Chapter Six: Old Situations

Dana tried to relax under the spray of the shower the next morning. Alright, so her husband had invited two guests to stay with them for an indefinite amount of time without consulting her, but how bad could it be really?

Apparently, pretty bad. She swore as the water abruptly turned to ice. Un-freaking-believable. They used all the hot water? She hadn't even heard either Dresden or Bainbridge use the shower.

A few minutes later, a dressed Dana stormed into the kitchen to confront them. Her hair was still wet as the hairdryer had mysteriously malfunctioned.

"Good morning, Dana," Harry greeted her.

"Don't you 'good morning' me. I know you used all the hot water."

"I what?" Harry blinked at her, confused, before he came to a realization. She could see him trying to come up with an answer. His eyes darted to his friend.

"Bob, how could you?"

"Do you really expect to pin this on me?" Bob asked, refusing to play along. He was a ghost; he didn't take showers. Of course, they both knew what had happened. When Harry wasn't suppressing his magic, as he had on the jet, its effect on nearby technology was disastrous. He hadn't had a working water heater since… Scratch that, he'd never had a working water heater. Harry had had to grow used to taking cold showers. Judging by her ferocious expression, it seemed a safe bet that Dana had not.

Life was unfair. Harry hadn't even been using his magic much since he'd arrived in Palm City. Alright, maybe he had added some wards to the house, but you could never be too careful, right?

The attorney glared at both of them before she left for work.

~VF~

"You had me summon a demon," Max Malini frowned at his pupil. They were sitting in the witch's trailer. Malini, whose black hair was streaked with gray, poured himself a glass of red wine as he waited for a reply.

"Er," Vince shifted awkwardly. Max didn't seem happy. Good thing he hadn't told the consultants that they could stay at Trolley Park with the Coven. "I didn't think it would be that big a deal."

"I had to use some of my wine to summon Scales." Uh-oh. Max hated wasting wine. There was a reason the witch had created the Alcohol Tolerance Spell.

"Maybe I should get going."

"Not so fast. The least you can do is tell me about this case." Vince decided that was fair and proceeded to tell Max what had happened, including how he and Fleming had brought in help from Chicago.

"Does your magic really interfere with technology?" Vince asked as he finished up. "You know, if it does, I better warn Jamie not to bring her laptop here." Orwell had made a habit of coming by Trolley Park, sometimes to hang out with Vince, sometimes to practice her aerialist skills alongside Raia.

"Yes, it does," Max nodded. "Why do you think we keep our spells written down in grimoires instead of on computers? Incidentally, one of the reasons Ruvi tolerated you was that having someone around who can work with machines can come in handy."

"Wait, Ruvi tolerated me? That's news to me." Max chuckled, the smile making its way to his brown eyes. He took another sip of his wine, and then wrinkled his brow.

"Vincent, what did you say the names of those consultants were?" Vince told him again. "Bainbridge," Max repeated. "I wonder…" Max's talents lay in telekinesis. He used his gift to summon his grimoire and started flipping through it.

~HD~

That afternoon, Vince sat at his (miraculously still working) computer. He was having a video chat with Fleming.

"I verified Raoul's alibi," Peter informed him.

"You did? But that means that you…"

"Spoke with Lydia, yes, I did. You might be interested to know that her powers didn't work on me, either." Scales' girlfriend was a succubus. Vince stared at his monitor as Peter went on. "The working theory is that I wasn't affected because I'm in love."

"Chess can love?"* Vince blurted out. Peter rolled his eyes in response. Chess only exists because of love. He'd gone out of his mind when his wife, Jamie's mother, was taken from him. But it had been a long time since Danielle had passed away and he had moved on.

"So who's the unlucky girl?"

"I didn't say that it was a-" Whatever Peter said next, Vince didn't know. The screen filled with static. The cop turned around and saw a sheepish looking wizard that had entered the room.

"Heh; sorry about that," Harry apologized.

"Forget it. I'll send Fleming the bill. How the hell do you get by without technology?" Vince asked.

"I do okay."

"Is there something I can do for you?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. I was hoping you could let Jamie Fleming know I'd like to talk with her. I'd call her myself, but," Harry gestured to the computer, which was now smoking slightly.

"Yeah; you're not going to want to set foot in her place. She wouldn't be nearly as forgiving." To be fair, though, her computer was ridiculously expensive. "So why do you want to see her? Wait, you don't think she's a suspect, do you?"

"Well, your boss did say she's one of the few people that know his secret. I'd just feel better about eliminating her from the suspect list if I got a chance to speak with her first."

"It's going to be a waste of your time," Vince warned him.

"No, listening to Bob sing show tunes would be a waste of my time," Harry corrected him, smirking.

~DF~

He still wasn't willing to concede that meeting Fleming's daughter in the park had been a waste of time. Harry would admit, though, that he didn't see the brunette as a killer. On the other hand, he didn't have the best track record when it came to judging women. Still, he'd brought Bob along for a second opinion and the old sorcerer was in agreement with him.

The adults sat around the dinner table that evening. Trip wasn't with them. He was having dinner at his friend Gerry's apartment. Dana was trying to pretend she wasn't insulted by the fact that Bob was refusing to eat anything she'd prepared. (There was nothing wrong with her cooking!) She wasn't doing as good a job hiding her irritation with her husband. Currently, she was recounting stories from her law school days about one of her former professors.

"So Jack was teaching us about mens rea-"

"Honey, they won't know what that is," Vince interrupted her. He never liked it when she talked about the criminal law professor and she knew it.

"It's the mental component of a crime," Dana waved a hand impatiently before continuing. "As I was saying, Jack had given us a homicide hypothetical where the defendant had believed he was shooting a ghost."

"To illustrate the defense of insanity?" Bob guessed.

"I wish," Dana muttered. "Then later-"

"Dana, I've heard this story before; it's not that funny," Vince interrupted her again. She ignored him and continued speaking.

"He was giving us a hypothetical on statutory rape where the accused didn't know he'd been with a minor and he accidentally said the defendant thought he was having sex with a ghost," she concluded with a smile. Harry, who had been drinking cola, promptly spewed his mouthful across the table and coughed. Dana turned to her husband.

"See? He thought it was funny."

"Well, I mean, ghosts can't have sex," Harry said. They couldn't, right? He glanced at Bob. His mentor's expression was unreadable. Dana arched an eyebrow.

"Ghosts don't exist," she stated. No one argued with her. Bob and Harry wondered if her instructor had known better.

"In your experience, do they come up a lot in law school?" Hrothbert asked.

"Actually, there was a case from New York where the court held the sellers should have warned the buyers that their house was haunted."

"That makes sense," Harry deadpanned. Dana chuckled.

"It was definitely one of the most entertaining opinions I've read."

"I'd better get going," Vince said, as he stood up from the table. Dana deflated.

"See you later, Vince," she called after he'd kissed her goodbye. She started clearing the table with Harry's assistance.

"Where's he going?" Harry asked.

"He's going to make sure Trip gets home okay," she said, not meeting his eyes. She paused and then continued speaking. "I don't suppose my husband told you that our son's friends with the Cape."

Harry glanced at Bob. Vince had told them that Dana didn't know his secret.

"Before we moved, Trip used to meet him on the roof of our apartment building," Dana went on, "the same apartment building Gerry still lives in. I guess he felt he would stand out too much in the suburbs, so now they meet after the kids' play dates." She would not let her voice waver, damn it!

Okay, so it hurt. Did Vince honestly think she wouldn't figure it out, even after he always left in time for the meetings with Trip? That alone should have been enough. (Their son hadn't put it together, yet, as far as she could tell, but he was still young. She'd bet he would within the year.) On top of that, though, she half-wanted to tell him he needed to find a better hiding place for his costume, but she wasn't ready for that conversation. She was his wife and he couldn't trust her with where he really went when he was putting in all that "overtime."

…Oh god, she hoped the secret identity was the only thing he'd lied to her about.

Harry realized she was upset, although he wasn't privy to her thoughts. He decided to try to distract her.

"So, why do you call him Trip?" Dana shrugged.

"We needed to distinguish him from Vince and Vincent the third was too formal. It was either 'Trip' or 'Vinnie.'" She picked up the phone after it rang. "Hello?"

"Mrs. Faraday," Fleming answered her. "Is your husband there? I need… to borrow him."

"Well, you can't. He's picking up Trip."

"I see. I'll call him on his cell and ask him to come after he drops the boy off. In the meantime, tell Dresden to come meet me. There's been another murder."

"Hang on; I'll put him on the phone." Bainbridge was closer to her, though, so she offered the phone to him. When he didn't move to take it she lifted it back to her ear.

"Just tell them to meet me at this address," Peter rattled it off and Dana jotted it down.

"Got it," Dana frowned as she heard a click. "Goodbye to you, too," she turned to give her guests the message.

~HD~

"The deceased's name was Reese," Vince explained to the consultants after they arrived on scene. "He was another upper-level ARK employee; probably would've been in the running to replace Stoykova," if Peter hadn't taken it into his head that I should take the job.

"Scales will be pleased," Vince added. "Reese was the one that was assigned as ARK's go-between with the smuggler." Looked like the same M.O. as Stoykova's murder. He'd been stabbed with an identical knife, which Fleming had already pocketed, suspecting the killer had somehow gotten his fingerprints on it. This time, instead of the word "Check" being painted on the ceiling, it had been carved into Reese's chest.

"And we're sure Scales isn't our guy?" Harry questioned the cop.

"He couldn't be," Peter put in. "From the estimated time of death, he was present while I was questioning his girlfriend at the time."

"So you have an alibi, too," Harry commented.

"One that rests on the word of two demons; I'd hardly want to put my freedom in their hands.

"Whoever is doing this is killing my men to get to me. I want him found at once."

"Alright, we're going to take a look around," Harry said. A few minutes later, Bob motioned Harry over.

"Found something, Bob?" The ghost pointed to an object that had been dropped on the floor of the apartment and Harry picked it up to examine it.

It was a tarot card: The Magician.

"Looks like the killer left something behind this time," Harry said. He pocketed it before heading back with Bob to the Faraday house.

One tracking spell coming up.

Author's Note: *Based on a line from "Charmed" season 4.

The hypotheticals Dana is recounting were actually given in criminal law and she is referring to an actual case, Stambovsky v. Ackley (1991).

Thanks to Orwell, EvilChick13, and IronAmerica (the beta) for reviewing! Thanks also to those of you who have added the story to your list of favorites!

Well? Worried about the serial killer's rampage? More concerned about Vince and Dana's marriage?

Chapter title from "Comedy Tonight."