“Illegal gathering,” I said.

Butters snorted out a breath through his nose. “That was her excuse, yeah.”

“Well,” I said. “We’ll see.”

Butters paused, body motionless for a moment. “We’ll see what?”

“Whether or not this is permanent,” I said, gesturing at myself.

Butters snapped up straight. “What?”

“Bob thinks that there is hinkiness afoot with regard to my, ah, disposition.”

“You… you could come back?” Butters whispered.

“Or maybe I haven’t left,” I said. “I don’t know, man. I got suckered into this whole encore-appearance thing. I’m as in the dark as everyone else.”

“Wow,” Butters breathed.

I waved a hand. “Look. That will fall out where it may,” I said. “We’ve got a real problem to deal with, like, right now.”

He nodded, one sharp gesture. “Tell me.”

I told him about the Corpsetaker and her plan for Mort, and her deal with the point guy of the Fomor’s servitors. “So we’ve got to break that up right the hell now,” I concluded. “I want you to get Murphy and her Vikings and tell them to go stomp the Corpsetaker’s hideout.”

Butters sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Ugh. I know there hasn’t been time for a lot of chitchat since you, uh, became departed, but they aren’t Murphy’s Vikings.”

“Whose are they?”

“Marcone’s.”

“Oh.”

“We’ll have to talk to Childs.”

“Marcone’s new guy?”

“Yeah. Him.” Butters shivered. “Guy gives me the creeps.”

“Could be Will and company would be enough.”

Butters shook his head. “Could be Will and company have done too much already, man. Seriously.”

“Something’s got to happen. If you wait, you get a renegade wizard the White Council has nightmares about knocking on your front door. And by knocking I mean ‘converting it from matter to energy.’ ”

Butters nodded. “I’ll talk to her. We’ll figure out something.” He squinted at me. “What are you going to be doing?”

“Covering the ghosty side of things,” I said. “She and her wannabe Bob and her lemurs and all the wraiths she’s been calling up. Assuming things go well on the mortal coil, I don’t want her slipping out the back door and coming back to haunt us another day.”

He frowned. “You’re going to do all that by yourself?”

I showed him my teeth. “Not exactly. Move. There’s not much time.”

“When?” he asked.

“When else?” I answered. “Sundown.”

Chapter Forty

I vanished from inside the factory the second I felt sundown shudder through reality. The jumps were longer now, almost double what I’d managed the night before, and it took less time to orient myself between them. I guess practice makes perfect, even if you’re dead. Or whatever I was.

It took me less than two minutes to get to the burnt remains of Morty’s place.

On the way, I could see that southern winds were blowing, and they must have brought a springtime warmth with them. All of the city’s snow was melting, and the combination of the two with the oncoming night meant that a misty fog hung in the air, cutting visibility down to maybe fifty or sixty feet. Fog in Chicago isn’t terribly unusual, but never that thick. Streetlights were ringed with blurred, luminous halos. Traffic signals were soft blurs of changing color. Cars moved slowly, cautiously, and the thick mist laid a rare hush over the city, strangling its usual voice.