White Night (The Dresden Files 9)

She shook her head. "I looked into it, and I talked to the guard. There was an autopsy, an identification of the body from his family, a funeral, the whole nine yards. He's dead, Harry."

"Well, dammit," I said, and rubbed at my headache. "He made sense."

"That's life," Murphy said. "So this hidey-hole you found..."

"Long gone by now," I said.

"Might be worth going anyway, if you take Krypto here with you." She leaned down and planted a kiss on top of Mouse's head. My dog gets more play than me, sheesh. "Maybe Grey Cloak the theoretical Malvora left a good scent behind."

"Worth a shot, I guess," I said. "But I'm pretty sure he's going to be thorough enough to remove that, too."

"Who goes around removing their scent from places?" Murphy asked.

"Vampires. They can track that way, just like Mouse."

"Oh. Right." Murphy sighed. "Another burned building."

"Not - " I began.

"Not his fault!" Molly said.

"Not your fault," Murphy said, "I know. But it's going to look awfully odd. My car gets firebombed. A building less than a block away gets firebombed a few hours later."

I grunted. "Same device?"

"What do you think?"

"Same device."

Murphy nodded. "I'm sure it will be. It's going to take them time to figure it out, though. Were you seen?"

"Me and about a million other people," I said.

"That's something, at least. But a lot of people are going to be asking questions before long. The sooner we get this thing put to bed, the better."

I grimaced. "I shouldn't have gone for the subtle maneuver last night. I should have smashed him to paste right there. I don't have any way to find him now, and he's aware that we're looking."

"Yeah, but Grey Cloak isn't our first problem," Murphy said. "He's a sideshow. The Skavis is the real killer. Right?"

"Yeah," I said quietly. "Right. And we've got no clue who or where he is."

Murphy frowned. "But he's a vampire, right? I mean, you can tell if someone's a vampire, can't you?"

"It isn't so simple with the White Court," I said. "They hide themselves a lot better than any other breed. I had no idea what Thomas was when I met him. And you remember talking to Darby Crane."

"Yeah."

"Did you get 'vampire' off him?"

"Mostly I got 'player,' " Murphy said, "But you knew he was really Madrigal Raith."

"I guessed," I corrected her. "Probably because I unconsciously recognized the family resemblance to Lord Raith. That's why I stopped you from touching him. There was no magical tip-off about it." I frowned. "Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if they had some kind of ability to cloud their prey's judgment. When Inari Raith tried to feed on me, even though I was in their freaking house, even though I knew she was a baby succubus, and in my room, it never really occurred to me that she might be dangerous to me, until it was too late."

"Just like that never occurred to me about Crane," Murphy said. "So the Skavis... he could be anyone."

"I'm pretty sure he's not me," I said. "I'm almost as sure he's not you."

"Are you sure you're a professional investigator?"

"I sometimes wonder."

"What about Thomas?" Murphy asked.

"He's more of a hired thug than a shamus."

Murphy glared.

It drew a little bit of a smile from me, but it faded quickly in the light of reality. "I left messages. Nothing yet."

"That's not what I meant, either," Murphy said quietly. "Could he still be involved? Could he have been the passenger?"

"He wasn't."

Again, she held up a hand. "Harry. Is it possible?"

"Look, we know the killer is a Skavis."

"We know what Grey Cloak thinks," Murphy corrected roe, "But you're forgetting something."

"What?"

"That at least one of those women was killed in the throes of supernatural passion. Not amidst fear. Not amidst despair."

I scowled at her.

"Is it physically possible, Harry? Possible. That's all I'm asking."

"I suppose," I said quietly. "But Thomas isn't Grey Cloak's partner. What if..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

"What if your passenger has him?" Murphy asked. "What if the 'endeavor' he's talking about is pressing Thomas for some kind of information?"

I grimaced. "Thomas should have been in touch by now."

"We've got a little time. Grey Cloak thought it would be another day or so before the Skavis moved again, right?"

"Yeah."

"So far, you think he's been smart about most things. Maybe he's smart about that, too."

"We can hope," I said. "What did you find about Jessica Blanche?"

"Still working on it. I've got feelers out, but I'll need to follow up with some legwork."

I blew out a breath. "And I need to get in touch with Elaine and the Ordo. Maybe I can get Helen Beckitt to talk. And I can make some calls to other Wardens. Maybe someone's heard something about recent White Court activities."

Murphy rose. "Sounds like we have a plan."

"If we repeat it often enough, maybe we'll even believe it," I said. "Let's go."

Chapter Seventeen

Ramirez's contact number went to a restaurant his family ran in eastern Los Angeles. I left a message with someone whose English 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't think as I've heard anything about them lately, Harry."

"How about a professional wizard investigator?" I asked him. "Works out of Los Angeles."

"Elaine Mallory?" he asked. "Tall, pretty, smart, and nearly as charming as myself?"

"That's the one," I said. "What do you know about her?"

"Far as I know, she'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's got a decent grounding in thaumaturgy from somewhere, but when I ran her through the standard tests, she didn't score quite high enough to be considered for Council membership." He was quiet for a second, before saying, in a tone of forced cheer, "Unless we keep on losing people to the vamps, in which case I guess we might lower our standards."