"That's a great idea, then. How soon can you get there?"
"I leave now, maybe… ten minutes?"
"OK, Ivan, I see you in Leary's Bar. Ten minutes."
God, now he had me doing it.
"See ya," the ogre said, and the call ended.
Karl was looking at me. Of course, he'd only heard my end of the conversation.
"Do I have this right?" he said. "We're gonna meet an ogre who owes you a favor – in Leary's?"
"That's about it."
Karl turned the ignition key. "Then we better get a move on. I wouldn't miss this for the world."
As we pulled into traffic he said, "Siren and lights a little too much?"
"What the fuck," I said. "Go wild."
Leary's place looked good as new. Of course, a lot of the stuff in there was new.
He'd replaced the tables and chairs – not just the broken ones, but all of them. I guess he wanted everything to match. The mirror behind the bar still had manufacturer's stickers on it, and if Leary hadn't completely restored the collection of bottles that usually lined the shelf in front of the mirror, a lot of them seemed to be there. I checked the ceiling lights – yep, repaired or replaced. Even the floor looked as if it had been refinished.
I took all this in during the time it took Karl and me to walk from the door to the highly polished bar and sit down. I checked out the two waitresses, but neither one was Heather, who'd had such a stressful time with Igor the other night. I wondered if she'd ever come back to work here.
Leary came through a door behind the bar, saw us, and swaggered on over. He was one of those guys who look like they could strut while sitting down.
"Well," he said with false bonhomie, "look what the bat dragged in!" When he caught the look Karl was giving him, Leary just smiled and said, "No offense, of course."
"I'm amazed how fast you got this place put back in order, Leary," I said. "Must've cost you a fortune to have it done in only a few days."
The shock of red hair bobbed up and down. "That it did," Leary said. "But if I'm closed, I can't make money. And if I stay closed very long, my regulars'll find someplace else to do their drinkin', that's for sure. Besides, I plan to stick the insurance company with the bill for most of it."
He slapped the bar with his big hands. "Now, what can I get you fellas? First round's on me."
"Really?" I said. "Pity we're on the job, or I'd ask for a nice single malt." I'm not exactly sure what "single malt" means, except that it's expensive booze. "As it is, I'll have a ginger ale, and my partner here will have…?" I looked at Karl, who said, "Club soda is fine."
Leary cocked an eyebrow at Karl. "Club soda, is it? Well, just as well you didn't ask for a Bloody Mary, since mine aren't made with real blood." He laughed, which made one of us who found him funny.
Leary drew our drinks from his dispenser and brought them over. Setting them down with exaggerated care, he said, "A ginger ale for the good Sergeant Markowski, and a mere club soda for Detective Renfer. I didn't even know you people could drink this stuff, Karl – it lackin' the hemoglobin, and such."
"It doesn't do much for me, tell you the truth," Karl said with a friendly smile that displayed his fangs, "but I can drink it without puking. Besides, if I get an uncontrollable urge for the real thing, I know what to do." He looked Leary up and down. "You'd be a Type O, wouldn't you, Leary?"
Leary forced a grin at what he probably hoped was humor, then turned to me. "What brings you gentlemen here, then, if not for spirits? If you came by just to see how old Leary is gettin' on after the great ogre invasion of a few nights ago, well, I'm touched at your concern, I am."
"No, actually, we're meeting someone to discuss police business," I said, "and this was a convenient location for everybody." I saw something large moving in my peripheral vision and turned to look. "And here he is now, right on time."
Leary was looking in the same direction I was, and his eyes were suddenly the size of drink coasters. "What in the name of all the saints is he doin' here? The bastard's in jail, ain't he? Don't tell me he made bail, because the judge didn't set any. I called and checked."
I acted like I had just figured out what he meant. "Oh, you mean you thought this fella is… no, no, you're quite right. That one's in the slam, and likely to remain there for some time." I paused for effect. "This is his brother."
"Good Lord between us and all harm," Leary breathed. To me he said, "What does he want?"
"A drink, I expect," I said. I waved to the ogre. "Come on over and sit down, Ivan."
And so he did, taking up two bar stools in the process. I noticed Ivan lowered himself down carefully even so, as if used to the fragility of human furniture.
"What'll you have to drink, Ivan?" I asked. "The good innkeeper, Mister Leary, here is buying – isn't that so, Leary?"
Leary seemed incapable of speech. He just looked at Ivan and nodded.
"Cognac," Ivan rumbled. "I like cognac."
"My friend here will have a cognac, Leary, a double. The good stuff, if you please."
The look that Leary gave me could be bottled and used to poison pit vipers. But off he went, and soon came back with a snifter of cognac that he set in front of Ivan. No dramatic flourishes this time, I noticed.
Before turning away, Leary caught my eye and mouthed what I'm pretty sure was "You're responsible."
Ivan took a sip of his cognac – I noticed he didn't swirl it around in the snifter first, the way people do in the movies. I never understood that ritual, either. He put the glass down and said, "Good stuff. Thanks."
"You're welcome, Ivan. Now I want to ask you something. Is it true what I've heard, that your people are related to… goblins?"
The ogre sat staring into his glass, and I wasn't sure he was going to answer. But then he nodded slowly and said, "Not close relations, but yeah. Some say like 'cousins', but I'm not sure what they mean."
"Do you speak Goblin?"