Gilded Latten Bones

I held back on the wisecrack. This might be important.

'It's trying to get away, now. But the guy in the picture the nut job painted. He was in it. He had me chained up in a bad place. Hypnotizing me. I wasn't the only one there. There were lots of others. But their situation was different.' He raised a hand because he saw me getting ready to ask questions. 'That's all I have.'

'It might be from when you were a prisoner.'

'I must have escaped. Maybe I got stabbed when they caught me.'

'That makes sense.' I recalled that Belinda still hadn't found that witness again. 'Hey, Belinda has one of those wooden masks and some scraps of gray cloth she found where she thinks you were attacked.'

Morley and Singe both said, 'What?'

'When we talked about what happened to you, first or second time, she told me she visited the place where you were attacked. A witness took her. She found the mask when she was looking around.'

'So?' Singe asked.

'So we have some evidence that nobody knows about. The other stuff got confiscated.'

Morley said, 'That's interesting, but does it matter? With what John Stretch found, this shouldn't go on much longer.'

Good point. Maybe I just wanted to feel clever. Maybe I just felt a need to do something.

Were we getting close?

We didn't know who the real villains were. We didn't know what they were up to. The Director's theoretical conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy seemed weak. A lot of people thought it was political, though. Maybe because politicians thought everything was.

We didn't know why Morley was full of holes but I thought I could guess.

He had seen something he shouldn't have. For that he had been snatched and locked up, probably with other prisoners. Somebody had tried to hypnotize him. Being Morley, he had found a way to escape. His captors had resented that. They had chased him. He had headed for Elf Town thinking he could shed them there. Outsiders threatening someone with elf blood wouldn't last long in that quarter.

He had never gotten there. Maybe forewarned folks from that ugly warehouse had intercepted him.

Those people and the gray things had left him for dead. His body had no value because it wasn't human. Later, they had heard that he had survived. Belinda and I had led them to Fire and Ice. They had tried to get him there. Failing that, they had bribed Brother Hoto. Hoto would have brought out the news that Morley hadn't yet said anything.

Eventually they undertook the raid on my place. That did not go well.

Now they were hunkered down. False trails had been laid and red herrings dragged.

The more I reflected the less likely it seemed that the mess was political.

What else it could be I had no idea.

'Garrett? Are you still with us?' Morley demanded.

'I know you aren't used to witnessing it, but I was thinking. Somewhere inside your noggin, though you don't know what yet, is a nugget of info that can ruin the lives of the folks involved in the resurrection scheme.'

'They think so. But what? I still have only a general impression of the place where they penned me up.'

Singe pounced. 'Penned?'

'That's probably not exact. It was more like a filthy cellar. It stank because it was so crowded. .'

'You weren't alone.'

'I told you that.'

'Did anyone else escape when you did?'

'I don't know.'

Singe said, 'If they did and talked, word would have gotten around.'

I said, 'How about this? Maybe our villains aren't waiting for people to die to use them.'

Morley reminded me, 'That many people disappearing would cause a big uproar.'

'No. We figured that out. Block was going to look into it.'

'The operation in Little Dismal Swamp,' Singe said. 'The convicts. As good as dead when they're sentenced. Nobody expects them to survive. If you were in charge you could sell them and put them on the books as having died in the swamp.'

I said, 'They don't have to produce the bodies.' Then, 'Some whats and hows might be falling into place. It would be nice to stumble over an occasional why.'

Singe said, 'Just be patient. It will all bubble to the surface-unless the cover-up crowd shoves Block and Relway into their own cells.'

Morley growled. He thought he was more ready than he was. Now was when he would be most dangerous to himself.

Singe said, 'Think before you do anything, boys.' She pushed her chair back, rose, left the room.

88

Singe called, 'Garrett, you better come see this.'

I went. She was at the peephole, looking out.

I took her place.

The view wasn't great but it was broad enough to be disturbing. 'Let's go upstairs and get a better look.'

I was huffing and puffing by the time I reached the window that was Strafa's preferred entrance. Singe leaned past to look out. 'Your loose lips did it this time.'

A big coach and a covered wagon had parked across the street. Teamsters were unhitching the horses. Men in strange uniforms meant to stick around for a while.

There were twelve of those.

Another big wagon and a more modest coach arrived with another dozen men. Teamsters got the team for the wagon out of harness.

An officer stepped down from the smaller coach. He surveyed the street, then my place, nodded, unfolded and consulted a large sheet of paper. He barked. A guy who looked like a career sergeant major joined him after bellowing at four men putting up an awning beside the big coach. That had a chimney. Smoke began to drift out.

The sergeant major stood beside the officer. He poked the map with a beefy forefinger. The officer nodded. Moments later ten armed men had been distributed around my house. The rest went on making the big coach and two wagons into a home away from home.

'What the hell are they up to?' I muttered.

'They want to isolate us.'

'But those are Palace Guards. Probably most of them. Why are they here?'

'Gee, Garrett, what did I just say?'

'Really.This is ridiculous. Prince Rupert wouldn't go all hard-ass because I didn't come running like Good Dog Nagel.'

'You think? You want to consider the time factor? Somebody else sent them. Say, like, I don't know. The guy they actually work for?'

'The King? Well, he is the one they're supposed to protect. But why me? He can't have any reason to come after me. He's never heard of me.'

Singe asked, 'Are you sure? He wants the man-building mess left alone and his cronies on the Hill agree. Where do all the noseys get together? Here.'

'This makes sense if Rupert is under pressure.'

'Dinklebrain. Forget Rupert!'

'All right.' Prince Rupert didn't have that small a mind, anyway. Narrow, certainly, but not petty.

And this was beyond his budget.

'First thing we need to do is find out what's what.'