I had not mentioned the stench, being the naturally courteous guy that I am. But, "Now that you bring it up... "
"What?"
"Wait."
One of the Tate cousins or nephews was limping down the dock, checking ships with mad eyes. He was covered with dried blood. People stepped out of his way and stared after him.
He spotted me, staggered faster. I went to meet him.
"Mr. Garrett! They got Tinnie and Rose! They said if we don't give them Denny's papers—"
He collapsed. I caught him, lifted him up, and carried him aboard Binkey's Sequin. Master Arbanos gave me an appalled look. Before he started complaining, I tossed him a couple of marks. His personality shifted like a wolfman's under a full moon. You would have thought he was the boy's mother.
A draft of brandy bubbling in the gut got the kid into a state to tell his tale.
Rose and Tinnie, as was their custom, had gone out to do the afternoon marketing. Lester and the usual cousins and nephews and some kitchen help had accompanied them, again as was customary. When they were returning with the servants and two boys lugging vegetables and whatnot, disaster had struck, in the form of Vasco and a half-dozen thugs.
"They grabbed Rose and Tinnie before we could drop the groceries and get our weapons out. Uncle Lester was the only one who was able... They killed him, Mr. Garrett."
"You all do them any damage?" The kid wouldn't have been in such bad shape if they hadn't tried. I needed to know how much blood was in it to tell if the women had a chance.
"Some," he admitted. "I don't think we killed anybody. We had to back off first. That's when they said we could have them back if we gave them Denny's letters and notebooks and stuff."
Well, they had no real reason to commit murder. The blood was balanced. One of their lot for Uncle Lester. A trade could be made. The problem was, they would find out I was headed south if I had much to do with the exchange.
I grinned.
"Sounds bad to me," Morley said.
"Thought you were staying out of sight." I wondered how long he had been sitting on that sack of onions listening. Not that he had heard anything he shouldn't.
He shrugged.
"They tell you where to get in touch?" I asked the kid.
"Yes. The Iron—"
Old Man Tate himself materialized. I thought he never left the family compound. He stormed aboard, shaking all over. He was winded from his hike and so damned mad he couldn't do anything but sputter.
"Sit down, Pop," I said. "I'm working on it already."
He plopped onto another bag of onions, giving Morley a curt nod. Master Arbanos winced but kept his yap shut.
"Here's the lay," I said. "We've got to make the trade."
Tate sputtered but nodded, then wheezed, "If it was just Rose, I'd be tempted to tell them to go to hell."
"Right. Look, I put the papers and whatnot in a box and moved them out of your place so those clowns wouldn't get them when they broke in. I didn't figure them for this. Anyway, what we have to do now is set the exchange up in such a way that we get the women back in one piece. I think I can do that, but you'll have to trust me on it."
Tate started sputtering again.
Morley said, "He's the expert, Mr. Tate. Permit him to exercise his expertise." His tone was more diplomatic than what I usually manage.
"I'm listening." Tate glared at me.
"Master Arbanos. What time are we going to take off tomorrow?"
"Five minutes after the seventh hour."
"Right. Mr. Tate, you go over to the Iron... " I snapped my fingers at the kid.
"Iron Goblin," he said.
"The Iron Goblin. Tell whoever meets you there that he's to deliver the women here at five after the seventh hour tomorrow morning. Or no deal. I'll tell them where they can get the papers when the women look like they'll get back to their own people okay. In fact, if Master Arbanos will provide me pen and paper, I'll write the instructions."
Tate wanted to argue. He always wanted to argue. The old goat would disagree if you said the sky was blue. I let him simmer while I scratched a note. Master Arbanos was going to get rich selling me favors.
"Just pretend you're me," I told Tate when I finished. I folded the note and handed it to him. "Don't argue with them. Tell them that's it, take it or leave it."
"But—
"They'll take it. They won't expect me to trust them. They would know I'd try to set up something so they can't mess us around. And they'll check around about me. They'll find out that I've done a couple of these things before and held up my end every time."
That was true. As far as it went. But this time a snatch and switch was not the whole story. This time the snatch was part of something bigger.
I was starting to take things personally, too.
Tate got his spleen out, and yakked his fear into submission, then took my note and marched off. We got the kid cleaned up and bandaged and sent him home.
17
Vasco didn't want to play the game my way, though he brought the women when he came to argue. He came on time, too, which told me that he would do it my way if I didn't bend.
He left Rose and Tinnie fifty feet up the dock, guarded by a half-dozen men, and marched aboard. "Still in there pitching to get your throat cut, aren't you?" I asked.
His lips tightened but he refused to be baited. The sergeants teach you to control your temper, down in the Cantard. He looked around, did not see anything to disturb him.
He should have been disturbed. It had been all I could do to restrain Morley, who wanted to bushwack the bunch and leave them floating in the river.
"Before you start," I told Vasco, "you'd better realize that I've got no special need for those women. I don't have any for Denny's papers, either. Which is why I'll make the trade."
"Where are the papers, Garrett?"
"Where are the women?"
"Right there. You can't see... ?"
"I don't see them on the boat. You don't get squat till I think it's too late for you to screw me over."
"Why would I do that?"
"I don't know. You haven't shown a lot of sense so far."
"You won't needle me into doing something stupid, Garrett."
"I don't have to. You do fine without me. Get those women over here." Master Arbanos was ready to cast off.
"What guarantee do I have that you're not cheating us?"
I ticked off points. "One: I always play these things straight. You know my reputation. Two: I don't need the papers for anything. Three: I know who you are, so I don't have to mess with you now. I can come for your head whenever I want it."
"Keep talking tough, Garrett. You'll get burned."
"Maybe you'll send Barbera after me?"
His mouth tightened even more. He jerked around, jumped to the wharf, gestured at his goons. They released the women. I waved them toward Sequin.
They came forward slowly. I guess they thought blood would fly any second.
Vasco stopped a few steps from the edge of the wharf. "So where are the papers, Garrett?"
I didn't have anything to say. He was still between me and the women. I just sort of looked around like a bored sightseer.
That's when I spotted the two guys from Morley's place, Big One and Ugly One. Not together, but both hanging around, relaxed, just part of the crowd eye-balling the goings-on.
I backed up a couple of steps like I was giving the gals room to jump aboard. I whispered down to Morley, who was crouched between onion sacks, "Take a peek at the guy sitting on the cotton bales."
"Give, Garrett," Vasco said.
I ignored him. The women had a few yards to go yet. Even Rose's sour face had begun to show some hope.
Master Arbanos began letting lines go.
Morley whispered, "I see him. What about him?"