Title: The Truth and Nothing But
Characters: Kirmani, Murphy, Harry
Rating: PG
Prompt: Notes
Spoilers: Brief ones for Soul Beneficiary and Bad Blood
Word count: 1045
Summary: Sometimes we lie. (Kirmani's POV)
Author's notes: Done for dresdenflashfic's 10th challenge. The prompt was 'notes'. Contains a few book details to round things out, but no plot spoilers.



"Okay," Connie said, staring at her computer screen. "How're we gonna play this?"

I looked down at my notes. "Let's start with what actually happened and then we'll figure out what we aren't gonna say happened."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Awrite, so, according to Dresden we got Red Court - vampires," I read. "Ain't friendly with Black Court. Look normal until they're angry or hurt. Narcotic spit. 'Don't let them lick you'. It's good he said that, you know. I have a real bad habit with letting random people lick me."

Connie smirked. "Right. Bianca's Red Court."

"I wouldn't mind letting her lick me," I muttered. Connie laughed. "Dresden says she isn't involved, though."

"Yeah, something about a 'scourge'. That's like a gaggle of vamps."

"I thought it was a coven?"

"No, I think that's just for witches."

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "This gonna be on the exam?"

Connie smiled and took a sip of coffee. We were nearly the only ones left in the office. Thank God. I get it bad enough for working with Dresden (even if it is against my will) and Connie (though, nobody dares say anything bad about her to my face). It would not be good for the guys to find me talking casually about vampires.

"We're nuts, right?" Connie asked. "For believing this stuff?"

"Yeah," I confirmed. "But, we'd kinda be stupid to ignore it too. I still think half of what Dresden says is crap, but I can't deny the giant snake thing that tried to kill us the other day, or the floating letters in the air that one time, or those girls with the teeth marks in their necks."

Connie shuddered. "Yeah. I can't decide whether I'm happy ignorant or not. On one hand, this stuff is terrifying but on the other hand, it's always been there and if there's anything messing with my city, I want to know about it. Even if it has two heads and spits fire."

"I didn't hear about that one."

"You were on vacation."

"Oh. I need more coffee." I got up and walked to the machine with my empty mug. There were two rookies nearby, whispering like little girls. I glared at them. "Don' the both of yous have somewhere you could be? Patrol, maybe? Defendin' the city, yeah?"

"Right, sorry," one of them said. They slunk out of the room.

I don't mind being the butt of the jokes, but Connie is the best damn cop this city has seen in a long time. I'm ten times the cop I was before I started working with her. She doesn't deserve the crap she gets.

I watched the storm that was brewing outside for a moment, trying to decide how many crazies were going to do something stupid because of it. Full moons and thunderstorms make Chicago go nuts. Nobody wants to be on call for those nights. I brought my coffee back to Connie's cubicle.

"How about this," she said, thoughtfully. "We arrived on scene to find three DOAs, all young females. Preliminary examination suggested exsanguination from puncture wounds to the neck made by an unknown weapon. Further investigation, with the assistance of consultant Harry Dresden, led us to suspect one - what was his name?"

I looked at my notebook. "Pietro Evaristo."

"Pietro Evaristo. Upon approaching the subject for questioning he..." she struggled for words.

"Turned into a bat thing and tried to eat your face?" I suggested.

"Resisted arrest and in the ensuing confrontation, was - "

"- killed by a bullet from Detective Kirmani's gun," I filled in.

"You didn't kill him, Sid," Connie objected.

"No, but I don't think we can say Dresden staked him through the heart, either," I pointed out.

"I guess not," she agreed. "How do we explain the fire?"

"During the confrontation, an unattended candle was knocked over, on accident, and the fire spread too quickly to retrieve the corpse before it was toasted."

"Okay. D'you think that'll work?" Connie asked. "I hate lying like this."

"I think it's better than 'a vampire did it and then we turned it to dust and set the building on fire'," I said. "Have you noticed that wherever Dresden goes, things get on fire?"

Connie smiled. "Yeah. He's a little too free with the spells."

"Spells," I grumbled. "Awrite, Connie, let's get that down and we'll see how it sounds."

Her fingers went at the keys, typing out what we'd just come up with. I provided the facts as we could present them, reading from our notebooks and half an hour later, we had a pretty good and convincing tale. The storm had dropped off to heavy rain and so far we hadn't gotten any calls. Maybe we'd get lucky tonight and the crazies would stay in.

"Murphy!"

Or not. Dresden came racing in, soaked to the bone and carrying that damned hockey stick of his. His eyes were wide and his face was lit up like it was Christmas morning.

"Stay away from my computer!" Connie barked, hugging the monitor protectively. He slid to a stop with a loud squeak of his gym shoes. "What's wrong?"

"I've got a problem," Dresden panted. "Well, two problems. There's a unicorn on Wentworth, I need a virgin." He nodded to me. "Hey Kirmani. How's it going?"

"Dandy," I replied, glaring at him.

"Harry, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not a virgin," Connie said, looking amused. She always gets amused when I get annoyed. I guess that makes us good partners.

"No, I know. I got that covered. I need you for the other problem," Dresden explained. He danced from one foot to the other and pointed behind him. "It's important."

"Do you have a virgin on speed dial or something?" I asked.

"Doesn't everyone?" He returned, with a grin.

Connie sighed and looked at me. I shrugged permission for her to run off and she gave me a grateful smile. I dismissed it with a flick of my hand. She got up and grabbed her coat, circling the cubicle to Dresden.

"Don't kill her," I warned Dresden, as I slid my chair over to Connie's keyboard. "Don't let him get you killed."

"I won't," Connie and Dresden said, together.

Connie waved a goodbye to me and followed Dresden as he raced out of the building again. I sighed, looking down to my notebook again and continued the report where Connie had left off.

"Unicorn. How the hell are we gonna play that one?"