The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (32 page)

I have to keep my mind on getting home, he thought. He examined the fanlight: even if it were completely broken in, he was too large to crawl through to reach the holophone. The quickest way out, of course, was to confront Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham. The thought dismayed him: she was so
old.
The one thing that had been drummed
 
into
 
all
 
their heads
 
from
 
the
moment they were able to understand was that you never seriously argued with elders. You could needle them or complain — Rita was an expert at this — but you didn't go too far. And the older an elder was, the more careful
you
were.

Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham had
white hair!
She was the Mellower's mother, and he was almost like a third parent!

He decided to visit the Invalid's Room first, to check up on Kuda. Or perhaps, he thought unhappily, he was only putting off what would certainly be an ugly confrontation.

The little boy was still asleep when he arrived. His face was peaceful and unmarked by the sweat of fever. Tendai thanked the unknown ancestor who had owned the
ndoro.
Rita burst into the room. "Come quickly! She's getting rid of Trashman!"

"I didn't know what she was up to right away," Rita said as they hurried outside. By now they were in the garden, and Tendai took in the situation instantly.

Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham stood at the top of a tall ladder. The robot waited by the front gate, which was open. The woman had a fishing rod trained over the wall, and dangling on the other side was a T-bone steak. Even as they arrived, Trashman loped through the opening and pounced on the steak. The robot slammed the gate. The locks snapped into place, and the burglar-alarm light went on. Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham cut the fishing line and came down the ladder.

"Open it at once!" shouted Rita.

"Don't you give orders in my house," said the Mellower's mother.

"He's our friend!"

"Then I must say you have rotten taste. I can smell cream tarts burning from here, Rita. You are the most impossibly scatterbrained child I have ever seen."

"I hope they all burn to little balls of soot!" screamed Rita as Tendai dragged her away. "Why don't you do something? How can you let her get away with that?" she yelled as he pulled her to the other end of the garden.

"Listen. I have something very important to say," he said. He told her about the call to the Mellower. Rita's mouth formed an O, and her eyes got very big.

"So they didn't go on a cruise. Oh, Tendai, you don't know how worried I was. I thought they — I thought they were partying while we —" She began to cry. Tendai was
 
amazed.
 
He hadn't known she was upset. "Every night when I went to bed, I imagined them having thirty-course dinners, like Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham said." She hiccuped and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her T-shirt. "I thought they were
happy
because we were gone."

Tendai took her hand. "Of course they wouldn't be," he said.

"It's been so long. I forgot."

He waited until she had calmed down. "Don't worry about Trashman. He got along fine before he met us. He's probably on his way to Resthaven now. When we get home, I'll ask Father to look for him," whispered Tendai.

"Poor Chedu. He probably doesn't remember we exist." Rita gave her brother a watery smile.

Tendai explained that he would have to confront Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham.

"She'll only think of a way to excuse herself!" Rita said fiercely. "She'll tell Father she rescued us — and he'll believe her. He never believes us!"

"Maybe it doesn't matter, as long as we get home."

"It does
so
matter! She ought to be punished for the suffering she's caused."

"Do you really want her to go to Waa Waa Prison?"

Rita stared at a garden gnome. The fetish stood up to his knees in morning glories and marigolds. He smiled cheerfully at Rita as she brooded. "No," she answered at last. "There
is
a
way she can be punished right here, and we can go home afterward."

It was a good plan. Tendai was impressed. It would inflict maximum humiliation without involving the police. The Mellower needn't be involved at all. The only problem was that they would have to wait a few more hours to make it work. But they had already waited so long, what difference could a few hours possibly make?

Rita apologized prettily to the Mellower's mother for shouting. Tendai mixed up a new batch of cream tarts. They raked the front garden, set out tea tables and folded napkins into decorative shapes. When Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham fed them stale crackers and fish paste for lunch, they didn't even complain. She was so surprised, she gave them each a cream tart as a reward. They saved them to feed to Kuda, crumb by crumb, through the space between the lid and sides of the Kiddie Koop.

Thirty-one

Ear answered the holophone, although Arm was sitting right next to it. Arm didn't even blink when it rang. He was sunk in gloom, and the other detectives tiptoed around him.

"Ear, Eye and Arm Detective Agency. You lose 'em, we find 'em — oh, hello, Mrs. Matsika."

"H-have you got any news?" said Mother. In spite of his depression, Arm noticed the despair in her voice.

"I'm sorry," Ear said.

"It's just that..." Mother paused, unable to go on. All three men were alert now. They watched the screen as Mother struggled to find words. "It's almost Tendai's birthday. He would have been fourteen.
Will
be fourteen, I mean. I always took him to the Starlight Room ... to ride the elevator . . . and have dinner. ..."

Arm was ashamed of himself. He was sulking because the Mellower had Sekai. Sekai was fine. Mrs. Matsika had lost all her children.

"I need advice," she went on. "Amadeus is against it, but it's so easy to offer a reward — and it might work. That's what's important, isn't it? To get them back. You could offer it for me. I have my salary from the University. I know Amadeus would be angry, but if they came back it wouldn't matter. ..." She stopped speaking again, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Arm took the phone. "Mrs. Matsika, has anything new happened to upset you?"

"Why ..." She hesitated. "Nothing I can think of. Only after this morning's Praise I felt so low. It usually makes me happy. I remembered about Tendai's birthday, and it suddenly seemed so
stupid to
be rich and not use that fact to get him back. I mean, the money has no meaning without the children."

"What, exactly, was the subject of the Praise?"

Mrs. Matsika seemed confused. She was not the brave, confident woman Arm had seen before. "I—don't quite remember. But that's not unusual. Praise is like beautiful music. It carries you away and makes you feel better."

"Listen to me," Arm said. "I'm convinced the children are okay. They've shown themselves to be surprisingly resourceful. I'm sure we'll get them back. Now please do me a favor. Don't listen to any more Praise. If you're depressed, see a doctor or a spirit medium."

"That's what Amadeus said, but it usually makes me so happy."

"Not anymore. Please don't listen to anything you can't remember later."

"Well... all right." She seemed dazed, so Arm repeated his words. When she had hung up, he went at once to the computer the General had installed in the office.

"That cursed Mellower," he said under his breath.

"Are you sure you aren't just angry because he has Sekai?" began Eye, but Arm gave him such a poisonous look, he closed his mouth at once.

"I'm angry at myself. All the clues have been right under my nose, and I was too wrapped up in the baby to notice. The Mellower has been wasting away before our eyes. Why? He's eaten up with worry. About what?
The reward.
Curse it all, what's that creature's name?" Arm slammed his fist on the table next to the computer.

"I don't know," said Eye.

"It's funny. I never thought of him as having a name," Ear remarked.

Arm called up the list of professional Praise Singers in Harare. He narrowed the search to those who worked for private families. This produced about fifty names. The only one operating in Mazoe was Anthony Horsepool-Worthingham.

"He was so close, he was like one of the family. We didn't look up Mrs. Matsika's sisters either, did we? We assumed they would send the children home if they found them. The Mellower's like a damned cobweb, always hanging around in the background with his oh-so-soft suggestions that no one can remember."

"Now, now," said Ear.

"There!" Arm stabbed a button to call up the Praise Singer's official residence, a place he hadn't lived for years. Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham's address in Borrowdale flashed across the screen.

"I don't want children underfoot," said Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham. "You will stay out of sight until evening. You may play with Pasha's Favorite if you're bored."

"It's like petting a bag of cement." Rita lifted one of the cat's forepaws and dropped it. The paw fell heavily, and Pasha's Favorite continued to snooze.

As soon as the guests began to arrive and the Mellower's mother was busy, Tendai and Rita crept up to the window to watch.

The guests were all older women and members of the English tribe. Some wore tight-fitting pants and boots, which Rita found fascinating. She had never seen Shona women dressed this way.

"I saw the most awful tramp outside," one of the women complained. "You really ought to call the police."

"I can't be bothered," said Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham.

"Trashman," whispered Tendai.

"
We
know why she won't call the police," Rita said bitterly.

Soon all the women were seated around picnic tables and talking in shrill voices. The robot shuffled here and there with trays of refreshments.

"I bought the most marvelous pit bull," said one of the ladies. "Simply stacks of pedigree and so cheeky. Nipped a finger off the garden boy —
and
swallowed it."

Her companion shrieked with laughter.

"I have never recovered," sniffled another woman. "Poor High Hooves. Such a fine horse."

"He was over twenty," Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham said gently.

"I sent a notice to the newspaper, and do you know, they put it under
pets
instead of in the obituaries."

"Shocking."

"Here! You spilled that tea on purpose!" cried the woman who had lost the horse.

"Sorry-sorry-sorry," said the robot.

"Have you been at the machine oil again?" Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham said. "Come here and let me smell your joints."

Tendai and Rita watched the gathering in amazement. The women sounded like a flock of mynah birds as they recounted tales of dogs, cats, budgies and horses. Once, Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham called, "Kitty, kitty! Come and get your cream." Pasha's Favorite woke up and moved with surprising speed toward the party.

"Don't they have children? Why don't they ever talk about them?" asked Rita.

"Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham had the Mellower," Tendai said doubtfully.

"Humph! I don't believe she's his mother. She's a nasty old witch."

"It's time." Tendai looked at his sister, and they exchanged slightly malicious smiles. They went off to the Invalid's Room, where Kuda was methodically shredding his mattress. They wheeled the Kiddie Koop through the halls.

"I want out," said Kuda.

"Shhh. We're working on it." Tendai rolled him onto the porch while Rita held open the door. Down below, the members of the Animal Fanciers' Society sat around the dry fountain and sipped tea. They hadn't noticed the children yet.

The plan was to wheel Kuda straight into the middle of the gathering and announce that Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham was holding them for ransom. Tendai and Rita had observed the English long enough to know they would close ranks. They wouldn't tell Father anything, and so neither the Mellower nor his mother would go to prison.