flowed.
What was I supposed to do?
Do what I do, I guessed. Snoop.
I stepped inside figuring I’d work my way to the top
floor. I didn’t need to. The first apartment door stood open
a crack. I knocked. Nobody answered but I heard a thud inside. I
gave the door a push. “Yo! Anybody home?”
Frantic thumping sounded from another room. I proceeded with
extreme caution. Others had been there before me. The room had been
stripped by locusts.
There was a smell in the air, faint yet, but one you never
mistake. I knew what I’d find in the next room. It was worse
than I thought it could be. There were five of them, expertly tied
into wooden chairs. One had tipped himself over. He was doing the
thumping, trying to attract attention. The others would attract
nothing but flies ever again.
Someone had placed a loop of copper wire, attached to a stick,
around each of their necks, then had twisted the loops tight. The
killers had taken their time.
I recognized everybody—Snowball, Doc, the other two who
had tried to whack me. The live one was the kid who had stood
lookout. They were efficient that way, Crask and Sadler.
It was a little gift for Garrett from Chodo Contague, an
interest installment on his debt. The vig, against the day I called
in the nut.
What do you think at a moment like that, surrounded by people
snuffed as casually as you would stomp a roach, without anger,
malice, or remorse? It’s scary because it’s death
without fire behind it, as impersonal as accidental drowning.
Squish! Game’s over.
The wire loop is Sadler’s signature.
I could see Slade giving Sadler the message Morley had written.
I could see Sadler telling Chodo. I could see Chodo getting so
worked up he might adjust the blanket covering his lap. “So
take care of it,” Chodo might say, like he’d say,
“Throw out that fish that’s starting to smell.”
And Sadler would take care of it. And Crask would bring me a few
coins and a lock of a dead man’s hair.
That was death in the big city.
Did Doc and Snowball and the others have anyone to mourn
them?
I was getting nowhere standing around feeling sorry for guys
who’d had it coming. Crask wouldn’t have made a trip
across town if he hadn’t thought I’d find something
interesting here.
I guessed I’d get it from the one they’d left
alive.
I sat him up facing the wall. I hadn’t let him see me yet.
I walked around and leaned against the wall, looked him in the
eye.
He remembered me.
I said, “Been your lucky day so far, hasn’t
it?” He’d survived Crask and Sadler and those
opportunists who had taken everything that wasn’t nailed
down. I waited until his eyes told me he knew his luck had run out.
Then I abandoned him.
I scrounged around until I found a water jug in a second-floor
apartment. The locusts hadn’t gone that high, fearing
they’d get cut off. I checked the street before going back to
my man. It was still quiet out there.
I showed the chuko the jug. “Water. Thought you might be
dry.”
He wasted a little moisture on tears.
I cut his gag off, gave him a sip, then backed off to prop up
the wall. “I think you have things to tell me. Tell me right,
tell me straight, tell me everything, maybe I’ll let you go.
They make sure you heard everything during the interviews?”
Clever euphemism, Garrett.
He nodded. He was about as terrified as he could get.
“Start at the beginning.”
His idea of the beginning antedated mine. He started with
Snowball taking over the building by dumping his human mother in
the street. She had inherited it from his father, whose family had
owned it since the first elfish migrated to TunFaire. The entire
neighborhood had been elfish for generations, which was why it was
in such good shape.
“I’m more interested in the part of history where
the Vampires got interested in me.”
“Can I have another drink?”
“As soon as you’ve earned it.”
He sighed. “A man came yesterday morning. A priest. Said
his name
What was I supposed to do?
Do what I do, I guessed. Snoop.
I stepped inside figuring I’d work my way to the top
floor. I didn’t need to. The first apartment door stood open
a crack. I knocked. Nobody answered but I heard a thud inside. I
gave the door a push. “Yo! Anybody home?”
Frantic thumping sounded from another room. I proceeded with
extreme caution. Others had been there before me. The room had been
stripped by locusts.
There was a smell in the air, faint yet, but one you never
mistake. I knew what I’d find in the next room. It was worse
than I thought it could be. There were five of them, expertly tied
into wooden chairs. One had tipped himself over. He was doing the
thumping, trying to attract attention. The others would attract
nothing but flies ever again.
Someone had placed a loop of copper wire, attached to a stick,
around each of their necks, then had twisted the loops tight. The
killers had taken their time.
I recognized everybody—Snowball, Doc, the other two who
had tried to whack me. The live one was the kid who had stood
lookout. They were efficient that way, Crask and Sadler.
It was a little gift for Garrett from Chodo Contague, an
interest installment on his debt. The vig, against the day I called
in the nut.
What do you think at a moment like that, surrounded by people
snuffed as casually as you would stomp a roach, without anger,
malice, or remorse? It’s scary because it’s death
without fire behind it, as impersonal as accidental drowning.
Squish! Game’s over.
The wire loop is Sadler’s signature.
I could see Slade giving Sadler the message Morley had written.
I could see Sadler telling Chodo. I could see Chodo getting so
worked up he might adjust the blanket covering his lap. “So
take care of it,” Chodo might say, like he’d say,
“Throw out that fish that’s starting to smell.”
And Sadler would take care of it. And Crask would bring me a few
coins and a lock of a dead man’s hair.
That was death in the big city.
Did Doc and Snowball and the others have anyone to mourn
them?
I was getting nowhere standing around feeling sorry for guys
who’d had it coming. Crask wouldn’t have made a trip
across town if he hadn’t thought I’d find something
interesting here.
I guessed I’d get it from the one they’d left
alive.
I sat him up facing the wall. I hadn’t let him see me yet.
I walked around and leaned against the wall, looked him in the
eye.
He remembered me.
I said, “Been your lucky day so far, hasn’t
it?” He’d survived Crask and Sadler and those
opportunists who had taken everything that wasn’t nailed
down. I waited until his eyes told me he knew his luck had run out.
Then I abandoned him.
I scrounged around until I found a water jug in a second-floor
apartment. The locusts hadn’t gone that high, fearing
they’d get cut off. I checked the street before going back to
my man. It was still quiet out there.
I showed the chuko the jug. “Water. Thought you might be
dry.”
He wasted a little moisture on tears.
I cut his gag off, gave him a sip, then backed off to prop up
the wall. “I think you have things to tell me. Tell me right,
tell me straight, tell me everything, maybe I’ll let you go.
They make sure you heard everything during the interviews?”
Clever euphemism, Garrett.
He nodded. He was about as terrified as he could get.
“Start at the beginning.”
His idea of the beginning antedated mine. He started with
Snowball taking over the building by dumping his human mother in
the street. She had inherited it from his father, whose family had
owned it since the first elfish migrated to TunFaire. The entire
neighborhood had been elfish for generations, which was why it was
in such good shape.
“I’m more interested in the part of history where
the Vampires got interested in me.”
“Can I have another drink?”
“As soon as you’ve earned it.”
He sighed. “A man came yesterday morning. A priest. Said
his name
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