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and got involved with the Bledsoe. Bet you he s been stealing from the
hospital and the Hill place both.
Now get this. One day along come Crask and Sadler with a tale about Chodo
and his little girl. Cleaver eats it up. This is what he s been waiting for.
This is his big chance to get back into the big time in the big town. But
there s a loose end: Emerald Jenn. She s in the city. A runaway. She knows the
truth about Maggie Jenn and Grange Cleaver. And she ll tell it.
Morley and Saucerhead looked like they were having trouble grasping it. Why?
It wasn t hard.
So Cleaver tries to set up an operation here, and nobody signs on because
they know about Chodo s old grievance. Except Winger. And she starts wondering
what s what. But she smells a chance to score. When Cleaver mentions he wants
to look for the girl without it being obvious it s him looking, Winger drops
some hints about me, figuring to use me somehow. Cleaver puts on his Maggie
Jenn face and hires me, only I mess up by letting it drop that I was warned
Maggie was coming. He smells a rat inside his outfit. Who it is doesn t click
right away. Being a good actor, he doesn t have any trouble staying in
character long enough for me to finish up at the Hill place. Soon as I m gone,
though, he takes off for his headquarters and sets it up to get rid of me.
He ll get somebody else to look for the girl.
Winger hears him sending his men out. She realizes it won t be long before
he figures out who told me he was coming. She grabs anything she can carry and
takes off. She helps me get away from the Bledsoe.
She gives me a double ration of bullshit when I ask her what s really going
on. She still thinks she can make a big score, so now she s staying away from
me.
Sarge brought tea while I theorized. Morley poured, sipped, grimaced.
Evidently the tea hadn t been brewed from anything off a tea bush. Big
surprise. They serve nothing normal there.
Dotes was distracted. He was listening, but every time the door opened he
lost his concentration. Still, he d remained attentive enough to observe,
Your hypothesis doesn t contradict any of the known facts.
Hell, I know that. I made it up. But? I can tell you have a but.
Couple of them. You don t contradict any known facts, but you don t account
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for everything that s been happening around you. And you ve done a feeble job
of examining Cleaver s motives.
What? Wait. Whoa. You just lost me.
Chodo s kid shirked any of the duties of a kingpin?
Hardly. Ice and iron. I had the gashes and frostbite to prove it.
Exactly. So whatever Crask and Sadler might claim, being here is a major
risk for Cleaver. I ve identified the pro who s dogging you. His name is
Cleland Justin Carlyle. He s a specialist assigned to watch you. You get three
guesses why. Only the first counts.
I nodded. And, wonder of wonders, C.J. was never seen in these parts before
I mentioned the name Grange Cleaver to my pal Morley Dotes, once said pal
failed to meet up with Cleaver his own self.
Morley shrugged, which was as good as a confession.
He had no regrets. He never looked back and seldom apologized. He saw no need
to apologize now. He asked, What s Winger s angle?
I don t know. I doubt that it matters. She probably doesn t know what she s
doing herself, she just wants to keep the pot boiling till she finds a way to
score.
Morley slew a pity smile a-borning.
You know something I don t?
No. You re ahead of me. Though you do seem to be late catching on to an
essential point.
Really? What?
That Winger lied about everything. Right from the beginning. That not one
word she said can be counted on to be true. That anything that comes from her
should be thrown out altogether.
Oh. Yeah. I knew that.
I knew it now. Now that I looked at it. Forget everything Winger said. Sure.
49
I conned Puddle into doing you a favor, Garrett, Morley told me. I didn t
ask; I just waited for the inevitable wisecrack.
He fooled me again. The crack didn t come. Uhm?
I had a feeling you wouldn t get around to Quefours.
Puddle scare him up?
Morley nodded.
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Waste of time, right?
Puddle s still sulking.
What s the story?
Quefours hasn t seen the girl for eight months. His choice. He broke it off
because she wouldn t play his way. Made her sound prudish.
And Quefours doesn t have the ghost of a notion where to find her now.
Right?
Wrong.
Huh? I ve always had a knack for witty repartee.
He said dig around among the witchcraft community. The girl is looking for
something. His notion was you should start with the blackest black magicians.
That was where she was headed when they split. Dotes appended a big nasty
smile.
You saying Cleaver framed her with the truth?
Maybe just to get you headed in the right direction. More teeth. He had to
have about two hundred. Looked like he d been filing them again, too. Thought
you d get a kick out of that.
A kick in the butt. It just got more confusing. I started to get up.
Hey! Saucerhead growled. You told me . . .
Feed this beast, Morley. Something cheap. Like alfalfa.
Where are you going?
I opened my mouth to tell him and realized that I didn t know.
Like that? Then why not just go home? Lock your doors. Get comfortable.
Read. Wait for Dean. Forget Grange Cleaver and Emerald Jenn.
I responded with my most suspicious look.
You got your advance, didn t you? This Jenn chit sounds like she can take
care of herself.
Answer me one answer, Morley. Why did she run away from home? Might be
important if the whole thing had to do with a missing kid after all.
There are as many reasons for going as there are children running.
But they mostly boil down to a perceived need to escape parental control. I
don t know enough about Emerald. I don t know enough about her mother. Their
relationship is a mystery.
What did I just recommend? Don t keep gnawing on it, Garrett. You don t have
any reason. You don t need any more grief. Turn loose. Spend some money. Spend
some time with Chastity.
What?
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Gods preserve us, Saucerhead muttered. He stopped attacking his dinner long
enough to sneer, He s got that look, ain t he?
Got what look?
Morley told me, The dumb stubborn look you get when you re about to jump
into something without a reason even you understand.
About to? I ve been in it four days.
And now you re out because you know it was a game that didn t take. You did
your usual stumbling around and knocked over everybody s apple carts. Now it s
over. You re out. You re safe as long as you don t go around irritating
people. Consider it a phenomenon. You don t go charging around like a lunatic
trying to find out why if it happens to rain live frogs for three minutes in
the Landing. Do you?
But . . . But that was different.
There s no need to find the girl now. Not for her sake, which is the thing
that would bug you.
Garrett! I jumped. I hadn t expected Saucerhead to horn in. Everybody in
the place stared at him. He told me, He s making sense. So listen up. Nothing
I heared about this makes me think these folks re really worried about the
kid.
He s making sense, I admitted. Morley always makes sense.
Dotes gave me a hard look. But?
I m butting no buts. I mean it. You re dead on the mark. There s no
percentage messing with this anymore.
Morley eyeballed me like he believed me so surely he wanted to wrap me in
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