Bitter Gold Hearts

  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 t
he 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.”

  “It took more doing than you think.”

  “Get in here, Amber. Go to your suite.”

  Amber didn’t come out of hiding.

  I said, “There’s a fee due.”

  “Yes. Of course. You’re a parasite, Garrett.”

  “Absolutely. But unlike the ruling-class sort of para­site, I relieve pain instead of creating it.” I winked, grinned. “Is the honeymoon over?”

  She almost smiled back. “In about a minute.” She produced several fat doeskin bags. I let her plunk their weight into my folded arms, then turned. Amber came out of hiding, took a sack, counted out Saucerhead’s fee, whispered, “You take care of this, Garrett. I’ll pick it up as soon as I get away from my mother.”

  I lent her only enough ear to follow what she said. I asked Domina Dount, “Just as a matter of personal curiosity, did you ever tie the knot on that warehouse trouble?”

  “Warehouse trouble?”

  “Back when you first called me out here, you told me the younger Karl disappeared after you sent him out to check on a pilferage problem. I just wondered if you’d put the wraps on that yet.”

  “I haven’t had time to worry about it, Mr. Garrett.”

  Amber and Saucerhead pushed past us while we talked. The Domina realized that Saucerhead was going inside.

  “Hey! You! Come back here. You can’t go in there.”

  Saucerhead ignored her.

  “Who the hell is he, Garrett? What is he doing?”

  “He’s Amber’s bodyguard. DaPena youngsters have been dropping like flies. The reason she ran away was she was afraid she might be next. To get her to come back I had to fix her up with a bodyguard so mean and ugly and stubborn he’d take on the gods themselves. Also one who has a lot of friends willing to get revenge if anything happens to him.”

  “I don’t like your tone, Garrett. You sound like you’re accusing me.”

  “I’m accusing no one. Not yet. But somebody had Amiranda and Junior murdered. I’m just letting people know it’s going to get gruesome if it’s tried on Amber.”

  “Karl took his own life, Mr. Garrett.”

  “He was murdered, Domina. By a man named Gor­geous. I think at the instigation of a third party. I’m going to be talking to friend Gorgeous later. One of the questions I’m going to ask is who put him up to it. Thanks for this. Enjoy your day.”

  I left her looking flustered and maybe — hopefully — frightened.

  The name of the game was Garrett opens his bag of little horrors and lets out some of what he knows, hoping that knowledge looks like a thick and deadly wall against which the onrushing Stormwarden might crush the guilty. Maybe somebody would panic. As I moved away, looking around to see if any of Morley’s boys were lurking, I heard footsteps behind me. I looked back.

  Courter Slauce was hurrying my way, an odd expres­sion on his fat face. All the color was gone. “Mr. Gar­rett. Wait up.”

  Had my bolts pinked something in the bushes already? He obviously had something on his mind.

  “Courter! Where are you? Come here! Immediately!”

  Domina Dount sounded like a fishwife. I couldn’t see her, so I assumed she couldn’t see me. Slauce threw up his hands in despair and trotted back home.

  What had he wanted to tell me?

  Morley was waiting at the house when I got there. He hadn’t been waiting long.

  __XXXIX__

  WHAT’S UP, MORLEY?” “Chodo wants to see you. Right away.”

  “Now I’m not happy. What brought this on?”

  Morley shrugged. “I’m just relaying a message Crask left with me. I’ll say this. He didn’t look like h
e thought his boss was going to feed you to the fishes.”

  “That’s very reassuring, Morley.”

  “Chodo is an honorable man, in his own way. He wouldn’t chop somebody down without warning.”

  “Like Gorgeous?”

  “Gorgeous had plenty of warnings. Anyway, he put himself on the bull’s-eye. Then he stood there with his tongue out. He begged for it, Garrett.”

  “What do you think? Should I go?”

  “Only if you don’t want the kingpin pissed at you. A time might come when you’d want him to give you a little leeway.”

  “You’re right. Let’s go. Lock it up, Dean.”

  Dean grumbled, I told him it wouldn’t last much longer. Chodo had set himself up in a manor house in the suburbs. The place beggared the Stormwarden’s in size and ostentation, a commentary on the wages of sin if you’re slick. Sadler was waiting at the gate, a commentary on the confidence Chodo had in the terror of his name, I sup­pose. He said nothing, just let us follow him across the professionally barbered grounds. Having that kind of eye, I couldn’t help but study the security arrangements.

  “Don’t step off the path,” Morley cautioned. “You’re only safe inside the enchantment.”

  I then noticed that in addition to the expected and obvious armed guards and killer dogs, there were thunder-lizards lazing in the bushes. They were not the tenement-tall monsters we think of, but little guys four or five feet tall, bipedal, all tail, teeth, and hind legs built for run­ning. They were the reason for the enchantment on the path. Unlike the dogs, those things were too stupid to train. All they understood was eating and mating.

  “Nice pets,” I told Sadler. He didn’t respond. Won­derful company, the kingpin’s boys.

  But the grimness ended at the front door.

  Chodo knew how to do it up royal. I’ve been inside several places on the Hill. None could match Chodo’s.

  “Don’t gawk, Garrett. It’s impolite.”

  A platoon of nearly naked cuties were playing in and around a heated bath pool three times bigger than the ground area of my whole place. We passed through. I muttered, “Business must be good.”