Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8) - Jim Butcher Page 0,44

much as impolite to me, and his mild voice and watery eyes made him seem more like an apologetic clerk than a detective, but I had a gut instinct that there was a steely and dangerous man underneath the tweed camouflage, and that he had me pegged as an accomplice, or at least as someone who knew more than he was saying.

Which, I suppose, was true. But going on about black magic and ectoplasm and boogeymen that disappeared at will wasnt going to make him like me any better. That was par for the course, when it came to cops. Some of them, guys like Rawlins, had run into something nasty at some point in their careers. They never talked much about it with anyone other cops tend to worry about it when one of their partners starts talking about seeing monsters, and all kinds of well-intentioned counseling and psychological evaluations were sure to follow.

So if a cop found himself face-to-face with a vampire or a ghoul (and survived it), its only existence tended to be in the landscape of memory. Time has a way of wearing the sharpest edges away from that kind of thing, and its easy to avoid thinking about terrifying monsters, and even more terrifying implications, and get back to the daily routine. If enough time went by, a lot of cops could even convince themselves that what happened had been exaggerated in their heads, bad memories amplified by darkness and fear, and that since everyone around them knew monsters didnt exist, they must therefore have seen something normal, something explainable.

But when the heat was on, those same cops changed. Somewhere deep down, they know that its for real, and when something supernatural went down again, they were willing, at least for the duration, to forget about anything but doing whatever they could to survive it and protect lives, even if in retrospect it seemed insane. Rawlins would poke fun at me for pretending to be a wizard when there was a fan convention in progress. But when everything had hit the proverbial fan, hed been willing to work with me.

Then there was the other kind of copguys like Greene, who hadnt ever seen anything remotely supernatural, who went home to their house and 2.3 kids and dog and mowed their lawn on Saturdays, who watch Nova and the Science Channel and subscribe to National Geographic , and keep every issue stored neatly and in order in the basement.

Guys like that were dead certain that everything was logical, everything was explainable, and that nothing existed outside the purview of reason and logic. Guys like that also tend to make pretty good detectives. Greene was a guy like that.

All right, Mr. Dresden, Greene said. Im still kind of unclear on a few points. Now, when the lights went out, what did you do?

I rubbed at my eyes. My head ached. I wanted to sleep. Ive already told you this. Five times.

I know, I know, Greene said, and offered me a small smile. But sometimes repeating things can jiggle forgotten little details loose. So, if you dont mind, can you tell me about when it went dark?

I closed my eyes and fought a sudden and overwhelming temptation to levitate Greene to the ceiling and leave him there for a while.

Someone touched my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to find Murphy standing over me, offering me a white Styrofoam cup. Evening Harry.

Oh, thank God, I muttered, and took the cup. Coffee. I sipped some. Hot and sweet. I groaned in pleasure. Angel of mercy, Murph.

Thats me, she agreed. She was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a very light cotton blazer. She had circles under her eyes and her blond hair was messy. Someone must have gotten her out of bed for this one. Detective Greene, she said.

Lieutenant, Greene replied, all courtesy on the surface. I didnt realize Id called Special Investigations for help. Maybe someone bumped the speed dial on my phone. He reached into a pocket and took out a cell.

He regarded it gravely for a moment and then said, Oh, wait. My mistake. You arent on my speed dial. I must have slipped into some kind of fugue state when I wasnt looking.

Dont worry, Sergeant, Murphy said, smiling sweetly If I find out whodunit, Ill tell you so you can get the collar.

Greene shook his head. This is messy enough already, he said. Some clown in a horror movie costume cuts a bunch of horror fans