"Show him in."
He did. Behind the door lay a chamber twenty feet by twenty and cheerful for a place that was buried. Magister Peridont didn't have ascetic tastes, either. "Doing all right for yourself, I see."
Hawk nose pursed his lips, handed over his papers, bowed toward Peridont, and hurried out, closing up behind me.
I waited. Peridont didn't say anything. I told him, "That Sampson is a creep."
Peridont put the papers on a table twelve feet long and four wide. They vanished in the litter already there. "Sampson has social disabilities. But he makes up for that. So. You've reconsidered?"
"Possibly. I'll need some information before I make up my mind. It may have become personal."
That puzzled him. He studied me. I was doing a boggle on everybody today. It's all in knowing how, I guess. "Let's have the questions, then. I want you on the team."
I never trust guys who want to be my pal. They always want something I don't want to give.
I showed him the coins. "You recognize these?"
He placed the card on his table, put on bifocals as he sat down. He stared for half a minute and took his cheaters off. "No, I don't. Sorry. Do these have a bearing on our business?"
"Not that I know of. I thought you might know who put them out. They're temple coinage."
"Sorry. That's strange, isn't it? I should." He perched those bifocals on the tip of his nose and eyed the coins again. He handed me the card. "Curious."
I'd tried. "More to the point. Did you hire somebody else when I turned you down?"
He poked at that question before he admitted he had.
"It wouldn't have been Pokey Pigotta, would it? Wesley Pigotta?"
He wouldn't answer that one.
"It's a small field. I know everybody. They know me. Pokey would have suited your requirements. And he took on a new client right after I turned you down."
"Is this important?"
"If you did hire Pokey, you're short a hired hand. He got himself killed last night."
His start and pallor answered my question.
"So. A big setback?"
"Yes. Tell me about it. When, where, how, who. And why you know about it."
"When: last night after dark sometime. Where: an apartment on Shindlow Street. I can't tell you who. Four men were involved. None survived. I know about it because the person who found the bodies asked me what to do about them."
He grunted, thought. I waited. He asked, "That's why you came? Pigotta's death?"
"Yes." That was partly true.
"He was a friend?"
"An acquaintance. We respected each other but kept our distance. We knew we might butt heads someday."
"I don't quite see your interest."
"Somebody tried to kill me, too. Me and Pokey both doesn't read coincidence to me. I talk to you and somebody tries to off me. You hire Pokey, he gets it. I wonder why but even more I wonder who. I want to cool him down. If that helps you, so be it."
"Excellent. By all means, if the people responsible for Pigotta's death tried to kill you too."
"So who did it?"
"I don't follow you, Mr. Garrett."
"Come on. If somebody wants in your way bad enough to kill anybody you talk to, you ought to know who. There can't be so many you can't pick somebody out of the crowd."
"Unfortunately, I can't. When I tried to hire you I told you I think there's a concerted effort to discredit Faith, but I don't have one iota of evidence that points in any particular direction."
I gave him my eyebrow trick in its sarcastic mode. He wasn't impressed. I'll have to learn to wiggle my ears. "If you want me to find somebody or something—like the Warden and his Relics—you'll have to give me somewhere to start. I can't just yell 'Where the hell are you?' Finding somebody is like picking apart an old sweater. You just keep pulling loose threads till everything comes apart. But you have to have the loose threads. What did you give Pokey? Why was he where he was when he got killed?"
Peridont got up. He prowled. He lived on another plane. He was deaf to anything he didn't want to hear. Or was he? "I'm disturbed, Mr. Garrett. Being outside this you miss the more troublesome implications. And they, I regret, tie my hands and seal my lips. For the moment."
"Oh?" I gave my talented eyebrow one last chance.
He missed it again. "I want your help, Mr. Garrett. Very much. But what you've told me puts matters into a new perspective. Contrary to popular imagining I'm not a law unto myself. I'm one tree in a forest of hierarchy."
"A tall tree."
He smiled. "Yes. A tall one. But only one. I'll have to consult my peers and ask for a policy decision. Bear with me a few hours. If they want to pursue this I'll give you the information at my disposal. Whatever the decision, I'll be in touch. I'll see you're compensated for what you've already done."
How very thoughtful of him. How did such a nice guy get such a nasty reputation?
He was being nice because he wanted something he couldn't get by tossing me into a cell and pulling my nails. I said, "I have to get moving on my own hunt."
"I'll get in touch at your home. Before you go—"
I interrupted. "The name Jill Craight mean anything to you?"
"No. Should it?"
"I don't know. Pokey died in an apartment occupied by a Jill Craight."
"I see. Would you hold on a minute?" He opened a cabinet. "I don't want to lose another man. I want you to take something as a hedge against the kind of surprises that got Pigotta." He pawed around amongst several hundred small bottles and phials, selected three.
He placed those on the table, three colorful soldiers all in a row: royal blue, ruby, and emerald. Each bottle was two inches tall. Each had a cork stopper. He said, "The ultimate product of my art. Use the blue where maximum confusion would benefit you. Use the green where death is your only other out. Break the bottles or just unstop them. That doesn't matter."
He took a deep breath, lifted the red bottle carefully. "This is the heavyweight. Be careful. It's deadly. Throw it against a hard surface at least fifty feet away. You don't want to be any closer. Run if you have the chance. Got that?"
I nodded.
"Be careful. Twenty years from now I want to tip one with you and reminisce about the bad old days."
"Careful is my middle name, Magister." I put the bottles away gingerly, where I could grab them in a hurry. Garrett never argues with a gift horse. I can always deal it to the glue works.
I sneaked a peek at his cabinet. What could those other bottles do? They came in every color. "Thanks. I can find my way out." I shot my final question as I neared the door. "You ever hear of a cult that cuts its members? Takes all their equipment, not just their testicles?"
He blanched. I mean, he really turned white. For a second I thought his hair would change. But he showed no other reaction. He lied, "No. That's grisly. Is it important?"
Lie to me, I'll lie to you. "No. It came up in a bull session the other night. The weather was pretty drunk out. Somebody heard something like that from somebody who heard something about it from somebody else. You know how that goes. You can't trace the source."
"Yes. Good day, Mr. Garrett." Suddenly he wanted me out of there.
"Good day, Magister."
I closed the door behind me. Smiling Sampson was right there to make sure I had no trouble finding the street.
22
A drizzle had started. The breeze had freshened. I put my head down and walked into it, grumbling. I wouldn't be out in this if the world would learn to leave me alone. How thoughtless of it.
Head down with not much going on inside—some would say that's the normal state of my bean—I trudged toward that small district beyond the Hill where both city and Crown maintain their civil offices. I hoped the Royal Assay people could tell me what Peridont wouldn't.