An admirable strategy, simple and direct. I should have seen it myself. How do you propose to execute it?
Sly, sarcastic old devil. Of course it would be easier to find the witch than the book. She was running with a strange pack. Even in TunFaire, it would stand out like pants on a mare.
"I shouldn't be here. I should be at Morley's, in case Sadler gets an interesting report."
Mr. Dotes's establishment would be convenient. I can get a message to you there. Though perhaps a modicum of rest would better serve you at the moment.
"Right." He was. "I'm on my way."
Dean looked expectant when I returned to the small front room. "He wanted to remind me that we told the other woman about Tinnie. Which means she knows Carla Lindo is still kicking."
The redhead's eyes got huge. Damned if that didn't make me want to charge over there and set her in my lap and tell her everything was going to be all right. Even if I didn't know everything was going to be all right. Because things would be plenty all right with me as long as she remained perched there.
I said, "We figure there's no reason for you to worry. The cat's out of the bag. Killing you won't chase it back in. She'll concentrate on finding the book."
"You can't let her find it!"
"Take it easy. She'll need some fantastic luck to find it before she gets found herself. In about a minute I'm going to take a walk and tell a man about her, and before you can wink there'll be about three thousand bad people looking for her." I had a thought, which sometimes happens. Sometimes even before it's too late. "What's she look like when she's not being you?"
Carla Lindo just looked at me.
"Well?"
"I'm trying to think. I don't know. I don't think I ever saw her. At least not and know it was her."
"Say what?" The Dead Man had warned me. "You lived in the same place and you never saw her? She had to see you if she put a page in her book that was you." Had to see her pretty damned close. About all she'd left out was the freckles.
"She stayed locked up in her tower. Nobody went in there but people she wanted in there. All those dwarves and ogres and creepy ratmen. If I ever saw her, I didn't know it was her. I'm sure I never saw her."
The Baron's castle had to be some weird place. Not one where I'd like to spend a lot of time. Unless Carla Lindo had her four or five sisters. Maybe I ought to find Out if there were any more at home like her.
I must've been showing my thoughts. She gave me a look like she was reading my mind. I stammered some, then managed to say, "You can't give me anything to go on?"
"No. Yes. I never saw it, but they say she wears a ring. Middle finger of her right hand. She never takes it off. It's a snake that wraps around her finger three times. It has a cobra head. They say there's venom in the ring that can kill you instantly."
"That's handy to know." I reflected. "The woman who was here wasn't wearing a ring. I don't think." That was still foggy. "Did you see one, Dean?"
"No." Good man. He refrained from mentioning the extra redhead.
"Then she will take it off in some circumstances. Is there anything else?"
Carla Lindo reddened, which was surprisingly fetching considering her coloring. But I couldn't imagine her doing anything that wasn't fetching. She only had to breathe.
She said, "She has a tattoo. They say. It's how she got her name. The Serpent."
"Huh?" Vagrant memory, of a guy in my company when I was in the Marines. He'd been stuck with the name Donkey Dick till one night he'd gotten all drunked up and had a tattoo artist go to work. After that we called him Snakeman. If he's still alive, I'll bet he regrets it. Unless he's turned it into a carnival act.
The girl stood up. "The whole front of her is supposed to be a snake's face." She gestured. "Her breasts are supposed to be the snake's eyes."
Boy. There was a thought. Imagine waking up and looking over at that next to you. That would dampen your ardor. No wonder old Stonecipher took up with a chambermaid. "That's a vivid image. Anything else?" I could just see me going around ripping open the blouses of suspects.
She shook her head. All that copper hair flying around left me with another vivid image. But this one faded to red hair against cobblestones.
I wondered if Tinnie was going to haunt me. Maybe I'd better go see how she was doing. Tomorrow.
"I have to go out, Dean. Over to Morley's."
His face pruned up with concern. "Is that wise?"
"It's necessary. Put Miss Ramada in the front guest room. She'll be safe enough there."
His look said she'd be safe only as long as I was Out of the house. I didn't argue. I seldom do. There's no way to change Dean's mind. Maybe he should've gone ahead and become a priest. You sure can't rattle him with facts.
He'd make a great little old lady, too.
Probably comes of having to live with all those nieces. I hate to wish them on anybody, but I do wish they'd find husbands and get Out of his hair.
Dean nodded. I stepped out of the room, deaf to the girl's appeals. I went upstairs and rearmed, then came down and stopped by the office to say good-bye to Eleanor. "Wish me luck, lady. Wish me better luck." I hadn't saved a soul in the case that had involved her. Unless, maybe, in a way, I'd saved me. After the hurting went, I'd found a renewed resolve to do my bit to make the world a better place.
19
You get wary when people have been pounding on you. Even when you're so tired even snazzy redheads have begun to lose their appeal. Before I'd gone a block I sensed I was being watched. I'm not sure what it was. Certainly nothing I could spot. The watcher was that good. Maybe it's a sense you develop in order to survive in this business, in this city.
I decided I'd stay out of places so tight I'd have nowhere to run, which was just common night sense anyway.
I was halfway to Morley's place, dodging low-flying morCartha, when suddenly I was no longer alone. "Shee-it! You guys got to stop doing that. My heart can't handle it." Despite my wariness, Crask and Sadler had surprised me, appearing out of nowhere. An object lesson, most likely. In case I ever became inclined to line up against them. They like to play those games.
I supposed it was their people who had tracked me from my place and sent them word I was coming.
Sadler smiled. At least I think that was supposed to be a smile. Hard to tell in the dark. "Really thought you'd appreciate some good news, Garrett. But if you ain't happy to see us .
"I'm overjoyed. I'm thrilled right down the quicks of my toenails." Thrilled like they were double pneumonia with a raging dysentery tossed in. "Why can't you guys just walk up to me like normal people? You always got to be jumping out of alleys and stuff."
Crask said, "I like to see the look on your face." He wasn't smiling. He wasn't kidding.
Sadler said, "My, my. We're crabby tonight. Did we have a bad day?"
"You got your kicks. So tell me what's the good news?"
"We found your man Blaine."
"Huh?"
Sadler said, "Come on. You ask, we deliver."
Deliver, sure, but without any guarantees about condition. It's hard to read those two, but I did get a feeling all was not well during our stroll to see Blain. So I wasn't surprised when, after we'd passed a platoon of henchmen and climbed to a third-floor one-roomer, he turned out to be in a poor state of health.
Some unaccountably thoughtful soul had covered the body with a blanket.
I glanced around. The room's door had been busted off its hinges. And I don't mean just kicked in but torn up like it had gotten in the way of a troll in a hurry who didn't want to be bothered with latches. The room itself was ripped all to hell, like a squad of werewolves had gone berserk there. But there wasn't any blood. "You guys get a little overwrought?"