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Chapter Thirty-four

Ebenezar drove, and I felt myself float off into a pensive haze Well, that wasn&039;t exactly true It was more of a pense-less haze, but I didn&039;t complain about it My mouth didn&039;t want to work, and on so shock was better than searing agony Soh to work out details, and we must have dropped the kids off with Father Forthill, because when I finally got out of the truck, the back was e "I had a thought If there&039;s an APB out for o back to my place"

"Harry," she said, "we&039;ve been here for two hours You&039;re sitting on your couch"

I looked around She was right The fireplace was going, with Mister in his favorite spot by theon the couch next toas a pillow I tasted Scotch in my mouth, one of Ebenezar&039;s own brews, but I didn&039;t re it Man, I ht "So I am," I said "But that doesn&039;ta pair of th knit shorts They fell to halfway down her calf, and she&039;d had to tie a big knot in the front to keep the around in her panties Dammit

"I don&039;t think so," she said "I&039;ve talked to Stallings He said there&039;s an APB for so your description, but your name isn&039;t attached to it Only that the suspect is wanted for questioning andthe alias Larry or Barry There were no prints on the weapon, but it was registered to the witness" She shook her head "I don&039;t kno that happened I&039;d say you got lucky, but I know better And you&039;d make some wiseass reh "Yeah," I said "Hell&039;s bells Trixie Vixen has got to be the most vacuous, conceited, small-minded, petty, and self-absorbed baddie I&039;ve ever snooped out That&039;s what happened"

"What?" Murphy asked

"My naht The wo I don&039;t think she bothers to keep very close track of other people&039;s existence if it doesn&039;t profit her"

Murphy arched an eyebrow "But there were other people there, weren&039;t there? Someone must have known your name"

I nodded "Arturo for sure Probably Joan But everyone else only knew my first name"

"And soun They&039;re covering for you," Murphy said

I pursed my lips, surprised Not so much that Arturo and his people had done it, but because of my reaction to the news-it made a warm spot somewhere inside me that felt almost completely unfamiliar "They are," I said "God knohy, but they are"

"Harry, you saved the lives of some of their people" She shook her head "In the business they&039;re in, I doubt Chicago&039;s finest are exactlythem feel like valued s people together-and you helped them Makes you one of them when trouble comes"

"Makes me family," I said

She smiled a little and nodded "So you knoho dunnit?"

"Trixie," I said "Probably two others My sense is that it&039;s the Ex-Mr-Genosa club, but that&039;s just a hunch And I think they had help"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Trixie was getting instructions froun onthat curse with a ritual Unless soot soy that&039;s needed And let&039;s face it, three witches cackling over a cauldron somewhere is pretty much stereotyped into the public awareness"

"Macbeth," Murphy said

"Yeah And that movie with Jack Nicholson as the devil"

"Can I ask you so?"

"Sure"

"You told ht? An outside power offers to give you so if you fulfill a specific sequence of events"

"Yeah"

Murphy shook her head "Scary People can just do a dance and soular people, I mean What happens if someone publishes a book?"

"Someone has," I said "Plenty of times The White Council has pushed it to happen a couple of tiood way toto work"

She frowned "I don&039;t get it Why?"

"Supply and demand," I said "There are limits to what outside forces can deliver to thethrough a pipeline If a couple of people are using a rite once every couple of weeks, or every few years, there&039;s no probleic toto use the rite all at once, there isn&039;t enough power in any one place to make it happen It just comes out as a little dribble that tastes bad and s me "So people who have access to rituals don&039;t want to share them"

"Exactly"

"And a book of dark rituals is not soe vacuous princess of porn picks up at the"And that last run on the curse had a professional behind it"

"Why do you say that?"

"It was a hell of a lot faster, for one thing, and deadlier It hit so quick I didn&039;t have tih I kneas coer, like someone who knew the business had taken the trouble to focus or amplify it somehow"

"What can do that?" Murphy asked

"Coordination between talented wizards," I said "Uh, sometiic They&039;re usually expensive as hell Soe, or certain positions of stars on a given night of the year Then there&039;s the old standby"

"What&039;s that?" Murphy asked

"Blood," I said "The destruction of life The sacrifice of animals Or people"

Murphy shivered "And you think they&039;re co after you next?"

"Yeah," I said "I&039;et away clean"

"Get aith their big old fund intact?"

"Yeah," I said

"See," Murphy said "I&039;ve got nothing against greed as a rasp the idea that other people actually exist"

"Yeah," I said with a sigh "I guess this ti in the same place"

"Heh," Murphy said "God only knohat kind of unholy bad luck got three ex-wives together I mean, what are the odds, you know?"

I sat up straight Murphy had put her finger on it "Stars and stones, you&039;re right How could I have missed that?"

"You&039;ve been a little busy?" Murphy guessed

I felt my heart speed up It beat with a dull pressure on"Okay, let&039;s think, here Arturo didn&039;t announce that he was getting ain I mean, I only found out because souess And I doubt the ex-wives knew about it firsthand In fact, I&039;d be willing to bet they were informed of the fact by a third party"

"Why?" Murphy asked

"Because if you want to work ot to believe in it You&039;ve got to want it Otherwise it just fizzles That means that they want someone dead Genuinely want it"

"Because when they found out it was a nasty surprise," Murphy said "Maybe whoever told thes even further before the ex-wives found out Made it hit them really hard, made them really mad I don&039;t know, Harry You&039;d need a fourth party to want Arturo&039;s new squeeze nixed for that to hold water"

"Yeah," I agreed Then I felt my eyes widen "Unless that wasn&039;t what they wanted at all Murph, I don&039;t think this is about money"

"I don&039;t understand"

"Genosa&039;s in love," I said I felt ht there in front of me the whole ti her hand on ht? You&039;re hurt You need to sit down until Ebenezar gets back"

"What?"

"Ebenezar He thinks he can do so first"

"Oh," I said My head spun a little She tugged at my arm and I sat back down "But that&039;s it"

"What&039;s it?"

"Trixie and the other stregas are just weapons for someone else Genosa is in love That&039;s why he didn&039;t react to Lara like everyone else They can&039;t touch him That&039;s what this is all about"

Murphy frowned "What do youthem as weapons?"

"The White Court," I said "Lord Raith and the White Court It&039;s no coincidence that he and his second-in-coo this weekend"

"What does Genosa&039;s being in love have to do with anything?"

"The White Court can control people Ithey can sink in the psychic hooks They can make slaves of the people they feed on, and make them like it to boot That&039;s the source of their power"

Murphy arched an eyebrow "But not if sohed weakly "Yeah They just said it out loud It was an internalshe said about hi in love"

"What who said?"

"Joan," I said "Plain old practical, flannel-wearing, doughnut-scarfing Joan And Lara the wonder slut Not in that order I&039;ad, Holot to provide me with some context if you want me to understand"

"Okay, okay," I said "Here&039;s the setup, all right? Raith is the leader of the White Court, but over the past several years he&039;s been losing face His personal power base is slowly eroding"

"Why?"

"Thomas, mainly," I said "Raith apparentlyhiet killed at the vampire masquerade ball, but Thomas hooked up with Michael and ain last year, at the duel with Ortega, but Thoh that one, too And fro the fear of himself into his own children very well anyot to do with Genosa?" she asked

"Genosa publicly defied Raith&039;s authority," I said "Arturo toldup the adult-s from behind the scenes Trace the hnuts that you&039;ll find that it&039;s Raith and that he owns Silverlight By leaving Silverlight Studios and going off to break stereotypes by doing his ownRaith&039;s authority in a very public way"

"So you&039;re saying that the White Court controls the erotica industry?"

"Or at least a bunch of it," I confirmed "Think about it They can influence people&039;s opinions of all kinds of things-what physical beauty is, what sex is, how one should react to temptation, what is acceptable behavior in inti deer to co them easier"

Her mouth fell open for aThat&039;s huge"

"And insidious," I said "I never even thought about so OrMaybe Raith was just taking over the business from some other player in the White Court"

"So when Genosa thuht, it made Lord Raith look even weaker"

"Yeah," I said "AAnd Raith couldn&039;t send Lara to control hi?"