Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files 8)

I promptly wrote the words An Innocent Bystander onto the name tag before folding it up in the plastic badge and pinning it to my shirt.

"I hope you enjoy SplatterCon, Harry," Sandra said.

I picked up a schedule and glanced at it. "Make Your Own Blood and Custom Fangs" at ten A.M., to be followed by "How to Scream Like a Pro."

"I don't see how I can avoid being entertained."

Molly gave me a level look as we walked away. "You don't have to make fun of it."

"Actually I do," I said. "I make fun of almost everything."

"It's mean," she said. "Sandra has poured her whole life into this convention for a year, and I don't want to see her feelings hurt."

"Where do you know her from?" I asked. "Not church, I guess."

Molly looked at me obliquely for a second and then said, "She's a part-time volunteer at one of the shelters where I'm doing community service.

She helped Nelson out when he was younger. Rosie too, and her boyfriend."

I lifted a hand in acquiescence. "Fine, fine. I'll play nice."

"Thank you," she said, her voice still prim. "It's very adult of you."

I started to get annoyed, but was struck by the disturbing thought that if I did, I would be coming down on the same side of the situation as Charity, which might be one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Molly led me down to the end of one of the long conference room hallways, where there were the usual restroom doors. One of them had been marked over with three bars of police tape, shutting it, and a uniformed cop sat in a chair beside the door.

The cop was a large black man, grey in his hair at the temples, and he sat with the chair leaned on its rear two legs so that his head rested back against the wall. He had on his uniform, but had added on a SplatterCon!!! name tag. He had filled in the name on the card with a marker, too, though his blocky script under the HI, I'm read An Authority Figure. The uniform name stripe on his shirt read RAWLINS.

"Well now," the cop said as I walked over to him. He opened his mostly closed eyes and gave me a wary smile. He read my name tag and snorted. "It's the consultant guy. Thinks he's a wizard."

"Rawlins," I said, smiling, and offered him my hand. He took it, his grip lazily strong.

"So you're one of those horror movie fans, huh?" he rumbled.

"Um, yes," I said.

He snorted again.

"I was sort of hoping I could get into the bathroom there."

Rawlins pursed his lips. "There's two more on this floor. One's back near the front desk, and there's another at the end of the other conference hall."

"I like this one," I said.

Rawlins squinted at me and said, "Maybe you can't read so good. You see that tape there, says crime scene and such?"

"The bright yellow and black stuff?" I asked.

"That's it exactly."

"Yep."

"Well, that's what we police use when we have a crime scene and we don't want nosy private investigators stomping all over it in their big boots and contaminating everything," he drawled.

"What if I promise to walk on tippy toe?"

"Then I promise I will stop bouncing you off walls just as soon as I think you're not resisting arrest," he said in a cheerful tone. The smile faded a little and his eyes hardened. "It's a crime scene. No."

"Molly," I said quietly. "Would you mind if I talked to the officer alone?"

"Sure," she said. "There are things I need to handle anyway. Excuse me." She walked away without looking back.

"Do you mind talking about it?" I asked Rawlins.

"Naw," he said. "Look, you seem okay, Dresden. I'll talk. But I'm not letting you in there."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because it might make things harder on the kid we took in for it."

I frowned and tilted my head. "Yeah?"

Rawlins nodded. "Kid didn't do it," he said. "But hotel security cameras show him going in there, then the victim, and no one else. And I was sitting right here in this spot the whole time. I'm sure no one else went in or out."

"So how do you know the kid didn't attack the old man?" I asked.

Rawlins gave an easy shrug. "Didn't fit him. He wasn't breathing hard, and giving a beating runs you out of breath quick. No damage to his hands or knuckles. No blood on him."

"So why'd you arrest him?" I asked.

"Because the record shows that there's no one else who could have done it," Rawlins said. "And because the old man was too out of it to talk and clear him. Kid didn't beat on the old man, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't in with whoever did. I figured maybe he knows how the attacker got in and out unseen, so I took him down and booked him. I figured if he was an accomplice, he'd spill rather than take the whole fall himself." Rawlins grimaced. "But he didn't spill. Didn't know a damn thing."

"Then why'd he get put away?" I asked.

"Didn't know he had a record until the paperwork was already going. Repeat offender got a real steep hill to climb as a suspect. Makes it look bad for him. He might take the fall on this even if he's innocent."

I shook my head. "You're sure no one could have gone in or out?"

"I was right here," he said. "Anyone went past me without me noticing, they were a Jedi Knight or something."

"Or something," I muttered, glancing at the door.

"The girlfriend," Rawlins said, nodding after the departed Molly. "She get you involved in this?"

"Daughter of a friend," I said, nodding. "Bailed him out."

Rawlins grunted. "Damn shame for that kid. I played it by the book, but..." He shook his head. "Sometimes the book don't do enough."

"The girl thinks he's innocent," I said.

"The girl always thinks they're innocent, Dresden," Rawlins said, without malice. "Problem is that there's pretty good evidence that says he ain't. Good enough to send a repeat offender upstate, unless the lab guys find something in there or on the old man to clear him. Which brings us back to why you ain't going in."

I nodded, frowning. "What if I told you it might be something weird?"

He shrugged. "What if you did?"

"Might be something that I could recognize, if I could just get a look at the room. I might be able to help the kid."

He squinted at me. "You think there's spooky afoot?"

"I told the girl I'd look into it."