Strange Brew by Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Karen Chance, P. N. Elrod, Rachel Caine, Faith Hunter, Caitlin Kittredge, Jenna Maclane, Jennifer van Dyck, Christian Rummel, Gayle Hendrix, Dina Pearlman, Marc Vietor, Therese Plummer, Karen Chapman

closed his eyes. “Loudmouth.”
    I stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. “Rest. I’ll chat him up.”
    Mac exhaled slowly, maybe unconscious before I’d gotten done speaking.
    I found Murphy down the hall.
    “Three of them are awake,” she said. “None of them remember anything for several hours before they presumably went to the bar.”
    I grimaced. “I was afraid of that.” I told her what I’d learned.
    “A psychic conduit?” Murphy asked. “What’s that?”
    “It’s like any electrical power line,” I said. “Except it plugs into your mind—and whoever is on the other end gets to decide what goes in.”
    Murphy got a little pale. She’d been on the receiving end of a couple of different kinds of psychic assault, and it had left some marks. “So do what you do. Put the whammy on them and let’s track them down.”
    I grimaced and shook my head. “I don’t dare,” I told her. “All I’ve got to track with is the beer itself. If I try to use it in a spell, it’ll open me up to the conduit. It’ll be like I drank the stuff.”
    Murphy folded her arms. “And if that happens, you won’t remember anything you learn anyway.”
    “Like I said,” I told her, “it’s high-quality work. But I’ve got a name.”
    “A perp?”
    “I’m sure he’s guilty of something. His name’s Caine. He’s a con. Big, dumb, violent, and thinks he’s a brewer.”
    She arched an eyebrow. “You got a history with this guy?”
    “Ran over him during a case maybe a year ago,” I said. “It got ugly. More for him than me. He doesn’t like Mac much.”
    “He’s a wizard?”
    “Hell’s bells, no,” I said.
    “Then how does he figure in?”
    “Let’s ask him.”
     
    Murphy made short work of running down an address for Herbert Orson Caine, mugger, rapist, and extortionist—a cheap apartment building on the south end of Bucktown.
    Murphy knocked at the door, but we didn’t get an answer.
    “It’s a good thing he’s a con,” she said, reaching for her cell phone. “I can probably get a warrant without too much trouble.”
    “With what?” I asked her. “Suggestive evidence of the use of black magic?”
    “Tampering with drinks at a bar doesn’t require the use of magic,” Murphy said. “He’s a rapist, and he isn’t part of the outfit, so he doesn’t have an expensive lawyer to raise a stink.”
    “How’s about we save the good people of Chicago time and money and just take a look around?”
    “Breaking and entering.”
    “I won’t break anything,” I promised. “I’ll do all the entering, too.”
    “No,” she said.
    “But—”
    She looked up at me, her jaw set stubbornly. “No, Harry.”
    I sighed. “These guys aren’t playing by the rules.”
    “We don’t know he’s involved yet. I’m not cutting corners for someone who might not even be connected.”
    I was partway into a snarky reply when Caine opened the door from the stairwell and entered the hallway. He spotted us and froze. Then he turned and started walking away.
    “Caine!” Murphy called. “Chicago PD!”
    He bolted.
    Murph and I had both been expecting that, evidently. We both rushed him. He slammed the door open, but I’d been waiting for that, too. I sent out a burst of my will, drawing my right hand in toward my chest as I shouted, “Forzare!”
    Invisible force slammed the door shut as Caine began to go through it. It hit him hard enough to bounce him all the way back across the hall, into the wall opposite.
    Murphy had better acceleration than I did. She caught up to Caine in time for him to swing one paw at her in a looping punch.
    I almost felt sorry for the slob.
    Murphy ducked the punch, then came up with all of her weight and the muscle of her legs and body behind her response. She struck the tip of his chin with the heel of her hand, snapping his face straight up.
    Caine was brawny, big, and tough. He came back from the blow with a dazed snarl and swatted at Murphy again. Murph caught his