"No. We had them by the short hairs. But you don't take chances with those people."
"And the delivery was late?"
"Yeah. But I guess that was just because the damnfool woman didn't know what she was doing. Any idiot should know a covered wagon with a four-horse team won't make time like a buggy or carriage."
Oh? "You weren't there for the actual payoff, then?"
"No. But Gorgeous said it went down exactly the way it was supposed to."
"Which was?"
"The wagon came down and stopped in the road. Gorgeous and Donni had their coaches off to the side. Gorgeous and Donni had their drivers transfer the moneybags, half and half. The woman and her wagon headed on south. Donni stayed put for an hour, then headed south too. Gorgeous came up where I was and gave me my cut and enough to pay off the boys so they could go home after the business in the morning. We didn't want them coming to TunFaire, getting drunk, and shooting their mouths off."
"They knew what was happening?"
"Not the payoff. But they were in on a killing."
"There was no concern about just following the woman?"
"She wasn't told what to do about going back till she turned over the ransom."
"I see." Not very bright, this Skredli. "She didn't have anything to say when she didn't get the kid after the payoff?"
"I don't know. Maybe she did. Gorgeous never said."
"I guess you came out pretty good on the deal personally, eh?"
"Yeah. Look at me. Living like a lord. Yeah. I got my usual ten percent of Gorgeous's fifty percent. A big hit to you, maybe, but I did better on the warehouse business, even if it took longer to come in."
"You stripped the warehouse, then?"
"Yeah. I didn't think it was smart, but Gorgeous said we already had such a big investment we might as well finish it off."
"Uhm." I began to pace, to think. We'd been at it a long time. He'd given me a lot to think about. We were almost there, but I needed that moment to reflect, to reorder my forces.
"Where is Donni Pell, Skredli?"
"I don't know."
"She was there when we came after you, wasn't she?"
He nodded.
"And she ran out behind us and went for help."
He shrugged.
"It's going to be interesting, finding out who called out the troops. That was a stupid mistake. Very stupid. Panic thinking. Raver Styx will have his hide. Where's Donni Pell?"
"How many times I got to tell you I don't know? If she's got the sense of a cockroach, she's done got her butt out of TunFaire."
"If she had that much sense, she would have headed out of town as soon as she had her share of the money. She seems to have a certain low cunning, an ability to manipulate men, and complete confidence in her invulnerability, but no brains. I'll take your word. You don't know where she is. But where might she run? Who would hide her?"
Skredli shrugged. "One of her Johns, maybe."
I'd had that thought already. I suspected Skredli was mined out on the subject. And he was relaxed enough for the next stage.
"Why did the Stormwarden's kid have to be killed?"
"Huh? Killed? I heard he committed suicide."
"We're getting along fine, Skredli. I'm starting to feel kindly toward you. Don't blow your chance. I know you and Gorgeous and Donni and somebody were in and out of the room where he died. And I knew him well enough to know he couldn't kill himself that way—if he could ever find guts enough to kill himself at all. I figure you used the choke sack on him and Gorgeous cut him himself. I think Donni—but what I think doesn't matter. The thing I can't figure is why he went within a mile of that woman after what she did to him."
"You don't know Donni Pell."
"No. But I intend to get acquainted. Go ahead. Tell me about that morning."
"You aren't going to spread it around, are you? I don't need no Raver Styx breathing down my neck."
"None of us do. But you don't worry about Raver Styx. You worry about me. I'm the only chance you've got to walk out of here. You've got to make me happy."
He shrugged. He wasn't counting on me. But he did have new hopes that he hadn't had awhile ago.
"All right. What started it was you parading around with that dead woman. Somebody seen you by Lettie Faren's place. They told Donni and Donni must have told everybody in town. She sent a messenger to us. Gorgeous had a fit, but he believed me when I said she had to be dead and you was just trying to stir something up.
"But you did get Donni stirred. Like you said, she ain't too smart. She thought she had her handle on the daPena kid. She sent him a message that told him where to find her, that she had to see him. The dope went there. I don't know what she thought she was going to get him to do. He wasn't having none of her finger-wrapping no more. He'd figured some of it out, and like a dummy she told him the girl was dead.
"That did it. He was going to hike out of there and blow the whole thing wide open. And he would have, too, only me and Gorgeous showed up. On account of Gorgeous was worried about Donni maybe getting too excited and doing something really stupid."
"It wasn't planned, then?"
"I gotta be careful with that. I don't think it was. I wasn't in on no planning, which I usually was because I was the guy who had to go out and do things. But it did have a funny feel. Like maybe Donni rigged it so it would come out the way it did."
"You keep contradicting yourself. Is Donni Pell stupid or not?"
"She's good at coming up with schemes and playing them out, long as she's got the reins in her hands. You catch her by surprise, she don't do so good. She thinks slow, she gets flustered, she does dumb things. So Gorgeous figured we better get over there and sit on her till she calmed down and whatever was bugging her blew away."
"And Karl was there."
"There and throwing a fit. He figured some of it out and he was going to tell the world. Donni even tried to buy him off, saying she'd give him his share after all. Dumb. After the way she screwed him over, and him just about sure what was going on. We didn't have no choice. He wouldn't back down. Even with me and Gorgeous there. It was our asses or his. I thought we made it look good."
"You did. You just didn't know he was so chicken nobody would believe he did it himself. Who was the other guy who was there?"
"What other guy?"
"A man in a hooded black cloak."
"I never saw one."
"Uhm." I paced. There were more questions I wanted to ask, but most had to do with the money. I didn't want Chodo getting interested in that. And Skredli had given me plenty to untangle, anyway. Probably close to enough. Donni Pell would put the cap on it. She would throw some light into the hearts of some shadows. She would cast the bones of doom for somebody.
"I played it straight for you," Skredli said. "Get me out of here."
"I'll have to talk Mr. Chodo into it," I replied. "What will you do?"
"Head north as fast as I can run. I don't want to be anywhere around when Raver Styx hits town. And there ain't nothing here for me anymore, anyway."
"You'd keep your mouth shut?"
"Are you kidding? Whose throat would the knife bite first?"
"Good point." I wagged a hand at Morley, indicating the door. He moved to open it. Chodo rolled out of his way. Morley stepped aside. Chodo and I followed.
"Where do you stand?" I asked the kingpin, indicating the door with a jerk of my head.
"I got rid of the bloodsucker bothering me. That's just a hired hand. You can have him."
"I don't know if I want him. Maybe he swung the knife but didn't give the order." We walked for a while. I said, "You know Saucerhead Tharpe?"