Turn Coat (The Dresden Files 11)

I turned my eyes to the east and stared out over the lake. You couldn't see the island from Chicago, even on a clear day, but I knew it was there, a sullen and threatening presence. "Yeah," I said quietly. A real party. Practically everyone who'd wanted to kill me lately would be there.

Murphy shook her head. "All of this over one man."

"Over a hero of the Council," I said quietly. "Over the most feared man on the Wardens. Morgan nearly took out the Red King himself-a vampire maybe four thousand years old, surrounded by some disgustingly powerful retainers. If he hadn't bugged out, Morgan would have killed him."

"You almost said something nice about him," Murphy said.

"Not nice," I said. "But I can acknowledge who he is. Morgan has probably saved more lives than you could count, over the years. And he's killed innocents, too. I'm certain of it. He's been the Council's executioner for at least twenty or thirty years. He's obsessive and tactless and ruthless and prejudiced. He hates with a holy passion. He's a big, ugly, vicious attack dog."

Murphy smiled faintly. "But he's your attack dog."

"He's our attack dog," I echoed. "He'd give his life without hesitation if he thought it was necessary."

Murphy watched Molly pushing Morgan down the dock. "God. It's got to be awful, to know that you're capable of disregarding life so completely. Someone else's, yours, doesn't really matter which. To know that you're so readily capable of taking everything away from a human being. That's got to eat away at him."

"For so long there's not a lot left, maybe," I said. "I think you're right about the killer acting in desperation. This situation got way too confused and complicated for it to be a scheme. It's just... a big confluence of all kinds of chickens coming home to roost."

"Maybe that will make it simpler to resolve."

"World War One was kind of the same deal," I said. "But then, it was sort of hard to point a finger at any one person and say, 'That guy did it.' World War Two was simpler, that way."

"You've been operating under the assumption that there is someone to blame," Murphy said.

"Only if I can catch him." I shook my head. "If I can't... well."

Murphy turned to me. She reached up with both hands, put them on the sides of my head, and pulled me down a little. Then she kissed my forehead and my mouth, neither quickly nor with passion. Then she let me go and looked up at me, her eyes worried and calm. "You know that I love you, Harry. You're a good man. A good friend."

I gave her a lopsided smile. "Don't go all gushy on me, Murph."

She shook her head. "I'm serious. Don't get yourself killed. Kick whatsoever ass you need to in order to make that happen." She looked down. "My world would be a scarier place without you in it."

I chewed my lip for a second, feeling very awkward. Then I said, "I'd rather have you covering my back than anyone in the world, Karrin." I cleared my throat. "You might be the best friend I've ever had."

She blinked quickly several times and shook her head. "Okay. This is going somewhere awkward."

"Maybe we should take it from 'whatsoever ass,' " I suggested.

She nodded. "Find him. Kick his ass."

"That is the plan," I confirmed. Then I bent down and kissed her forehead and her mouth, gently, and leaned my forehead against hers. "Love you, too," I whispered.

Her voice tightened. "You jerk. Good luck."

"You, too," I said. "Keys are in the ignition."

Then I straightened, hitched up the heavy bags, and stalked toward the docks. I didn't look at her as I walked away, and I didn't look back.

That way, we could both pretend that I hadn't seen her crying.

My brother owned an ancient battered commercial fishing boat. He told me it was a trawler. Or maybe he said troller. Or schooner. It was one of those-unless it wasn't. Apparently, nautical types get real specific and fussy about the fine distinctions that categorize the various vessels-but since I'm not nautical, I don't lose much sleep over the misuse of the proper term.

The boat is forty-two feet long and could have been a stunt double for Quint's fishing boat in Jaws. It desperately needed a paint job, as the white of its hull had long since faded to grey and smoke-smudged black. The only fresh paint on it was a row of letters on the bow that read Water Beetle.

Getting Morgan on board was a pain-literally, in his case. We got him settled onto the bed in the little cabin and brought all the gear aboard. After that, I climbed up onto the bridge, started the engines with my copy of the Water Beetle's key, and immediately realized I hadn't cast off the lines. I had to go back down to the deck to untie us from the dock.

Look, I just told you-I'm not nautical.

Leaving the marina wasn't hard. Thomas had a spot that was very near the open waters of the lake. I almost forgot to flick on the lights, but got them clicked on before we got out of the marina and onto the open water. Then I checked the compass next to the boat's wheel, turned us a degree or two south of due east, and opened up the engine.

We started out over the blackness of the lake, the boat's engines making a rather subdued, throaty lub lub dub lub sound. The boat had originally been built for charter use in the open sea, and it had some muscle. The water was calm tonight, and the ride remained smooth as we rapidly built up speed.

I felt a little nervous about the trip. Over the past year, Thomas and I had gone out to the island several times so that I could explore the place. He'd been teaching me how to handle the boat, but this was my first solo voyage.

After a few minutes, Molly came partway up the short ladder to the bridge and stopped. "Do I need to ask permission to come up there or something?"

"Why would you?" I asked.

She considered. "It's what they do on Star Trek?"

"Good point," I said. "Permission granted, Ensign."

"Aye aye," she said, and came up to stand next to me. She frowned at the darkness to the east, and cast a wary glance back at the rapidly fading lights of the city. "So. We're going out to the weird island, the one with that big ley line running through it?"

"Yep," I said.

"Where my dad got..."

I tried not to remember how badly Michael Carpenter had suffered when he had gone there with me. "Crippled," I said. "Yeah."

She frowned quietly. "I heard him talking to my mom about the island. But when I tried to go look it up, I couldn't find it on any of the maps. Not even in the libraries."