"Polly. The elfish girl."
"Her? I'd forgotten her already," I lied.
"And the moon is made of green cheese."
"That's what the experts say. But as long as you bring her up, what'd she have to say?"
"I couldn't get specific because I didn't want her to know what we were up to. She might tell Hester. I think you're right. One of the girls sounds like her. Polly doesn't like her. Polly is kind of a prude."
"A what?" I laughed.
"It's all look-and-don't-touch on the premises there, Garrett. Polly says her regulars just want to talk to somebody who's easy on the eyes. Somebody who can listen and talk back, and who isn't any kind of threat. She never actually sees any of them. She says some of them must be important men but she doesn't know who they are. She never sees them outside. Some of the other girls do. Polly claims she's a virgin."
Maya found that hard to swallow. I didn't want to think about it.
It was a strange setup but I could see how it could be a gold mine—without extortion. The one thing the movers and shakers lack is somebody they can relax with and talk to without risking betrayal.
That was the essence of the racket. Polly harvested enough in tips to satisfy herself. But some of her co-workers wanted more.
"It's because she's elfish," Maya guessed. "She doesn't have to hurry. She can trade on her looks for a long time. Human women only get a few years." Hint, hint. Nudge, nudge. The girl had her own talent for distraction. Had to be inborn. How would she learn it running with a street gang?
We got to Morley's place. Maya reaped a harvest of appreciative looks. Nobody paid any attention to me. So that was the secret of getting in without the gauntlet of hostile stares—bring a woman to distract them.
Slade was behind the counter. He lifted the speaking tube and pointed upstairs. We took the hint. I knocked on the office door. Morley let us in.
"Your taste has improved, Garrett." He ogled Maya.
I slipped my arm around her waist. "Didn't have time to get her into the disguise we use to protect her from characters like you."
His eyes popped. "You're the lady he was with the other night?''
She just smiled mysteriously.
"Miracles do happen," he said. And whined, "But they never happen to me."
At which point a gorgeous half-caste brunette stepped out of his back room and draped herself on his shoulder.
"I hope your luck turns, Morley. Saucerhead said you had some news for me."
"Yes. Remember the man whose name you mentioned to the kingpin? The one who visited you the night you got into your mess?"
I presumed he was being cagey about naming Peridont. "That religious character?"
"The very one."
"What about him?"
"Somebody sent him to his reward. Put a poisoned quarrel in his back. About four blocks from your place. I figure he was going to see you. He wouldn't have any other reason to be around there dressed like somebody's gardener."
Maybe. "Damn! Who did it?"
Morley spread his hands wide and gave a blank look. "I suppose one of the same fun-loving bunch. It went down in broad daylight, in front of fifty witnesses. Farmer-looking guy just steps out of a doorway behind him and lets him have it."
"Being a wizard ain't everything." I'd developed an itch between my shoulder blades. That could happen to anybody at any time. If somebody wants you bad enough, they'll get you. "I don't know if I wanted to know that."
"We'll tighten up around you, Garrett. We'll make them work for it."
"That's a comfort, Morley." Peridont getting it bothered me bad. I had this feeling I'd lost my last best ally.
"You think I want to go tell Chodo I blew it?"
I knew what he wanted to say, but he was saying it so clumsily it was worse than if he hadn't said anything. For Morley, the actual expression of concern or friendship is next to impossible.
"Never mind," I told him. "Quit while you're ahead. Was there anything else?" His friend was tickling his neck with a fingernail. He wouldn't keep his mind on business long.
"No. Go home and stay there. We won't have to pick up pieces of Garrett if you keep your head down." "Right. I'll think about it." "Don't think. Do." "Come on, Maya. Let's go home." Morley and I both knew I wouldn't give it a thought.
40
It started when we were two blocks from my house, a roaring and grumbling hurrying up from the south. Lightning zigged around it. I pulled Maya into a doorway.
"What is it?"
"Something we don't want to notice us." A big, red nasty bobbed in the middle of the cloud.
People stuck their heads out windows, got a look, and decided they didn't want to know.
The micro storm headed straight for my place.
Wouldn't you know it?
This time there was no roof busting. A nasty red spider strutted down out of the night—and something swatted it right back.
"Old Chuckles is going to pay his rent tonight," I muttered.
"You're shaking."
I was, worse than if I'd been in the thick of it. Yet my mind wasn't working right. I didn't think about Dean or the Dead Man. All I could think about was what might happen to my house. It was all I had in the world. I'd gone through hell to get the money to pay for it. I was getting too long in the tooth to start over.
The storm whooped and hollered. The spider headed in again, scarlet swords of fire leaping from its eyes. Bam! They hit an invisible wall. The spider bounced back.
"I didn't know he had it in him."
The Dead Man had a lot more than I'd suspected. He never tried to hurt the spider, but he turned every assault. The more its efforts were stymied, the more ferocious the monster became. It didn't worry about damaging the neighborhood.
This was going to make me popular with my neighbors.
You can only stay keyed up so long. When I began to settle down I had a thought. "This doesn't make sense. I may have been a pain in the ass to those guys, but not this big a pain. There's something else going on."
The flash and fury distressed Maya less than it did me. Maybe it was her lack of experience with sorcery. "Analyze it, Garrett. This is the second time your place has been attacked. You weren't home either time. Maybe it doesn't matter if you are. Maybe it's the house."
"Or something in it."
"Or something in it. Or someone."
"Besides me? Nobody …" The Dead Man? But he'd been dead too long to have enemies left. "Know what I think? I got started on the wrong foot at the beginning. I've been trying to get it to make sense."
Maya looked at me weird. "What the hell are you yapping about?"
"I'm trying to make sense of something that isn't rational. I knew from the beginning that religion was involved. Several religions, maybe. You can try from now until the end of the world and you're not going to make sense out of that. I shouldn't be attacking it that way. I should be going with it, going after who's doing what to who and not trying to figure out why."
Her look got weirder. "Did you get hit on the head? You're raving."
Maybe I was. And maybe somewhere in my nonsense there was a kernel of wisdom. That business down the street looked like a good argument for reassessing my place in the excitement. "Ever been to Leifmold, kid?"
"What?"
"I'm starting to think the smart thing would be to get out of town. Let this thing take care of itself."
She didn't believe me for a moment. And she was right. Maybe it's a lack of common sense. Maybe I just have a feeble survival instinct. I'd hang in until the end.