Deadly Quicksilver Lies (6 page)

“She does have friends but making friends doesn’t come easy.”

That wasn’t the story as it was told a few minutes ago. I suspected Emerald had troubles that had nothing to do with social status. Chances were she was lost in her mother’s shadow. “Friends are where I’ll find her trail. I’ll need names. I’ll need to know where I can find the people who go with them.”

She nodded. “Of course.” I slammed a drawer, turned away from her. I had to keep my mind on business. The woman was a witch. Then I sneaked a peek. Did I really want to leave all that, to go hunting somebody who probably didn’t want to be found?

Ha! Here was something. A silver pendant. “What’s this?” Purely rhetorical. I knew what I had. It was an amulet consisting of a silver pentagram on a dark background with a goat’s head inside the star. The real question was, what was it doing where I had found it?

Maggie took it, studied it while I watched for a reaction. I didn’t see one. She said, “I wonder where that came from?”

“Emerald into the occult?”

“Not that I know of. But you can’t know everything about your children.”

I grunted, resumed my search. Maggie chattered like the fabled magpie, mostly about her daughter, more in the way of reminiscences than useful facts. I listened with half an ear.

I found nothing else in the desk. I moved to the shelves. The presence of several books brought home how much wealth Maggie stood to lose. Because a book takes forever to copy, it is about the most expensive toy you can give a child.

I grunted as I picked up the third book. It was a small, leather-bound, time-worn thing with a goat’s head tooled into its cover. The leather was badly foxed. The pages were barely readable. It was one old book.

My first clue was that it was not written in modern Karentine.

Those damned things never are, are they? Nobody would take them seriously if any schnook could pick one up and decipher the secrets of the ages.

“Check this out.” I tossed the book to Maggie. I kept one eye on her as I resumed my search.

“Curiouser and curiouser, Garrett. My baby is full of surprises.”

“Yeah.” Maybe. That whole visit was full of surprises. Including those tree-sized fingers pointing at witchcraft of the demonic sort.

The bedroom and its attached bath yielded more occult treasures.

Much later I asked, “Is Emerald especially neat?” Neat would not describe any teen I knew.

“Only as much as she has to be. Why?”

I didn’t tell her. I had gone into full investigator mode. We crack first-line investigators never answer questions about our questions, especially if those are posed by our employers, lawmen, or anybody else who might help keep us out of the deep stink. Fact was, though, that Emerald’s apartment was way too neat. Compulsively so. Or nobody lived there. My impression was of a stage set. I was wondering if it might not be exactly that, carefully primed with clues.

All right, I told me. Get busy deducting. Clues are clues to something even when they’re artificial or false.

I was not that sure. What I had was some inconsistent indications of witchcraft — which did little to amaze, dismay, alarm, or otherwise excite my new employer.

Maybe I was going at this from the wrong end.

Tap on the shoulder. “Anybody in there?”

“Huh?”

“You just froze up and went away.”

“Happens when I try to think and do something at the same time.”

She did her eyebrow trick. I distracted her by flashing her back. I told her, “I’ve got enough to start. You give me that list of names. As soon as we settle the finances.”

We had no problems there till I insisted on half my fee up front. “It’s an inflexible rule, Maggie. On account of human fallibility. Too many people get tempted to stiff me once they’ve gotten what they want.” But that was not the only reason I pressed.

The less a client argues the deeper his desperation.

My pretty Maggie Jenn argued way too long. Finally, she huffed, “I’ll have Mugwump bring you that list as soon as I can.”

I was thrilled. I really wanted to see Mugwump again. Maybe I could tip him a talking parrot.

12

I stood in the shadows down the street from Maggie’s, just staying out of sight while I thought.

Like most folks, I don’t get any kick out of being played for a patsy. But people do try. It’s an occupational hazard. I’m used to it. I expect it. But I don’t like it.

Something was going on. I was being used. None too subtly, either. Unless Maggie my sweet was a lot less worldly than I suspected, I didn’t see how she could think I would buy everything.

I’d sure enjoyed the job interview, though. As far as it had gone.

The thing to do now was what she had said she didn’t want me to do: investigate Maggie Jenn. For my own safety. In my line, what you don’t know can get you killed as fast as what you do know. Once I could guess where I really stood, maybe I’d do something about Emerald.

I glanced at the sky. It was dark but still early. I could touch some contacts, take a few steps along the path to enlightenment. Right after I dropped Maggie’s retainer off at home. Only a fool carries a load like that longer than he must. TunFaire teems with villains who can count the change in your pocket at a hundred yards.

I could imagine no explanation of recent events more convincing than what Maggie purported. Nevertheless, there was Winger. I shook my head. The cobwebs did not go away. They never do. All part of the service. All part of my naive charm.

I looked for my tail. No sign. Maybe he got tired and went home. Maybe the Hill’s security thugs whispered sweet nothings in his ear, like, “Get lost pronto or you’ll crawl home with two broken legs.” Or maybe his job had been done once he’d found out where I was going.

I shoved off. All that thinking was giving me shin splints of the brain.

Good thing I exercise. I had oomph enough to vacate the area steps ahead of an unpleasant interview with the goon squad, who did not seem to care if I had legitimate business on the Hill. They had been summoned by Ichabod, no doubt, in a vain hope that my attitude could be improved.

I zigged and zagged and backtracked and used all my tricks. I didn’t spot a tail so I went home, got rid of Maggie’s retainer, drew myself a long draught, then sat down for a cold beer and a chat with Eleanor, who seemed concerned about the state of my soul.

“Yeah,” I confessed, “I’m getting more flexible when it comes to taking money.” I spoke in a whisper. I did not want to waken the Goddamn Parrot. I’d even tiptoed in and filled his seed tray.

If I remembered to feed him more often, he might have a higher opinion of me. Maybe.

“So what? If they’re villains, they deserve to be done out of their money.” She had taught me that money has no provenance. “If they aren’t villains, I’ll see that they get their money’s worth.”

More or less. Sometimes I don’t exactly deliver what the client has in mind. One such case resulted in Eleanor coming to live with me.

It had taken me a while to outgrow the notion that taking a man’s money meant having to go for the results he wanted. I must be getting old and judgmental. These days, I try to give people what they deserve instead.

Which yields mixed results for sure. Even so, I get more offers than I want. But a lot of fat jobs go elsewhere because some folks have decided to avoid me. Most especially the kind who rob people with paper instead of a blade. Lawyers and slicks. I have embarrassed my share of those.

Actually, I mostly avoid working. I don’t think anybody ought to work more than it takes to get by. Sure, I wish I could afford my own harem and fifty-room palace, but if I worked hard enough to get the money, I’d have to work as hard to keep it. I wouldn’t get a chance to enjoy it.

After a few beers, I developed a whole new attitude. I told Eleanor, “Think I’ll go down to the Joy House, hang out with the guys.”

She smirked.

“It’s just to pick up street talk about Maggie Jenn.”

Eleanor didn’t believe one word.

I had to find me a new girlfriend.

13

Morley Dotes never changes but his neighborhood can. Once upon a time, that was the worst. You weren’t alert, you could get killed for the price of a bowl of soup. For reasons to do with Morley’s intolerance of squabbles and his sometime role as arbitrater of underworld disputes, the neighborhood grew almost reputable and came to be called the Safety Zone. Those who worked the shadow side met and did business there, with every expectation of suffering none of the embarrassment, unpleasantness, or disappointment one faced at the hands of lone wolf socialists in other neighborhoods.

Every city needs some quiet area where business can get done.

“Waa-hoo!” shrieked the guy who came sailing out the door as I walked up to Morley’s place. I ducked. That fellow touched down halfway across the street. He made a valiant effort to land running and did a laudable job till a watering trough slunk into his path. Slimy green water fountained.

Another man came out sprawled like a starfish, spinning and howling. He was one of Morley’s thugs-turned-waiter.

This was backwards. The way these things go is Morley’s people toss troublemakers. They don’t get dribbled along the cobblestones themselves.

The howling waiter went across the street like a skipping stone. He crashed into the guy trying not to drown in the horse trough. If you ask me, putting those things around was a grave mistake. Horse troughs are sure to draw horses. TunFaire is infested by enough evils.

On hands and knees, I peeped around the edge of the door frame and discovered true pandemonium.

A behemoth of a black man, who beat my six feet two by a good three feet, and who had to slouch so he wouldn’t split his noggin on the ceiling, was having himself a grand time cleaning house. He snarled and roared and tossed people and furniture. Those few men accidentally exiting through the front door were lucky. They were out of the action. Those who tried to leave under their own power got grabbed and dragged back for the fun.

The feet of the walls were littered with casualties. The big man had a fire in his eye. No mere mortal was going to quiet him down. Some very skilled mortals had tried and had found places among the fallen.

I knew the berserk. His name was Playmate. He was one of my oldest friends, a blacksmith and stable operator, a religious man who was as gentle a being as ever lived. He went out of his way to avoid stepping on bugs. I had seen him weep for a mutt run down by a carriage. Like all of us, he had done his time in the Cantard, but I was sure that even there he had offered violence to no one.

I thought about trying to talk him down. I left it at a thought. We were good friends, but Playmate had equally good friends among the fallen. Everybody loved Playmate.

And I had learned about being a hero doing my five years as a Royal Marine.

No way could Playmate have gone this mad.

Morley Dotes himself, dapper and exasperated, watched from the stair to his office. He was a darkly handsome little character, dressed way too slick for my taste. Anything he put on looked like it was baked onto him. Anything I put on looks slept-in after ten minutes.

Morley was so distressed he was wringing his hands.

Guess I’d have been upset myself if someone was busting up my place. The Joy House started as a front — Morley was an assassin and bonebreaker — but it had grown on Dotes.

A short, slim form snaked through the crowd and leapt onto Playmate’s back. The big man roared and spun. He did not dislodge his rider, Morley’s nephew Spud, whose mother had passed him to his uncle because she could not manage him anymore.

For a while, Spud just held on. Once he was confident of his seat, though, he let go with one hand and fumbled at his belt. Playmate kept spinning. The idea gradually got into his head: spinning and prancing and roaring would not get the weight off his back.

He stopped, got his bearings by consulting stars only he could see. He decided to run backwards and squish Spud against a wall.

Spud had his own plan, though.

Spud was set on being a hero in his uncle’s eyes.

The kid wasn’t stupid, he just suffered from natural elvish overconfidence.

His hand came up from his belt clutching a black cloth sack. He tried popping that over Playmate’s head. Guess who did not cooperate?

That sack was a mark of the esteem in which Playmate was held. The guy was set on destroying the world, but nobody wanted to stop him badly enough to kill him. Not one soul inside the Joy House wanted to do anything but get him under control. Not your true TunFairen attitude, I guarantee. Life is the cheapest commodity of all.

Morley moved as soon as he understood what the kid was doing. He didn’t run or appear to hurry, but he got there right on time, a moment after Spud did get his bag into place, a moment after Playmate started his all-out plunge toward the nearest wall. Morley hooked a foot behind the big man’s heel.

Boom!

Playmate sprawled. Spud separated just in time to keep from being sandwiched. He was a lucky kid. Instead of getting squashed and collecting some broken bones, he just got coldcocked.

Not so Playmate. My old pal tried to get up. Morley popped him a bunch of times, so fast you barely saw him move. Playmate didn’t like that. He figured maybe he ought to take that sack off and see who was aggravating him. Morley hit him a bunch more times, in all those places where blows are supposed to incapacitate.

There came a day when Playmate, buried under a dozen people, finally stopped struggling.

14

Morley looked down at Playmate. He was breathing hard. I strode inside, chirped, “Congrats. You wore him down.”

Morley checked me from glazed eyes, failed to recognize me for a moment, then wailed, “Oh, damn! You. On top of everything else.”

I looked behind me to find out who was causing my best pal so much distress. I’d fix him! But the guy was too fast for me. The doorway was empty.