Mouse glanced up at me rather reproachfully from under his shaggy brows; then he lowered his head, sighed, and continued plodding against the rain until we gained the pub. Mac was waiting for us at the front door. He was a sinewy, bald man dressed in dark slacks and a white shirt, somewhere between the age of thirty and fifty. He had a very average, unremarkable face, one that usually wore a steady expression of patience and contemplation.
Today, though, that expression was what I could only describe as grim.
I came in out of the rain, and passed off my six-foot oak staff to Mac to hold for me as I shrugged out of my duster. I shook the garment thoroughly, sending raindrops sheeting from it, and promptly put it back on.
Mac runs the pub where the supernatural community of Chicago does most of its hanging out. His place has seen more than its share of paranormal nasties, and if Mac looked that worried, I wanted the spell-reinforced leather of the duster between my tender skin and the source of his concern. I took the staff back from Mac, who nodded to me and then crouched down to Mouse, who had gravely offered a paw to shake. Mac shook, ruffled Mouse's ears, and said, 'Missing girl.'
I nodded, scarcely noticing the odd looks I was getting from several of the people inside. That was par for the course. 'What do we know?'
'Husband,' Mac said. He jerked his head at me, and I followed him deeper into the pub. Mouse stayed pressed against my side, his tail wagging in a friendly fashion. I suspected the gesture was an affectation. Mouse is an awful lot of dog, and people get nervous if he doesn't act overtly friendly.
Mac led me through a couple of rooms where each table and booth had been claimed by a different brewer. Homemade signs bearing a gratuitous number of exclamation points touted the various concoctions, except for the one Mac stopped at. There, a cardstock table tent was neatly lettered, simply reading MCANALLY'S DARK.
At the booth next to Mac's, a young man, good-looking in a reedy, librarianesque kind of way, was talking to a police officer while wringing his hands.
'But you don't get it,' the young man said. 'She wouldn't just leave. Not today. We start our honeymoon tonight.'
The cop, a stocky, balding fellow whose nose was perhaps more red than warranted by the weather outside, shook his head. 'Sir, I'm sorry, but she's been gone for what? An hour or two? We don't even start to look until twenty-four hours have passed.'
'She wouldn't just leave,' the young man half shouted.
'Look, kid,' the cop said. 'It wouldn't be the first time some guy's new wife panicked and ran off. You want my advice? Start calling up her old boyfriends.'
'But-'
The cop thumped a finger into the young man's chest. 'Get over it, buddy. Come back in twenty-four hours.' He turned to walk away from the young man and almost bumped into me. He took a step back and scowled up at me. 'You want something?'
'Just basking in the glow of your compassion, Officer,' I replied.
His face darkened into a scowl, but before he could take a deep breath and start throwing his weight around, Mac pushed a mug of his dark ale into the cop's hand. The cop slugged it back immediately. He swished the last gulp around in his mouth, purely for form, and then tossed the mug back at McAnally, belched, and went on his way.
'Mr. McAnally,' the young man said, turning to Mac. 'Thank goodness. I still haven't seen her.' He looked at me. 'Is this him?'
Mac nodded.
I stuck out my hand. 'Harry Dresden.'
'Roger Braddock,' the anxious young man said. 'Someone has abducted my wife.'
He gripped too hard, and his fingers were cold and a little clammy. I wasn't sure what was going on here, but Braddock was genuinely afraid. 'Abducted her? Did you see it happen?'
'Well,' he said, 'no. Not really. No one did. But she wouldn't just walk out. Not today. We got married this morning, and we're leaving on our honeymoon tonight, soon as the festival is over.'
I arched an eyebrow. 'You put your honeymoon on hold to go to a beer festival?'
'I'm opening my own place,' Braddock said. 'Mr. McAnally has been giving me advice. Sort of mentoring me. This was… I mean, I've been here every year, and it's only once a year, and the prestige from a win is… The networking and…' His voice trailed off as he looked around.
Yeah. The looming specter of sudden loss has a way of making you reevaluate things. Sometimes it's tough to know what's really important until you realize it might be gone.
'You two were at this booth?' I prompted.
'Yes,' he said. He licked his lips. 'She went to pick up some napkins from the bar, right over there. She wasn't twenty feet away and somehow she just vanished.'
Personally, I was more inclined to go with the cop's line of reasoning than the kid's. People in general tend to be selfish, greedy, and unreliable. There are individual exceptions, of course, but no one ever wants to believe that the petty portions of human nature might have come between themselves and someone they care about.
The kid seemed awfully sincere, but endearing, awfully sincere people, their decisions driven mostly by their emotions, are capable of being mistaken on an epic scale. The worse the situation looks, the harder they'll search for reasons not to believe it. It seemed more likely that his girl left him than that someone took her away.
On the other hand, likely isn't the same as true-and Mac isn't the kind to cry wolf.
'How long you two been together?' I asked Braddock.
'Since we were fifteen,' he replied. An anemic smile fluttered around his mouth. 'Almost ten years.'
'Making it official, eh?'
'We both knew when it was right,' he replied. He lost the smile. 'Just like I know she didn't walk away. Not unless someone made her do it.'
I stepped around Braddock and studied the high-backed booth for a moment. A keg sat on the table, next to a little cardstock sign that had a cartoon bee decked out with a Viking-style helmet, a baldric, and a greatsword. Words beneath the bee proclaimed BRADDOCK'S MIDNIGHT SUN CINNAMON.
I grunted and reached down, pulling a simple black leather ladies' purse from beneath the bench seating. Not an expensive purse, either. 'Not much chance she'd walk without taking her bag,' I said. 'That's for damn sure.'
Braddock bit his lip, closed his eyes, and said, 'Elizabeth.'
I sighed.
Well, dammit.
Now she had a name.
Elizabeth Braddock, newlywed-maybe she'd just run off, but maybe she hadn't. I didn't think I would like myself very much if I walked and it turned out that she really was in danger and really did get hurt.
What the hell? No harm in looking around.
'I guess the game's afoot,' I said. I gestured vaguely with the purse. 'May I?'
'Sure,' Braddock said. 'Sure, sure.'
I dumped Elizabeth's purse out on the booth's table, behind the beer keg, and began rummaging through it. The usual-a wallet, some makeup, a cell phone, Kleenex, some feminine sanitary sundries, one of those plastic birth control pill holders with a folded piece of paper taped to it.
And there was a hairbrush, an antique-looking thing with a long, pointy silver handle.
I plucked several strands of dark wavy hair from the brush. 'Is this your wife's hair?'
Braddock blinked at me for a second, then nodded. 'Yes. Of course.'
'Mind if I borrow this?'
He didn't. I pocketed the brush for the moment and glanced at the birth control pill case. I opened it. Only the first several slots were empty. I untaped the folded paper and opened it, finding instructions for the medicine's use.
Who keeps the instruction sheet, for crying out loud?
While I pondered it, a shadow fell across Braddock, and a beefy, heavily tattooed arm shoved him back against the spine of the partition between booths.
I looked up the arm to the beefy, heavily tattooed bruiser attached to it. He was only a couple of inches
