Bitter Gold Hearts

______ XVI ______

I didn't get there as quickly as I'd planned, though the delay lasted only a few seconds. Going down the Hill, I realized that I'd picked up a tail. It didn't take long to discover it was my friend Bruno from the tavern.

Why was he on me?

Five minutes later I knew he was alone. It was personal. I had hurt his feelings and now he felt a need to hurt mine. I stepped into an areaway when I came to one I knew would suit my purpose. I found a shadow and got into it. He came charging in a few seconds later, apparently wanting to take advantage of my stupidity. But when he got there, he saw nothing. He started cursing.

"But you mustn't blame the gods. All is not lost, Bruno. I'm right here." I stepped out of the shadows. He was too mad for preliminaries. He tucked in his chin and came after me.

I was in no mood for ego games myself. His first swing I tapped his wrist with my weighted stick. Then I whacked an elbow, putting one arm out of commission. Then I let him set himself up and dropped a couple of good thumps on his noggin. After he was down I put him in the shadows so the street kids wouldn't find and strip him before he woke up. I doubted he would appreciate the courtesy. I hoped he wasn't so stubbornly stupid one of us would have to get killed to end whatever was going on.

Lettie's place was into the lull that comes between the businesslike gentlemen of the afternoon and the revelers of night. I got past the thug at the door without trouble. He didn't know me.

I found Lettie where you always find her, in the back room counting the take. She was a grotesquely obese female of mixed but uncertain antecedents who made the Dead Man look slim, trim, and able to run like a deer.

"Garrett. You son of a bitch. How the hell did you get in here?"

"The sorcery of feet. I put on my magic boots and walked. You're looking as lovely as ever, Lettie."

"And you're just as full of camel guano. What the hell do you want?"

I tried to look hurt by her remarks. "All right," she snarled. "Out you go." I clinked coins and showed the face of a dead king on a gold double mark. "I thought the motto of the house was no paying customer is ever turned away."

Gold was talking big talk in TunFaire these days. She eyed the coin. "What do you want?" "Not what. Who. Her name is Donni Pell." Lettie's eyes narrowed, hardened. "Shit. You would. You can't have her."

"I know you don't like me, and we'll never run off to become shopkeepers and raise babies together, but when did you ever let personal feelings get in the way of making money?"

"When I was thirteen years old and in the middle of my first big love affair. That's got nothing to do with it, Garrett. I can't sell you merchandise that I don't have in stock."

"She's not here?"

"You figured it out. With a brain like yours, why do you keep that heap of blubber in your front room?"

"Sentiment. And it keeps him off the streets. Where did Donni go?"

"You want her bad, don't you?" "I want to see her. Don't try to hold me up, Lettie. You've got employees who'll tell me for silver."

"Goddamned human nature. You would, wouldn't you? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have Leo come in here and twist your face around so you're looking out the back of your head."

"This little crumb that fell from the sun." I flashed the double mark.

"All right. You win, Garrett. What do you want?" "She's gone, so the why, the when, the how, and the where. Then tell me about Donni Pell the person." "The why is she got hold of a bunch of money. And that's the how, too. She came in here three, four nights ago and bought out her contract. Not that she was in very deep. She said a rich uncle up north died and left her a fortune. Bull. If you ask me, she got her hooks into some half-wit off the Hill. She had the looks and manners and style for it. She claimed she was off to take over managing the uncle's manor. More bull. She couldn't survive without platoons of men around."

I raised the old eyebrow. Lettie liked me when I did my trick. I used it as often as O could.

"That woman was a freak, Garrett. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them hate men. She loved what she was doing. If she hadn't been selling it, she would have been giving as much away for free."

"A working girl who enjoyed her work? Unusual. She must have brought the clients in."

"In herds. I wish I had a hundred like her. Even if she was a pervert."

I gave her a glimpse at the other eyebrow.

"You know in this business you got to be tolerant and understanding, Garrett. But it stretches tolerance and surpasses understanding when a perfectly beautiful young human woman prefers ogres for playmates. Even ogre women don't want anything to do with those creeps. I'd let a vampire or wolf man in this place before I'd open my door to an ogre."

She was going good so I let her rant, using up her hostility on a target other than me, just once throwing in, "Well, there are the sexual myths," just to make sure she got all the venom spent.

"Bullshit. That's all bullshit, Garrett. You're talking to an expert, Garrett." And on she raved.

She wound down. I placed the double mark squarely in front of her. "That about the ogres was worth this. Come up with something more and you might get to see some of the old king's ancestors."

Her eyes narrowed. "It's murder, isn't it, Garrett? And a heavyweight client. I know that look. The paladin look. You're after somebody's head. You dumb, boy, you keep playing with the life takers."

"I'm after a hooker named Donni Pell who might be able to tell me something I need to know."

"You got the works already, Garrett. All I can give you for your money now is a kiss for luck."

"Background her. Her people. You know them all. How long was she here? Where did she come from?"

"She don't have any people. They died in the plague four years ago. That's why I didn't believe the story about the uncle. She was here for about three years. Sometimes more trouble than she was worth on account of stunts she pulled on her Johns. She didn't tell a lot about herself but lies, like all the rest, but I usually get their real stories out of them on the bad nights."

"I know you do."

"Her people were country folk with a good-sized freehold up around Litchfield somewhere."

I muttered, "I'll bet I could go right to it without missing a turn."

"What?"

"Nothing. That chip looks lonely sitting there by itself. What more can you tell me about Donni?"

"You got the load, Garrett." She reached for the coin.

"What about Raver Styx's men folk? The two Karl's."

Her eyes glazed. "Somebody killed one of them?"

"Not yet." I saw she needed to see some color to keep her momentum. I showed her another double.

"The kid was one of Donni's regulars. She said she felt sorry for him. I think she halfway liked him. He treated her like a lady and he wasn't bashful about being seen with her. The father visited her sometimes, too, but with him it was strictly business. I don't think I want to talk about that family anymore, Garrett. That woman is poison."

"She's out of town, Lettie."

"She'll be back. You got what you came for. Get out. Get out before I start remembering and yell for Leo."

I put the second double mark down beside the first. "We wouldn't want to interrupt Leo's nap, would we?"

"Out, Garrett. And don't show your ugly face around here anymore. You'll get it broke."

She loved me, that fat old Lettie.