Peace Talks (The Dresden Files 16)

“You are,” Karrin acknowledged.

Bradley nodded. “Your family’s done good work in this town, Murphy. Might be a good thing for you both if you talked to us before we dig up anything more.”

Karrin didn’t look at me, and I didn’t look at her. We didn’t need to check in on this particular subject. Like most of the rest of the world, the cops didn’t have much time for the world of the supernatural. They would look at us blankly if we tried to tell them about a heist run by demon-possessed, two-thousand-year-old maniacs, and including ourselves, a shapeshifter, a Sasquatch, a one-man army, and a pyromancer. They’d figure we were going for an insanity plea and run us in.

The capacity of humanity to deny what is right in front of it is staggering. Hell, Rudolph had seen a loup-garou tear apart a Chicago police station with his own eyes, and he was still in denial.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Karrin said. “In that picture, I’m just trying to get home out of the storm. I don’t know anything about this accountant.”

“And I barely know anything about anything,” I said. “Except that there are maybe a thousand people in Chicagoland who are six foot eight or taller. These pictures could be of any of them. Hope you got a real big lineup room.”

“And this picture? The one of you?” Bradley asked politely.

“I think I was running to catch a train,” I said. I was trying for guileless.

Bradley clearly wasn’t buying it. He eyed us both and then nodded and let out a breath. “Yeah. Okay.”

Rudolph stood up briskly and said, “Well, we tried.”

Bradley gave Rudolph a steady look. Then he stood and said, quietly, “I’ll be right out. Wait for me.”

“I am not your fucking junior partner,” Rudolph snarled. “I am your superior officer.”

“Yes, sir,” Bradley said. “And I’ll be right out.”

Rudolph gave him a disgusted look. Then he eyed me, pointed at me with his index finger, and said, “I’m looking forward to seeing you locked up, Dresden.”

“Yeah, keep looking,” I told him.

Rudolph smirked at me. Then at Karrin.

She stared at him. She’s got a good stare. Rudolph’s smirk faded and he abruptly left without another word.

“Prick,” Karrin breathed after the door closed behind him. She eyed Bradley and said, “Him? Really?”

Bradley shrugged, a tectonic shift of massive shoulders. “Job’s gotta get done. Someone’s gotta do it.”

“Yeah,” Karrin said quietly.

“Dogs are out,” he said. “Matter of time before they get a scent. You and Dresden both cut it close for a long time. This time you went over the line.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Karrin said.

“Crap,” Bradley replied. He rubbed a hand over his buzzed scalp. “Okay. That’s how you want it, we play it all the way out.”

“Do your job,” Karrin said. “You always have.”

“Yeah.” Bradley shook his head. “Rudolph let it get personal. Unprofessional. Sorry about that.”

“I don’t expect any better from him,” Karrin said. “Not your fault.”

“Hey,” I said. “Why does Internal Affairs have this one? Why not Homicide?”

He shrugged. “Murphy was one of ours, I guess. You were, too, sort of.”

Karrin stared at him intently for a moment. Then she said, “Thanks for coming by, Bradley.”

Bradley nodded politely. “Yeah. Thanks for your time. I hope you feel better soon, Ms. Murphy.”

He left, too, shutting the door carefully behind him, as if he wanted to avoid cracking it in half by accident. Maybe it had been a problem for him before.

I let out a long breath after he left. Then I went to the door and watched them depart and nodded to Karrin once they were gone.

“What’d you get from him?” I asked. “I didn’t catch it.”

“Because I was one of theirs, he guesses,” Murphy said. “Bradley doesn’t guess about anything. He doesn’t know why IA has the case.”

I rubbed at the spot between my eyes and growled. “Someone is pulling strings behind the scenes. They got the case bumped over to one of their people. Rudolph.”

“And Marcone owns Rudolph,” Karrin said. She pursed her lips. “Or so we’ve assumed.”

I grunted. “Who else could have him? Who else has so much influence in this town?”

She shook her head. “Asking the wrong person in this room.”

“Hah,” I said. “Something else to look into. What can we expect?”

“Bradley’s like a starving dog with a bone,” she said. “He gets on a trail, he doesn’t get off it. He doesn’t sweep things under the rug. Doesn’t play the game.”

“No wonder he’s his age and still junior to Rudolph,” I said. “Fortunately, we have a little thing called fact on our side: We didn’t kill Harvey. Or the guy at the bank.”

Karrin snorted. “We were there, and we’re lying to the police about it. That would get us put away for a while all by itself. But our DNA was at the scene, and they might turn up eyewitnesses who saw us on the street or find more images from a camera somewhere. Or …”

“Or someone could make some more evidence happen,” I said.

She nodded. “They could make a case out of it. This could … wind up badly.”

“What do we do about it, then?”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “Do? What are we, the villains in Bradley’s detective novel? Should we try to warn him off the case? Destroy some evidence? Set someone else up to take the fall?”

I grunted. “Still.”

“Not much we can do,” she said quietly. “Except find out more about what’s going on. I’ve got a few channels left. I’ll check them.”

“I’ll add looking into Rudolph’s sponsor to my list,” I said.

She nodded. “Think this will interfere with the weirdness convention?”

“Might be meant to,” I said. I thought about it for a long moment and then said, “When I go, call Butters.”

Karrin quirked an eyebrow at me.

“This shows every sign of becoming a sharknado,” I said. “Have him get the word out. To everyone. I mean everyone on the Paranet.”

“What word?”

“To keep their eyes open, sing out if they see anything, and to be ready,” I said. “Someone’s cooking something big. I can smell it.”

Karrin nodded, and her gaze flicked to the grandfather clock against the wall. “You’ve still got a little time before you need to be back,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She nodded. Her blue eyes were very direct. “Come here.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Um. Things haven’t really changed on that score. I’m not sure that—”

She let out a wicked little laugh. “Adapt and overcome, Harry. I’m intelligent. And you’ve at least got a decent imagination. Between the two of us, we’ll come up with something.” Her eyes narrowed. “Now. Come. Here.”