Even then, despite finding that the figures added up, Mr Schmidt had been all eager to press the matter, but Mr Lucas had pulled rank as the senior partner and proclaimed that of course it had been an easily-made, innocent mistake; the money would be returned to the clients and there was to be no more said about it. No, it was not Mr Lucas who was the problem, it was his overly zealous friend who had been watching Lex like a hawk ever since, eagerly waiting for a chance to catch him out, to trip him up, to bring ruin crashing down about his head. Now was undoubtedly the time for some serious damage control.
‘Mr Schmidt, I assure you I am entirely blameless,’ Lex began. ‘I was only trying to help but-’
‘Oh, save it for the jury!’ the lawyer snapped.
‘Montgomery!’ Mr Lucas exclaimed, standing up. ‘A word with you outside, please.’
Feeling a little apprehensive, Lex remained behind in his cell whilst the two lawyers stepped out of the room. He could see them arguing heatedly through the tiny window in the cell door and could just catch snatches of what they were saying. The two men were very close and it was a rare thing for them to quarrel. Lex distinctly heard Mr Lucas, the silly old twit, saying patiently, ‘Just an over-enthusiastic boy, Monty… ’ and, ‘certainly not capable of such criminal mastery… ’
Lex grinned, although the grin faded somewhat at Mr Schmidt’s outraged response: ‘clear sign of a disturbed mind… ’ and, ‘told you before, Joseph, that boy is no good… ’ and, ‘ prison sentence like he deserves… ’
Lex silently cursed him and his bitter tongue. After the overcharging affair, Lex had looked grave and apologised to Mr Schmidt himself with an earnest expression of humble sincerity. The sharp-eyed lawyer hadn’t bought it then and he wasn’t buying it now, blast him. But, luckily for Lex, Mr Lucas was buying it. And, as the senior partner, it was his opinion that would ultimately count.
After a while, Mr Schmidt stormed off and Mr Lucas returned to tell Lex that he was free to go. ‘I’ve persuaded the guards to allow you to leave. The trial’s next week. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you, Lex, of the gravity of the situation. I’m taking full responsibility for your not being kept in here. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Perfectly, sir. And thank you. I won’t let you down.’
CHAPTER TWO
Lex examined his face carefully in the mirror when he got home. To his relief, the cuts were not deep. He could not have scarring on his face. That would not do at all. It would quite ruin his honest, respectable appearance. He turned when he saw her behind him in the mirror. She was dressed in her usual white toga-like dress with her blond hair piled up high on her head.
‘Well?’ he snapped. ‘What do you have to say to me?’
He gestured to his impressive collection of cuts and bruises.
‘Well, you’re not dead, are you, Lex? You’ve just been careless,’ the Goddess of Fortune said with a disapproving click of her tongue as she eyed him up and down. ‘You should check your equipment each time. Luck can only take you so far, you know. Really, I turn my back for one minute and you go crashing through ceilings and getting yourself arrested.’
‘You are supposed to be watching out for me! You’re supposed to be making sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen! You’re so unreliable!’
‘Well of course, darling. I’m the Goddess of Luck, what do you expect? Anyway, Lex, I just came to give you the heads up. That odious little man, Schmidt, is on his way over.’
‘What the heck for-?’
‘With the guards.’
‘But why? I’ve been released on bail.’
‘A witness has come forward, I’m afraid. Most bothersome thing, but someone saw you go down through the roof of the museum. Anyway, they can testify that there was only one person there.’
She had not finished speaking before Lex had grabbed a bag and was stuffing things into it. He had been betting on Mr Lucas’s support and the sympathy of the jury to get him a not guilty verdict, but a witness would surely be enough to tip the scales against him. He wasn’t prepared to risk it. He would have to leave the Wither City. He had known it would come to this sooner or later, and it had certainly never been his intention to remain in the city for ever. It had offered him an escape route when he’d needed one before but he had never seriously intended to become a lawyer. He’d known that one day he would be found out. And then he would have to run because they would try to catch him. But they wouldn’t succeed because Lex knew how to run and he knew how to hide. And he was quite capable of doing both without any hint of guilt.
‘What are you doing?’ the Goddess asked, gazing at Lex in surprise.
‘I’m running away, you stupid woman!’ Lex replied as he dragged the carefully concealed money belt out from under his bed and fastened it round his waist beneath his shirt.
‘Whatever for? Can’t you just talk your way out of it?’
‘Believe it or not, my Lady, I cannot talk my way out of everything. Some things cannot be talked out of. This is one of those things. They can prove I’m the Shadowman if they’ve got a witness. They’ll lock me up for a very long time if they catch me. Do you understand that?’
No one could deny that the Goddess of Fortune was a useful ally to have but Lex sometimes couldn’t help wishing that his benefactress were a little less dim-witted.
‘Oh dear,’ she said, fluttering her hands in dismay. ‘You’d better be off then, hadn’t you, Lex?’
‘Yes,’ Lex replied, giving the deity a mocking bow. ‘Your servant, my Lady, until next time. Perhaps you could see your way clear to giving me a little help getting out of the city?’
It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Goddess had her church — and therefore her pride — and Lex had that greatest of gifts to a thief, fraudster and all-round good-for-nothing — luck. Mr Montgomery Schmidt could have torn his hair out at the way fate seemed to conspire against him that evening.
The Wither City was the centre of all trade and commerce in the Lands Above and as such, the city never slept. There were midnight markets set up all round the docks — the hub of all activity in the city. Stalls were randomly set up all over the place, selling crafts, spices, talismans, amulets and black enchantments from across the Azure Sea. Enterprising local Withians had set up their own stalls to supply the foreigners with Withian delicacies such as mini-sea-squids-on-sticks and candied insects although really the main export of the Wither City was its books. Great leather-bound tomes tied up with string and musty with the smell of ancient, valuable old pages. Books like those made in the Wither City could not be found anywhere else on the Globe. Smoke hung over the place from various cooking fires and the air was filled with the aroma of roasting squid and the sound of hundreds of voices jabbering away in as many different languages.
Lex dodged through crowds that seemed to magically part for him whilst Mr Schmidt and the guards at his heels had to fight their way through the throngs of seamen and merchants. Carts that did not in any way hinder Lex seemed to get right in the way of Schmidt and his henchmen. At one point, an entire market stall went over and, glancing over his shoulder, Lex distinctly saw his employer slipping about on the ground covered in slimy squid tentacles. He did not look very happy about it.
Lex grinned, kept his head down and pushed on through the midnight markets to the docks. Her Ladyship was living up to her side of the bargain tonight. Luck was on his side. The trouble was that luck could only take a person so far and Lex was sometimes in danger of forgetting that in the heady thrill of having everything going his way. ‘Good luck’ did not equal ‘invincibility’. Nor did it equal ‘unbeatable’ or ‘unconquerable’ or any other of those impressively God-like sounding words. Luck was what it was — a helping hand and nothing more. For the most part, it was all still up to Lex and his own native wits to escape from any situation that he had willingly launched himself headlong into.
He would buy his passage aboard one of the ships setting sail tonight. Once he was out of Withian territory, the law of the Wither City would have no jurisdiction over him anyway and Mr Schmidt would never be able to find him once he’d escaped to the Eastern Provinces. He would start again somewhere else. He had done it before. With his almost photographic memory and ability to adapt and pick up new skills, Lex was sure he would excel at pretty
