Chapter IV: A Genteel Black Hole

AN:

Heya fan-fic folks!

Ok, so's y'all know, there won't be another update for this, Firewatch or The Island until the seventeenth. I volunteer with a local mental health charity and we've got a pretty busy week next week, so I won't have the time to get my full load done. There's a few other things as well, but that's the main time drag. Sorry for another delay, y'all, but life just gets hectic, y'know? Especially this close to Uni season. I'm working on a solution, so hopefully this will be the last time.

Secondly, a comment on The Blackwell Job put an idea in my head. I have a series of story summaries on my profile. They're basically just a list of ideas I have for stories to write in the future. Once this current crop is done, I'm going to start the next bunch of three. Five/Four turned out to be too many to keep going each week, so I'm cutting it down to three. I have one picked out already (Not in the list), I just need the other two. So, I'd like to see which two you guys would like me to work on first. So, if you've got an opinion, feel free to stick it in a review. Whichever 2 stories get the most votes will be the ones I start after these are done.

This one was hard to do. I'm not even sure why. I hit a lot of walls with it. Kinda glad I finally got it finished though. Just a couple more chapters or so and we'll be hitting the main plot. The chapter title comes from a quote from my favourite author of all time. Gold Star if you know who. :)

For any of you who've read White Night, don't assume I'm using everything from that book. Murphy is still a Lieutenant, MollyMax was invited to the crime scene etc etc. I just needed a good crime scene to start off with so I could introduce Murphy and Janine's murder seemed a good one.

Oh, and the talking umbrellas Chloe mentioned are actually a real myth (Slight oxymoron there, but you know what I mean.) They're called Kasa-obake. Basically, it's an Umbrella that has gained sentience. It's kinda bizarre, but hella cool.

Thanks for reading fan-fic-folks and, as always, please review.

Darquan0: I certainly did and it certainly will.

Very perceptive. Not commenting on which one it is though, spoilers, after all, but you've definitely hit the two main options.

Max isn't going to be a complete stand-in for Molly. She's merely filling the same role and sharing a few details. I change a lot of things around in my stories, mostly on whim. I don't really plan anything in advance though, so Vanessa may share qualities with Charity, she may not. I haven't decided yet.

Oh, and I don't seem to have responded entirely to your last comment. I think I forgot to finish my response in the rush to get the last update up. So, here it is.

Yep, she is. It will definitely be elaborated on later. Probably not soon though. I'm still getting the main plot set-up atm.

Yeah, I've basically moved Dresden and the whole world to Seattle. Chicago is like, 30+ hours drive from Portland (which is close-ish to Arcadia Bay), so that's way too far. I needed somewhere closer and just moving the whole shebang to Seattle made sense. Should probably have elaborated that in an AN at the beginning, it just slipped my mind.

True. I loved Nicodemus too much not to have him featured in my story. He was a phenomenal villain.

MaxNeverMaxine: Thank you. I quite like the dual POVs too. I like that I can give an insiders view and an outsiders view of the magical world in the same chapters. And hope I do the darkness justice. I seem to have a talent for fluffy, so it'll be interesting to go the opposite way.

Usually when Dresden took me to crime scenes, there was a crowd. Gawkers, cops, whatever. This time, nothing. He didn't even have to get out his card.

"Seventh floor, right?" I asked, jogging slightly to keep up with the boss's ridiculously long legs.

He nodded. "Yep. Seventh Floor, Apartment 3."

We hit floor seven and entered the hall. There were a couple of bored looking med-tech guys to one side. One was smoking, the other was leaning against the wall with his ugly fucking cap low over his eyes.

"Hey Harry." Lt. Murphy greeted us as we walked in.

"Heya Murph. What've we got?" The boss grinned at her. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. These two fuckwits had been dancing around each other for longer than I'd known them.

She shrugs. "Another weird one. Just take a look. I want your opinion."

Lieutenant Karrin Murphy was the head of the weird-case cops in Seattle. The boss did all sorts of consulting for her when shit started going bump in the night.

She went and leaned against the wall by the door to the apartment. It was kind of a crappy place. The vic definitely wasn't rich. Dresden put out a hand to stop me walking in any further. "Come on, Grasshopper. You know the drill."

I turned to look at Murphy by the doorway, holding out a pair of gloves. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please! I don't need 'em, I can be careful!"

In case you hadn't guessed, I mighta had some teensy tiny issues with authority. And Lt. Murphy was the closest to Authority with a capital A that I ever got. Dresden tried, but his fluffy bunny slipper of command wasn't that effective.

Murphy looked at the Boss. "Dresden…" She sounded… well, she sounded kinda pissed off. Murphy and I hadn't ever really gotten along. We didn't meet under the best of circumstances. I might've snuck into a crime scene and touched stuff. But I'd gotten way better about that!

Dresden plonked his hand on my shoulder. "Max. Put the gloves on."

I grumbled, but I put the damn gloves on. I headed into the room. I could hear Murphy bitching about me to Dresden. Not like pissed off bitching, Murphy was too 'professional' for that. She just sounded… concerned. He shrugged. "She means well, Murph. She's still learning."

Murphy snorted and moved to lean on the door as Dresden moved into the main room. "So, how's that war you started going?"

He shrugged as he poked around. "Holding, for now. Nobody's killing anyone else at the moment." He wandered over to stand by the open futon. The 'vic' was lying on it, hands on her stomach. It was… weird even being in this room. "So, who's the dead girl?"

She waved over to the table next to the futon. There was a plastic evidence bag there. I went over to stand next to Dresden.

I'm so tired of being afraid. There's nothing left. Forgive me. Janine.

I stared down at the note.

Shit. "Do we know anything about her?"

Dresden shrugged. "Well, she was a practitioner."

I frowned. "How do you know?"

He stared at me. One eyebrow raised up. I stared back. "No pictures, no computers, no hair or nails anywhere. Plus, the shrine in the corner."

Huh. My shoulders slumped. Damn it. "Shit, I should've got that."

He shrugged, picking something up from a side table. "Everyone misses things."

"Even you?"

"Even me, grasshopper." He wandered over to the kitchen. "Suicides don't usually leave food marinating, or dishes soaking, do they?" Murphy hmmed and walked over to him.

Well, time to get my Sensitive on. If she was a practitioner, maybe I could get something. Even if everyone misses shit, there's no way I'm gonna do that again.

I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths and reached out with my senses. Just like the boss taught me. I got a brief spark of something from the far wall. My eyes flicked open. "Hey, boss! There's something over there."

He frowned over at me from the kitchen. "Where?"

I pointed. "The wall. It's really faint though."

He nodded, staring at it for a second. "Well caught, Max. Can you go get the kit?"

"Yep. Can do, Boss."

I headed out, past the medtechs, out the door to the Blue Beetle. I popped the trunk and fished out the big box. I lugged it back upstairs and to the apartment.

Shit!

I growled at the screen. Fucking nothing?!

I'd gotten up early to google the stuff Max talked about, but Google wasn't giving me shit. Fuck, shit would be an improvement. Did Wizards not use the fucking internet or something?

I sighed. Fuckity, fuckity, fuck, fuck shit. I slammed a fist into my desk.

Then, it hit me. If magic wasn't on the net, I was gonna have to kick it old-school.

The library in Arcadia Bay had fucking nothing on magic at all, so I hopped in my truck and drove into Portland.

The libraries there were pretty useless too. I was walking back to my truck from the big university library when I found it. This hella tiny place on a back street. I looked at the customers. One of them looked kinda like Dumbledore. I grinned and walked in.

"Hi, um…" I looked at the guy behind the counter. He was hella big, hella burly and looked like he'd done time. "Do you have anything on like, magic?"

Max had said not to tell anyone I knew, so I was kinda nervous about this whole fucking trip. But she'd told me next to nothing and I needed some fucking details.

The big guy's brows furrowed when he looked over at me. "Magic? What kind?"

I shrugged, trying to seem vague. "Y'know, magic. Mythology. That kinda stuff."

He nodded. "Back corner."

I smiled and headed over. There was some interesting shit there. Not much on magic like Max talked about, but a whole pile of stuff on all sorts of monsters.

I spent like, three hours picking through those shelves. There was some cool stuff about monsters, but nothing on any magic. Nothing decent, anyway. Wait...

Score! Heh. The first book that sounded like it talked about anything Max said. I started to flick through it. Before I knew it, I was halfway through.

"Normally people pay for books before reading them, you know."

My head shot up to see a tall, elderly looking dude smirking at me. I shrugged, giving him an awkward grin. "Yeah, I just kinda got caught up."

He craned his head to see the title. "And what book so encapsulated your attention, may I ask?"

I showed him the cover. He smiled. "Ah. An excellent choice, young miss. And how, may I ask, did you come to be interested in the mysteries of the fae?"

I nearly rolled my eyes. Like, dude. I'm trying to read here. Who talks to someone while they're trying to read? And old people say we're the fucking rude ones.

Assholes.

But, I stayed polite. This was the first fucking place I'd found that actually had some interesting shit. I really didn't wanna get kicked out.

I picked up my pile and smiled at him. "You're right. I should go pay for these before I finish them."

His hand, like, flicked out and caught mine. I blinked. Holy shit, the old man was fast. "I applaud your efforts, young miss. It is all too rare to see people of your generation take interest in the knowledge of the past."

I shrugged him off, avoiding his eyes. I'm a hella crappy liar when I'm freaked the fuck out and I was hella freaked out by this old guy right now. I just wanted to get away from him. "It's just stories, dude. It's not like this crap is real. It's just cool."

I hurried off before he could say anything else. I headed over to the guy behind the counter. I slid the books over to him. "Hey. Can I get these?"

He nodded. "Sure. That'll be…"

Holy fuck, magic books were hella expensive. I could afford hella fucking weed with that kinda cash. But, I really wanted to know about this magic stuff.

I forked over the cash and the guy handed me a bag for my books. "Hey, could you tell me when new shit comes in here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "New shit?"

I nodded, completely oblivious to the disapproving look. "Yeah. Magic books. Anything you get."

His eyebrows bunched back together. It was kinda cool to watch, actually. They were like caterpillars dancing on his face. "Sure. Got a number?"

I nodded and we traded digits. "Right. Books about magic. I'll let you know. The name's Bock."

I grinned. "Awesomesauce. Thanks, dude."

I headed home, planning to hole up in my room and read. Pretty sure I hadn't done that in fucking years. Mom even stared at me when I walked in with an armful of books.

I walked in to see Dresden and Murphy laughing and joking about something. I rolled my eyes. "Hey, Boss. I got the kit."

He came and took it from me. He started rummaging around inside. "That's new." Murphy noted.

He shrugged. "I've been teaching the Grasshopper Thaumatergy. We have to go out to the countryside, for obvious reasons. Got easier to set up a kit rather than just throw everything in a sack."

He pulled out a little plastic test tube. Murphy chipped in again. "What's that?"

"Copper filings." The boss explained. "They conduct energy. If there's a pattern there, these will help show it."

"Ah. You're dusting for prints."

Dresden shrugged. "Basically, yeah." He stood up. "Actually, do you want to take this one, grasshopper? Practice makes perfect, after all."

I grinned and nodded, holding out my hands. He poured a small pile of filings onto my hands. I stepped forward, so I was closish to the wall.

I found the piece of chalk in my pocket and drew a little circle on the floor. I let some energy flow into them and broke the circle. "Baitaru." I murmured and tossed the filings towards the wall.

We watched as the filings crackled and struck the wall. The place started to reek of ozone. Side effect of magic, spells really stunk sometimes.

Dresden blew gently on the wall, clearing the excess filings. Murphy stepped forward as we read what was now on the wall.

Exodus 22:18

I frowned. "I don't know that one, boss."

Murphy shrugged. "Me either. Dresden?"

The boss nodded. "It's the one that always stuck in my head: 'Suffer not a witch to live'."

Murphy nodded, mostly to herself. "So, murder, then."

"Looks like."

She frowned at the wall. "And the killer wanted you to know it. A cop couldn't have found this."

"Yeah." Dresden said.

"So, what are we looking at here? Salem Witch Trials aficionado? The Inquisitor reborn?"

Dresden and I both frowned at her. "And he uses magic to leave a message?"

Murphy shrugs. "Not like wackos can't be hypocrites. How did the message get there? Did one of your side have to do it?"

Dresden turned to me. "You wanna take this one, grasshopper?"

I nodded. "It didn't have to be a wizard. They probably just used the holy water from the shrine?" I turned to Dresden. "Right?"

He grinned. "Got it in one, Max."

I beamed. "Holy water has a magic residue. If they drew on the wall, the residue would still be there when the water dried up."

Murphy frowned again. "Holy? I thought magic was all energy and math and equations and things. Like electricity or thermodynamics."

"Not everyone thinks that." Dresden nodded at the altar. "Janine was a wiccan."

She squinted at Dresden, then over at the shrine. "Like a witch?"

Dresden shrugged. "It's complicated. Basically, she was both."

She muttered to herself and sighed. "So, was this a conflict of religion, then?"

"It's sort of difficult for sincere Wiccans to conflict with anyone. The faith is all about individual freedoms. There's some basic tenets they all share, but mostly they believe as long as you aren't hurting anyone else, you should be free to practice however you like."

Murphy nodded. "Maybe. It's still made up of people. Every faith has it's assholes."

I snorted. Dresden smiled. "Too soon to make any assumptions though, Murph." Dresden frowned, looking over at the body. "This isn't the only suicide, is it Murph?"

She shrugged. "Nope. There's another four. All similarly weird to this one."

"Damn. Can I see the bodies?"

She nodded. "Yep. They're in the Morgue."

We hadn't been back to the King County Morgue since the Doc patched Chloe up. We parked in the little carpark next to the door and headed in. Dresden waved his card at the guy in reception and we headed straight to the back.

The place only has a few exam rooms, but even so, it's still not hard to find the Doc. You just listen for the hella loud oom-pah noises.

Dresden rapped on the door with his staff and we waited for a sec. A minute or so later, the Doc appeared in the doorway. "Hey, Harry. Max."

The doc was a weird guy. He was shorter than I was and had hair like a freaking steel wool factory exploded out of his head. Plus, an obsession with Polka that just could not be explained.

He turned and wandered back into the room. We followed him in. "So, Murphy tells us we've got a string of suicides on our hands?"

Marsh nods and ruffles through some papers on his desk. "Yep. A whole…" He frowned. "Where the hell did I…?" He grinned and pulled a file from the pile. "Here. A whole four. Well, five now."

Dresden flicked through the files and nodded. "Damn. Are any of them still here?"

The Doc nodded. "Yep. Uh… Jessica Blanche. She's in the back. Can you give me a hand?"

Dresden nodded, but his shoulders were stiff and he was trying to hide a shudder. Corpses are inherently icky, even to 'Masters of the Arcane' like the Boss. He turned to me. "You think you're up to an object reading? See what we can get off her?"

I nodded. "Yes."

He smiled. "Good. Get yourself ready. The full process, okay, Grasshopper?" He ruffled my hair, cringing slightly when flakes of the dye ended up on his hands. He wiped it on his jeans. I could've warned him that'd happen.

He and Doc Marsh headed out and I took a seat. I ran through my breathing exercises, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Object reading was a complex spell and I had to be sure I was focused.

Long story short, I meditated for a while until they brought the body in.

I stepped up to the body and looked into it's eyes, carefully opening my mind to it and…

Wow. This is… kinda nic... Everything she was feeling hit me all at once and ooooh, she felt good! I melted onto the floor, a panting mess, and just lay there, feeling it all wash over me.

And well, yeah. So that happened.

The Boss came over, carefully asking if I was ok. It took me a little while to make it out. I just felt so good. I grinned. I was a lot better than ok!

I blinked. There was a familiar feeling somewhere in there… What was it..? Then, it clicked. "Oh, Boss, I got something! She was using one of those medical pinwheel things!"

"A wartenburg pinwheel." The Doc supplied.

I nodded. "Yeah, that."

Dresden frowned. "How do you know..?"

I gave him a lazy, wicked smile. "This is one of those things you don't wanna know, boss."

Marsh coughed. "They're sometimes used… recreationally."

Dresden's cheeks reddened. The boss always was old-fashioned. I looked over at the Doc, who was desperately trying not to meet my eye. "Hey, doc, you got a marker or something?"

He nodded, and handed me a pen, without ever looking at me. It was kinda impressive, actually. I traced where the wheel had run over my stomach.

Ex 22:18

Well, fuck. "It's official, we have a serial killer."

I wasn't really paying attention. I was just running through what I gotten over and over in my head.

Not like that! Perverts. Whatever did that to her, killed her. She didn't even see it coming. It felt hella good, but it wasn't. "It's a vampire. right boss? Um… White Court? They use sex to feed, right?"

He nodded. "Could be. There are lots of nasties in the Nevernever that groove on the succubus routine though."

We said our goodbyes to Marsh and left. I hopped in the car and looked at him. "So, whats the next move?"

He shrugged. "I've got to talk to some people, so…"

I sighed. So, I've gotta go home. Jeez. He never wants to introduce me to his sources. "Yeah, yeah. I know the drill, boss. Go home and practice." I smiled. "It makes perfect, right?"

He nodded. "Exactly, grasshopper. Plus, your Mom will be happy I'm not keeping you out all night."

When I got home, I headed to the garage. My Dad was out, but he should've fixed up my phone. I found it lying on a side table and headed upstairs. I sat down in my desk chair and frowned as I flicked through the phone. Huh. Picture message from Chloe?

CHLOE: hi mx are these hoppy umbrella things real? and cn u maKe fireballs?

CHLOE: and whts a Warden?

CHLOE: Hw do u do sight?

CHLOE: Do u guys have owls?

There was a picture, clearly out of a book, of an umbrella with a giant eye, a single leg and two arms. It also had a mouth with a lolling tongue.

Great. Chloe's been reading.

I rolled my eyes and called her. This is gonna be a long day...