Glen Cook - Whispering Nickel Idols

This one is for my mom, who was a rock in aturbulent stream.

With thanks to Jim K. and Ellen W.

There I was, galumphing downstairs, six feet three of the handsomest, ever-loving blue-eyed ex-Marine youd ever want to meet. Whistling. But it takes me a big, big bucket to carry a tune. And my bucket had a hole in it.

Something was wrong. I needed my head examined. Id gone to bed early, all by my own self. And hadnt had a dram to drink before I did. Yet this morning I was ready to break into a song and dance routine.

I felt so good that I forgot to be suspicious.

I cant forget, ever, that the gods have chosen me, sweet baby Garrett, to be their special holy fool and point man in their lunatic entertainments.

I froze on the brink of my traditional morning right turn to the kitchen.

There was a boy in the hallway that runs from my front door back to my kitchen. He was raggedy with reddish ginger hair all tangled, a kid who was his own barber. And his barber was half blind and used a dull butcher knife. There were smudges on the boys cheeks. He stood just over five feet tall. I made him about twelve, or maybe a puny thirteen. His tailor was a walleyed ragpicker. I assumed he had a pungent personal aura, but wasnt close enough to experience it.

Was he deaf? Hed missed the racket Id made coming down. Of course, he had his nose stuck in the Dead Mans room. That view can be overwhelming, first time. My partner is a quarter ton of dead gray flesh resembling the illegitimate offspring of a human father and pachydermous mother, vaguely. In the nightmare of some opium-bemused, drunken artist.

Makes you want to jump in his lap and snuggle up, dont he?

The kid squeaked and backed toward the front door, bent over so he sort of probed his way with his behind.

And you would be? I asked, more interested than I could explain just by my finding a stranger marooned in my hallway.

The kitchen door squeaked. Mr. Garrett. Youre up early.

Yeah. It aint even the crack of noon. Clue me in, here.

The party exiting the kitchen was Dean, my live-in cook and housekeeper. Hes old enough to be my grandfather but acts like my mom. His turning up explained the kid. He was lugging something wrapped in dirty old paper.

Dean collects strays, be they kittens or kids.

What?

Youre up to something. Else you wouldnt call me Mr. Garrett.

Deans wrinkles pruned into a sour face. The sun always sets when there is fear of saber-tooth tigers.

That means you see what youre afraid to see. My mother said it a lot, in her time.

This house is safe from tigers. I stared at the boy, intrigued. He had a million freckles. His eyes sparkled with challenge and curiosity and fright. Whos this? How come hes poking around my house? I kept on staring. There was something appealing about that kid.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I expected psychic mirth from my deceased associate. I got nothing.

Old Bones was sound asleep.

Theres good and bad in everything.

I focused on Dean. I had a scowl on. A ferocious one, not my just for business scowl. Im not whistling now, Dean. Talk to me. Grease stained the packet the old boy carried. Once again, at second hand, I would be feeding a stray.

Uh this is Penny Dreadful. He runs messages for people.

Dreadful? What kind of name was that? Theres a message for me, then? I gave the urchin the benefit of my best scowl. He wasnt impressed. Likely nothing troubled him as long as he stayed out of grabbing range.

I saw nothing suggesting aristocratic antecedents, though Dreadful is the sort of name favored by the sorcerers and spook chasers on the Hill, our not so subtle secret masters.

Yes. There is. In the kitchen, Dean blurted. He pushed past. Ill get it in a minute. Here, Penny. Mr. Garrett will let you out. Wont you, Mr. Garrett?

Sure, I will. Im one of the good guys, arent I? I stood against the wall as Dean pushed past again, headed the other way.

The kid clutched the packet and retreated. Odd. My internal reaction wasnt overpowering, but it was of a strength usually reserved for those darlings who make priests regret their career choices.

I opened the door. The ragamuffin slid out and scurried away, hunched like he expected to get hit. He didnt slow down till he reached the intersection of Macunado Street with Wizards Reach.

He looked back while he was eating, saw me watching. Startled, he zipped around the corner.

Buzz! Buzz! Tinkling, musical laughter. Something tugged my hair. A tiny voice piped, Garretts got a girlfriend.

Hello, Marienne. Marienne was an adolescent pixie of the female variety. A squabbling nest of the wee folk live in the voids inside the exterior walls of my house. Marienne loved to give me a hard time.

Looked a little young to me, a second voice observed. My hair suffered again. Too tender for a butcher whose forest is getting a little thin in back.

Hollybell. You horrid little bug. I knew youd never let Marienne out of your sight. Hollybell and Marienne are inseparable. Before the leaves finish falling, though, theyll discover boys who arent all smell and dirt and stupid. Soon the slightest sigh would have universe-shuddering importance.

Mr. Garrett?

Dean wanted me. He always horns in when I want to play with little girls.

Dean had fetched the message packet. Go in your office. Figure out what this is. Ill bring tea and biscuits, then get breakfast started. I was thinking those little sausages and soft-boiled eggs.

A real treat. I gave the old boy the fisheye. What are you up to?

What do you mean?

What I said. Youre up to something. It might include that kid-who the pixies say is really a girl. The red-blooded Karentine boy inside me had sensed the truth. If you turn polite and start acting like a real housekeeper, youre up to some villainy. Theres no need for a show of wounded dignity, either.

The old-timer needed to polish his act. He was as predictable as me.

I settled behind my desk, in the glamorized janitors closet I use for an office. I turned sideways, blew a kiss at Eleanor. Shes the woman in the painting hanging behind my chair. Shes fleeing a brooding mansion on a really stormy night. A light burns in one window only. Shes terrified. But she was in a good mood at the moment. She winked.

I opened the message wallet. A sheaf of documents fell out.

They were from Harvester Temisk. A lawyer. The kind who is at home in lawyer jokes. But with a perpetually dumbfounded look on his clock.

Harvester Temisk has just one client. Chodo Contague, erstwhile emperor of TunFaires multiple kingdoms of crime. The king of kings of the underworld. The head crook.

These days Chodo snoozes along in a coma while his beautiful, criminally insane daughter runs the family business. Belinda pretends she gets instructions from the emperors own lips.

Dean brought orange tea and sugar cookies. The sausages are cooking. And therell be stewed apples instead of eggs. Singe wants stewed apples.

More proof Dean was up to no good, serving specialty tea and sweets. Shed live on stewed apples if she could. Pular Singe has weaseled herself into an apprenticeship and is angling for junior partner. Shes good people and good company. She keeps me from turning into a disgusting old bachelor.

Dean scurried away. Yet more proof. He didnt want to be questioned.

I started reading.

Harvester Temisk reminded me that Id promised to visit him once I wrapped the case I was working last time we met. I never got back to him. Dean!

Im cooking as fast as I can.

I cant find my notes about Chodos birthday party: When did I say it was supposed to be?