Free Red Iron Nights by Glen Cook Page A

many of them up there you can’t hide them all?” Usually we went to his office to discuss business.
    “No. Place is just a mess. Got a little carried away.”
    That one he didn’t make me believe. Maybe it wasn’t a woman. Maybe they wanted me to think it was a woman because it had to do with his real business.
    I didn’t ask. I just went to the table and sat, then told him what there was to tell. He listened well. He can do that when he wants.
    “You think there’s a connection with what happened the other night?”
    “I don’t know. The Dead Man thinks so. And he knows how to handicap.”
    “Interesting.”
    “You’d say something else if you’d seen that girl.”
    “I expect so. I don’t approve of killing people who don’t ask for it. I mean, I find interesting the idea of taking money from the Watch for once, instead of seeing it go their way.”
    I raised an eyebrow. It’s one of my finest skills.
    He said, “That’s the way it works, Garrett. I’m not under Chodo’s protection. I don’t want to be part of the outfit. There’s always a price for independence.”
    Made sense when I considered it. There were a thousand Watchmen and only a handful of guys in his bunch. As long as the Watch didn’t get greedy, it would be easier for him to pay than fight. Not that he would like it. But he was very much the pragmatist.
    The Watch wouldn’t bother Chodo, of course. A lot of people are beholden to him. And he wouldn’t take kindly to any attempt to muscle his operations.
    Morley thought about what I’d told him. “Let me finish up upstairs. I’ll walk over to your place with you.”
    I watched him climb the stairs. What did he have going? He’d set it up so he’d be sure he was with me when I left. So I wouldn’t hang around outside to see who left after he did? That didn’t make sense. If I wanted to know, I could ask the Dead Man after Morley talked to him. If I let the Dead Man know I wanted him to peek.
    Ah, paranoia.
     
     

13
     
    Saucerhead opened the door. “A butler,” Morley cracked. “You’re coming up in the world, Garrett.”
    Saucerhead didn’t crack a frown. “Who shall I say is calling, sir?” He filled the doorway. A charging bull couldn’t have moved him. Morley didn’t when he started inside.
    “Hey! What gives? Check it out, big guy. It’s raining out here.”
    I said, “I’m thinking about getting into the boat business. Might be the coming thing.”
    Saucerhead cocked his big ugly phiz like he was listening. He was waiting for the Dead Man’s go-ahead. Even on us. Which meant Old Bones had convinced him anything could happen. Saucerhead was the type to make damn sure it didn’t while he was on the job.
    The Dead Man had him not trusting his own eyes? What was this? What did he suspect?
    Saucerhead finally grunted, stepped aside. Like he didn’t think it was such a hot idea. Morley shot me a puzzled look, headed down the hall. He ducked into the Dead Man’s room. “Garrett says there’s something sinister about what happened at my place last night.”
    For twenty minutes I felt like an orphan. “Five of them?” Morley said. “They’re keeping a good wrap on it, then. I only heard about one, last month, down at the Landing.”
    I jumped in. “That was the one before the one before the one they found this morning. This nut is on a shrinking time cycle. After the first one he waited six weeks. Then four weeks for the one in the Landing. Then three weeks, then a couple days over two weeks to get this last one.”
    “Unless there’s some in there we don’t know about.”
    “They’d be hard to miss, all of them strung up with their throats cut and the guts gone. And the Watch hasn’t had any reports of daughters missing from the Hill.”
    “The guy doing this has got to be doing some homework up front. He’s not just hanging out on the corner waiting for the right rich girl. He’s picking his targets and he’s working several at the same