by Glen Cook
"I'm still formulating strategy," I fibbed. "Meanwhile I'll go up to the daPena place for a chat with the Stormwarden's old man and Willa Dount—maybe even her staff if it looks like that'll do any good. And in the back of my head I'll be trying to decide if Skredli is smart enough to have scoped it out himself."
I had not thought of that.
"Because you don't think like a thug. I guarantee you, the first thing Skredli did after he decided it was safe to stop running was start looking for somebody to blame for the fix he's in. It would be easy for him to get all righteous about Donni. And look what a great target she makes. She's got no friends left. No protector or avenger. And she's got buckets of money that can be taken without any comebacks. And on top of that, she's a woman."
You pity her?
"Not much. She's the one who decided to play with the hard boys."
Saucerhead was in the doorway, waiting for me to stop talking. I beckoned him inside. "They off?"
"Gone."
"You know what I was saying?"
"I heard your side."
"You heard everything worth hearing." I got the maps I'd studied after my talk with Skredli and opened one. "You see this? That's the crossroads where you and the girl had your run-in with Skredli's gang. If you head west to about here, you come to two young mulberry trees hiding the end of an old road. About a half mile down that road is an abandoned farm. The place where they took Junior back when this mess was just a kidnapping. I think that's where we'll find Donni Pell."
"You want me to go drag her back here?"
"Oh, no. I want her right where she sits. I'm going to organize a family outing to convene out there. But when I get there, I want to know what I'm walking into."
"You want me to go scout it out, then."
"Can you handle it?"
"No problem. When?" .
"Soon as you can. Don't come at the place down that road."
He snorted. "Give me some credit, Garrett."
"Meet me at the crossroads tomorrow. I'll try to be there as close to noon as I can. I'll have some stops to make along the way."
Tharpe jerked his head in the general direction of the kitchen. "What about those guys?"
"I don't care. Let them tag along if they want. Or they can stick with me. If they decide to go with you, make sure they don't start playing their own game. I've got to head up the Hill in a few minutes. Go find out what they want to do."
What are you planning, Garrett? The Dead Man sounded suspicious.
"I don't know. I'm making it up as I go along."
It feels like you're setting something up.
"I wish I was. There're tags and threads that're going to hang loose after this's over and they could cause problems."
For instance, a certain Garrett getting caught in a collision between a young woman used to getting what she wants and a somewhat older, no-nonsense redhead who feels she has a certain proprietary interest in the man?
"That one hadn't occurred to me. I was thinking more along the lines of the Stormwarden wanting to get me for my presumptions and disrespect after she no longer has any use for me. Amber won't have any interest in me if she gets her meat hooks in that ransom money."
Garrett, you are, for the most part, an unusually sound-thinking representative of your species. But where members of the opposite sex are concerned, you are often a fool.
"A congenital weakness. My father was subject to it too. I'm working on it."
You will break your beer habit first, I am certain.
"Speaking of Amber, I should let her know what's going on."
One piece of advice, since you wish to avoid a prime position on the Stormwarden's get-even list.
"What's that?"
Try to restrain that part of you which insists on being sarcastic, abrasive, and confrontational.
"I'm working on that, too. I think I'll clear that up right after I get straightened out about women."
I went to the kitchen doorway and stuck my head in. Saucerhead said, "They decided to stick with me." His smirk said that was because they weren't interested in doing anything that would bring them to the attention of Raver Styx. I winked and headed upstairs.
_____XLVII ______
I tapped on Amber's door. "You there?" "It's not locked."
I went inside. She was seated on the edge of her bed, looking pale and tired. "Is she gone?"
I settled into the room's sole chair. "She left. We managed to work something out."
"How heavily did she outbid me?"
"I don't like your mother, Amber."
"What does that mean?"
"People I don't like never outbid people I do like.' Though sometimes I'll let them think they can."
"Thanks." She didn't sound cheered.
"What's the matter?"
"It's almost over, isn't it?"
"I expect to put the noose around somebody's neck tomorrow."
"Do you know who?"
"Not for certain. Not yet."
"It's not going to make anybody happy, is it?"
"No. Murder never does. Not for long."
"Then I won't be seeing you. ..."
I had an impulse to trot down and give the Dead Man a swift kick. He was listening in and snickering, probably. Why is the old blubber boat always right?
"Who knows? Look, I'm just about to go up to your mother's house to question your father and Domina Dount. How's your nerve? You want to go along and stand silent witness? Maybe pick up a change of clothes?"
"Do I smell bad, or something?"
"What?"
"Never mind. What's a silent witness?"
"Somebody who just stands there and makes people stick to the truth because they know the silent witness can contradict them."
"Oh." She frowned. "I don't know if I'm up to that. My own father. ..."
"It'd be a chance to see Domina Dount pick her nose with her elbow."
She rose immediately. "All right."
"My god. What enthusiasm."
"I don't want to hurt my father, Garrett. And I know you'll back him into a corner where things will come out that my mother won't be able to forgive."
Something in her tone suggested she was ready to spill family secrets. "Maybe if I didn't ask certain questions, your mother wouldn't have to know. As long as the answers don't have any bearing on what—"
"I don't know!" There was agony in that, and a plea for help.
"Tell me."
"Ami ... He has to the father of the baby she was carrying."
"I'm not surprised to hear that, Amber. I even suspect that your mother already entertains the possibility too."
"I guess she would. But even if she did, she wouldn't understand it." Pure misery, Amber. This was gnawing her good.
"It isn't exactly incest."
"It could've been."
"What? How so?"
"Ami... She wasn't a willing partner."
"He raped her?" I couldn't believe Amiranda would have tolerated that from anybody.
"Yes. No. Not the way you're thinking. He didn't hold a knife at her throat. He just ... coerced her, I guess. I don't know how he did it. She never told me about it. Only Karl. But Karl told me. It started when she was thirteen. When you're that young it's hard... It's hard to know what to do."
"Not you too?"
"No. But... But he tried. Twice. When I was fourteen. Almost fifteen. It was hard, Garrett. Maybe a man wouldn't even understand. The first time I just ran away when I realized what he wanted. The second time he made sure I didn't have anywhere to run. I ... He ... He wouldn't let me alone till I said I was going to tell mother."
"And?"
"He went into a panic. A psychotic panic. That's why ..."
"Did he threaten you? Physically?"
She nodded.
"I see." I settled back to ruminate. I understood her fears. This didn't do Karl Senior any good at all. I already had him down as murder suspect number one, but I was still a little nebulous on
motive.
"They were both dumb, Ami and Father. They had to realize it would happen sooner or later. There's too much free-floating residual energy around any place used by someone like my mother not to interfere with the spells on a contraceptive amulet."
"If she could see it coming—"
"Don't start, Garrett. You don't know what it was like. You aren't a woman. You aren't a daughter. And you've never been in a squeeze anything like it."
"You're right. All right, here's what I'll do. I'll talk to him without your mother being there. If it's not germane, she won't have to know."
"She won't allow that."
"I'll insist. I'll also insist that you be there with us."
"Oh! Do I have to?"
"I want him in a corner so tight he's got to think his only way out is the truth. He can't lie with you standing there ready to blurt, 'Remember the time when you—' "
"I don't like it."
"Neither do I. But you have to use the tools at hand."
"He couldn't do something like you're thinking."
'"Amiranda would've begun to show soon. Your mother is inquisitive. And when she asks, she gets answers. How would she have reacted—"
"I know what you're going to say, Garrett. He'd panic. He'd go crazy out of fear. But not that crazy."
"Maybe you're right. If we get him deep enough into that corner, maybe we'll find out for sure." It seemed a good idea to forget that the Stormwarden had discovered Amiranda's pregnancy on her own.
"Garrett. Do we have time... ?"
I shook my head slowly.
"It's a pity, really."
"I'm sorry."
As we started down the stairs, she said, "I'll bet you he doesn't even know she was pregnant. Ami wouldn't have told anybody but Karl."
I responded with a noncommittal grunt. He knew now, though I was willing to grant the possibility that he hadn't known then. I paused to stick my head into the Dead Man's room. "We're going now."
Take care of yourself, Garrett. And mind your manners with your betters.
"The same to you, Chuckles. Want to tell me Glory Mooncalled's secret now? Just in case the worst happens? I'd hate to check out still mystified."
With you entering a Stormwarden's lair? No. We'll consider it after this is done and the break is complete. He had a point. I gave Dean some unnecessary instructions about locking up behind me. Then we left.
______ XLVIII ______
I decided to make a brief detour to Lettie Faren's. Maybe it was wrong. There are times when ignorance is bliss. The man on the door knew me and knew my presence was considered undesirable, but he made only a token effort to keep us out. Inside, Amber gawked and whispered that she wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it. I gawked myself, but not for the same reasons. The place wasn't open for business. Never, to my knowledge, had the house been closed before. Alarmed, I pushed past a barman and a swamper who made halfhearted efforts to stop us. I slammed into the pest hole Lettie calls home.
It only took one look. "Stay out there," I instructed Amber.
The mound of ruin that was Lettie Faren tried to glare with eyes blackened and swollen, and failed. She couldn't strike the spark. What remained was a feeble mask for fear.
I asked, "Chodo's boys?"
She croaked an affirmative.
"You should've told me where to find Donni when you knew, before the hard boys decided they wanted her too."
She just looked at me. Chances were she'd just looked at Chodo's boys too. For a while. She was damned near as tough as she thought.
"I'm working for Raver Styx these days. That's a tight crack to get caught in, between the Stormwarden and the kingpin."
"I didn't have nothing to tell them and I don't got nothing to tell you, Garrett. Bring on the old witch if you want."
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth. I'll wish you a speedy recovery. Good-bye."
As we headed for the exit, Amber asked, "Why didn't you want me to go in there?"
I gave it to her straight. "I'm not the only one looking for Donni Pell. Those other guys beat her up trying to find out where Donni went."
"Bad?"
"Very. They aren't nice people. In fact, I'm about convinced that you're the only nice person anywhere in this mess."
She laughed nervously and said, "You don't know me very well yet." Then, conversationally, "You're not so bad yourself, Garrett."
Perhaps she didn't know me very well yet either.
______XLIX______
The man at the Stormwarden's gate was a stranger. He had a competent, professional look. "How was the vacation in the sunny Cantard?"
It bounced off. "Grim as usual, Mr. Garrett. The Stormwarden is expecting you and is waiting in her audience room. Miss daPena can show you the way."
"Yeah. Thanks. You guys going to do anything for Slauce?"
"Say what?"
"You going in on flowers or anything? I thought I'd kick in if I could. It never would've happened if he hadn't been coming to see me."
"We haven't decided what to do yet. We'll let you know. All right?"
"Sure. Thanks."
When we were out of earshot, Amber said, "See? I told you you weren't all bad."
"A cynical, manipulative gesture meant to incite a sympathetic attitude among the troops."
"Right, Garrett. Whatever you say."
Raver Styx sat alone in the gloom of an unlighted room about the size of the Dead Man's. Her eyes were closed. She was so still and unresponsive I suffered a chill. Had we lost yet another daPena?
No. Those supposedly terrible eyes opened and fixed on me. I saw nothing but a tired and beaten old lady. "Please have a seat, Mr. Garrett." Like a wolfman under a full moon, she began to change. "Amber, I believe you'd do better to isolate yourself here in the house, but if you feel more confident with Mr. Garrett and his associates, you have my blessing," She was becoming the Stormwarden Raver Styx—with a measure of concerned mother. Amber was within reach and my feet were out of the Stormwarden's line of sight. I nudged her ankle. She started, figured it out, said, "Thank you, Mother. I'd feel better with Mr. Garrett, I think. For now."
That wasn't so hard. Often all we need to be civil with one another is the presence of a referee we don't want thinking us fools.
"As you wish. Where would you like to begin, Mr. Garrett?"
"With Domina Dount."
"Willa Dount, Mr. Garrett. Loss of her position and title is a foregone penalty. Let's not extend any false hopes."
"You're the boss. Whatever, I want to do her first. Then your husband. Then the staff—if that appears productive."
"Wouldn't it be a bit trifling?"
"Maybe. But a few trifles are all I need to fill the gaps in the picture I already have."
"I'm tempted to invoke penalties on the lot and let the gods distinguish between the wicked and the merely incompetent."
Sometimes I felt that way about our ruling class. I observed the Dead Man's advice, though, and kept my opinion to myself. "I know what you mean."
"How do you want to work it? In my presence? In Amber's?"
"In Willa Dount's case, with you present and Amber absent. To begin. I've already told Amber how long to stay away. After she comes in, I want you to find a reason to leave. Having dealt with Willa Dount, I doubt the footwork will do any good, but I want to try."
"Very well."
"I'll want to see all the documents she has. Especially the letters from the kidnappers. Have you seen those?"
"Yes, I have."
"Did you recognize the hand?"
"No. It seemed feminine."
"I thought so, too. So precise, what I saw. I feared the one-in-a-thousand chance that Amiranda had written them."
"Amiranda had the penmanship of a drunken troll. There was no reading it, but no mistaking or disguising it, either."
"Good. Now, with your husband I'd prefer to begin with you out of the room. As for the staff, I'll ask you and Amber person by pers
on. If the intimidation factor inherent in your presence is counterproductive—"
"I understand. Let's get to it."
"Where is Willa Dount now?"
"In her office, doing the job that will be hers for a few more hours."
"Would you get her, Amber? Tell her she needs to bring the documents."
"Yes, master." She gave me a wink that her mother caught.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd hold off acting against Willa Dount or anyone else for another day, Stormwarden. Tomorrow I want to take everyone on a walk-through of what happened the night of the ransom payoff and the morning of Amiranda's death."
"Is that necessary?"
"Yes. Absolutely. Afterward there'll be no lingering doubts."
She didn't press for details, a courtesy I appreciated. Maybe she wasn't such a bad old gal after all.
We waited in silence.
______ L ______
Willa Dount marched in with a stack of papers. "You sent for me, madam?" She didn't seem surprised to see me—and shouldn't have since she had her agents among the staff.
"I've hired Mr. Garrett to hunt down the person or people responsible for the deaths of Amiranda, Karl, and Courter Slauce. He wants to ask you questions, Willa. Answer completely and truthfully."
I raised the eyebrow. Slauce too? Surprise, surprise. But certainly a point for her.
"Give those papers to Mr. Garrett."
She did so with ill grace. "You're a vulture circling this family, aren't you? You won't rest till you've picked its bones."
"If you take a quick count of the number of noses on your face, you'll come up with more than the number of times I've approached the daPena family soliciting employment."
"Your wit hasn't suffered any improvement."
"Willa. Sit down and be quiet. Restrain your prejudices and speak only when you're spoken to."
"Yes, madam."
Did the whip crack there, or did it crack?
Willa Dount planted herself in a chair, face blank and cool. If she was going to perch I was going to prowl. I rose, began moving, shuffling the papers. The kidnappers had gone to great lengths to make sure Domina Dount understood exactly what she was supposed to do. I slipped a finger behind the letters I'd met already, looked Willa Dount in the eye, and asked, "When did you first suspect that Karl's kidnapping was contrived?"