I might as well have had a signed confession. There are only three guys in TunFaire that good. Morley Dotes and I are two of them and Morley had no reason to skulk around behind me.
The other guy's name is Pokey Pigotta and he might even be better than we are. I've heard him accused of being half ghost.
Pokey is in the same line as me. Had Domina Dount hired him to keep an eye on her hired hand?
That seemed unlikely.
Who, then?
By then Pokey would have realized that I'd read his signature. He'd start trying to outguess me.
I resisted my impulse to play that game and call for him to join me. Silliness. Pokey Pigotta had conservative views of what constituted his obligations to a client.
To hell with it, I figured. I headed for Morley's Place.
I went in the front door and straight around the bar. The surprised night barman just gawked as I shoved through the door to the kitchen. The rutabaga butchers stopped work and stared. I strolled through like a royal prince assessing the provincials. "Very good, my man. Very good. You. Let's have a little more thought to portion control. That what-ever-it-is is sliced too thick."
I made it to the storeroom before the peasants rose and lynched me. The storeroom led me directly to the back door, which I used. I did a quick sprint down the alley and up the side lane to the corner in time to watch the front door swing shut behind Pokey.
Good.
He had decided that since I wasn't going to play games, he wasn't going to either. He'd just trudge after me, not bothering to sneak. And that might suit his client fine, since it would inhibit my more surreptitious ventures.
I watched the door close and grinned, recapturing a view of the customers as I trotted through. It couldn't have been choreographed more beautifully.
"Suckered you, Pokey," I murmured, and ran for the door. He had scanned the lay and turned to leave. He was a tall guy, without much meat on him—all bones and angles and skin so pale you'd have thought the breed half of him was vampire. He tended to make strangers very nervous.
"Sucked you in this time, Pokey." I peeked over his shoulder.
Saucerhead Tharpe was up and coming, hiding his infirmities well. I had no idea what the hell he was doing there but I was glad to see him.
Pokey shrugged. "I blew one."
"What you up to, Pokey?"
"You say something, Garrett? I been having trouble with my ears."
Saucerhead arrived. "What's up, Garrett?" Every eye in the place was on our get-together.
"Me and Pokey was just headed up to see Morley. I finally got a lead on those fellows you had the run-in with the other day. You're welcome to sit in." I gestured. Pokey surrendered to the inevitable, comfortably certain that I wanted nothing from him badly enough to make an enemy. I would have seen it the same if our roles had been reversed.
I followed Pokey. Saucerhead followed me. All eyes followed us up the stairs. Morley, of course, was expecting us.
"So what do you want to do with him?" Morley asked.
"Since he won't want to say why he's dogging me or who's paying him, I don't know whether to let him tag along or not. So, better safe than sorry. He's got to go into storage."
"How long?"
"A day, maybe."
"Pokey?"
"Sitting or following, it all pays the same."
Morley thought for half a minute, then told one of his boys, "Blood, you want to politely collect Mr. Pigotta's effects and put them on the table here?"
Pokey endured it. I knew how he felt. I'd been through it several times myself.
Morley stirred through the take, which included a lot of silver. He examined one piece. "Temple coinage."
I took one. Private mintage, all right. The same as the tenth mark I found on that farm.
"Tell you something?" Morley asked.
"Yeah. Who he isn't working for." Domina Dount never had anything but gold.
So who?
"Put him away," I told Morley. "There's things to talk about and decide and maybe do, and it's late already."
"Blood. The root cellar. Gently and politely. Consider him a guest under restraint."
"Yes, Mr. Dotes."
_____XXXI ______
Morley removed his troops from the room. With just two witnesses Saucerhead relaxed and betrayed how uncomfortable he really was. I spent a minute or two telling him what a dope he was. He didn't argue. He didn't go home to bed, either. Morley told me, "Only thing my boys have told me that you probably don't know is that Junior daPena's body got taken to the crematorium by the Dount woman on her way over to your place. I assume you know he did himself in?"
"I know. Only he didn't kill himself. He had a lot of help from his friends."
"You have that gleam in your eye, Garrett. Does that mean you know who did it?"
"Yep. And one of them was an ogre breed named Skredli, and it just happened that a Skredli was involved in Junior's so-called kidnapping—and most likely in the attack on Saucerhead and Amiranda. And this Skredli runs with a character named Gorgeous, who sounds like he's some double-ugly... What's up, Morley?"
"Gorgeous? You did say Gorgeous?"
"Yeah. You know him?"
"Not personally. I know of him."
"I don't like that look in your eye."
"Then look at the wall or something while you tell us about it."
While I talked, Saucerhead sat nodding to himself. I pretty much opened the bag and dumped it. Morley got out paper and pen and ink and started doodling. When I closed the sack up, Morley said, "The Donni Pell trick is like the hub of a wheel. You have connections between her and everyone but the Dount woman. You can't tell about the Crest woman, but you can assume she knew who Donni was since she was good friends with Junior. This Donni is the key. Let's see if we can't lay hands on her."
I exchanged looks with Saucerhead. "The man is a genius, isn't he? Think he's figured out that she's the next one who'll come floating belly up? If the hard boys are nervous enough to cut the son of Raver Styx ..."
Morley said, "I think the next casualty will be a guy called Gorgeous. Though maybe I'm wrong." He still had that look.
"Why?" Saucerhead asked. Always direct, friend Waldo.
"Tell me about Gorgeous. I've never heard of him."
"You ought to keep up better, Garrett. He's important."
"I'm trying. If you'll get to it."
"Sure. He hasn't been around long. His real name is Conrad Staley. He came from HasefBro after the kingpin checked out, figuring it was a good time to cut himself a piece of the big city. He's human but he's so damned mean and ugly he ranks with ogres. He brought his own gang to start but I hear most have gone back since he's found local recruits. Keeping the old base secure.
There was a hot feud for a while with Chodo Contague but they sorted it out. Gorgeous got Ogre Town. He pays a percentage to keep it in peace. Chodo doesn't want a war because he's having trouble keeping his own people in line."
Chodo Contague was the thug who had taken over as kingpin after the old kingpin's demise. He was more powerful than most of the lords of the Hill, though he lived in the shadows.
"Anything we do that involves Gorgeous, Chodo is going to have to approve." Morley was moving toward the door now. "It could mean war. You guys sit tight. If you need anything, tell them downstairs. I'll be back in a couple hours."
"Where the hell are you going?" I asked.
"To talk to Chodo." He was out.
"You wondering what I'm wondering, Garrett?"
"I'm not wondering, Saucerhead. I know."