“They didn’t tell me that they were going to break down the door like a murder squad. They said that they just wanted to talk to Knickknack about a business project.”
“Where. Are. They?” Olivia closed to just out of lunging distance and pointed the rifle directly at Jonnie’s face. She was aware that the marines had come to flank her but they didn’t have their weapons out. They must have thought she had the situation handled.
“I don’t know!” Jonnie shouted. “They were wussy off-world businessmen — the kind that walk around downtown in their stupid skinny-leg suits looking like dorky schoolboys. You know the type with the waxed-down hair, enough cologne to choke a cow, and their frat-boy rings. I know you know — I’ve seen them cruising Liberty Avenue in their town cars. I didn’t think they would have guns. I didn’t think they would hurt anyone. That was my honey pot. My hoes and my drugs. I wouldn’t have taken them there if I didn’t think they were harmless douchebags.”
“They’re the most dangerous of men,” Olivia said. “The ones that can do anything and walk away clean because people think they’re respectable ‘God-fearing’ men.”
“I thought they were safe or I wouldn’t have taken them to Toad’s,” Jonnie whined.
“Fine, we’ll pretend that you didn’t recognize the top of the food chain when you saw it,” Olivia said. “What did they want with Knickknack? What business project?”
“I didn’t ask. That’s not how it works. I provide what my customers want, no awkward questions asked. They’re here on visas; it’s a ticking clock. They don’t have time to figure shit out for themselves. If they want a bag of weed, I sell it to them. If they want a blonde in a tight red dress at their hotel room at eight, I set it up. Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“They told you something,” Olivia growled. “Why Knickknack?”
“They said they just wanted to talk to people who knew how to do magic like Tinker for a business project.” Jonnie laughed. “Like Tinker? Like Tinker? I told them that they were shit outta luck — the creature doesn’t exist. They offered me a bounty if I could produce someone to help them with their project, so I dug around. I told them about Oilcan but he dropped off the face of the planet just before the black willow tore up Reinhold’s. When he popped back up, he either had a dragon or a sekasha with him. I suggested Tooloo — she does some magic out of her store in McKees Rocks, but that didn’t pan out. Every time they went to see her, no one would be at her place except some crazy attack chicken. I even suggested that guy that makes the ironwood furniture but that got fucked up somehow. Then out of the blue, I stop by Toad’s to find out our little Knickknack is a freaking magical genius. He had printed a spell onto these ceramic plates that did some weird voodoo on the saijin seeds so they would grow.”
“You sold out Knickknack?” Toad growled.
“I thought they just wanted to hire him!” Jonnie said.
“Job interviews don’t include the recruiters kicking down your door,” Olivia said.
Jonnie shook his head. “The furniture guy made them jumpy. They wanted to be ready if someone else pulled a gun. I didn’t think they would do anything — they were afraid of a chicken, for Christ’s sake!”
“Who are ‘they’? Where do we find them?” Olivia said.
Jonnie looked away, obviously trying to decide if he could get away with lying. What a man-child.
“You’re going to hide from them the rest of your life?” Olivia asked.
“They found me anytime they wanted something,” Jonnie admitted in a low voice. “I don’t even know how they knew about me in the first place. First time I met them was about two years ago — they came to the station and were waiting by my truck when I got off work. I thought they were cops at first. It really spooked me; that’s why I moved my squat to this place. I didn’t think anyone knew where I lived. How did you find me?”
If Aoife could find Jonnie by asking the city, then anyone with the right connections could find him. They just needed the right name. Aoife and Gaddy came running around the corner with the last of the marines.
“They had all the goods on you and you didn’t even know who they worked for?” Olivia asked with disdain.
“They pay me not to ask.” Jonnie sulked. “That how it works. All I know is their company logo. They put it on everything.”
Jonnie pulled out a ballpoint pen. It was a big fat thing done in matte black, stamped with the golden image of a crowned lion’s head and the word Erobern. She’d seen the logo before, somewhere — maybe on the side of a delivery truck. It was familiar but she couldn’t place it.
Aiofe took the pen from Olivia. “Erobern is German. It means ‘conquer’ but I haven’t heard of any company using that name here in Pittsburgh. It’s possibly a company slogan.”
“They’ve got offices downtown,” Jonnie said. “But I’m not sure where. They just call it ‘the office’ but they’ve made it clear that I’m not to show up there.”
The company wouldn’t be holding whores hostage in their corporate offices. Being that Toad Hall was on the North Side and Joyboy had been found on the opposite bank, miles downriver, it was probable that they stopped along the way to dump Joyboy’s body.
“Does the company have anything downriver?” Olivia said. “Almost to the Rim?”
“Yeah,” Jonnie said as if he hadn’t expected the question. “They’ve got a shipyard down on Neville Island.”
“The old Dravo shipyards?” Gaddy said.
“You know where it is?” Olivia said.
“My grandfather worked for Dravo as a shipfitter until the nineteen eighties,” Gaddy said. “They hired him as a consultant after Startup to build ships to sell to the elves. There was a massive fire at the shipyard a few years after they launched their first boats. It gutted the place. I thought it closed for good after that.”
Jonnie shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it except they retooled the place a little while back and it was supposed to start up production again.”
“They might have Knickknack and the others there,” Olivia said.
They got Jonnie to the back of his pickup and left it to Toad to drive him to Mercy Hospital. Olivia took Jonnie’s phone and then made sure Toad understood that Jonnie wasn’t to be given access to any way of warning the kidnappers.
“We need to scout the area to ascertain the enemy force that is guarding the kids,” Olivia said.
“You really think they’re still alive?” Tommy asked.
“Yes,” Olivia said. “They probably didn’t set out to kill Joyboy; it feels like a random act triggered by an escalation of violence. Once Joyboy was dead, though, how do you get Knickknack to cooperate with you? You take hostages. If nothing else, they’re following the oni blueprint on how to get a working gate. Knickknack is a smart boy, he’s probably stalling in the most cooperative manner that he can.”
“He’s trying to actually build a gate?” Tommy asked with doubt clear in his voice.
“He’s making it look as if he is,” Olivia said. “He probably can’t but he’s not going to tell them that he can’t at this point.”
Tommy tilted his head as if to say, “It’s possible.”
Gaddy took out her map and spread it out on the tailgate of the cargo truck. “This is Neville Island. It’s largely abandoned; the shipyard was one of the last businesses down there still operating.” According to the map scale, the island was nearly five miles long. The narrow strip of land sat in the middle of the Ohio River. “I found Jevin’s body under this bridge across the back channel here. This notch here on the northern bank — that’s the ramp they use to slide the boats down into the river after they’re finished. The fire took out the buildings attached to the shipyard, so I’m not sure what’s there now.”