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Chapter Thirty-Two

Murphy ations, but I don&039;t think that made much difference to many of the other detectives there She needed help, and when she called, they came End of story

For the of the story She had to tell a lot of stories around police headquarters It was a part of her job Oh, no, those reports of va-induced hallucinations Troll? It was a large and ugly ation ongoing Everyone buys it, because that&039;s what SI gets paid to do - explain away the bogeyman

Murphy should be a novelist, she writes somess here, but Murph and her fellow cops in SI would ht now This report would probably have terrorists in it Scared religious nuts and terrorists who set off incendiary devices at an apart and in her car, and who also doubtless set the device that blew up an entire room at a cheap south-side motel There weren&039;t any corpses to clean up - just one wounded woman who probably needed to see a shrink more than a jail cell I debated with est she add in a bit with a dog People love dogs You can never go wrong adding a dog to the story

"Right, Mouse?" I asked hiotten the women and kids clear of the scene and handled as left of the Skavis agent while I&039;d gone to a car wash and cleaned his blood off ofwith the sprayer Mouse&039;s fur keeps out just about everything, but when it finally gets wet, it soaks up about fifty gallons and stays that way for a long ti petulant about the entire process

"Everybody loves a bit with a dog," I said

Mouse exhaled steadily, then shook his head once and laid it back down, politely and definitely ignoring et no respect

I sat on a hospital bench near the eainst one of s as he lay on the floor, just in case anyone wondered who he ith It had been a long night, and despite Elaine&039;s incredible hands, un to return I tried to decide whether Cowl&039;s al and his stupid assault rifle deserved more blame for that

A brawny kid in a brown uniforuys do in the Midwest - all friendly and nice, until it&039;s time to not be nice The wit and wisdom of Patrick Swayze movies lives on "Sorry, enially on his nightstick "No dogs allowed Hospital rules"

I was tired "If I don&039;t take hi to tonfa me to death?"

He blinked at ine all the round so that you can do your job All the knives going unsharpened"

He smiled, and I could see him classifysort of gesture

"Your nightstick there It&039;s called a tonfa It was originally a pin that held a ot developed into an improvised weapon by people in southeast Asia, Okinawa, places like that, where big friendly security types like yourself took away all the real weapons in the interest of public safety"

His smile faded a little "Okay, buddy" He put his hand on my shoulder

Mouse opened his eyes and lifted his head

That&039;s all He didn&039;t growl at the brawny kid He didn&039;t show his teeth Like all the erous people I know, he didn&039;t feel a need to make any displays He just sort of took notice - with extreh to get the picture and took a quick step back His hand went frohtstick to his radio Even Patrick Swayze needed help soing on a chain around her neck, and said, "Easy there, big guy" She traded a nod with the security kid and hooked a thu is a handicap-assist animal"

The kid lifted his eyebrows

"My mouth is partially paralyzed," I said "It makes it hard forwords Tell me if I&039;"

Murphy gave uard "See what I mean? I&039;ll have hiuard glanced dubiously at ht I&039;ll check back in a bit, see if you need anything"

"Thanks," Murphy said, her tone even

The guard departed Murphy sighed and sat down next toa fond nudge and settled back down again

"He&039;ll be back to see if you need help," I told Murphy in a serious voice "A sweet little thing like you could get in trouble with a big, crazy man like me"

"Mouse," Murphy said "If I knock Harry out and write, &039;Insufferable wiseass,&039; on his head in permanent lanced up at Murphy and cocked his head speculatively Then he sneezed and lay back down

"Why&039;d you give him a hard time?" Murphy asked me

I nodded at a pay phone on the wall next to a drinking fountain and a vendingfor a call"

"Ah," Murphy said "Where&039;s Molly?"

"She was falling asleep on her feet Rawlins took her horunted "I said we&039;d talk about her"

"Yeah," I said

"What you did, Harry" Murphy shook her head

"She needed it," I said

"She needed it" The words were crisp

I shrugged "The kid&039;s got power She thinks that erous"

Murphy frowned atthe little ball-of-face- for a while now," I said "I mean, come on Fire is hard to control I couldn&039;t have done so it, and you can&039;t exactly use a nice, slow, draht, can you?"

"Maybe not," Murphy said

"I had a kind of face- coot off to a bad start She took her ic and reshaped the stuff around her The people around her Murph you can&039;t do anything with nificance of that for a minute When Molly did what she did, she believed that it was right That she was doing the right thing Think about her parents Think about how far they&039;re willing to go to do the right thing"

Murphy did that, her blue eyes intense, her expression unreadable

"I have to keep knocking her on her ass," I said "If I don&039;t, if I let her recover her balance before she gets ss instead of just how to do the the" - I used air quotes - " &039;right&039; thing again She&039;ll break the Laws again, and they&039;ll kill her"

"And you?" Murphy asked

I shrugged "That&039;s a ways down oing to help prevent that?" she asked

"I hope it will," I said "I&039;m not sure what else to do In the end, it&039;s up to the kid I&039;ether Despite herself Hell&039;s bells, the girl has a thick skull"

Murphy gave me a lopsided smile and shook her head

"I know," I said "I know Pot Kettle Black"

"I wasn&039;t talking about the face-, Harry," she said then "Not directly I&039; about the look on your face right before youabout what happened to thatin the hotel last year"

It was my turn to frown "What?"

Murphy stopped for aher words as carefully as a bo "There arecontrol of yourself You&039;ve always had a lot of anger in you, Harry But over the past few years, it&039;s gotten worse A lot worse"

"Bullshit," I snarled

Murphy arched an eyebrow and just looked at ritted my teeth and made myself ease back down into my previous slouch I took a deep breath and counted to ten Then I said, "You think I have anger issues"

"When you destroyed that trash can - when you slagged it in a moment of pure frustration, destroyed it, inflicted thousands of dollars of da behind it, the shops inside - "

"All of which are in Marcone&039;s building," I snapped

"I&039;m sure the people ork the counter at" - she consulted her little notepad - "the Spresso Spress and run the registers at Bathwurks probably don&039;t know anything about Marcone, or care about hio to work and try to pay their bills"

I frowned at her "What?"

"Both shops were hit by bits of concrete and molten metal They&039;ll be closed for several weeks for repairs"

"They&039;re insured," I said I didn&039;t sound like I believed it ot hurt," Murphy said "No one&039;s face got melted, but that&039;s not the point You know the score, Harry, You know the kind of dae you can do if you aren&039;t careful"

I didn&039;t say anything

"It&039;s just like being a cop Knowing s to people It&039;s s don&039;t happen to people I&039;m careful about how I use what power I have - "

"I&039;ll tell that to my dentist," I said

"Don&039;t be petty, Harry," she said, her voice serious "I&039;ve ized to you I can&039;t change what&039;s happened, and you&039;re a better man than that"

Unlessthe remark

"My point is," Murphy said quietly, "that you knehat kind of dae you could do But if what you say is true, in the ht that what you were doing was right You thought it was okay to destroy soht hurt someone else who didn&039;t deserve it"

I felt another surge of rage and and

And holy crap

Murphy was right

The sigil of angelic script, the only unburned flesh on my left hand, itched madly

"Oh, hell," I said quietly "Pot, kettle, black, all right All day long"

Murph sat besideShe just sat with ht hand out, palm up

Murphy closed her hand on

"Thanks," I told her

She squeezed tight for amachine She came back with a can of Coke and a can of Diet Coke, and handed ether and drank

"How&039;s the ex?" Murphy asked

"Gonna make it," I said "She lost a lot of blood, but she&039;s AB neg They stitched her shut and they&039;re topping off her tank Shock&039;s the worry right now, the doc says"

"It&039;s h, isn&039;t it"

I nodded "Thoet back on her feet, depending on how big a bite the Skavis took Which is sort of a relief"

Murphy studied"Are you bothered that she I dunno She kind of stole your thunder there at the end"

I shook my head "She doesn&039;t need to steal it, Murph And even if she did, I got plenty of thunder" I felt myself s punch like that before, though"

"Pretty ied "Yeah, but she had it under control Nobody else got hurt Building didn&039;t even burn down"

Murph gave rinned easily and started to riposte, but the pay phone rang

I hopped up, as , and answered it "Dresden"

John Marcone&039;s voice was as cool and eloquent as ever "You must think me insane"

"You read the papers I had faxed to you?"

"As has my counsel at Monoc," Marcone replied "That doesn&039;t mean - "

I interrupted him purely because I kneto do it, and I&039;m too tired to dance," I told him "What do you want?"

There was a uely irritated Being adolescent at soood for my morale

"Say please," Marcone said

I blinked "What?"

"Say please, Dresden," he replied, his tone smooth "Ask me"

I rolled my eyes "Give me a break"

"We both know you need me, Dresden, and I&039;m too tired to dance" I could practically see the shark smile on his face "Say please"

I stewed for a sullenMarcone&039;s morale, and I couldn&039;t have that "Fine," I said "Please"

"Pretty please," Marcone prohts flooded my forebrain, but I took a deep breath, Tasered my pride, and said, "Pretty please"

"With a cherry on top"

"Fuck you," I said, and hung up on hihis quiet, h Jerk I rejoined Murphy

She looked at me I stayed silent She frowned a little, but nodded at me and picked up where we&039;d left off "Seriously What relieves you about Elaine being off her feet?"

"She won&039;t get involved in what comes next," I said