Chapter 11

Murphy met them at the Waffle House. Dresden was leaning against the fender sipping his coffee. Malone was standing somewhat forlornly by the bumper. And Karrin stood in front of Dresden with her own coffee keeping an eye on Malone. Blue was checking out the wheels on a nice looking Ford Ranger.

"So the coins all came from this (I can't believe I'm saying this.) leprechaun's pot of gold?" Karrin asked skeptically.

"Yep," Harry said. "The best I can figure is that after they used the coins for a certain amount of time or for a certain number of bets they ran out of whatever power the coins have for influencing the outcome of any given situation. When they kept on using them that power turned on them. It worked like a miniature entropy curse. Only the people using the coins were affected by them."

"So as far as my investigation goes; these really were just a series of bizarre accidents," Murphy mused.

"Pretty much," Harry said. "Think of them kinda like you would a drug over dose. They just pushed things too far."

Murphy looked at Malone. "He still shot at us. I don't have a choice about the arrest."

Malone looked at his shoes. "I know. For what it's worth. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Murphy snorted. She wasn't big into forgiving stuff like nearly killing her. She turned back to Harry. "So why did you walk into his trap?"

"I knew he was going to try something," Harry sipped his coffee and went on. "I figured I'd get him comfortable. He'd been setting traps for the fae. I figured he try it on me too."

"And he did," Murphy smiled appreciatively. "How'd you get out of it?"

"I didn't," Harry smiled up at her.

"Yes you did," Malone asserted. "I saw you."

Harry looked at him. "I didn't get out of his circle until after Toot had done his thing. What you saw was me drive the tip of my staff through the dirt under the edge of his circle. Once I did that I could use my power outside the circle. Most practitioners will create a field that either closes off the trapped individual in three dimensions or create what amounts to a tube that goes on forever. Either way they have a trap that's pretty tough to get out of. Guys like Monaghan just don't understand that sort of thing very well. They think too much in the physical world. His trap ended where it met the ground. I let him think he had me until I knew for sure he didn't."

"What are you planning to do with that?" Karrin asked pointing at the little black pig tied to the bumper. The pig looked up at her and then to Dresden.

"Well... I do like bacon," a wicked smile creased Dresden's face. The pig stood suddenly and squealed. "I know a guy that has a farm in the Ozarks . Since we don't know how long the enchantment will last and if we try to break it we could kill him; the best we can do is keep him safe until we can figure out what to do with him."

"Well it's been interesting as usual," Karrin sighed. "I still think you should take your car into the shop and have it looked at. Breaks, transmission, lights, horn... All those going on the fritz like that sounds like real problems."

Blue perked up his ears at that. Well. Sort of. He wasn't sure if he'd just been insulted or not.

"The Beetle is fine, Murph," Dresden assured her.

"Harry," Karrin was shaking her head. "Why don't you get a new car?"

Harry looked over his shoulder at the Beetle and gave Blue a familial rub. "Because the Blue Beetle is my car. MY car, Karrin. Mine."

Blue's spirit soared at the words. No, Harry couldn't hear him. No, Harry didn't know that he was aware. But Harry liked him. Maybe even loved him. Blue felt warm all the way down to his solenoid. He was beaming. In a figurative sense this time.

Murphy loaded Malone into her car and Harry loaded Monaghan into the Beetle and they parted company. The Blue Beetle was practically purring on the way back to the old rooming house. As they rolled into the parking lot there was a car in the Beetle's usual spot. Dresden frowned but said nothing as he parked next to it. Blue was eyeing it a bit but the events of the evening had him in a forgiving mood. Besides; she was cute for a '72 Maverick.

"Nice wheels," Blue mutter contentedly.

"What?" The Maverick said.

Life does have certain rewards.

Authors Note: This story was not originally intended to be a multi chapter story. Between the first reviews and my own inclination after I had posted the first chapter, I found myself wondering what the rest of the story would be. I came up with a plot that pretty quickly was running it's course and nearly ran out of steam after chapter eight. Thanks to Nytd I re-examined my plot holes and this is the result. Never under estimate the value of your plot holes. I found my real villain lurking in one.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed. In this case especially, you contributed a great deal to this story. You did that by telling me that you liked it and you wanted me to continue. Our eponymous hero would have languished in utter obscurity had you not done so. Please go out and have your favorite beverage as a reward. I would buy it for you but you all live very far away from me and I don't actually know who you are. Never the less: Thank you all very much.

I do not know if I will take the Beetle out for another spin. Keep your eyes pealed though. It could happen. In the mean time why don't you click on the reviews and follow the links to other authors who liked this story? Read some of their work. I'm going to.

Stutley Constable