Part 13 (1/2)

The bruiser lifted one closed fist as if he meant to drive it at my noggin, but one of his two buddies said urgently, ”Cop.”

Caine froze and glanced back over his shoulder. The officer might have been overweight, but he looked like he knew how to throw it around, and he had a club and a gun besides. Never mind all the other uniforms theoretically behind him.

Caine opened his fist, showing an empty hand, and lowered it again. ”Sure,” he said. ”Sure. Misunderstanding. Happen to anybody.”

”You want to walk away,” the cop told Caine, ”do it now. Otherwise you get a ride.”

Caine and company departed in sullen silence, glaring daggers at me-well, glaring letter openers, anyway; Caine didn't seem real sharp.

The cop stalked over to me more lightly than he should have been able to-no question about it, the man knew how to play rough. He looked at me, then at my staff, and kept his nightstick in his hand. ”You Dresden?”

”Uh-huh,” I said.

”Heard of you. Work for Special Investigations sometimes. Call yourself a wizard.”

”That's right.”

”You know Rawlins?”

”Good man,” I said.

The cop grunted. He jerked his head toward the departing Caine as he put the stick away. ”Guy's a con. A hard case, too. Likes hurting people. You keep your eyes open, Mr. Wizard, or he'll make some of your teeth disappear.”

”Yeah,” I said. ”Golly, he's scary.”

The cop eyed me, then snorted and said, ”Your dentures.” He nodded, and walked out again, probably tailing Caine to make sure he left.

The cop and Caine weren't all that different, in some ways. The cop would have loved to take his stick to Caine's head as much as Caine had wanted to swat mine. They were both d.a.m.n near equally sensitive about Braddock's missing wife, too. But at least the cop had channeled his inner thug into something that helped out the people around him-as long as he didn't have to run up too many stairs, I guessed.

I turned back to Mac and found him still standing between the kid and the door. Mac nodded his thanks to me. Braddock looked like he might be about to start crying, or maybe start screaming.

”No love lost there, eh?” I said to Braddock.

The kid snarled at the empty s.p.a.ce where Caine had been. ”Elizabeth embarra.s.sed him once. He doesn't take rejection well, and he never forgets. Do you think he did it?”

”Not really. Mac,” I said, ”something tipped you off that this was from the spooky side. Lights flicker?”

Mac grunted. ”Twice.”

Braddock stared at Mac and then at me. ”What does that have to do with anything?”

”Active magic tends to interfere with electrical systems,” I said. ”It'll disrupt cell phones, screw up computers. Simpler things, like the lights, usually just flicker a bit.”

Braddock had a look somewhere between uncertainty and nausea on his face. ”Magic? You're kidding, right?”

”I'm tired of having this conversation,” I said. I reached into my pocket for Elizabeth Braddock's fallen hairs. ”This joint got a back door?”

Mac pointed silently.

”Thanks,” I said. ”Come on, Mouse.”

THE BACK DOOR opened into a long, narrow, dirty alley running parallel to Clark. The wind had picked up, which meant that the cold rain was mostly striking the upper portion of one wall of the alley. Good for me. It's tough to get a solid spell put together under even a moderate rain. When it's really coming down, it's all but impossible, even for a relatively simple working-such as a tracking spell.

I'd done this hundreds of times, and by now it was pretty routine. I found a clear spot of concrete in the lee of the sheltering wall and sketched a quick circle around me with a piece of chalk, investing the motion with a deliberate effort of will.

As I completed the circle, I felt the immediate result-a screen of energy that rose up from the circle, enfolding me and warding out any random energy that might skew the spell. I took off my necklace, a silver chain with a battered old silver pentacle hanging from it, murmuring quietly, and tied several of Elizabeth's hairs through the center of the pentacle. After that, I gathered up my will, feeling the energy focused by the circle into something almost tangible, whispered in faux Latin, and released the gathered magic into the pentacle.

The silver five-pointed star flickered once, a dozen tiny sparks of static electricity fluttering over the metal surface and the hairs bound inside it. I grimaced. I'd been sloppy, to let some of the energy convert itself into static. And I'd been harping on my apprentice about the need for precision for a week.

I broke the circle by smudging the chalk with one foot, and glanced at Mouse, who sat patiently, mouth open in a doggy grin. Mouse had been there for some of those lessons, and he was smarter than the average dog. How much smarter remained to be seen, but I got the distinct impression he was laughing at me.

”It was the rain,” I told him.

Mouse sneezed, tail wagging.

I glowered at him. I'm not sure I could take it if my dog was smarter than me.

The falling rain would wash away the spell on the amulet if I left it out in the open, so I s.h.i.+elded it as carefully as I could with the building and my hand. A hat would have come in handy for that purpose, actually. Maybe I should get one.

I held up the amulet, focusing on the spell. It quivered on the end of its chain, then swung toward the far end of the alley, in a sharp, sudden motion.

I drew my hand and the amulet back up into the sleeve of my duster, whistling. ”She came right down this alley. And judging by the strength of the reaction, she was scared bad. Left a really big trail.”

At that, Mouse made a chuffing sound and started down the alley, snuffling. The end of his short lead, mostly there for appearance's sake, dragged the ground. I kept pace, and by the time Mouse was twenty yards down the alley, he had begun growling low in his throat.

That was an occasion worth a raised eyebrow. Mouse didn't make noise unless there was Something Bad around. He increased his pace, and I lengthened my stride to keep up.

I found myself growling along with him. I'd gotten sick of Bad Things visiting themselves upon people in my town a long time ago.

When we hit the open street, Mouse slowed. Magic wasn't the only thing that a steady rain could screw up. He growled again and looked over his shoulder at me, tail drooping.

”I got your back,” I told him. I lifted a section of my long leather duster with my staff, so that I could hold the amulet in the shelter it offered. I looked only moderately ridiculous while doing so.

I'm going to get a hat one of these days. I swear.

The tracking spell held, and the amulet led me down the street, toward Wrigley. The silent stadium loomed in the cold grey rain. Mouse, still snuffling dutifully, abruptly turned down another alley, his steps hurrying to a lope. I propped up my coat and consulted the amulet again.

I was so busy feeling damp and cold and self-conscious that I forgot to feel paranoid, and Caine came out of nowhere and swung something hard at my skull.

I turned my head and twitched sideways at the last second, taking the blow just to one side of the center of my forehead. There was a flash of light, and my legs went wobbly. I had time to watch Caine wind up again and saw that he was swinging a long, white, dirty athletic sock at me. He'd weighted one end with something, creating an improvised flail.

My hips bounced off a munic.i.p.al trash can, and I got one arm between the flail and my face. The protective spells on my coat are good, but they're intended to protect me against gunfire and sharp, pointy things. The flail smashed into my right forearm. It went numb.

”So what, you steal my keg for Braddock, so his h.o.m.o-bee cinnamon c.r.a.p would win the division? I'm gonna take it out of your a.s.s.”

And with that pleasant mental image, Caine wound up again with that flail.

He'd made a mistake, though, pausing to get in a little dialogue like that. If he'd hit me again, immediately, he probably could have beaten me unconscious in short order. He hadn't hesitated long-but it had been long enough for me to pull my thoughts together. As he came in swinging, I snapped the lower end of my heavy staff into a rising quarter spin, right into his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. The thug's eyes snapped wide-open, and his mouth locked into a silent scream.

It's the little things in life you treasure.