Gilded Latten Bones

97

Dean was in a glowing good mood when we got downstairs. I grumbled, "Can't you see that it's raining?"

"Isn't it marvelous? We really need it." He went on to tell me how fresh the air would smell later.

Didn't he realize that the humidity would be torture?

Strafa poured mugs of something that wasn't tea. It smelled monstrously good. I said, "Definitely tasty but I wouldn't go out of my way."

Dean said, "I tried to follow instructions but I think I missed."

Strafa said, "It's a novelty. Dean's hard black tea is fine, robust daily fare."

Dean and I looked at her askance, having trouble remembering that there was no need to read between her lines.

Singe came to the kitchen doorway. Strafa asked, "Did you see anything?"

"Rain. There isn't a soul out there. It's like they got washed away with the offal."

Being a trained detective-albeit home-schooled-I detected something odd. "What's going on?"

Strafa said, "There were Palace Guards going and Civil Guards arriving when we went to bed. General Block wanted in. We ignored him."

Singe said, "I didn't see anyone through the peephole so I went out to check." She was damp. Soon she would develop a pong. "They're gone. Every last man. There aren't any watchers. A ratwoman told me they all got excited and charged off somewhere just when it was getting light."

That wasn't right. Block's mob wouldn't suddenly change their minds. Odd connections clicked. "What did we do when we bailed out of here last night?"

Strafa laughed. "We wasted time that we could have used getting to know each other. And made ourselves look like fraidy cats."

"And we told anyone who cared to think about it that the Dead Man really is asleep."

Singe gasped. "If he was awake we would not have run."

"Exactly. Where are Morley and Belinda? Why aren't they back yet?"

Strafa muttered something like, "Uh-oh." She reached across and squeezed my hand. "I'll go look."

Singe warned, "You'll get soaked."

"I'll go naked, then."

We all stared.

"Come on, people. I can joke, too. There must be rain gear around here somewhere. Darling, you check the salt. In case we outwitted ourselves." She clumped away fast. Dean went and dug out his rain gear for her.

Singe said, "We may have pulled a major stupid, right?"

"I don't know how much 'we' there is for anybody besides me and Strafa. I do think we got snookered." Dean came back. "Did you buy more salt, Dean?"

Wasted breath. He had his nose in a cupboard already. Out came a ten pound bag of pickling salt. He wasted no breath admonishing me to be frugal.

Singe got stuck with helping me. The cellar got her talking to herself. She told me, "As soon as it is safe I am having this cared for."

"Can we afford it?"

"The annual gift to Tholozan House arrives next week. I have not tapped that fund since I took over your finances."

I didn't know what she meant. "What's Tholozan House?"

"That is where I invest the gifts you get from your lapsed vampire girlfriend."

"Oh."

Kayean Kronk. The first woman I had ever loved and gotten close enough to touch. Morley and I had rescued her from vampires in the Cantard while the war was still raging. For the Tates. Two of who, Tinnie and Rose, had tagged along. Yesterday and tomorrow, when Kayean had been lost and Tinnie started looking like more than my pal Denny's incredibly hot but unattainable cousin.

"You still here, Garrett?"

"I haven't thought about Kayean in ages."

"She thinks of you. She still sends the gifts she promised."

She had inherited a fabulous fortune because of me. Her first gift had helped me buy my house and rehabilitate it around the Dead Man.

Singe asked, "Can you see who is at the door?"

I went despite not having heard a thing.

Kyra Tate. She came in looking like the proverbial drowned rat. "My umbrella blew away." Singe arrived with a huge towel. I wondered when we had acquired that. Kyra said, "I don't know why I'm out in this weather, anyway. Except that we love you."

"Let's get you back to the kitchen where we can get you warmed up." Ever clever Singe was headed that way already. By the time Kyra and I arrived she had hot tea poured and Dean had brought the cookies out of hiding. I planted the girl, then asked, "So why are you out in this?"

"All the usual, plus I remembered where I saw the woman before."

"Who?"

"The one in Penny's sketches. I said I thought I saw her before. I did. But only once. It was at a party on the Hill. I was eleven. Our family got invited because they were part of some conglomerate including the people giving the party. The group had just gotten a huge army contract. Everybody was going to get a lot richer. The girl's name was Jane something. She was only sixteen but she was already somebody's mistress. She was so awful that the girls running with her were embarrassed. I never saw her again. I never heard anything about her again. Probably because Hill don't socialize with people who actually do creative stuff."

I smiled, did not comment other than to ask, "How can any of that help us now?"

"Other than to tell you Jane Whatsit is unpleasant? Not much. Except that I've gotten myself some pretty nice boobs since then." She was too wet and had too limited an audience to flaunt the niceties. "And she hasn't changed at all."

I glanced at Singe. "Six years? In the dark we might not be able to see much difference."

"Yeah. Well. Too. I saw Kip and Kevans yesterday. We talked a lot. Us girls ganged up on him. I think we got it worked out. Kevans tried hard to make Kip understand that she doesn't need him protecting her all the time, anymore. That she's fine with the life she's living."

"I'm thrilled to hear that. I hope you are, too."

"I am, Mr. Garrett. Since he doesn't have to worry about Kevans he can focus all that devotion on me."

Yeah. A familiar echo there. "He will if he's got any sense at all."

"I don't know where you and my aunt are anymore."

"Neither do I."

"Kevans' mom knows, though, don't she?"

"She's never confused."

Kyra shut her eyes. "Can't believe I'm going to say this. You're really a good man. You do good for everybody you can. So I think you should be with Kevans' mom."

"Kyra?"

"I know. I sound like a traitor. But Tinnie is never going to be anybody but who she is. Only getting more so, according to my uncles, who figure she'll be hell on wheels in ten more years."

"Thank you, Kyra." I didn't want to talk about it anymore. I didn't want to think about it.

Kyra said, "They grew up with her mother. They knew her grandmother."

Kyra was dried out, warm again, full of tea, and Singe said the rain had stopped. Singe found Dollar Dan napping on Morley's cot. She wakened him and bullied him into walking Kyra home. After taking time to let Kyra know that young girls should not be roaming the city alone, however unappealing they made themselves appear.

"That was wicked," I said after Singe closed the door.

"She is concerned about her looks. It will have a positive impact."

"Now that she's not here to hear me say so, I'm seriously worried, Singe."

"As am I. Strafa has been out there far too long."

Strafa. So. The final heart had surrendered.

I suggested, "You go nag Old Bones. I'll sit here and worry enough for both of us."