Bitter Gold Hearts (20 page)

The whole affair began to tilt in my head. Maybe Bruno and a few facts I’d ignored needed re-examining. “I’ve got to find out who he worked for.”

Nobody bothered to ask what I was muttering about.

A frightening notion had crept into my mind. Perhaps Junior daPena, his family, and his keeper, were innocent of bloodletting. The coach careened onto a major street, scattering pedestrians, drawing curses from the other drivers. Around another corner. Then a slowdown to become just another vehicle in the morning flow. I never saw a soldier. Five minutes later we halted behind Morley’s place. Sadler growled at us to get the hell out.

I was exhausted and hurt and about as tired as I could get of someone else taking control of what I had started.

“Easy, Garrett,” Morley said. “Keep your mouth shut and get inside.”

“Stuff it, Morley. I’ve had it.”

“Do what I tell you. It’ll improve your long-term health picture.” He grabbed me and, with help from Saucer head, got me through the back door. I was more amenable once I noted that our ally insurance had vanished. Morley had Saucer head help get his men inside. Sadler crawled into the coach to baby-sit Gorgeous and Skredli. The coach rolled.

Morley suggested, “Why don’t you go upstairs and make a list of questions you want asked? I’ll have a messenger run it. Then go home and sleep. You’ll feel more reasonable afterward.”

I supposed if Saucer head could endure not getting first crack at Skredli, I could live without an immediate shot at Gorgeous. “All right.” But I had a feeling I wasn’t going to get a lot of rest.

On the way upstairs I glanced out a window toward Ogre Town. A pillar of smoke stood like a gravestone over a ferocious fire. Maybe most of our grim handiwork would be erased, thanks to Gorgeous.

The last thing I needed was to get labeled a tool of the kingpin.

I made my list, pointless exercise that it was. The tricky part was wording questions about two hundred thousand marks gold so that my stand-in would not real­ize what he was asking and gleefully begin interrogating in his own cause. I solved the problem by mostly avoiding it and entering a plea for direct access to the boys, and maybe even possession of that trifle Skredli.

That done, I went back downstairs, where the survi­vors were getting patched up and trying to eat breakfast. I was so far gone I didn’t comment on the platter they brought me, I just gulped a quart of fruit juice and stuffed my face.

I asked, “Saucer head, you got anything left? I’ve got something I want you to do.” After I finished with him I cornered Morley and talked him into turning the tables on Pokey Pigotta. If we let him go and shadowed him he might lead us to some interesting places — if he didn’t lead us into deep trouble first.

__XXXVI__

Amber and dean were in the kitchen when I got home. I went in and collapsed into a chair. Saucer-head thought my example so outstanding he copied it. Dean and Amber stared at us.

“Was it a difficult night, Mr. Garrett?” Dean asked.

“You might say. If you care to understate.”

“You look like hell,” Amber said. “Whatever it was, I hope it was worth it.”

“Maybe. We caught up with the people who killed your brother and Amiranda.”

I watched her carefully. She responded the way I had hoped, with no sign of panic or guilt. “You got them? What did you do? Did you find out anything about the ransom?”

“We got them. You don’t want to know anything more. I didn’t find out anything about the money, but I didn’t have a chance. I’m still working on it. How well could you manage if you had a thousand marks to start your new life?”

“Pretty damn good. My needs are simple. You’re up to something, Garrett. Spill it.”

Dean muttered, “Been around him too long already. Starting to talk like him.”

“I love you too, Dean. Amber, Domina offered me a thousand marks if I could find you and turn you over to her before your mother gets home. I’ve had word that she’ll get here this afternoon. If you want the money, I’ll take you home around noon and my friend here will stay with you till you’re convinced you’re safe.”

She eyed me through narrowed lids. “What’s your angle, Garrett?” The girl could think when she felt the urge.

“Willa Dount. She knows things she won’t tell me. There aren’t any sanctions I can threaten to pry them out of her. All I can do is find ways to put the heat on and hope she does something interesting.”

“What about the ransom, Garrett? That’s what we’re supposed to be working on.” Her eyes remained narrowed.

“I don’t think there’s much chance of getting it. Do you? Really? With your mother home?”

“Probably not. But you don’t act like you’re trying.”

Saucer head began working on a breakfast Dean had offered him. I gawked. He was putting it away like he hadn’t eaten in weeks, despite having just eaten at Morley’s. But rabbit food will do that.

“Domina offered you that money last night? And you didn’t grab it?”

“No.” Dean was pouring apple juice. I realized I was dry all the way down to my corns. “Give me about a gallon.” Nothing like a good tense situation to sweat you out.

Saucer head grunted agreement around a mouthful.

“It isn’t the money, is it, Garrett?” demanded Amber.

Saucer head tittered.

“What’s with you, oaf?”

“She figured you out, Garrett.” He chuckled. “You’re right, little girl. With Garrett it’s almost never the money.”

“You want to talk, Waldo? How rich do you figure on getting in this?”

He gave the name a black look, then shrugged. “There’s just some things you got to make right.”

Amber knew we meant much more than we said. She scowled. “If you can be noble, so can I. I’ll go home. But cut it close. All right?”

“All right.”

“What will you do now?”

“Get some sleep. It’s been awhile since I’ve had any.”

“Sleep? How can you sleep in the middle of everything?”

“Easy. I lie down and close my eyes. If you want to stay busy and vent some nervous energy, remember ev­erything you can about Karl’s friend Donni Pell.”

“Why?”

“Because she looks like the common denominator in every angle of what’s been happening. Because I want to find her bad.”

I had a notion adding Donni Pell might even explain the marvelous appearance of troops in Ogre Town. My guess was that with Gorgeous and Skredli out of the equation, she stood a chance of surviving long enough to be found and questioned. I hoped she hadn’t suffered a sudden and uncharacteristic seizure of smarts and wagged her manipulating tail out of town. I drank apple juice until I was bloated, then rose. “That’s it. I’m putting myself on the shelf. Wake me up at noon, Dean. I’ve got to go rob a crypt before I sell Miss daPena into fetters. Saucer head, you can sack out in the room Dean uses.”

Dean grumbled and muttered what sounded like threats to revive his interest in finding me a wife among his female kin. I ignored him. He wouldn’t learn, and I was too tired to fight.

__XXXVII__

Dean didn’t wake me as instructed. Amber pirated that chore with a half hour head start. The brief rest hadn’t been enough to restore my resistance. I fear I succumbed. Amber wasn’t a disappointment. When I ventured into the kitchen, I realized Dean had found his missing scowl mask. It was as ferocious as ever. He has pretensions to gentility, though, so he said noth­ing. I devoured a few sausages and hit the street. I listened to the talk around Playmate’s place, where the old men hang out. They had a dozen theories about what had happened in Ogre Town. Some were as crazy as the truth, but none were correct. Collecting Amiranda’s corpse was cut and dried. I paid, they delivered, I drove it home, and Dean helped me lug it into the Dead Man’s room.

Have you taken up a new hobby, Garrett?

He was awake. I’d thought I might have to start a fire to get his attention.

Or are you getting into a new line?

“Once in a while I like to have somebody around who doesn’t get temperamental.”

Dean tells me you have been having adventures.

“Yes. And if you’d stay awake and do a little work, I’d have a lot fewer.” I brought him up to date.

At last you have begun to understand that several things are happening at once. I am proud of you, Garrett. You have begun to think. I wondered how long you would discount the repeated appearances of the Bruno person. Particularly in view of your first collected fact having been that the younger Karl left his house to investigate a pilfer­age problem that the Dount woman suggested might have another Hill family at its root.

“You figured there might be a connection, eh?”

Of course.

“But you didn’t bother to mention it.”

You have become too dependent upon me. You need to exercise your brain yourself.

“The reason you’re here at all is so I don’t have to strain my brain. We humans are born bone lazy. Remem­ber? With innate ambition and energy levels only slightly above those of a dead Loghyr.”

Do not make a special effort to irritate me, Garrett. You have done adequately with your collection of corpses and your parade of frenzied females. If you have a question you cannot handle yourself, spit it out. Otherwise, relocate yourself in some demesne where the mentality is suffi­ciently naive to appreciate your wit.

“All right, genius. Answer me this. Who killed Amiranda Crest? Is that something else you’ve been holding back, waiting for me to get my head bashed in while I tried to find out the hard way?”

/
suppose you mean do I know who gave the order that resulted in Miss Crest’s death at the hand of the ogre breed Skredli and his henchmen!

“To be precise.”

We must be precise, Garrett. An intelligent mind is not ambiguous.
I could have talked about that for hours, but I resisted. “Do you know who’s responsible?”

No.

“Do you know why?”

Chances are if we knew that, we would know who as well, Garrett. I can render at least three plausibility’s im­mediately, though I will discount the pregnancy as motive till such time as you produce evidence that she told some­one. She did not tell you except by the most ambiguous implication, and young women empty the darkest corners of their souls into your ears.

“You know, with two marks and all the help you’ve given me I could buy a barrel of beer.”

Find Donni Pell. Bring her to me. Find out who Bruno’s master was. Look for any connections with the daPena family. Look into the pilferage at the daPena warehouse. It might open new avenues. Now be gone. I cannot endure your vexatious importunities any longer.

“Right. I’ll just conjure the Pell woman out of thin air.”

You will not learn anything sitting here drinking beer.

“You have a point, I admit. But before I fare forth to keep my date with destiny, how about you clue me in on how Glory Mooncalled manages his magic show. Or hasn’t the hypothesis withstood the test of time?”

The hypothesis has stood quite well, Garrett. But not enough time has passed to set it in concrete. I should not risk contradiction by events, but I will present you with the key. Glory Mooncalled has not found the secret of pro­longed invisibility. He has invented invisibility by treaty. When you cannot escape the seeing eye, you convince the eye that blindness is in its own best interest. Be gone. Take your tart back to her family.

“You ready to go?” I asked Saucer head. I didn’t have to ask Amber because I knew she wasn’t — either emo­tionally or intellectually. She was scared to death. But for the thousand marks she would give it a shot.

Saucer head grunted and got to his feet slowly. His exertions of the night before were exacting their price. I hoped he hadn’t drawn too heavily on his reserves. Even the most stubborn will has its final limit.

“Let’s do it, Garrett,” Amber said.

__XXXVIII__

Courter slauce himself was on the daPena gate. He looked grim, still showing the effects of his carouse. I supposed he was being punished. He stared at me with a mixture of anger and uncertainty. I said, “Tell Domina Dount I’m out here with the other package she ordered.”

He eyed Amber and Saucer head, frowned puzzledly, as if a memory ghost were slithering around somewhere behind his eyes, too elusive to catch.

“You can go on in to her office. She left standing orders to the gate.”

“Uhn-uh. Not that I don’t thrust her, but you know how it is. There’s a payment due, and if she brings it down here, chances are a lot better that I’ll actually get it.”

That look again. I had a feeling the Dead Man hadn’t done as good a job as he thought. Some of Slauce’s memories might return.

“Have it your way.” He called to somebody in the court, told them to get Willa Dount and why. When he turned to us again, he was frowning, straining after that fugitive memory. I figured I could distract him and find out something at the same time. I described Bruno and asked if he knew the man. Slauce was more cooperative than I expected. “The guy sounds vaguely familiar. But I can’t pin a name on him. Why?”

“I thought he might be connected with that pilferage problem you people were having at your warehouse. I don’t know. Just something I heard. I don’t know who he is, either, except he’s supposed to be from up here some­where. He had a job like yours, they say.”

Slauce shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. Amber and Saucerhead both stared at me, wondering what the hell I was up to. Just stirring the pot, friends. With the Stormwarden on the horizon, looming like a grandmother tornado, any­thing was likely to panic somebody and break something loose. But not from Courter Slauce. He just stood there with a dumb look, trying to get both oars in the water. Domina Dount came stomping across the courtyard wearing that contrived and controlled face that had be­come so familiar. “Garrett comes through again,” I told her.

She glared at Amber so fiercely the girl stepped behind Saucerhead. “It’s about time.”