Blood Rites by Jim Butcher Page A

almost every phone, and everyone I talked to referred me to their home page on the Internet. Evidently conversation with an actual human being had become passé. Stupid Internet.
    I hit some walls, slammed my head against some closed doors, got a little information, and ran out of time. I wrote down Internet addresses, picked up some food, and went to see Murphy.
    Special Investigations has its office in one of the clump of mismatched buildings comprising Chicago Police Headquarters. I checked in with the desk sergeant and showed him the consultant's ID card Murphy had given me. The man made me sign in and waved me through. I marched up the stairs and came out on the level housing holding cells and Special Investigations.
    I opened the door to SI and stepped inside. The main room was maybe fifty feet long and twenty wide, and desks were packed into it like sardines. The only cubicle walls in the room were around a small waiting area with a couple of worn old couches and a table with some magazines for bored adults and some toys for bored children. One of them, a plush Snoopy doll spotted with old, dark stains, lay on the floor.
    The puppy stood over it, tiny teeth sunk into one of the doll's ears. He shook his head, his own torn ear flapping, and dragged Snoopy in a little circle while letting out small, squeaky growls. The puppy looked up at me. His tail wagged furiously, and he savaged the doll with even more enthusiasm.
    "Hey," I told him. "Murphy's supposed to be watching you. What are you doing?"
    The puppy growled and shook Snoopy harder.
    "I can see that." I sighed. "Some babysitter she is."
    A tall man, going bald by degrees and dressed in a rumpled brown suit, looked up from his desk. "Hey, there, Harry."
    "Sergeant Stallings," I responded. "Nice moves on Murphy today. The way you slammed her foot with your stomach was inspiring."
    He grinned. "I was expecting her to go for a lock. Woman is a nasty infighter. Everyone tried to tell O'Toole, but he's still young enough to think he's invincible."
    "I think she made her point," I said. "She around?"
    Stallings glanced down the long room at the closed door to Murphy's cheap, tiny office. "Yeah, but you know how she is with paperwork. She's ready to tear someone's head off."
    "Don't blame her," I said, and scooped up the puppy.
    "You get a dog?"
    "Nah, charity case. Murphy was supposed to be keeping an eye on him. Buzz her for me?"
    Stallings shook his head and turned his phone around to face me. "I plan to retire. You do it."
    I grinned and went on down to Murphy's office, nodding to a couple other guys with SI along the way. I knocked on the door.
    "God dammit!" Murphy swore from the other side. "I said not now!"
    "It's Harry," I said. "Just stopping by to get the dog."
    "Oh, God," she snarled. "Back away from the door."
    I did.
    A second later the door opened and Murphy glared up at me, blue eyes bright and cold. "Get more away. I've been fighting this computer all day long. I swear, if you blow out my hard drive again, I'm taking it out of your ass."
    "Why would your hard drive be in my ass?" I said.
    Murphy's eyes narrowed.
    "Ah, hah, hah, heh. Yeah, okay. I'll be going, then."
    "Whatever," she said, and shut her office door hard.
    I frowned. Murphy wasn't really a "whatever" sort of person. I tried to remember the last time I had seen Murphy that short and abrupt. When she'd been in the midst of post-traumatic stress, she'd been remote but not angry. When she was keyed up for a fight or feeling threatened, she'd be furious but she didn't draw away from her friends.
    The only thing that had come close to this was when she thought I was involved in a string of supernatural killings. From where she'd been standing, it looked like I had betrayed her trust, and she had expressed her anger with a right cross that had chipped one of my teeth.
    Something was upsetting her. A lot.
    "Murph?" I asked through the door. "Where did the aliens hide your pod?"
    She opened the door