Tommy knew that Jonnie sold drugs in Oakland to college students but Jonnie was a cowardly little shit. He’d run back to Pittsburgh because he couldn’t take being a little fish in a big pond.
“He knew about the saijin in the basement?” Tommy guessed.
Toad nodded unhappily. “I needed to get seeds off of Jonnie to grow it. I tried once or twice before I got Knicknack to help me with the planters. I knew the elves would pay dear for it — or the college students trapped on Elfhome who are desperate for any kind of escape. It’s a sweet trip — breathe it in and it’s all good. Jonnie, though, is like duct tape; it’s nearly impossible to peel him off once he gets stuck to you. He’d show up with little bribes to get in the door. Hash brownies. Moonshine. Whippets. If you passed out while partying with him, though, you would wake up royally used. It didn’t matter who you were. He’d poke himself in any unprotected hole. I think the only one of us that he hadn’t screwed was Knickknack. At least Jonnie is superhot, so most of us don’t mind. Much. The whole reason he comes here — a house full of illegal immigrants — is that we can’t do shit if we’re pissed off that he rapes us while we’re passed out.”
They could kill the bastard. Tommy knew it was easy for him to consider killing someone but in truth it wasn’t so simple. His aunts and cousins needed Tommy to secretly kill the worst of Lord Tomtom’s warriors who used them too roughly. Only Tommy could quietly kill an adult male oni and ditch the body without getting caught.
“You’re saying Jonnie was responsible for this?” Tommy pointed to the pool of blood.
Toad nodded for a few seconds, like once he started, he couldn’t stop. “I wasn’t here. I mean, I was here when it started but I got out. I’m not sure what happened after I left. I heard gunshots and I just kept running.”
“Who was here when you ran?”
“Everyone. It’s all been so crazy. The Wyverns going house to house, finding hidden oni that they chop up and leave stacked on the sidewalk. Your surly neighbor turns out to be from another planet that you never heard of. Giant dragons fighting wooden attack helicopters. Where the hell did the elves get those? Then one night none of your people showed up to work Liberty Avenue. It was like your entire stable dropped off the face of the planet. It was just us with no idea what happened to Motoko and Babe and all your girls. We freaked out. We packed up for the night and went home, scared shitless. If something took out your stable, what was going to happen to us? Knickknack was out all night, asking around, trying to find out what happened to you. No one knew anything.”
Mokoto and Babe had been busy alongside Bingo, shifting their people to the William Penn Hotel after the Wyverns raided their old warren. They had sat tight, waiting to find out if Tommy could clear their name by finding Jewel Tear. That had taken him days and he returned just hours before the train derailment. His family had stayed hidden until he’d managed to rescue Oilcan and help kill Iron Mace and Chloe Polanski. Sometime during that time, the Undefended had been attacked. September had been hotter than normal but based on the smell, the blood pool had been festering at least a day.
“How long ago were you attacked?” Tommy said.
“Night before last,” Toad said. “It was getting to be the time that we normally head to Liberty Avenue. None of us had made any money since your stable disappeared. We were trying to decide if it was safe. Me and Knickknack didn’t think it was a good idea but the girls have us outnumbered and they’re all into elves like you can’t believe. They act like the royal marines are a candy shop on feet. Personally I’m not into heavily armed redheads.
“While we were hashing it out, Jonnie suddenly showed up. He rang the doorbell and was yelling for us to let him in. There was something weird about it; he was being too loud and too pushy. Usually he’s all careful to be nice until he’s in the door and we’re all high as a kite. What’s more, Jonnie kept going, ‘Hey, Knickknack, are you in there?’ like they were best friends or something. There’s a good reason why Knickknack is the only one of us that Jonnie hasn’t screwed over: He really hates the man. What Jonnie didn’t know was that Knickknack had put a camera up on the roof so we could see the entire street. Jonnie had a bunch of guys with him. Big guys. I was like, ‘Run! Hide!’ and I took off. Before I could even get out the back door, I heard Joyboy shouting insults at Jonnie. The stupid little boi bitch! The front door got kicked in. Everyone was screaming. Then there were gunshots. I just ran.”
The invaders had taken the dead body, everyone who witnessed the murder, and everything in Knickknack’s room — but not the drugs. It had to mean that Knickknack had been the target of the raid.
Downstairs, the front door creaked open and several people entered the house, their bootsteps echoing up the stairwell.
Tommy whispered a curse. In cornering Toad on the second floor, he’d cornered himself. The stairs were the only exit but the newcomers were already in the foyer at the bottom of the steps. Tommy’s father could have clouded the mind of a full army, but Tommy could only control one person completely. With each added person, his ability frayed.
“No! No!” a female cried out in Elvish from the street. Her voice got louder as she neared the front door. Her Elvish was really bad, marking her as possibly a human, possibly someone from off-world. “You just can’t walk into someone’s house.”
“The door has been broken down,” a male with a Fire Clan accent replied in fluent Elvish. “There might be hostiles inside — stay back.”
All the Wyverns had gone east with Prince True Flame. The only Fire Clan elves in the city were royal marines. Judging by the number of heavy bootsteps downstairs, an entire squad had just flooded into the house. Were they searching the North Side for hidden oni again? All they were going to find was Tommy.
None of the windows on the second floor were open, despite the oppressive heat of the last month. It probably meant they were all painted shut. Had there been windows open on the third floor? Could Tommy get to the third floor unseen? Maybe, if he shoved Toad down the steps as a distraction.
“Why is this room filled with balls?” a male voice asked. By the sound, the elf had stepped into the thigh-deep sea of balls that took up the front room.
“Eeewww, so much garbage!” a third female voice from deep in the kitchen called out in Elvish. “Look at all the dirty dishes! Are we sure this is a human’s house? This looks like that oni whelping pen!”
Someone open and closed the refrigerator several times before a male voice called out, “Does the light in the cold box stay on all the time?”
“Wait! Just wait!” the woman said. “We can’t just dance into people’s homes. Someone might still be home! Hello? Peanut? Chardonnay? Hello?”
“Who is that?” Toad whispered as if Tommy should know.
“Dance?” A male echoed the woman in a puzzled tone. “We are not dancing. Are you sure that you’re saying that right?”
“Is that Red?” Toad whispered and then called out before Tommy could stop him, “Red? Is that you?”
Mokoto had showed Tommy a picture of Red. She had been the tall, busty redhead who showed up at Poppymeadows during his meeting with Oilcan, surprisingly pretty and young to be a streetwalker. What was the name that she used? Olive Branch? It wasn’t her real name but it was probably safer to call her Olive Branch than use the nickname that she used as a whore.
Tommy had watched Tinker and Oilcan grow up at the racetrack. He’d known them enough to trust them. He didn’t know Olive Branch. He didn’t even know her real name. He didn’t trust her. With twenty marines at her beck and call, though, he couldn’t hide. He made sure his catlike ears were covered before the first marine reached the top of the stairs.