"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 the 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?"