Bitter Gold Hearts

I considered Courter, then the Dead Man. He would be monitoring Slauce's reactions as closely as he could.

The man is a villain for certain, Garrett, but he appears to have no guilty knowledge concerning the death of Karl Junior or his supposed kidnapping. Much of what he has heard here has been news to him. He appears to be slow of wit and it could be that he is considered too stupid to be trusted. I faced Amber. "You're convinced your brother was incapable of taking his own life?"

"Yes. I told you that already."

"All right. That gives me a new line of attack. Where, when, and how did it happen?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? You mean you just—"

"Don't you start yelling at me too!" She lifted a foot, snatched off a shoe, and brandished it.

Three seconds later we were shaking with laughter. I got hold of myself, gave Slauce a look, shifted it to the Dead Man.

He knows.

"Dean, take Miss daPena to the guest room and get her settled. While you're at it, you might as well fix yourself up for a few more nights. We're going to need you here."

"Yes sir." He sounded excited. At least he was in on this thing. "Miss? If you'll come with me?"

She went reluctantly.

_______XXVI _______

"i think I have to revise my strategy," I said. "I was going to let Slauce have the works so he could go home and get things stirred up."

/ assumed as much. I believe it is time you approached Mr. Dotes on a purely business basis, instead of favor for favor. You need more eyes.

"Right. Things are stirred up enough without me stick­ing my hand in. Can you make him forget what he's seen and heard here?"

I think so.

"Then let's see what he has to tell about Junior check­ing out."

The Dead Man released his hold on Slauce. Friend Courter was vulnerable. When I asked, he an­swered, and didn't start toughening up for several min­utes. He gave me an address and an approximate time of death only two hours after Karl had fled his home.

"How did he do it?" I asked, for Courter's sake going with the suicide fiction.

"He slashed his wrists."

That was the clincher. "Aw, come on! And you be­lieved that? You knew the kid. If you'd said he'd hanged himself, I might have thought it was just barely possible. But even I knew him well enough to know he couldn't cut on himself. He was probably the kind of guy who couldn't shave because he was afraid he might see a speck of blood."

Do not press, Garrett. You will get him to thinking. For him that might prove to be a dangerous new experience. He just wanted his own job made easier. You go see Mr. Dotes now. By the time you return, Mr. Slauce will have forgotten this episode entirely. He will be a bit intoxicated. Take that into consideration when you are planning how you will remove him from the premises. And you might as well consider doing the other one while you are at it. Right. Grumble. I left him to his fun. Morley rented me five thugs. His discount to the trade left their price only semi-usurious. I assigned one man to keep an eye on my place just in case something happened that the Dead Man couldn't handle alone. The world is filled with unpredictable people.

One man got the job of keeping track of Courter Slauce. The remaining three got the unenviable task of trying to keep tabs on the denizens of the Stormwarden's house. I told them they should report to Morley. Dotes would have a better chance of tracking me down if there was something 1 needed to know. Five men weren't enough to do the job the way it ought to be done, but this one was out of my own pocket. The only client I had was one who had retained me on a contingency basis, and while I was willing to grab off a chunk of that ransom, I had a pessimistic view of my chances. I made a mental note to quiz Amber about what she had learned regarding Domina Dount's handling and de­livery of all that gold.