Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) - Jim Butcher Page 0,34

at me for just a second. Then nodded.

"You were a kid in this. Maybe eighteen?"

She shook her head.

"Seventeen?"

She nodded. At least I was getting some kind of response out of her.

"How long were you married to him?"

Silence.

I frowned. "Murph, Im not like a genius about this stuff or anything. But if youre feeling guilty about something, maybe youre being a little hard on yourself."

Without a word, she leaned forward and picked up the album, moving it aside to reveal a copy of the Tribune. It had been folded open to the obituaries page. She picked it up and handed it to me.

I read the first one out loud. "Gregory Taggart, age forty-three, died last night after a long bout with cancer " I paused and looked at the photograph of the deceased and then at Murphys album. It was the same man, give or take several years of wear and tear. I winced and lowered the paper. "Oh, God, Murph. Im sorry. Im so sorry."

She blinked her eyes several times. Her voice came out thready, quiet. "He didnt even tell me that he was sick."

Talk about your nasty surprises. "Murph, look. Im sure that that things will work out. I know how youre hurting, how you must feel, but"

"Do you?" she said, still very quiet. "Do you know how I feel? Did you lose your first love?"

I sat quietly for a full minute before I said, "Yeah. I did."

"What was her name?"

It hurt to think the name, much less to say it. But if it helped me get through to Murphy, I couldnt afford to be touchy. "Elaine. We were both of us were orphans. We got adopted by the same man when we were ten."

Murphy blinked and looked up at me. "She was your sister?"

"I dont have any relatives. We were both adopted by the same guy, thats all. We lived together, drove one another nuts, hit puberty together. Do the math."

She nodded. "How long were you together?"

"Oh. Until we were about sixteen."

"What happened? How did she "

I shrugged. "My adoptive father tried to get me into black magic. Human sacrifice."

Murphy frowned. "He was a wizard?"

I nodded. "Strong one. So was she."

"Didnt he try to get Elaine, too?"

"Did get her," I said. "She was helping him."

"What happened?" she asked quietly.

I tried to keep my voice even and calm, but I wasnt sure how well I managed it. "I ran away. He sent a demon after me. I beat it, then went back to save Elaine. She hit me with a binding spell when I wasnt looking, and he tried a spell that would break into my head. Make me do what he wanted. I slipped out of the spell Elaine had on me and took on Justin. I got lucky. He lost. Everything burned."

Murphy swallowed. "What happened to Elaine?"

"Burned," I said quietly, my throat tightening. "Shes dead."

"God, Harry." Murphy was quiet for a moment. "Greg left me. We tried to talk a few times, but it always ended in a fight." Her eyes welled up with tears. "Dammit, I should have at least gotten to tell him good-bye."

I put the paper back on the table and closed the album, studiously not looking at Murphy. I knew she wouldnt want me to see her crying. She inhaled sharply. "Im sorry, Harry," she said. "Im flaking out on you here. I shouldnt. I dont know why this is getting to me so hard."

I glanced at the booze and the pills on the table. "Its okay. Everyone has an off day sometimes."

"I cant afford it." She drew the bathrobe a little closer around herself and said, "Sorry, Harry. About the gun." Her words sounded heavy, maybe a little slurred. "I had to be sure it was really you."

"I understand," I said.

She looked at me and something like gratitude touched her eyes. She got up from the couch abruptly and walked down a hallway, out of the living room, and said over her shoulder, "Let me put something else on."

"Sure, okay," I said after her, frowning. I leaned over to the table and picked up the prescription bottle behind the booze, next to the empty tumbler. A medium-sized dose of Valium. No wonder Murphy had been slurring her words. Valium and gin. Hells bells.

I was still holding the pills when she came back in, wearing baggy shorts and a T-shirt. Shed raked a brush through her hair and splashed water on her face, so that I could barely tell that shed been crying.