“We think,” Rhiow said, “perhaps a murder.”
Is that so.
Rhiow looked up in surprise at the sudden intense interest in the Silent Man’s voice. His eyes were on her, and they were suddenly much more alert than they had been.
“It’s early to tell, yet,” Urruah said from where he’d fallen in beside Rhiow. “Always a mistake to start theorizing before you’ve finished examining the evidence carefully….”
The Silent Man smiled. Another student of the Master, he said. Well, this makes the spot we’re about to visit a little more interesting.
“Why?” Rhiow said.
But the Silent Man just shook his head as they crossed Orchid. Rhiow wasn’t given much time to press the issue, for as they came up onto the curb of the far corner, Urruah stood stock still for a moment at something he saw…then broke into a run. Tourists and business people and casual strollers on that sidewalk looked with surprise or amusement at the big gray tabbythat ran helter-skelter down among them, stopping in front of what seemed from this end of the street to be some kind of big empty plaza. Urruah stood staring into that space as intently as if it were some kind of delicatessen.
The Silent Man glanced down at Rhiow, a wry look. Tell me he’s a film fan, he said, in the tone of an ehhif now prepared to believe just about anything.
“There are a fair number of us,” Hwaith said. “More than you might suspect…”
The Silent Man reached up to rub Sheba behind the ears as they walked after Urruah. Now why in the world would you be interested in the movies?
“Because we appreciate a good story as much as you do,” Hwaith said. “Even when it’s full of all that boring human stuff.”
The Silent Man looked just briefly nonplussed. And the glance Hwaith threw Rhiow then was so wicked that, despite her concerned mood, she still had to stifle a laugh. She was still working at retaining her composure by the time they all caught up with Urruah, or rather, with the spot where he had been standing.
There before them lay a wide space filled with strange differently-colored patches of concrete. Curved walls decorated with fanciful-looking flowery sculptures embraced this forecourt on either side, ending in two archways peaked with odd prickly-topped towers; each was sheathed in greened copper, and flared up into peculiar spiky crowns. At the rear of the concrete-filled plaza were bronze doors guarded by a couple of huge statues of what Rhiow at first took to be houiff— though there was something leonine about them as well, so that she was strangely reminded of the statues of Hhu’au and Sef outside the New York Public Library. Above the doors, done on a huge plaque of gray stone, was a massive curling carving of some kind of fireworm; and above it all, borneup on coral-colored columns, rose yet another high sloping copper roof with yet more spiky ironmongery cornices at the corners.
Rhiow looked around for Urruah, expecting to see him amongst the ehhif tourists, dawdling among the footprints he’d told her about earlier. But he was out of sight.
“Sidled,” Hwaith said over her shoulder. He was right: a moment later, Rhiow caught sight of Urruah under one of the huge dog-beasts, the one on the left-hand side of the doors. He had his head down, sniffing at the concrete, and his striped tail jerked once or twice as if in distaste. Then Urruah straightened, sneezed, and turned to walk back to the waiting group.
“Blood,” Urruah said to Rhiow, and looked up thoughtfully at the Silent Man. “Ehhif blood. Absolutely no mistaking it.”
The Silent Man nodded slowly. About two weeks ago, he said. It was the middle of the night when they found the body. The management were keen to cover it up. They were worried it’d be bad for business.
“Two weeks would match the dating on the merely physical scent,” Urruah said. He looked at Arhu.
Arhu, though, had his ears back in what for him was a rather uneasy expression: and he looked over at Rhiow.“Rhi, I’d rather not do an in-depth search here right now. I’d be nervous that whatever was starting to pay attention to me a few minutes ago might have more of its attention drawn here. That could make trouble for us later.”
“And he’s tired,” Siffha’h said, and bristled at Urruah. “Leave it till later.”
“Wait a minute, I’m not that tired! It’s just that – “
Siffha’h cuffed Arhu in the head, claws in. “Don’t give me that! Didn’t you just tell me that – “
“Never mind what I told you, would you just stop mommying me?”
“It’s not mommying to – “
The yowling, quiet as it was, was beginning to draw amused looks from some of the ehhif around.“Arhu,” Rhiow said. “Sif. Enough.”
Fortunately they knew that tone of voice, and stopped. Both of them immediately sat down and started washing, though in different directions.
Maybe we need a break, the Silent Man said. I promised you folks lunch. How about it, babe? He reached up again to rub Sheba behind the ears.
Sheba reached out and patted his cheek with one paw.“Did he just say the food word?” she said. “Tell him we should go to the place with the wooden back room and the table with the window!”
Rhiow passed this on. The Silent Man grinned. She’s got taste, he said. Let’s go back the way we came. It’s a few blocks further on: we don’t need the car.
He led the way at a brisk walk: and all the People fell in behind him at a trot, amused by the attention of the ehhif they passed, but refusing to acknowledge it. Rhiow, behind the Silent Man, glanced over at Urruah as he caught up with her.“Don’t say it,” he said.
“What?”
“I was fanboying.”
“For the ten seconds you spent over it,” Rhiow said, “not Aaurh Herself could have chastised you. So I was hardly going to start.” She glanced down Orchid as they crossed it and made their way past the Hollywood Hotel again. “Besides, I felt sorry for you.”
He looked at her in surprise.“What? Why?”
“Well, the circumstances weren’t exactly optimal, were they? The first time you see this place in the flesh, and you have to be all business? You’d have liked to get right down and roll around on that concrete, all over those famous ehhifs’ pawprints. Don’t deny it.”
His whiskers were twitching.“Well…” he said.
Hwaith had come up on Rhiow’s other side: he glanced over at Urruah. “When we’ve got our business sorted out,” he said, “we’ll come back here and I’ll introduce you to the backstage crowd.” He put his whiskers forward. “And the queens.”
Urruah gave him a sidelong look.“Thought I caught a few ladies’ scents up front…”
Rhiow walked a little slower and let the two toms drift ahead together to talk shop: though she didn’t miss the glance Hwaith threw her way as she dropped back. A nice young tom, she thought, mulling over again what he’d mentioned about the loss of his mentor. I guess I see why he might have seemed a little nervous to start with…especially with the circumstances being, again, not exactly optimal. But he’s working in all right. She paused, as the others did, at the corner of Highland and Hollywood: in front of them, as Siffha’h’s tail flirted idly, the lights changed with near-unseemly haste.
Across the road they started passing more normal-looking buildings than the concrete-forecourted theater and the histrionic hotel. Shops and stores, the occasional granite-faced bank; and then suddenly, without warning, the smell of roasted meat occurred as they came up to a wooden storefront with square-paned windows. Rhiow’s mouth began to water as the Silent Man opened the door and held it for the People to walk in.
I will not run, I will not run, Rhiow thought: but she didn’t loiter, either. Inside the door it was very dark and cool, compared to the rapidly warming day outside: and everything smelled of meat, and fish, and smoke. The floor was of wood, and all the walls were paneled, with rows of tables and benches covered in red leather, and a counter down the right-hand side. Just in front of where the Silent Man stood was a wooden podium, and behind it stood a tall balding ehhif in a suit.