Dead Beat by Jim Butcher Page B

shook my hand. Her grip was firm, soft, warm, and tingled with the energy of someone who had some kind of minor talent to practice.
    I'd never really considered what it might be like for someone to sense my own aura. Shiela drew in a sharp breath, and her arm jumped. Her ink-stained fingers squeezed tight for a second and smudged my hand. "Oh. Sorry, sorry."
    I rubbed my hand on my fatigue pants. "I've seen worse stains tonight," I said. "Which brings me to the books."
    "You stained a book?" she said, her face and voice distressed.
    "No. That was just a bad segue."
    "Oh. Oh, right," she said, nodding. She absently rubbed her hands together. "You're here for a book. What are you looking for?"
    "A book called Die Lied der Erlking ."
    "Oh, I've read that one." She scrunched up her nose, eyes distant for a second, then said, "Two copies, right-hand shelf, third row from the top, eighth and ninth books from the left."
    I blinked at her, then went to the shelf and found the book where she'd said. "Wow. Good call."
    "Eidetic memory," she said with a pleased smile. "It's… sort of my talent." She gestured vaguely with the hand she'd touched me with.
    "Must come in handy during inventory." I checked the shelf. "There's only one copy, though."
    She frowned, then shrugged. "Mister Bock must have sold one this week."
    "I bet he did," I said, troubled. It bothered me to think about Grevane standing in a store, speaking to people like Bock or Shiela. I pulled the cage closed and started slowly for the front of the store.
    I opened the book. I'd heard it referenced before, in other works. It was supposed to deal with the lore around the Erlkoenig, or Elfking. He was supposed to be a faerie figure of considerable power, maybe a counterpart to the Queens of the Faerie Courts. The book had been compiled by Wizard Peabody early last century from the collected notes of a dozen different crusty wizards, most of them dead at the time, and was considered to be a work of nearly pure speculation.
    "How much?" I asked.
    "Should be on an index card inside the cover," Shiela said, walking politely beside me.
    I looked. The book was worth half a month's rent. No wonder I'd never bought a copy. Business hadn't been bad lately, but between handling all of Mouse's licensing and shots and the trucks of food he ate, and Thomas's job troubles, I didn't have anything to spare. Maybe Bock would let me lease it or something.
    Shiela and I walked out of the back room and started toward the front of the store. As we came out of the book areas, she said, "Well, I think you know the way from here. It was a pleasure meeting you, Harry."
    "You too," I said, smiling. Hey, she was a woman, and pretty enough. Her smile was simply adorable. "Maybe I'll bump into you again sometime."
    "I'd like that. Only next time without the gun."
    "One of those old-fashioned girls, huh?" I said.
    She laughed and walked back toward the rear of the store.
    "Find what you needed?" Bock asked. There was an edge to his voice, something I couldn't quite place. He was definitely uncomfortable.
    "I hope so," I said. "Uh. About the price…"
    Bock looked at me hard from under his thick eyebrows.
    "Uh. Would you take a check?"
    He looked around the store and then nodded. "Sure, from you."
    "Thanks," I said. I wrote out a check, hoping it wouldn't bounce before I got to the door, and sneaked my own glance around the shop. "Did I run out your customers?"
    "Maybe," he said uncomfortably.
    "Sorry," I said.
    "It happens."
    "Might be better for them to be home. You too, in fact."
    He shook his head. "I have a business to run."
    He was an adult, and he'd been in this town longer than I had. "All right," I said. I handed him the check. "Did you sell the other copy you had in inventory?"
    He put the check in the register, and put the book into a plastic bag, zipped it shut, then put that in a paper sack. "Two days ago," he said after a moment's thought.
    "Do you remember to whom?"
    He puffed out a breath