"How are you going to manage that?"

"I'm working on it," I said. "The first step is to find The Word of Kemmler, or the whole thing is a bust."

"How do you do that?"

"The map," I said. "I don't think these guys are running around working the major black magic for no reason. I need to check out where they've been and figure out what they were doing."

"What about Butters?" Thomas asked.

"For now we keep him behind my wards. I don't know why Grevane wanted him, and until I figure it out he's got to keep his head down."

"I doubt Grevane was looking for a polka afficionado," Thomas said.

"I know. It's got something to do with one of the bodies at the morgue."

"So why not go there?" Thomas asked.

"Because the guard was killed there. There's blood all over the place, maybe the guard's body, and God only knows what Grevane did to the place after we left. The cops will have it locked down hard by now, and they'll definitely want to have a nice long talk with anyone who might have been there. I can't afford to spin my wheels in an interrogation room right now. Neither can Butters."

"So ask Murphy to look around," Thomas said.

I ground my teeth together for a few steps. "I can't. Murphy's on vacation."

"Oh," he said.

"I'm watering her plants."

"Right."

"While she's in Hawaii."

"Uh-huh," he said.

"With Kincaid."

Thomas stopped running.

I didn't.

He caught up to me a hundred yards later. "Well, that's a bitch."

I grunted. "I think she wanted me to tell her not to go," I said. "I think that's why she came to see me."

"So why didn't you?" he asked.

"Didn't realize it until it was too late. Besides, she's not my girlfriend. Or anything. Not my place to tell her who she should see." I shook my head. "Besides… I mean, if it was going to be right with Murphy, it would have been right before now, right? If we got all involved and it didn't work out, it would really screw things up for me. I mean, most of my living comes from jobs for SI."

"That's real reasonable and mature, Harry," Thomas said.

"It's smarter not to try to complicate things."

Thomas frowned at me for a moment. Then he said, "You're serious, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "I guess so. Yeah."

"Little brother," he said, "I simply cannot get over how stupid you are at times."

"Stupid? You just told me it was reasonable."

"Your excuses are," Thomas said, "but love isn't."

"We're not in love!"

"Never gonna be," Thomas said, "if you keep being all logical about it."

"Like you're one to talk."

Thomas's shoes hit the trail a little more sharply. "I know what it's like to lose it. Don't be an idiot, Harry. Don't lose it like I did."

"I can't lose what I haven't ever had."