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Chapter Seventeen

Ramirez&039;s contact nueles I left a lish sounded like a second or third language It took Ramirez only about ten minutes to call me back

"White Court?" my fellow Warden said "Can&039;t think as I&039;ve heard anything about them lately, Harry"

"How about a professional wizard investigator?" I asked hieles"

"Elaine Mallory?" he asked "Tall, pretty, s as myself?"

"That&039;s the one," I said "What do you know about her?"

"Far as I know, she&039;s straight," he said "Moved to town five or six years ago, college in San Diego, and working for an investigative agency out here She&039;s got a decent grounding in thauh the standard tests, she didn&039;t score quite high enough to be considered for Council , in a tone of forced cheer, "Unless we keep on losing people to the vaht lower our standards"

"Uh-huh," I said "But you think she knohat she&039;s doing?"

"Well," Raht want to advertise as soet the tiht take exception to so the title"

I snorted "Don&039;t call me a dinosaur It isn&039;t fair to the dinosaurs What did a dinosaur ever do to you?"

"Other than giveskinny lunatic? Mallory&039;s not stupid, and she&039;s done people soood out here," Ramirez said "Lost kids, especially Couple of exorcisms I wouldn&039;t have had tih I&039;ve got one reservation about her"

"What&039;s that?" I asked

"Her taste inher out, and she&039;s turned ," I said

"I know," Ramirez replied "Makes me wonder how save him the brief on what I knew about the murders, and on what Elaine had told me about the other cities

"So the Wardens," he said

"Looks that way Sow seeds of distrust and all that"

"Five cities Bastards" He paused to say so on I&039; the file on recent White Court reports"

I waited a fewto e&039;ve heard out on this end, the White King hasof truce, and declared a tereed to approach the Reds about sitting down to negotiate an end to the war"

"I&039;ve er he ain&039;t Gandhi, neither"

"Yeah Sorta , don&039;t it"

I grunted "There&039;s not a lot of love lost between the Reds and the Whites A cease-fire won&039;t cost hiet involved in the htful hum "The way you tell it, looks like rees with his take on the war"

"They&039;re pretty factional Triuht now If Raith is pushing for peace, it would be consistent for the other major houses to oppose it"

"Gotta love those vampires So arbitrarily contrary"

"Say that five ti the Rs as he went "See there?" he said "That&039;s why the ladies love me"

"It&039;s not love, Carlos It&039;s pity"

"As long as the pants come off," he said cheerfully Then his voice turnedto call you Just wanted to see how you were doing You know Since New Mexico"

"I&039;ood," I told him "I&039;m fine"

"Uh-huh," Ramirez said He sounded skeptical

"Listen," I said "Forget New Mexico I&039;ve forgotten it We need to ht now"

"Sure," he said, without conviction "You want to fill in the Captain or should I?"

"Go ahead"

"Will do," he said "You need any backup out there?"

"Why?" I asked "You got nothing to pay attention to where you are?"

He sighed "Yeah, well All the sa to shut down the peace talks, I could pry a few of the boys loose to come help you boot some head"

"Except I don&039;t yet knohose head it is or how to boot it," I said

"I know But if you need help, it&039;s here"

"Thanks"

"Watch your ass, Dresden," he said

"I&039;d tell you to do the saaze at your own ass in admiration all the time anyway"

"With an ass like mine? Who wouldn&039;t?" Ramirez said "Vaya con Dios"

"Happy trails"

I hung up the phone and leaned back in the chair, rubbing athead I closed ht about how much my head hurt, which was nonproductive

"Harry?" Molly asked ?"

"Sure"

"U about her words before she spoke

That gotwhy you were asking Warden Rodriguez about Elaine Mallory"

I closed eant Murphy said she was your ex But you asked about her as if you didn&039;t know her"

I ure that means that you do know her And you wanted to knohat Warden Rodriguez knew about her, without hi that you already knew her" She took a deep breath and said, "You&039;re keeping secrets frohed "For years, kid Years and years"

"But I&039;m under the Doom of Da that couldit?"

"Does it matter?" I asked

"Well," she said, her tone cautiously diffident, "since I could get beheaded over this just as much as you can, it matters to me And I think that rowl at her that she didn&039;t I stopped ardless of how inconvenient I thought it, she did have an undeniable right to ask me about it

"I was an orphan," I told her "A little while after ot adopted by a ave ether Each other&039;s first love"

Molly set her book aside and sat up, listening to me

"DuMorne was a warlock himself Black wizard as bad as they co us up to be his personal enforcers Trained, strong wizards, under mental coot suspicious and fought him I killed him"

Molly blinked "But the First Law"

"Exactly," I said "That&039;s hoound up living under the Doom of Damocles myself Ebenezar McCoy mentored me Saved my life"

"The way you did for me," she said quietly

"Yeah" I squinted at the eht Elaine did, too Turned out years later that she had survived, and was in hiding"

"And she never told you?" Molly deave the apprentice a lopsided smile "The last ti the only thing like a real parent she&039;d ever had, and had apparently tried to kill her, too It isn&039;t a siet why you lied about her"

"Because I had a bad ti out from under DuMorne&039;s corpse the way I did If the Wardens knew that she&039;d been there too, and fled the Council rather than coed to convince Rah power to be considered for the Council"

"But she does?" Molly asked

"She&039;s nearly as strong as I arace I&039;m not sure ould happen if the Wardens learned DuMorne had a second apprentice, but there would be trouble I&039; to make that choice for her"

"In case I haven&039;t told you this before," Molly said, "the Wardens are a fine bunch of assholes Present company excluded"

"There isn&039;t any easy way to do their job," I said, before a&039;s simple" I pushed myself slowly to my feet and found my keys and Mouse&039;s lead "Come on," I told her "I&039;ll drop you off at your place"

"Where are you going?"

"To talk to the Ordo," I said "Anna&039;s got them all holed up with Elaine"

"Why don&039;t you just call them?"

"This is a sneak attack," I said "I don&039;t want to warn Helen Beckitt that I&039;le in this; I&039;et them off balance"

Molly frowned at me "You sure you don&039;t need lance at her Then at the bead bracelet on her wrist

She clenched her jaw, took off the bracelet, and held it up with defiant deter at the beads Threeand sweating at the effort She looked bitterly frustrated and disappointed

"Nothing&039;s simple," I told her quietly, and put the bracelet back on her wrist for her "And nothing much is easy, either Be patient Give it time"

"Easy for you to say," she said, and sto, of course It wasn&039;t easy

What I really wanted to do was get down a little food and go to bed until my head felt better That wasn&039;t an option for me

Whoever the Skavis was, and whatever he was up to, there wasn&039;t a lot of tiure it out and stop him before he added another victihteen