Turn Coat (The Dresden Files 11)

I looked at him for a second.

Then I made a fist and slugged his smug face hard enough to knock him over backward in the chair.

He just lay there for a minute, on his side, blinking tears out of his eyes. Blood trickled from one nostril. One of his shoes had come off in the fall. I stood over him and glanced at my hand. It hurts to punch people in the face. Not as much as it hurts to get punched in the face, granted, but you know you've done it. My knuckles must have grazed his teeth. They'd lost a little skin.

"Don't give me this lawyer crap, Binder," I said. "We both know the cops can't hold you for long. But we also both know that you can't play the system against us, either. You aren't an upstanding member of the community. You're a hired gun, wanted for questioning in a dozen countries."

He looked up at me with a snarl. "Think you're a hard man, do you?"

I glanced at Murphy. "Should I answer that one, or just kick him in the balls?"

"Seeing is believing," Murphy said.

"True." I turned to Binder and drew back my foot.

"Bloody hell!" Binder barked. "There's a bloody camera watching your every move. You think you won't get dragged off for this?"

An intercom on the wall near the camera clicked and buzzed. "He's got a point," said Rawlin's voice. "I can't see it all from here. Move him a couple of feet to the left and give me about thirty more seconds before you start on his nads. I'm making popcorn."

"Sure," I said, giving the camera a thumbs-up. Odds were good that it would fold if I was in the room for any length of time, but we'd made our point.

I sat down on the edge of the table, maybe a foot away from Binder and, quite deliberately, reached over to pick up the hoagie. I took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. "Mmm," I said. I glanced at Murphy. "What kind of cheese is that?"

"Gouda."

"Beef tastes great, too."

"Teriyaki," Murph said, still staring at Binder.

"I was really hungry," I told her, my voice brimming with sincerity. "I haven't eaten since, like, this morning. This is excellent."

Binder muttered darkly under his breath. All I caught was "... buggering little bastard..."

I ate half the hoagie and put it back on the table. I licked a stray bit of sauce off of one finger and looked down at Binder. "Okay, tough guy," I said. "The cops can't keep you. So that leaves the sergeant, here, with only a couple of options. Either they let you walk..."

Murphy made a quiet growling sound. It was almost as impressive as her grunt.

"She just hates that idea." I got off the table and hunkered down beside Binder. "Or," I said, "we do it the other way."

He narrowed his eyes. "You'll kill me-is that it?"

"Ain't no one gonna miss you," I said.

"You're bluffing," Binder snapped. "She's a bloody cop."

"Yeah," I said. "Think about that one for a minute. You think a police detective couldn't work out a way to disappear you without anyone being the wiser?"

He looked back and forth between us, his cool mask not quite faltering. "What do you want?"

"Your boss," I said. "Give me that and you walk."

He stared at me for half a minute. Then he said, "Set my chair up."

I rolled my eyes and did it. He was heavy. "Hell's bells, Binder. I get a hernia and the deal's off."

He looked at Murphy and jiggled his wrists.

Murphy yawned.

"Bloody hell," he snarled. "Just one of them. I haven't eaten since yesterday."

I snorted. "Looks to me like you aren't in any immediate danger of starvation."

"You want cooperation," he spat, "you're going to have to show me some. Give me the bloody sandwich."

Murphy reached out, picked up the handcuff key, and tossed it to me. I unlocked his left wrist. Binder seized the sandwich and started chomping on it.

"All right," I said, after a moment. "Talk."

"What?" he said through a mouthful of food. "No soda?"

I swatted the last inch or two of hoagie out of his hand, scowling.

Binder watched me, unperturbed. He licked his fingers clean, picked a bit of lettuce out of his teeth, and ate it. "All right then," he said. "You want the truth?"

"Yeah," I said.

He leaned a bit toward me and jabbed a finger at me. "The truth is that you ain't killing no one, biggun. You ain't and neither is the blond bird. And if you try to keep me, I'll bring down all manner of horrible things." He leaned back in his chair, openly wearing the smug smile again. "So you might as well stop wasting my valuable time and cut me loose. That's the truth."

I turned my head to Murphy, frowning.

She got up, walked around the table, and seized Binder by his close-cut head. It didn't provide much of a grip, but she used it to shove his head roughly down to the top of the table. Then she took the key back from me, undid the other set of cuffs, and released him.

"Get out," she said quietly.

Binder stood up slowly, straightening his clothes. He leered at Murphy, winked, and said, "I'm a professional. So there's nothing personal, love. Maybe next time we can skip business and give pleasure a go."

"Maybe next time you'll get your neck broken resisting arrest," Murphy said. "Get out."

Binder smirked at Murphy, then at me, and then sauntered out of the room.

"Well?" I asked her.

She turned and held out her hand. Several short hairs, some dark and some grey, clung to her fingers. "Got it."

I grinned at her, and took the hairs, depositing them in a white envelope I'd taken from Rawlin's desk. "Give me about a minute and I'll have it up."

"Hubba hubba," Rawlins said through the intercom speaker. "I like this channel."

"This is a great way of chasing down the bad guy," Murphy said half an hour later. She gave me a pointed look from her chair at her desk. "Sit here and don't do anything."

I sat in a chair next to her desk, my hand extended palm down in front of me, holding a bit of leather thong that ended in a simple quartz crystal in a copper-wire setting. My arm was getting tired, and I had gripped it under my forearm with the other hand to support it. The crystal didn't hang like a plumb line. It leaned a bit to one side, as if being supported by a steady, silent puff of wind.

"Patience," I said. "Binder might not be a crispy cracker, but he's been in business for a couple of decades. He knows why you grabbed him by the hair. He's learned to shake off something like this."