Huh? “All right. Go on.”
“Well, right away I found six times when what it was, it was kitchen accidents. Grease fires. And with the other cases, almost every time they was a ordinary explanation. What’re you doing to that guy?”
“Rolling him. Chuckles thinks he has something in his pocket.”
Singe, pandering to our freeloaders, asked, “How is the new girlfriend?”
Color appeared in Tharpe’s cheeks.
I said, “Huh?”
Far be it from me to discourage a man, however hopeless. I did not pursue it now, though I did wonder how Saucerhead had found time to get involved with another woman. “So most of the supposed… what did you call them? Human combustions?”
“Yeah. Spontaneous human combustion. It’s sorcerer talk.”
Really? We’d look at that later. “So most weren’t what rumors make them out to be.”
“Nope. They was some that there wasn’t no explanation for, though. I got the feeling some more could be explained if somebody can work themselves up to admit that they done something really stupid. But, even so, some has got to be them spontaneous human combustions.“
“Including Buy Claxton?”
“Who?”
“The woman who caught fire during Chodo’s birthday party.”
“I don’t know nothin’ about her. I didn’t look at her. But she was in a kitchen when it happened, wasn’t she? What did you find?”
I’d found a little green egg in Big Boy’s pocket. A dead ringer for the one on my curio shelf. Interesting. Some secret mutual identification charm for members of A-Laf’s gang?
My partner could root that out.
“How many cases?”
“Seven that need a closer look on account of they all involved Chodo.”
“Ah. Ah?”
“Chodo owned the places where the fires happened. Some of the other ones, too, but in these ones Chodo was there.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Not hardly. You’re my favorite turd.”
“Saucerhead. We’re in mixed company here.”
“As mixed as it gets, I’d say.”
“Talk to me about Chodo’s part.”
“He was there. Every time. Hang on. I might be misspeaking. Somebody in a wheeled chair was there before the fires happened. But not when the bodies was found.”
At this point Saucerhead’s marvelous legwork petered out. Meaning there might yet be legwork reserved for me.
I went through the other Ymberian’s pockets. He didn’t have his own roc’s egg. He did come equipped with a little teak box. Inside: “One of them metal dogs.” Frost formed on it. Despair hit like a kick in the gilhoolies. Whispers of darkness filled my head. I just managed to shut the box. “Whoa! That was ugly.”
Saucerhead and John Stretch were glassy-eyed, with Tharpe smitten harder than the ratman. Cutlery hit the floor in the kitchen. A-Laf’s boys didn’t react. Because the Dead Man had frozen up. Those he controlled had followed his lead.
Old Bones had taken the psychic equivalent of a punch to the breadbasket. He huffed and puffed, on the mental side, getting his balance back.
“That was some bad shit,” Saucerhead rumbled, shivering. “How about you don’t open that friggin’ box no more?”
“You got a deal, buddy.”
55
The situation improved once those of us who weren’t guests of the Crown surrounded a few beers. I told John Stretch, “You’ve been quiet.”
“As a mouse.” A joke? “My mouth has been full.”
“You got a point. It’s not full now, though. What’s up?”
“We have located your lawyer.”
“What?” I chomped down on Harvester Temisk’s name in a moment of paranoia. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“I just did. And your partner has known since my arrival.” John Stretch no longer seemed intimidated. “There is no need for haste.”
It was night out and winter out and the Dead Man wasn’t excited about getting something done right away. Maybe it could wait.
Saucerhead reminded me, “Chodo don’t move so fast and light no more, Garrett. I figure, wherever the mouthpiece has got him stashed, that’s where he’ll stay till he gets flushed out.”
“That’s the common wisdom now? That Temisk kidnapped him at Whitefield Hall?”
“Ain’t no better theory ever come up. Some folks even wonder if the Green Pants guys wasn’t just a diversion for to cover his getaway.”
Interesting theory. “And, flushes him?” What? I felt an idea trying to be born. Kolda. Yeah. And my late bout with herbal poisoning. “Hey. Old Bones. What’re the chances Belinda’s been poisoning her old man? Temisk might be trying to get him straight.”
Ifso, the woman is more clever than we credit. She has been here many times, betraying only her ongoing complicity in profiting from her father’s misfortune. In the financial and emotional senses alike.
There may be substance to your speculation, however. If other parties had regular access.
“Didn’t Merry say Rory has somebody inside?”
Interesting. Yes. Let me reflect on the possibilities.
“It would explain some stuff. You sure I shouldn’t hit the bricks right now?”
You are not yet recovered.
John Stretch said, “My people will keep watch.”
That wasn’t reassuring. Ratfolk are notorious for cashing in on anything salable. The whereabouts of the kingpin might be the most marketable commodity in TunFaire today.
John Stretch tried to reassure me. “My watchers do not know who they have staked out. They believe we are watching a burglary ring whose plunder hoard we intend to convert to our own advantage. They know only that they are to inform me who goes in and out.”
This ratguy was a natural. Dangerously bright. “Can you track somebody to their next hideout in this weather?”
“Singe can.”
I was skeptical.
Your anxiety is understandable, Garrett. And not misplaced. But you must regain strength. You are not yet capable of an extended journey, let alone physical excitement.
“If John Stretch can find them, so can Rory or Teacher.” Chodo had had friends on the Hill. No doubt Rory Sculdyte did, too. Those people and Syndicate bosses are sides of the same coin, down in their bloody, greedy black hearts.
And there are countless low-talent, self-taught storefront and street-corner magicians. Not all of them are charlatans.
“Good work, all,” I said. “What do I owe you, Saucerhead? After deductions for food and beer?”
“What? You got no sense of hospitality. I wouldn’t never try to charge you if you was a guest at my place.”
“How do I know that? I don’t even know where you live.”
Saucerhead showed me one of his professional hard-guy looks. It didn’t take. After a pause, he said, “Singe paid me.”
“If I go get in line now, a place might open up in the workhouse before I’m completely destitute.”
“I wish I was half as bad off as you’re always poor-mouthing. I’d have to go live on the street.”
I could see how. Saucerhead comes equipped with low expectations and a knack for showing up at suppertime.
John Stretch told me, “The stewed apples and Weider’s Select are compensation enough for me.” He had to work at “compensation.”
I nodded but thought, “Not good.” What insanity would the rat king drag me into if I stumbled into his favor-for-a-favor universe?
That kind of nightmare had me chasing Chodo now.
The Dead Man suggested, You all should turn in for the night. Garrett, I will generate a distraction that will allow you to leave unnoticed in the morning. Mr. Tharpe. We have further need of your services.