Shadows Linger

“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.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Juniper

Lovers

Matron Shed fell in love. In love in the worst possible way-with a woman far younger, who had tastes far beyond his means. He charged into the affair with all the reserve of a bull in rut, disdaining consequences, squandering his cash reserve as though it came from a bottomless box. His boxes dried up. Two weeks after he met Sue, he made a loan with Gilbert, the moneylender. Another loan followed that, then another. Within a month he had gone into debt farther than he had been during the winter.

And he did not care. The woman made him happy, and that was that. Compounding his negative attributes was a tendency toward willful stupidity and an unconscious confidence that money could be no problem ever again.

Wally’s wife Sal visited the Lily one morning, grim and slightly ashamed. “Marron,” she said, “can we talk?” “What’s the matter?”

“You were going to help with rent and stuff.” “Sure. So what’s the problem?” “Well, I don’t want to sound ungrateful or like I have any right to expect you to support us, but our landlord is threatening to throw us out on account of the rent hasn’t been paid for two weeks. We can’t get work on account of nobody is putting out any sewing right now.”

“The rent isn’t paid? But I saw him just the other day...” It hadn’t been just the other day. He had forgotten. His mother, too. Her servants’ salaries would be due in a few days. Not to mention Lisa’s. “Oh my,” he said. “I’m sorry. I forgot. I’ll take care of it.”

“Shed, you’ve been good to us. You didn’t have to be. I don’t like seeing you get into this kind of mess.”

“What kind of mess?”

“With that woman. She’s trying to destroy you.”

He was too puzzled to become angry. “Sue? Why? How?”

“Give her up. It’ll hurt less if you break it off. Everybody knows what she’s doing.”

“What’s she doing?” Shed’s voice was plaintive.

“Never mind. I said more than I should already. If there’s ever anything we can do for you, let us know.”

“I will. I will,” he promised. He went upstairs, to his hidden cash box, and found it barren.

There was not a gersh in the place, upstairs or down. What was going on? “Lisa. Where’s all the money?”

“I hid it.”

“What?”

“I hid it. The way you’re carrying on, you’re going to lose this place. You have a legitimate expense, tell me. I’ll cover it.”

Shed goggled. He sputtered. “Who the hell do you think you are, girl?”

“The girl who’s going to keep you in business in spite of yourself. The girl who’s going to stop you from being a complete fool with Gilbert’s woman.”

“Gilbert’s?”

“Yes. What did you think was going on?”

“Get out,” Shed snapped. “You don’t work here anymore.”

Lisa shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”

“Where’s the money?”

“Sorry. Come see me when you get your common sense back.”

Shed raged around the common room. His customers clapped, egging him on. He threatened. He cajoled. Nothing worked. Lisa remained adamant. “It’s my family!” he protested.

“You go prove that woman isn’t Gilbert’s whore. Then I’ll give you the money and walk.”

“I’ll do that.”

“What if I’m right?”

“You’re not. I know her.”

“You don’t know shit. You’re infatuated. What if I’m right?”

He was incapable of entertaining the possibility.  “I don’t care.”

“All right. If I’m right, I want to run things here. You let me get us out of debt,”

Shed bobbed his head once and stormed out. He was not risking anything. She was wrong.

What was her game? She was acting like a partner or something. Like his mother had, after his father died and before she lost her sight. Treating him like he did not have twice her experience of business and the world.

He wandered for half an hour. When he came up from his melancholy, he saw he was near Sailmakers’ Hall. Hell. He was there; he’d just go see Gilbert. Make a loan so he could see Sue that night. Little bitch Lisa could hide his money, maybe, but she couldn’t keep him away from Gilbert.

Half a block later he began to suffer conscience pangs. Too many people depended upon him. He shouldn’t make his financial situation worse.

“Damned woman,” he muttered. “Shouldn’t talk to me that way. Now she’s got me doubting everybody.” He leaned against a wall and fought his conscience. Sometimes lust pulled ahead, sometimes the urge toward responsibility. He ached for Sue... He should not need money if she really loved him...

“What?” he said aloud. He looked again. His eyes had not deceived him. That was Sue stepping into Gilbert’s place.

His  stomach sank like  a falling rock.   “No.  She couldn’t... There must be an explanation.”

But his traitor mind started cataloguing little oddities about their relationship, particularly mauling her penchant for spending. A low-grade anger simmered over the fire of his hurt. He slipped across the street, hurried into the alley leading behind Gilbert’s place. Gilbert’s office was in the back. It had an alley window. Shed did not expect that to be open. He did hope to sneak a peek.