FicWad

Murphy's POV

I want to get it straight right now that I don't normally deal with mob arrests; that's serious business, and while I'm the head of a department, I'm the head of a department that's located in professional Siberia. We don't get serious cases, just cases that need to be swept neatly under the rug.

I figured out why I'd gotten this particular mob arrest when I arrived, though, because sitting primly on a chair in the lobby of one of his offices sat one Gentleman Johnny Marcone. He looked so annoyingly calm and serene that I'd have thought it was just another day for him if not for the cuffs that held his wrists together on his lap. He gave me a polite smile when he saw me and stood, walking neatly over to me as if his balance weren't distorted by his position at all, and when he spoke he almost fooled me into thinking we were about to go help save Dresden's ass from whatever he'd managed to piss off that week like we did whenever we met up with one another. The normalcy confounded me.

"Hello, Ms. Murphy," he told me, and I blinked once before I shook my head and went into cop mode.

"That's Lieutenant Murphy, Marcone. I'm arresting you, not going out for fucking coffee. What did you do this time anyway?" I asked him, and he gave me that indifferent, holier-than-thou smile one more time.

"The kind, if misguided, people at the Chicago Police Department believe that my meeting this morning involved a deal of a rather illegal nature. I'm sure that after looking into it a bit more, they will discover that it was all perfectly legitimate and aboveboard. As it stands, however, I suppose that I must go to booking again, correct?"

"It isn't like you haven't done this before, Marcone. You probably know protocol as well as me, by now. Have you been read your rights yet?"

"I have, yes, as they were putting my handcuffs on."

"Alright. Come on, then," I said, getting a good hold on the chain between his wrists and dragging him outside to my car. Well, not really dragging, honestly; he went willingly, face held to that perfect blank standard the whole way. I pressed down on his head to keep him from beaning himself as I got him into the back, and then went around to the driver's seat. He, of course, couldn't even do me the service of staying quiet on the way to headquarters.

"Might I ask if you've seen Mr. Dresden recently? I've been attempting to get in touch with him for about a month, but it seems that he's blocked all of my numbers, including the ones I've never given him, which is quite the shock." Huh. That was... weird. He sounded almost hopeful, almost human. I mean, yeah, he was attempting to sound as above the world as ever, but there were differences from usual, faint but there.

"Dresden? He's at headquarters now, actually. He was helping me puzzle out a possible Red Court murder before I got called out. He's probably chatting with Melissa now, though." A splash of confusion flitted across his face, nearly too quick to be noticed, but he'd obviously wanted me to see because he wanted me to explain the name. I wasn't going to give him the pleasure, though; if he wanted to know, he could damn well ask like a normal person. He didn't, for a few moments, but then he finally gave into the curiosity and I really was shocked by how human and vulnerable he could actually be.

"Melissa? I don't believe I've heard that name in relation to SI before." I was getting a little suspicious, at that point. I knew a lot of people knew that I'd tangled with Marcone before, but that generally didn't mean that I was the one who got called to drive him to the station.

"Marcone, why did I get called to do this? There were plenty of officers already there who could have."

"I don't believe that that's an answer to my question."

"You answer mine and I'll answer yours." He gritted his teeth hard, and when he answered he nearly sounded as if he were in pain, as if his compliance was being ripped from the very core of him, but he did answer. And here I was thinking that he couldn't be forced to do anything he didn't want to do.

"I requested it. I must say that I vastly prefer your company to that of my arresting officer." That was the moment that things became clear to me.

"Damn it, Marcone, did you request for me to come down here because you wanted to drill me on what Dresden's been doing?" He chuckled quietly.

"My question first, Ms. Murphy." That bastard. I really did understand what Harry mean when he called him that, now; there was a decent chance that he was the most frustrating man alive to deal with. And he was always so smug about it! I mean, Harry's and his antics can be annoying, I'll admit that, but hey, at least he isn't smug.

"Melissa is the most recent officer to get exiled to SI. She mostly just works in the office, pushes papers and things, though, so I have no idea who she managed to piss off enough to get sent there. She's also Harry's new girlfriend." The surprise he displayed that time wasn’t to get me to explain anything. It was just surprise, pure and plain, mixing neatly with… was that disappointment? Oh, hell no. “I think I figured out the answer to that question I asked myself, Johnny.” He swallowed, thick and nearly painful sounding.

“Is that so? Might I assume that it was in the affirmative?”

“Yeah. So, did you spread the rumors then? That he was your lover? Or were those just accidental like the ones that go around with me and him or him and Thomas or him and literally everybody he’s spoken with for more than five minutes?”

“Accidental, I assure you. I hadn’t thought that Harry was prone to jumping into relationships so quickly. What, may I ask, is so special about this girl?” To be honest, I didn’t really know. Harry had met her, and then about a week later they’d been together.

“If I had to guess I’d say it was because she made it obvious that she was interested. Normally most of the time Harry spends not being in a relationship with someone who wants a relationship with him is spent with that person making him realize that they want a relationship. Most people just kind of give up after a while, so he hasn’t been with many people.” He nodded, his fingers twining together, and I watched as he built up all of his walls again, as he straightened his face and cleared his eyes.

“Ah. Well, I suppose she’s… perfectly nice, yes?” I couldn’t decide whether he was hoping for an answer in the positive or negative.

“I don’t know her that well, but she seems sweet enough. I’ll probably know more soon; Harry usually makes it a point for me to get to know his girlfriends. He trusts my judgment on things like that.” Not that I knew why. My track record has been worse than his in that regard, and that’s really saying something if you know anything about his girlfriend history.

“That’s… alright,” he said, and then he just stopped talking altogether. I’d never known him to do that, honestly; he always had some smart comment to make, and he generally found a way to get the last word. For him to do anything else was tantamount to any other person doing a full overhaul of their personality. I didn’t comment on it, though, because really it wasn’t my problem and we were pulling up to SI anyway. I helped him out and brought him inside and figured that whatever was going on in that twisty brain of his would soon be totally irrelevant to me and mine because he was going directly into a holding cell where he wouldn’t cause trouble until his cornucopia of lawyers came, found some obscure thing that was handled incorrectly with the arrest and got him out on a technicality, at which point they would politely explain how their client had done absolutely nothing illegal and was a law-abiding member of society who was being persecuted by the police for absolutely no reason. And he’d get off scot free and that would be the end of it. That’s how it always worked, with him and his people.

He didn’t do that, though. No, instead he twisted his arms hard in what had to have been a very painful move to get me to drop my hold on him so he could stride right over to Dresden where he was leaning over Melissa’s desk and chatting with her, as I’d figured he’d be doing. Dresden lurched upwards in surprise when he saw the man, and Melissa’s dark eyes went a little wide.

I marched over to them as quickly as I could, seeing Melissa’s fingers clench in the fabric of her black skirt, and Marcone was glaring at her. Harry finally broke from his shock and started raging at the man.

“Marcone, what the hell? Don’t scare me like that, you scumbag!” Melissa’s hand shot from her skirt to clutch at Dresden’s arm and pull him sort of sideways over the table, and I saw Marcone’s chin rise and his jaw set. I snatched his arm again, this time putting a more defensive hold on it so he couldn’t catch me off guard like that again, and pulled him just slightly away from the couple. He seemed for a moment as if he were going to fight me again, the muscle of his arm feeling tight and coiled under my hand, but then he just went still, then he just stopped and gave Melissa a polite smile.

“My apologies for startling the two of you. I suppose I was just shocked to see such a nice looking girl speaking with Mr. Dresden. I’m afraid I’m a bit more used to him associating with a less pleasant sort,” he said, turning his head slightly to spare me a pointed look, and Harry put the arm not being held by Melissa on his hip and glared at us.

“Shut up, asshole.”

“Would you like me to be silent because I complimented that girl or because I insulted Ms. Murphy?”

“Both,” he said, and Melissa smiled, finally releasing his arm and sweeping the loose tendrils of her blonde hair that had fallen loose from her bun-held-up-with-pencils style away from her eyes.

“Harry, honey, who is this?” she asked, and Harry shrugged, shifting a little self-consciously on his feet. I could see his thoughts with ease because he never was very good at hiding what he was thinking from me. Marcone had just complimented his girlfriend, and he didn’t think he was as handsome as Marcone. He was worried that she’d leave him as soon as she found a better prospect looks-wise, no matter who that better prospect was. He felt inadequate.

“That’s John Marcone,” he said, “You know, the Gentleman. Head of Chicago’s criminal syndicates and all around pain in the ass.” Marcone laughed.

“Harry, please, if you compliment me much more I might start to blush.” Harry turned a little pink instead and glared at his feet.

“Bastard,” he grumbled. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Marcone raised his cuffed arms as much as he could with me holding him still and wiggled his fingers just a little.

“I’m afraid the police and I suffered from a minor misunderstanding. I’m sure it will be cleared up within a few hours. As it stands, however, I’ll be forced to remain here for a bit. Now, Miss, may I have your name?” he asked, turning his attention to Melissa again.

“Melissa,” she said, smiling just a tad, and Marcone inclined his head in a minor bow.

“Lovely to meet you, miss. Can I ask what a girl like you is doing fraternizing with the likes of him?” Harry turned even redder, and obviously Marcone needed to work on his wooing techniques.

“He’s my boyfriend,” she said, smiling sweetly and turning her gaze to Harry, who just smiled back down at her and took her hand.

“I should think you could find someone else quite easily, could you not, darling?” he asked her, and she laughed a little.

“I have a thing for tall guys,” she said, gesturing at Harry, and Marcone went tense again, although it didn’t show in his face.

“Well, you two have fun. Don’t fuck up the office while I take him into interrogation, and Dresden, if you can manage to stop mooning long enough, please look over that case file a little more, see if you can puzzle the rest of it out while I’m busy with this asshole.” He nodded and saluted, but I didn’t see if he actually went to do what I told him to do or not because I’d taken Marcone into the back and got him sitting into our cheap metal folding chair in our equally cheap concrete interrogation room. He proceeded to glare at me the whole damn time.

“Can I ask what the hell that was about, Marcone? I could get you charged with assaulting an officer for that.” He sneered at me, eyes lidded with a touch of anger, and damn it, I have not been trained to deal with a mob boss throwing a goddamn temper tantrum.

“As if you think you could get it to stick.” I sighed.

“It probably wouldn’t, but it’d sure as hell make me happy to get to send your ass to court. Plus Dresden would be pissed if he thought you hurt me, as if you really could.” He fell silent at that, and I sighed. “Look, Marcone, I get it, I do. You like him. You’ve got a weird way of showing it, though; why would you think that complimenting his girlfriend would be a good way to get him with you, you fucking dumbass?” At that moment, he showed me more humanity than I’d ever seen from him before, and I nearly reeled away at the shock of it. He lowered his forehead into his left hand and heaved a sigh, his fingertips pressing into his scalp, and when he looked up at me there was something almost pathetic in his eyes.

“I know that,” he said, frustrated. I don’t know why, but I felt the weird urge to comfort the poor bastard; Harry was oblivious at the best of times and if you were feeling generous. I could understand the annoyance Marcone was feeling. I patted his arm once and then leaned back and crossed mine.

“Look, I understand how you’re feeling, I do, but Harry’s happy. He likes the attention she gives him, and he likes that she’s unrelated to magic. Hell, she doesn’t even know about it from what I’ve seen. She gives him a chance to feel normal and he doesn’t get that often. Just, don’t seduce his girlfriend, okay? Let him try and be a regular guy for a while.” Marcone just curled his lip in disgust again, looking far younger than he really had a right to.

“Regular doesn’t suit him,” he told me, and I just shook my head and directed the conversation to his obviously illegal activities instead. He let me do it without a word and managed to continue being just as unhelpful anyway. His lawyers showed up ten minutes later and my expected vision of the future panned out perfectly. To tell the truth, I figured that that would be the end of it; life would go on as normal, Marcone would once more be his usual criminal self, and I’d just do my job. That didn’t pan out so perfectly.



Harry invited me to go out to lunch with he and Melissa a day or two later, and to tell you the truth, I’d pretty much forgotten Marcone and his… yeah. Infatuation, I guess. I don’t know the exact right word for it. Anyway, we went to this quaint little place where you could eat outside, since it was summer and the weather was nice, and Harry even brought Mouse along too. The dog plopped down beside him, and the people that saw him made a wide circle around the creature. It made me smile a little, that they thought the wide eyed puppy dog would hurt them. If anything, he’d lick them to death, maybe beg for their lunch. Nothing else, though.

I saw that Melissa was already there with him when I arrived and figured they’d probably come together. I could see also that he was telling some story, the hand she wasn’t holding gesturing wildly around him. I wondered for a moment if he’d ever learn to talk without his hands as I sat and offered him a wave. He stopped his story mid-sentence to greet me and Melissa had just a touch of annoyance on her face. I guessed I could understand that, sort of; I mean, he’d invited me to come out on a date with himself and his girlfriend. She probably felt threatened, or something. A lot of the women who were interested did, once they met me, because every last one of them just sort of automatically assumed that he and I were fucking.

“Hey, Murphy! Did you get here okay? You’re a little late,” he said, and I nodded.

“Yeah, I was fine. Just got caught in a little traffic on the way,” I said, gesturing at my motorcycle parked by the sidewalk a few feet away. He laughed.

“How? You just bob and weave through everybody! Who managed to block you on that thing?”

“Some asshole, I don’t know. Would’ve given him a ticket if I’d been in uniform.” He laughed and Melissa squeezed his hand a little. I watched him jump, having apparently forgotten that her hand was there, but he relaxed quickly. “So, what story did I interrupt?”

“Oh! It was the case a few months ago, remember? The one with the moron and the robots?” I was snorting at the mere mention of it; some dumbass had attempted to build a robot army, and had actually caused a little damage (thus the reason why me and my people got called in) and I invited Dresden along to help out. As soon as he stepped inside every last one of the little doodads fell over smoking. I almost felt a little bad for the guy who’d made them, he looked so devastated. I figured Harry probably hadn’t mentioned the fact that he was the one who’d caused them to do that, since Melissa wasn’t in the know and I couldn’t imagine him wanting her to be. Melissa raised an eyebrow and pulled her hand from Harry’s. He didn’t seem bothered by it, really, because he just used it to prop his chin up after that.

“Sounds as if the two of you have had quite a few adventures together.” I was about to speak, say something to assure her that I was in no way interested in Harry that way (it’d never work, with us; a lot of people had suggested it, obviously, but me and Harry… well, we want nothing close to the same things. Neither of us could give the other what they wanted, and that wouldn’t be fair. No way in hell were we destroying our friendship for some fling we both knew wouldn’t work) but he spoke for.

“Oh, yeah, me and Murph have worked together since I moved here and she was a beat cop. You couldn’t ask for someone better to work under. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, you definitely caught a lucky break, getting sent to SI.” I rolled my eyes a little, and had Harry and I been sitting on the same side of the table, I probably would’ve punched him in the arm or something.

“I’ll admit it’s better than some of the punishment departments you could’ve gotten sent to; someone like you, you could probably get moved back up. What got you sent down there in the first place anyway? I’ve been curious since your first day.” She smiled, kind and polite.

“I’m afraid my former boss and I had a bit of a disagreement.” Well, wasn’t that just vague as all hell? Whatever, I guess; some people just don’t like talking about why they got sent to SI because sometimes it has to do with a mistake or an ethical thing or any number of other matters like that. I wouldn’t hold it against her. Harry smiled down at her sweetly, his eyes held wide and open, the set of his shoulders loose. That was good; he was relaxed around her. He couldn’t say that often, for many people. We talked for a while after that, her only giving me maybe one or two dirty looks for, I don’t know, intruding I guess, but that was honestly a record low for the women in Harry’s life. She seemed nice, I decided, and, yeah, she was as Vanilla as they came. Harry wouldn’t have to worry about her digging into what he actually did, wouldn’t have to worry about her asking questions he wasn’t able to answer. I gave Harry my tacit approval of her with a nod as I stood and left.



I had only gotten about a mile away before I noticed a black car behind me. Huh. That was normally Harry’s thing. I wondered what had happened that I became stalk-worthy. I pulled the bike into a nearby parking lot and the car followed, so I climbed off and removed my helmet. Marcone, of course, climbed out of the backseat, straightening his suit with easy grace and walking over to me with this shifty expression on his face.

“I’m not going to report you for tailing me, Marcone. Tailing Harry, maybe, at least eventually, but unless you try to run me off the road, I don’t actually care. Can I ask what I’ve done recently that’s interesting enough that I get my very own Mafioso escorts?” The shifty expression got shiftier. Sometimes it’s great to be a cop and notice stuff like that. Not that I thought I’d see much of anything that Marcone didn’t want me to see, but still. Sometimes even I need an ego boost.

“You met with her today, didn’t you? What did you think of her?” I stared.

“Marcone. Are you really… Christ. You followed me down the road from that store this far just on the hope that I’d pull over for you to ask me what I thought of Harry’s new girlfriend?”

“I’d planned on accosting you once you arrived home, actually. You pulling over was simply a welcome change of plans.” I sighed.

“Of course it was. If I tell you will you go elsewhere?”

“For the moment, yes. Despite the rumors, I actually do have some legitimate affairs that require my attentions on a day to day basis.” Yeah, the stalking and the interrogation and the overall creepy was just an entertaining addition to his routine, I was sure.

“I still don’t know an incredible amount about her, but she seems nice enough. Polite, really likes Harry, totally Vanilla, probably never did anything notable in her lifetime. All in all, I’d say she’s good for him. Gives him a moment to relax.” He nodded, slow, thoughtful.

“Nothing notable, you say? Hm. I’m sure I can find something. Or Mr. Hendricks can; he’s quite good with things of that nature. Melissa. Would you happen to know her last name?” I stared at him.

“I’m not helping you dig up dirt on my employee.” He stared back at me.

“Why not? Surely you should be willing to give me a last name for the assurance of Harry’s safety, wouldn’t you? I can very easily find things that no one else could, perhaps something integral.”

“She’s on the force, Marcone. I’m going to say she probably hasn’t been involved in anything too scandalous.” He shrugged.

“Perhaps not in regards to anything illegal, but personal matters could very well be another story entirely.” Oh, damn him. He knew his way around words, I knew that. He knew exactly what to say and when to say it, how to get people to bend to his wants even when they didn’t want to. “And, of course, it would be a simple matter to discover her last name on my own anyway. She is, as you said, a member of the police force. Giving it to me now would really only be a formality that saved us all a lot of trouble later on.” The only thing he could’ve done to make himself seem more nonchalant was check his nails for dirt while he spoke.

“You’re going to make me a promise that you won’t use anything you find to hurt or blackmail her, then. You will come to me with anything you find that could cause an issue. I will decide what, if anything, you’re allowed to do with it. I wouldn’t even let you do this if Harry wasn’t involved.” He smiled, a perfect, neat little smile, and he would’ve looked less out of place if he’d bowed.

“You’ve my word, Ms. Murphy.” So I told him her last name. That wasn’t anything important, not really, and he was right. He could’ve found it on his own anyway. And I was a little… curious, about her. Harry had gotten hurt before because his girlfriends had made a good impression on me. He’d find anything, if there was anything to be found, and if Harry had shown me anything it was that the man could, at the very least, generally be trusted to be taken at his word. He left, after I told him that, and I did too. Hopefully I hadn’t done anything I’d regret.



Marcone’s POV

I’d gotten the name and that was, if nothing else, a step in the right direction. She was mortal, by all accounts, and ignorant of the supernatural world hiding in plain sight beneath her limited vision. People like that left trails; easy, obvious trails from birth ‘til death. I could find every major action she’d ever taken with ease and the means to do it was right there in my head. I hadn’t really even needed to work for it and the thought made me smile. Really it could only be too simple, getting rid of her. She was probably dull anyway, painfully normal in all that she did. Even if I did nothing at all she wouldn’t last with Harry. There was no way that she could hold his interest for long, not someone like her, so even if I acted I would only be… speeding along the inevitable. Hendricks turned to glance at me with the corner of his eye, and the particular stony look he wore on his face was one that normally only made an appearance when I was being unusually smug and stupid. I didn’t feel like acknowledging it on that day, however, and my forced obliviousness and lack of a cowed expression spurned him into speaking.

“You know I can see what you’re thinking, right, John. I know you too well, and I’m going to tell you now, don’t do it. You promised Murphy, and you know Dresden wouldn’t believe a damn thing you find about that woman anyway. He’ll just assume you’re fucking with him and try to set your shit on fire, all while defending her like she’s god’s gift to the earth. Don’t you remember how it went when you tired this shit with Raith?” I gave him my most urbane smile. He appreciated it decidedly less than the general population did.

“And Mr. Raith is a non-issue now, isn’t he? I can’t say my plan in that regard went off without a hitch, but it did, in fact, go off. I have learned, however. I’ll tell Ms. Murphy, you see, rather than Harry directly. I believe that he’ll be perfectly willing to see reason so long as it is not me shoving it down his throat.” Hendricks only continued giving me that damned look.

“And what if you don’t find anything, John? Are you just going to make shit up? Call her a notorious black widow? Say she actually does know about magic and is just pretending she doesn’t so she can get close enough to Dresden to stab him in the back? Or, I know, she’s really just after him for his money! Christ, John, not everyone has something against him. Maybe she just likes him. Maybe, and I know you can probably barely comprehend this, she’s good for him.” I’m certain that the words had nothing close to the effect Hendricks was hoping for. Really I hardly heard them. Harry does that to me, you understand. Makes me careless, stupid. As I’ve said before, he’s the definition of “bad for business”. I can’t seem to be as bothered about that as I once was, anymore.

“Everyone has something to hide, Mr. Hendricks, I’ll find her secret.” The frustration on Hendricks’ face knew no bounds.

“She’s normal, John. Just a plain, average, everyday mortal. Chances are the most she’s done is stolen a pack of fucking bubblegum, or missed a month’s rent. She’s not like us; you’re not going to find out that she orchestrated a hit or ran drugs or anything like that. I know you love him, John, but if he’s happy, shouldn’t that be enough?” I chuckled and leaned back in my seat, watched the world pass around us in a blur.

“This is all being done for his happiness. I want him with someone good for him. I’ll only speak of this again if I find something.” Hendricks shook his head, the stone fading to indulgence. This was the look of him giving in, of him deciding to trust me and my judgment. He couldn’t resist one last jab, however, and I supposed I couldn’t blame him for that, considering he was at least partially correct.

“Any little blip you find is going to be ‘something’ to you because you think that the only person who’s ‘good’ for him is you.” I smiled out the car’s tinted windows, and Hendricks and I both fell silent for the remainder of the ride home.



I relegated myself to my office as soon as I arrived, my hands settling onto my computer’s keyboard naturally and comfortably. By the end of an hour or two I’d managed to create a timeline of a little better than the first half of her life.

“She’d been born in Illinois, but in a suburb just outside of Chicago rather than in the city itself. She’d lived there for the first eighteen years of her life with her family, consisting of her parents and a younger brother, all with no major disciplinary issues or any major accomplishments. Really the only thing remarkable about her early life was how unremarkable it was.

She’d come home to the city for college and had gotten a bachelor’s degree but nothing else. She had gotten a job on the force shortly after, and from there I found a year or two of blankness through which I was currently digging around in an effort to find what it was hiding. I found it rather funny, however, that after such a short time, I’d found more on her even with the blank space than I’d found on Harry after nigh on a decade of digging.

It seemed that the man was something close to impossible to pin down for more than a few months at a time before he had come to Chicago. Honestly, I’d once found an adoption record for him in Wisconsin and then another in Missouri hardly five or six weeks later. Even Hendricks had trouble following the map of his adoption record that I’d attempted to make (since the official one, along with his original birth certificate and quite a few other legal records, had, by all accounts, miraculously disappeared from where they were held) for all the crisscrossing lines.

The real hell of it was, though, that some of the things I found were blatantly contradictory. I’d find one report that his social worker had visited he and his new foster family in Vermont (he fights often in the school but his new siblings seem to love him) at the same time as another record said he was visited by the same social worker in New York (seems a little malnourished but the Mr. and Mrs. Warner say it’s because he refuses to eat, not because they aren’t feeding him. He won’t speak on the matter. I’ll keep a check on it).The worst thing had to have been the missing chunks of time, however, the worst of which took place from ten to eighteen. I couldn’t help but think it had something to do with the history he never spoke of, the White Council he mentioned only in passing, the training Gard said he had to have had to gain the title of Wizard. At times it seemed as though I was the only one who even bothered to question it, as if I were the only one curious.

I shook my head to bring my focus back to the issue at hand, the black space in the woman’s history, and after breaking through the PD’s security system (Ms. Murphy would surely be quite angry, were she to ever hear of that) I managed to find what it was hiding.

She’d engaged in rather… un-reputable activities, during her time on the force, with some equally un-reputable people. Her boss, however, hadn’t been able to prove it, and so she’d simply been sent away to SI where I assumed they hoped she wouldn’t be able to cause any further trouble.

It was rather odd, really; she’d tangled herself with criminals, with holdouts of Vargassi’s reign, with Torelli and his dissenters, but never with I myself. A missed opportunity, in her case; my people wouldn’t have let her get caught. Ah, well. It was beyond my concern, now, as was whatever information she’d leaked. Really all I cared about at that point was that she’d gotten a job on the force and then proceeded to squander it, to give her assistance to those she was sworn to bring to justice. Ms. Murphy, and Harry as well, I hoped, would simply love that. I smiled as I shut down the computer because I’d found all I’d need. I’d found her secret.



Murphy’s POV

I was seeing way more of Marcone lately than was healthy for either my career or my life. I mean, arresting him had been damn near pleasurable, having him accost me on the roadside had been annoying, but this… this was just getting stupid. Since when did Marcone even drink coffee, especially in a shitty little place like this? And in a Cubs cap and torn jeans, of all things! Hell, if not for the particular way he carried himself, I could’ve mistaken him for one of the regulars. I sat in front of him after I got my coffee and he smiled, tipping his hat just a little.

“I believe I’ve found something that you’ll find very pertinent,” he said, voice clear and precise as he sipped his own coffee. He made a face as he swallowed, though, and I smirked. Trust a businessman to not know good coffee when he drank it.

“Did you now? Are you going to tell me, or am I just going to have to sit here and suffer from all the suspense?” I wasn’t exactly in the mood to deal with him, if you couldn’t tell; I’d worked the late shift a lot lately and I didn’t foresee that tonight would be any different.

“She’s a crook,” he said, and I stared.

“Marcone. I really don’t have time for this shit.” He laughed.

“I’m being entirely truthful, I’m afraid; I came across a record that she was being investigated for ties to a few men on my side of the fence, if not I myself. From what I saw, she was telling them what places were hot and what places weren’t, you see, all for a very tidy profit. A woman on the inside. I assume she’s quite useless now, however; your department doesn’t get much good information.” I continued to stare at him. I mean, was that really even possible? How could it be? No one had told me. Which, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, even if it were true, but still.

“Get me proof, Marcone, and I’ll bite. And not just proof that she was doing it, but proof she was doing it willingly.” He only smiled again and pulled some papers from inside his old denim jacket.

“Her recent bank statements. You’ll notice some very large deposits made by a known alias of Torelli. Check them yourself if you think I doctored them.” Oh, hell, even I recognized that alias. Of course, I had tangled with Torelli before, if not in the traditional he’s-a-criminal-and-I’m-a-cop way. I stared down at them and Marcone looked insufferably happy with himself. I rubbed my head.

“I’ll look into it. As for you, don’t do anything. Stay entirely out of it. Don’t talk to Harry until this gets straightened out. Or after, for that matter.” I stood and left at that, bringing my coffee cup with me and feeling my head swarming with thoughts. How did Harry manage to do shit like this, I wondered? How did he always manage to attract people like that? It was like he was a magnet for criminals. You know, if Marcone was telling the truth. It wasn’t like I could trust him implicitly; I’d have to look into it and hope he hadn’t pulled any strings to fool me. It wasn’t like he didn’t have the power to do things like that, honestly. I sighed as I pulled my bike into my parking space beside headquarters. I opened the backdoor quietly, not exactly feeling like walking all the way back to the front of the building, especially not when my office was closer to this door anyway.

I didn’t expect to hear Melissa on the phone, though. Maybe I should have; she had been the first one to arrive ever since she started here. Still, I was… I was suspicious. I shouldn’t have been, didn’t really have a right to be, but I was. I couldn’t help it. I paused at the door, closed it silently, and listened. She was laughing; maybe Harry had called. I kept my breath as silent as I could.

“He’s a damn moron. I don’t know why you think he’s such a threat,” she said, and I couldn’t hear who was on the other line. I had this feeling, though, that it wasn’t Harry. Whoever was on the other end must have said something because she fell silent, then spoke again. “Of course I’ll get him to you. He’s easy; by this point, I’m pretty sure he’d go with anyone that showed any interest in him. I’m surprised he hasn’t gone for the bitch that heads this department yet.” Another moment of silence. “I said you’ll get him, didn’t I? Like I said, he doesn’t seem to do anything but waste this department’s time. I don’t see where he’s any issue for you any damn way.” No, not talking to Harry at all. More like about him. Damn it; I hated conceding that Marcone was right about anything. And now I sound like Harry. Wonderful.

Anyway, the conversation continued on in that vein for five or ten minutes, and I stayed in the back another five after it was done. Melissa greeted me with a smile, and I returned it as I drifted into my office even though I was admittedly pissed. What really pissed me off, though, was that I was going to have to talk to Marcone. Worse, I was going to have to help him. I mean, I didn’t know who she’d been talking to, but obviously they weren’t too fond of Harry, and she was going to feed him to whoever it was on a silver platter. I wasn’t going to let her do that, and at that point, I was pretty much positive that Marcone wouldn’t either. So I called him. He answered as insufferably politely as ever.

“I’m never telling you this again, but you were right. She’s still working for someone. I heard her talking on the phone when I came in today. I’ll help you, at least for now.” I could almost see the smug smile pulling his lips, the lazy pleasure in his eyes. He was a businessman to the last, that man, at least until you involved Dresden, in which case he turned into a cat. A really big, annoying cat with claws and teeth that had no right to be as large as they were.

“Is that so? I’m grateful, I promise you. Would you be willing to tell Harry about her?” I sighed.

“Have you ever met him? It’d take a knife in his back before he’d believe it, and even then there’s a decent chance he’d say her hand slipped. We’ve got to show him, not tell him. Look, meet me by Lake Michigan later, okay? This afternoon. We’ll figure out something then.” I proceeded to hang up on him and get on with my work. I hoped yet again that I wasn’t about to do something I’d regret.