Bitter Gold Hearts

by Glen Cook

  Dean scowled, but he’d been around long enough to have seen tight times before. He got out a meat cleaver and his favorite butcher knife, both sharp enough to take your leg off without you noticing. “Go on,” he said. “I’ll manage.”

  I went out thinking that someday I’d come home and find the house littered with dismembered burglars. Dean was the sort who would handle an invasion neither calmly nor with the minimum necessary force. Bruno and Courter Slauce were lucky that he’d been surprised and unarmed.

  I didn’t realize that I’d collected a tail until I was three-quarters of the way to Morley’s place. It wasn’t that I hadn’t checked for one; he was that good. He was so good, in fact, that half a minute after I’d made him he knew it and didn’t walk into either of the setups I laid to get a look at him.

  I might as well have had a signed confession. There are only three guys in TunFaire that good. Morley Dotes and I are two of them and Morley had no reason to skulk around behind me.

  The other guy’s name is Pokey Pigotta and he might even be better than we are. I’ve heard him accused of being half ghost.

  Pokey is in the same line as me. Had Domina Dount hired him to keep an eye on her hired hand?

  That seemed unlikely.

  Who, then?

  By then Pokey would have realized that I’d read his signature. He’d start trying to outguess me.

  I resisted my impulse to play that game and call for him to join me. Silliness. Pokey Pigotta had conservative views of what constituted his obligations to a client.

  To hell with it, I figured. I headed for Morley’s Place.

  I went in the front door and straight around the bar. The surprised night barman just gawked as I shoved through the door to the kitchen. The rutabaga butchers stopped work and stared. I strolled through like a royal prince assessing the provincials. “Very good, my man. Very good. You. Let’s have a little more thought to portion control. That what-ever-it-is is sliced too thick.”

  I made it to the storeroom before the peasants rose and lynched me. The storeroom led me directly to the back door, which I used. I did a quick sprint down the alley and up the side lane to the corner in time to watch the front door swing shut behind Pokey.

  Good.

  He had decided that since I wasn’t going to play games, he wasn’t going to either. He’d just trudge after me, not bothering to sneak. And that might suit his client fine, since it would inhibit my more surreptitious ventures.

  I watched the door close and grinned, recapturing a view of the customers as I trotted through. It couldn’t have been choreographed more beautifully.

  “Suckered you, Pokey,” I murmured, and ran for the door. He had scanned the lay and turned to leave. He was a tall guy, without much meat on him — all bones and an­gles and skin so pale you’d have thought the breed half of him was vampire. He tended to make strangers very nervous.

  “Sucked you in this time, Pokey.” I peeked over his shoulder.

  Saucer head Tharpe was up and coming, hiding his infirmities well. I had no idea what the hell he was doing there but I was glad to see him.

  Pokey shrugged. “I blew one.”

  “What you up to, Pokey?”

  “You say something, Garrett? I been having trouble with my ears.”

  Saucer head arrived. “What’s up, Garrett?” Every eye in the place was on our get-together.

  “Me and Pokey was just headed up to see Morley. I finally got a lead on those fellows you had the run-in with the other day. You’re welcome to sit in.” I gestured. Pokey surrendered to the inevitable, comfortably certain that I wanted nothing from him badly enough to make an enemy. I would have seen it the same if our roles had been reversed.

  I followed Pokey. Saucer head followed me. All eyes followed us up the stairs. Morley, of course, was expect­ing us.

  “So what do you want to do with him?” Morley asked.

  “Since he won’t want to say why he’s dogging me or who’s paying him, I don’t know whether to let him tag along or not. So, better safe than sorry. He’s got to go into storage.”

  “How long?”

  “A day, maybe.”

  “Pokey?”

  “Sitting or following, it all pays the same.”

  Morley thought for half a minute, then told one of his boys, “Blood, you want to politely collect Mr. Pigotta’s effects and put them on the table here?”

  Pokey endured it. I knew how he felt. I’d been through it several times myself.

  Morley stirred through the take, which included a lot of silver. He examined one piece. “Temple coinage.”

  I took one. Private mintage, all right. The same as the tenth mark I found on that farm.

  “Tell you something?” Morley asked.

  “Yeah. Who he isn’t working for.” Domina Dount never had anything but gold.

  So who?

  “Put him away,” I told Morley. “There’s things to talk about and decide and maybe do, and it’s late already.”

  “Blood. The root cellar. Gently and politely. Consider him a guest under restraint.”

  “Yes, Mr. Dotes.”

  __XXXI__

  Morley removed his troops from the room. With just two witnesses Saucer head relaxed and betrayed how uncomfortable he really was. I spent a minute or two telling him what a dope he was. He didn’t argue. He didn’t go home to bed, either. Morley told me, “Only thing my boys have told me that you probably don’t know is that Junior daPena’s body got taken to the crematorium by the Dount woman on her way over to your place. I assume you know he did himself in?”

  “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 keepin
g 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.”