Bitter Gold Hearts (18 page)

“I know. Only he didn’t kill himself. He had a lot of help from his friends.”

“You have that gleam in your eye, Garrett. Does that mean you know who did it?”

“Yep. And one of them was an ogre breed named Skredli, and it just happened that a Skredli was involved in Junior’s so-called kidnapping — and most likely in the attack on Saucer head and Amiranda. And this Skredli runs with a character named Gorgeous, who sounds like he’s some double-ugly... What’s up, Morley?”

“Gorgeous? You did say Gorgeous?”

“Yeah. You know him?”

“Not personally. I know of him.”

“I don’t like that look in
your
eye.”

“Then look at the wall or something while you tell us about it.”

While I talked, Saucer head sat nodding to himself. I pretty much opened the bag and dumped it. Morley got out paper and pen and ink and started doodling. When I closed the sack up, Morley said, “The Donni Pell trick is like the hub of a wheel. You have connec­tions between her and everyone but the Dount woman. You can’t tell about the Crest woman, but you can as­sume she knew who Donni was since she was good friends with Junior. This Donni is the key. Let’s see if we can’t lay hands on her.”

I exchanged looks with Saucer head. “The man is a genius, isn’t he? Think he’s figured out that she’s the next one who’ll come floating belly up? If the hard boys are nervous enough to cut the son of Raver Styx...”

Morley said, “I think the next casualty will be a guy called Gorgeous. Though maybe I’m wrong.” He still had that look.

“Why?” Saucer head asked. Always direct, friend Waldo.

“Tell me about Gorgeous. I’ve never heard of him.”

“You ought to keep up better, Garrett. He’s important.”

“I’m trying. If you’ll get to it.”

“Sure. He hasn’t been around long. His real name is Conrad Staley. He came from HasefBro after the kingpin checked out, figuring it was a good time to cut himself a piece of the big city. He’s human but he’s so damned mean and ugly he ranks with ogres. He brought his own gang to start but I hear most have gone back since he’s found local recruits. Keeping the old base secure.

There was a hot feud for a while with Chodo Contague but they sorted it out. Gorgeous got Ogre Town. He pays a per­centage to keep it in peace. Chodo doesn’t want a war because he’s having trouble keeping his own people in line.”

Chodo Contague was the thug who had taken over as kingpin after the old kingpin’s demise. He was more powerful than most of the lords of the Hill, though he lived in the shadows.

“Anything we do that involves Gorgeous, Chodo is going to have to approve.” Morley was moving toward the door now. “It could mean war. You guys sit tight. If you need anything, tell them downstairs. I’ll be back in a couple hours.”

“Where the hell are you going?” I asked.

“To talk to Chodo.” He was out.

“You wondering what I’m wondering, Garrett?”

“I’m not wondering, Saucer head. I know.”

Chodo Contague was boss of the TunFaire underworld in part because a certain Morley Dotes had presented the old kingpin with a coffin containing a hungry vampire. The old kingpin had opened the box thinking the thing inside had been killed before delivery. Saucer head and I had been pallbearers in that shenanigan. Our buddy Morley hadn’t bothered to tell us what was going down beforehand. His reason for the oversight was sound. He had figured we wouldn’t help if we knew. The perceptive little bastard had been right. I was going to collect favors on that scam for a long time.

“He’s in debt again, Saucer head. The bug races again. But I don’t want to try Ogre Town alone, so let him play his game. I’m not going to sit around here waiting for him, though. If I have to kill a couple hours, I’ll do it getting something useful done.”

Saucer head just looked at me, a big, tired guy who had been pushing himself too hard. I knew that if we ended up going after Gorgeous — as I would do, one way or another — Saucer head would go along if he had to drag himself. “You might as well get some sleep. See you in a couple.”

I got scowls downstairs but nobody stopped me.

__XXXII__

I went to Playmate’s and pounded around until he got out of bed. He never stopped grumbling and cussing, but he got out the wagon and hitched up a team. He even managed the obligatory refusals when I tried to pay him, though he did end up accepting the money. As he always does. He needs it, no matter how much he pretends. The Larkin crematorium was one mile away. I pushed, though there was no real need. Junior’s body had been delivered late, if I’d heard Morley right, so it wouldn’t have been sent to the oven yet. That wasn’t permitted at night. Religious and secular law both forbid cremation during the hours of darkness. A soul freed during that time would be condemned to walk the night forever. There are only three crematoriums in TunFaire. I was sure Junior was at the Larkin place because it was conve­nient for anyone coming to my home from the Stormwarden’s. And the night porter wasn’t an honest man. The world is cancerous with people possessed; some have to vent their sicknesses on the dead and others have to pander to them. I pulled the wagon into an alley near the crematorium and left the team bound in a spell woven of the direst threats I could conjure. At least I got their attention.

I did it the way I’d heard it was done, going to the side entrance, tapping a code, and waiting while I was exam­ined through some hidden peephole.

The door opened. I had to grit my teeth to keep from laughing or groaning. The night porter was a character straight out of graveyard spook stories, a hunchback ratman so ugly I suspected his beauty would under shine that of the creature Gorgeous. Hopefully before the night was done I’d have the opportunity to compare. If there was a password I didn’t know it and he didn’t c are. I showed him a gold piece and he showed me the room where the bodies were laid out. Like the old joke, people had been dying to get in. Seven of the ten slabs were occupied by the anxiously waiting dead. Ratman was a born salesman. He lifted a sheet. “This here’s the best we got. And you’re the only customer tonight.” He snickered.

The girl was about fourteen. There was no obvious cause of death.

“She might even be a virgin.”

It was one of those times when you want to break bones, but for business reasons you put your feelings on ice and smile. I stepped past him and lifted a sheet at the head of a corpse that looked the right size. Not my man.

Second time was the charm.

“This one. How much to take him with me?”

I’ve never been looked at like that before and hope never to be again. I saw he was going to argue, so I laid a ten-mark gold piece on an empty slab. I doubt he’d ever seen one before.

Greed touched those hideous features. But caution was just a step behind. “That one came off the Hill, mister. You don’t want to mess with it.”

“You’re right. I don’t want to mess with it. I want to buy it.”

“But... why?”

“For a keepsake. I’m going to have the head shrunk and wear it for an earring.”

“Mister, I told you, that one’s off the Hill. People are going to come for the ashes.”

“Give them ashes. How many of these are city pro­jects?” TunFaire has a pork-barrel ordinance requiring unclaimed, found, and paupers’ corpses to be distributed in rotation among the dozen mortuary businesses, paid for out of the public purse. It’s a racket that accounts for the majority of each business’s income. Most families just bury their dead in the nearest churchyard.

“Four. But I’d have to bring the boss in —”

“How much?” He wouldn’t be doing his business with­out the silent approval of his employer. “Without being greedy. I could just take it and leave you in its place.” It was a definite temptation.

The ratman gulped. “Twenty marks.”

“There’s ten. Ten more when I have it loaded. I’ll be back in a minute.” He might have taken his chances and locked me out, but that was unlikely while ten more marks were afloat. He gobbled some but I ignored him. Ten minutes later I had what was left of Junior daPena installed in the wagon. I faced the hunchback, gold in hand. “The same people will bring another one today. Unless they insist on watching the job, I want that one, too. It’ll be female. The gods help you if it’s touched. Do you understand?”

He gulped.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes sir. Yes sir.” Cautiously, he reached for the gold.

I avoided his touch when I let him have it.

Dean answered on the second knock. He was dressed. “Haven’t you been to bed?”

“Couldn’t sleep. What is this? Are you collecting bod­ies now, Mr. Garrett?”

“Just a few that might be useful. I’m taking it into the Dead Man’s room. Get the doors for me. If he wakes up and wants to know about it, tell him it was Junior daPena and I’m saving him for his mother.”

Dean turned green but handled his part. The corpse settled, a little shaky. I returned to the kitchen and put away a couple quarts of beer before leaving.

“You’re off again, Mr. Garrett?”

“The night’s work isn’t done.”

“Won’t be night all that much longer.”

He was right. The light would soon make its presence known.

__XXXIII__

I beat morley back to his place, but barely in time to waken Saucer head. Then Dotes came with his men — Blood, Sarge, and the Puddle. He also had two other guys in tow. I didn’t know them personally and didn’t care to get acquainted. Because I knew who they were: Crask and Sadler, Chodo Contague’s first-string lifetakers. They had been born human. Since then they’d been embalmed and turned into zombies without the nuisance of dying first.

“What the hell are those guys doing here?” I snapped. It didn’t help that they seemed equally pleased to see me and Saucer head.

Morley was up to his old tricks.

“Calm down, Garrett. Unless you want to go after Gorgeous by your lonesome.”

I bit my tongue.

Morley said, “This is the way it’s got to be, Garrett. Gorgeous holes up in Ogre Town. He’s got those people buffaloed down there. But they won’t lift a finger if he suddenly turns up missing. Him and his number-one boy Skredli. You want him. Chodo wants him. Chodo will back your play as long as you’re the face out front. But he wants first crack at them once they’re rounded up. You give him a list of questions you want asked, he’ll get the answers.”

“Wonderful. Thoroughly wonderful, Morley.” I was hot. So hot I didn’t trust myself to say anything else. Morley met my gaze evenly, shrugged. I got the message but I didn’t have to like it.

Saucer head was steamed, too, but he covered it better. He rose, laced his fingers, and bent them back until the knuckles cracked. “You got to live with what you got to live with. Let’s do it while they’re still asleep.” He headed for the door.

“Wait!” Morley said. “This isn’t a stroll in the woods with your girlfriend.” He stepped behind his desk and fiddled with something. Part of the wall opened, expos­ing the biggest damned collection of deadly instruments I’ve seen since I parted with the Marines.

Saucer head looked at the arsenal and shook his head. It wasn’t a shake of refusal, but of astonishment. He joined Morley’s thugs in stocking up. Crask and Sadler had brought their own. I had, too, and thought I was adequately outfitted. Morley’s scowl told me he saw it otherwise. I selected one knife long enough to be a baby sword and another prissy little thing of the sort ladies (who aren’t) carry on their garters. Morley didn’t stop scowling but didn’t comment, either. I preferred my head-knocker for all but the most des­perate situations. And for those I had what the witch had given me. We trooped downstairs, Morley’s boys in the lead, Chodo’s headhunters behind. Speculative eyes observed our descent and pursuit of the pathway I’d used on Pokey earlier. But at that hour there were few customers left and most of those were beholden to Morley. There should be no rumors born soon or messages run.

The barman beckoned Morley as we passed. Dotes stopped to trade whispers. He caught up at the door to the alley. “That was the latest from the river. The Stormwarden’s boat was spotted at dusk twenty miles down tying up for the night.”

“Then she’ll be here tomorrow afternoon.”

“Late, I’d guess. The winds are unfavorable.”

It was something to think about. I didn’t have enough to ruminate already.

The alley was filled with the huge black hulk of a four-horse closed coach. And two gargantuan characters with shiny eyes and sparkly fangs grinned down from twenty feet. “Hi, guys.”

They were grolls — half troll, half giant, green by day­light, all mean, and tougher than a herd of thunder-lizards. I knew these two. They were two-thirds of triplets who had gone with me into the Cantard to bring out a woman who had inherited a bundle. Despite what we had been through together, I hadn’t the slightest notion whether or not I dared trust them.

They had been cursed with unlikely names, Doris and Marsha.

“A little of what I call ally insurance,” Morley told me. “You think I’m a raving moron for bringing Chodo in?”

“No. I think you think it’ll get you out from under your debts. I hope you’re right.”

“You’re a cynical and suspicious character, Garrett.”

“It’s people like you who make me that way.”

Morley’s troops were inside the coach and Saucer head was clambering aboard. Crask and Sadler were up on the guard’s and driver’s seats, donning the traditional tall hats and dark cloaks. Each man had immediate access to a pair of powerful, ready crossbows. Such items are necessary on TunFaire’s night streets if you’re rich enough to use a coach but not powerful enough to have its doors blazoned with the arms of someone like a stormwarden.

Most high-class folk travel with outriders. We made do with a pair of grolls toting their favorite toys, head-bashers twelve feet long and almost too heavy for a runt like me to lift. Morley followed me into the coach, then leaned out and told Crask to go. The vehicle jerked into motion.

“I suppose you’ve made a plan?” I said.

“It’s all scoped out. That was one of the reasons I brought Chodo in. His boys know Gorgeous’s place. I’ve never seen it. And neither have you.”