Cold Case

Cold Case is a short story in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. It is set between Cold Days and Skin Game and is told from Molly Carpenter's point of view. It can be found in the anthology Shadowed Souls.

Plot
Molly Carpenter is charged by Mab to collect the overdue tribute the Miksani owe the Winter Court. Sensing that things are not right in Unalaska, where the Miksani live, and reconnoitering the area, she bumps into Carlos Ramirez, who is doing the same, and teams up with him. A cormorant feather leads them to the funeral of Tupiak, killed while trying to rescue a few children kidnapped by the Holy Ascension of Our Lord, which controls the area and attempts to reawaken an ancient and weakened god known as the Sleeper. Molly Carpenter manages to interrupt the rite, while Ramirez brings the children to safety.

The action and Molly Carpenter's Mantle prompt her to seek intimacy with Ramirez, which are forbidden by the powers and protocols of the Mantle itself, resulting in Molly seriously injuring him. With the intervention of Mab, Ramirez survives the encounter and Molly Carpenter is charged to finally collect the tribute: the children she has saved, to be trained as soldiers in the war pitting the Winter Court against the Outsiders.