police lines to criy Grevane had uy was sitting at his desk

Casey exaainst the picture on it, and passed it back to me with a polite smile "You want me to tell Dr Brioche you&039;re here, Dr Butters?"

Butters shuddered "Not particularly"

"Right," Casey said, and waved us past We were alain "Doctor? Did you see Phil this ?"

Butters hesitated for a second before he turned around "He was there at the desk the last time I saw him, but I had to leave for an early dentist appointment Why?"

"Oh, he wasn&039;t at the desk when I got here," Casey said "Everything was locked down, and the security system was armed"

"Maybe he had soested

"Maybe," Casey agreed There was a faint frown line between his eyes "He didn&039;t tell h I mean, I&039;d have co"

"Beats me," Butters said

Casey squinted at Butters and then nodded slowly "Okay I just wouldn&039;t want hi protocol"

"You know Phil," Butters said

Casey rolled his eyes and nodded, then went back to filling out some kind of paperwork Butters and I slipped away from the entry hall and down to Butters&039;s usual exaether His desk rested in its usual spot, piled with papers and his coood job of it

"Casey knows so," Butters said the "

"That&039;s what they pay security to do," I said "Don&039;t let it rattle you"

Butters nodded, looking around the examination room He walked over to his polka suit, still piled in the corner "At least they didn&039;t wreck this," he said Then he let out a short laugh "Man Are my priorities skewed or what?"

"Everyone has so they love," I said

He nodded "Okay So what do we do now?"

"First things first," I said "Can you get a look at Bartlesby&039;s corpse?"

Butters nodded and walked over to his coainst the wall

Butters started the thing up and spent aat keys with his forefinger Then he whistled "Wow Bartlesby&039;s body got here about an hour ago, and it&039;s been nagged for i it"

"Is that unusual?" I asked

He nodded "It means soovernment or law enforcement, maybe" He wrinkled up his nose "Plus it was pretty horrific Brioche will get some press out of it Of course he took this one for hiet to it?" I asked

Butters frowned and tapped a few more keys Then he looked up at the clock "Maybe Brioche is working in rooot to be al Bartlesby&039;s corpse is in room two If I hurry" He stood up and scurried for the door "Wait here"

"You sure?" I asked hiet suspicious if they saw you roanal"

"What signal?"

"I&039;ll iirl," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows He headed out the door "Back in a , and he slipped back into the room before five minutes had passed He looked a little shaky

"You all right?" I asked

He nodded "Couldn&039;t stay there for long I heard Brioche come out of room one"

"You see the body?"

"Yeah," Butters said with a shudder "It was already stripped and laid out Bad stuff, Harry He had thirty or forty stab wounds in his upper thorax Someone carved his face up, too His nose, ears, eyelids, and lips were in a sandwich Baggie next to his head" He took a deep breath "Sos They wereAnd he&039;d been eviscerated"

I frowned "How?"

"A big X- shaped cut across his abdomen Then they peeled hi his stoht have been other organs gone, too"

"Ick," I said

"Extre else?"

"No Even if I&039;d wanted to, there wasn&039;t ti stand of medical instruments "Why would someone do that to him? What possible purpose could it have served?"

"Maybe some kind of ritual," I said "You&039;ve seen that before"

Butters nodded He went through the loves, cap-the works "I still don&039;t get it You know?"

I did know Butters didn&039;t have it in him to comprehend the kind of violence, hatred, and bloodlust that had fallen upon the late Bartlesby That kind of utter disregard for the sanctity of life simply didn&039;t exist in his personal world, and it left him at a total loss when confronted with it face-to-face

"Or," I said, a thought occurring toelse Anthropomancy"

He walked over to one of the freezers and cracked it open "What&039;s that?"

"An atte human entrails"

Butters turned to "