"Well? What do you think?"
"I think you're trying it out on the wrong person. I can't knock a hole in it. You should lay it out for the Dead Man. He'd tell you why it couldn't be that way."
"You don't think it was?"
"I don't want it to be. And don't ask me why. It's just an emotional thing. Actually, I'm scared you're right."
Why should that scare her? Because it might come out and give the scandal hunters a boost?
Intellectually I saw danger. The Sons of Hammon going public with an ascetic lifestyle and a god who really talked at a time when the two major Hanite denominations could be shown to be conniving and powerless and riddled with corruption...
No. The people of TunFaire wouldn't go for something as crazy as the Hammon cult right now.
They hadn't chosen their time well. They should have waited for the war's end. Come into the city with any kind of a crazy promise then and I'd bet money, marbles, or chalk dust you could win battalions of converts.
I thought about that for a long time. I conjured me a grim future, decided me and the Dead Man would have to have a serious discussion about how to make things easier on ourselves. Maybe I'd have to take up Weider's offer of a job as chief head-thumper at the brewery. The brewery business prospers in hard times.
Maya just snuggled up and purred. For all I could tell there was nothing going on inside her head. Time drifted away.
I had a thought, which happens occasionally. "Think Jill would recognize you if she passed you in the street?"
"No."
"I think we ought to spread out, then. I can't fool her. She sees me, she's going to hightail it."
"You really think so?"
"I think she'll panic. I think she's gotten so far into this changing names that she thinks all she has to do to disappear is call herself something else. If somebody turns up that knows her some other way, she'll lose her confidence and overreact. It won't matter who she spots."
Maya frowned and gave me a searching look. "I don't know. But you're more an expert on people than I am."
I snorted. Me an expert? I can't even figure me out, let alone the rest of the world.
44
Part of my job is to remain patient. I probably do more waiting than anybody but a soldier. It ought to be second nature after five years in the Marines and all those since in this investigation racket. But I never was very good at sitting still, especially in the cold.
I needed to get up and prowl. That would make me easier to spot but my aching butt and stiffening muscles wouldn't listen to common sense.
I told Maya, "I'm going to stroll around the block and see how many ways there are to get out of that building."
"What if she decides to come out when you're gone?"
"There isn't much chance of that. Won't take me three minutes."
"You're the expert."
The way she kept saying that made it sound like she had some doubts.
I walked away, forgetting my act for a dozen steps because I was conscious of her questioning look.
I didn't find out anything that I hadn't reasoned out sitting with Maya. There was a back way out, down an outside stair into an alley behind the place. That had to be there because we'd seen no access to the second floor while we'd been inside. Hell.
Well, I got the kinks out, anyway.
I headed for the bench and my girl.
What girl? Maya was gone.
I gaped like a cretin for maybe fifteen seconds, then looked around, jumping to see over the heads of the crowd. There was no sign of Maya. I scuttled over to my friend the lanky barker. "You see what happened to the gal I was with? Over on the bench?"
He sneered a sneer that questioned my competence. "Yeah, man. This time I caught the action. Your blonde fluff came galloping past right after you left. Your twitch took off after her. They went that way." He pointed uphill, which meant back toward the heart of the city, whence we had come, and whence most everyone else came, too.
"The blonde was in a hurry?"
"Running. My guess is, she'd made you and was waiting for a chance to run."
"Thanks." I took off, ignoring the curses of those I jostled. I wondered how Jill could have recognized us from over there... .
Damnation! How dumb can a guy be? She probably didn't recognize us at all. But she sure as hell could've recognized the clothes Maya had borrowed.
How come we never thought of that when we were being so clever about changing who we were?
I kicked up the pace as the people thinned out. Once I was out of the Tenderloin I couldn't do anything but guess which way Jill was headed.
I saw nothing.
I wondered why I bothered. I wondered if Maya would hang on. I wondered what Jill would do if she couldn't shake Maya. I wondered how Maya would get in touch if she did run Jill to ground.
I looked down cross streets as I passed them. I questioned street-side vendors. Some told me to get the hell away from them. Some just looked blank. Here, there, one gave me a straight answer. One of those actually had noticed Jill.
She was still headed toward the heart of town.
I wasn't going to get much cooperation just being Garrett. So I swallowed my pride and started alluding to Chodo Contague. That kicked the level of cooperation up a few notches. A man with a sausage cart on a corner needs the goodwill of the kingpin. Else somebody's liable to put him out of business.
That kept me on the trail until I got out of the area where there was anyone to ask, by which time Jill's course had shifted southward.
I wished I knew more about her. Where could she run? But I'd had no time to research her. In any of her guises, let alone all of them. More than ever I felt that things were moving too fast.
I'm a plodder. I get to the end of the trail through sheer stubbornness, just keeping on until I get there, doing what I have to do. I hadn't had a minute to catch my breath since Jill first turned up on my doorstep.
When you're moving like that sometimes you don't have time to think. Your mind works on things out of sight and you come up with hunches. Three minutes after Jill's trail turned southward I had one.
She was headed for the Dream Quarter.
She did have that one resource. That little gink who used the apartment across from the one Peridont provided. If he was who I thought he was... But Warden Agire had disappeared. I'd heard nothing about him turning up again. But I'd been too busy to stay in touch with that situation.
"Bet the long odds," I told myself. I adjusted my course and increased my pace. Ten minutes later I got to Playmate's stable.
He was about to close his main gate. But he brightened like a rising sun when he saw me. He always does. He is the one grateful former client I can count on any time. "Garrett. Been wondering about you. Where've you been?"
"Working. I've got a real mind-twister going. You been keeping up with the scandals?"
"Not much to keep up with lately. Too much other excitement. That your place where the demon turned up last night?"
"Yes. Part of what I'm working on."
"You're playing with fire this time, then."
"The hottest. You don't know the half. I'll tell you about it sometime."
"In a hurry?"
"Aren't I always?"
"Usually. What do you need?"
"A horse so I can make up some time on somebody I'm chasing. And some info. The horse shouldn't be one of your damned Lightning's or Firebrands, either. I want one that will run but won't play games." Horses and I don't get along. I don't know why but the whole damned tribe is out to get me. They think it's great fun making my life miserable.
"You always say that. I can't figure a guy your age being scared of horses. But since you are I picked up a nag so docile and stupid even you'll be satisfied."