Night's Reprieve
6th of July 2006 A.D.
Harry gives you the number and you back away, but not to the door, just forty feet or so before flipping open your phone. No sense risking letting him out of your sight in case whoever got Greene was coming back, or worse in case this is a set up.
"Hello, Detective Murphy, this is Molly Carpenter, from... yesterday." Because 'from Arctis Tor' sounded really strange to say even on a phone that was currently buzzing like a swarm of flies from the presence of Chicago's resident wizard.
"Are you in trouble again?" The tone was very much that of a woman who was hopping the answer was 'no'. A pity you could not give her what she wanted.
"Well sort of, I was coming out of Harry's place..." Part of you wonders if she is going to
assume things, it is kind of late to be making house calls. In principle you do not care that much if she does, but in practice...
Do cops gossip? If one of those assumptions gets back to mom you'll never hear the end of it. "We found one of your colegues, Detective Greene I think unconscious on the street and Harry said to call you for help."
"How did you find him?" she asks, snapping you out of your woolgathering.
"By a car, there was blood, but not a lot of it, he came to for a bit, and said something about Harry setting thugs on him," you answer to the tone without even properly thinking if you should give that away. You do not know what kind of relationship Harry has with her, just that she was good for taking into the Nevernever on a rescue mission. "We were both inside the whole time talking about stuff," you add quickly, establishing a... whatchamacallit... an alibi.
"Just call him an ambulance, ask the driver where they are taking him and then call me back with it so I can be there when he wakes up.
Don't follow along and tell Dresden not to either."
You bristle a little at the orders, not just to you, but to Harry as well. Who does she think she
is? "Why not?"
"Just do it!" she snaps and the call goes dead.
"She... er... didn't seem very pleased to be called," you half-shout back at Harry.
His only answer is a sort of affirmative grunt, as though Officer Murphy being rude was normal. "Why didn't you go inside?" he asks you instead as he finishes wrapping up the worse of Greene's wounds.
"In case someone tried to attack you, or... or frame you," you reply in a hushed voice coming close.
"I can handle myself against most things and as for framing not unless whoever did this could hide the police in their
literal pockets," he answers. At your look in askance he explains. "If you are right and they attacked Greene when you arrived using the commotion of Mouse's barking to cover the scuffle then they would have no way to know
when to set up the scene. You could have been in there for twenty minutes, two hours or four. No matter how good they might be at pulling strings keeping officers around this neighborhood loitering's not easy. They have places be and things to do..."
Once you had made the call, because Harry still cannot get near your phone and you are not going to leave him out here alone no matter how much sense he makes, you snap it close and more to yourself than to him you say. "Things to pretend to do you mean?"
"The Chicago PD do what they can with what they've got," Harry replies looking down the street.
"Really? How are they with keeping heroine off the street? How about dealing with the real monsters out there, the ones with a human face and without?" You shake your head, thoroughly unconvinced. "Yeah, yeah, they don't know, but why don't they know? The White Council sure isn't doing memory spells like in Harry Potter, so what gives? People vanish right, because a vampire drank their blood, because a fetch thought they screamed good and how many of the cops do anything about it? A couple? Half a dozen?"
"Most people don't want to know," comes the far from reassuring reply. "Humanity's not on top of the food chain and if most people knew, I mean really knew down to their bones, they would panic and lash out. I've seen it you know, what happens when you corner someone with the truth..." he trails off darkly. "It ain't pretty. and the mortal authorities, the FBI the military they have a lot of guns. In some ways bringing them in is thought of as kind of the nuclear option."
"So you don't think it was someone from... down that street that did this," you motion at the still thankfully unconscious man next to the dented car.
"Oh they might have if it was deniable enough, hard to get more deniable than a concussion."
The sound of the approaching ambulance cuts you off. By the mingled lights red and blue you weave about yourself the guise of innocence. It is not a veil as you had crafted before the power had come upon you, no light do you bend, no sound do you muffle, but by manner and word craft a lie a thousand ways told:
'I am just a scared girl who has never seen so much blood. Please will be be alright? Where are you taking him?'
Lost 1 Essence
By the time the ambulance had pulled away and the return call had been made you return to Harry with a satisfied smile, an earned one if you do say so yourself.
"Of course it is earned Gracious Whisperer in Shadow," Usum assures you.
For his part Harry kind of looks at you funny for a bit before asking you if you need a ride home.
"No offense, but a ride home from you is the
last thing I will need when I have to face mom," you reply with a smile to take the sting out of it.
Speaking of mom... The drive back along the darkened streets framed by the racing yellow lights of the streetlamps feels almost too short for the question you are asking yourself. You just found out where the otherworldly as hiding in the city. You are not going to use that just to better hide from
it, but should you just tell mom that outright or take a more subtle approach?
[] Tell your mother you want to be part of the clued in community of Chicago, given how blatantly magical you are it is the best and likely the safest way (Charisma+Empathy roll)
-[] Write in stunt (Optional)
[] Don't say anything, you can just go out. It's not like she watches you every hour of every day
[] Write in
OOC: You do not know in character, but just like in canon Murphy just got demoted and was almost fired over the two missing days in the Nevernever.