Shadows Linger

Chapter Twenty-Four: JUNIPER: SHADOW DANCING

"I think I was pretty slick," I told Goblin.

"You should have seen that Shed," Pawnbroker cackled. "A chicken sweating like a pig and lying like a dog. A one-man barnyard."

"Was he really lying?" I mused. "He didn't say anything that conflicted with what we know."

"What did you learn?" Goblin asked.

"I think he was lying," Pawnbroker insisted. "Maybe by not telling everything he knew, but he was lying. He was into it somehow."

"You keep hanging around the Lily, then. Keep an eye on him."

"What did you learn?" Goblin demanded.

Elmo came in. "How'd it go?"

"Great," I said. "I found out what happened to Raven."

"What?" he and Goblin both demanded.

"He left town. By ship. The first day the harbor was open."

"Darling, too?" Goblin asked. "You see her around? What do you think?" Pawnbroker mused, "Bet that Asa went with him. Old Shed said they both left the first day."

"Could be. I was proud of myself, catching him with that. Looks to me, now, like this Shed is our only outside loose end. He's the only one who knows what happened to them. No Shed, nobody to maybe tell Bullock or the Taken anything."

Elmo frowned. The suggestion was more in keeping with his style than mine. He thought I'd put it forward seriously. "I don't know. Sounds too simple. Anyway, we're starting to get noticed down there, aren't we?"

Goblin nodded. "We're supposed to be sailors who missed our ship, but people are comparing notes, trying to figure us out. If Shed got killed, there might be enough fuss to get Bullock wondering. If he gets wondering, sooner or later the news would get back to the Taken. I figure we ought to save heroic measures for heroic circumstances."

Pawnbroker agreed. "That Shed's got something to hide. I know that in my guts. Croaker told him about the raid on the Catacombs. He hardly blinked. Anybody else would have whooped off and spread the news like the plague." "Kingpin still watching him?" I asked. "Him and Sharkey and Tickle are taking turns. He ain't going to be able to pool without we know about it."

"Good. Keep it that way. But don't mess with him. We just want to keep him away from Bullock and the Taken." I faded away into my thoughts. "What?" Elmo finally asked.

"I had an idea while I was talking to Shed. Bullock is our main risk, right? And we know he'll stick like a bulldog once he gets on a trail. And he's on the trail of this Asa character. So why don't we con him into going south after this Asa?"

"I don't know," Elmo muttered. "He might find him." "What's he want him for? Questioning about a raid on the Catacombs. What kind of cooperation is he going to get someplace else? Not much. Way I hear it, the cities down the coast think Juniper is a bad joke. Anyway, we just want to buy a little time. And if he does catch up with Asa, I figure he catches up with Raven, too. Ain't nobody going to bring Raven back. Not if he thinks the Taken are after Darling. They tangle, I'll put my money on Raven. Cut out the only source of info. Temporarily or permanently. See what I mean? And if he does kill Raven,then Raven can't talk."

"How you going to talk Bullock into it?" Elmo asked. "It's dumb, Croaker. He's not going to go haring off after some minor suspect." "Yes, he will. You remember, when we came here, he had to translate? How do you figure he learned the lan-guage of the Jewel Cities? I asked him. He spent three years there looking for a guy who wasn't any more important than Asa.''

Goblin said, "This mess gets crazier every day. We got so many cons and lies going I can't keep track of them anymore. I don't think we better do anything except cover our asses till the Captain gets here."

I often had a feeling we were making things worse. But I could see no exit, other than to keep coping and hoping.

"Best way out," Elmo observed laconically, "would be to kill everybody who knows anything, then all of us fall on our swords."

"Sounds a little extreme," Goblin opined. "But if you want to go first, I'm right behind you."

"I've got to report in to Whisper," I said. "Anybody got any brilliant ideas what I should tell her?"

Nobody did. I went, dreading the encounter. I was sure guilt smouldered in my eyes whenever I faced her. I resented Elmo because he did not have to endure her daily fits of ire.

Bullock was almost too easy. He was packing almost before I finished handing him my line of bull. He wanted that Asa bad.

I wondered if he knew something we did not. Or if he'd just worked up an obsession with the mystery of the invaded Catacombs.

Whisper was more of a problem.

She told me: "I want you to send somebody with him." I had had to tell her something, so had told her most of the truth. I figured the chances of anybody tracking Asa and Raven were nil. But... . She seemed a little too interested,too. Perhaps she knew more than she pretended. She was, after all, one of the Taken.

Elmo picked three men, put Kingpin in charge, and told him to stick a knife in Bullock if he looked like needing it.

The Captain and Company were, I was told, in the Wolander Mountains a hundred miles from Juniper. They faced a slow passage through tough passes, but I began to anticipate their arrival. Once the Old Man showed, the weight would be off Elmo and me. "Hurry," I muttered, and returned to tangling our skein of deceits.