Book 05 - Dread Brass Shadows by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

the woman, but instead I said, "I'fl have a friend of mine see you safely to wherever you're staying" Saucerhead was hanging around somewhere.
    She stood "That's not necessary."
    "I think it is. There's been a knife used once already. Probably meant for you. By now I expect the people who did it know they missed. Understand?"
    "I suppose." That irritation again. "Thank you. I'm new at this. I don't expect people to be that way."
    Really?
    She was good. Give her that. She really was good. I called out, "Dean, tell Mr. Tharpe to see the lady safely tucked away home. Ask him to scout the area, see if she's being watched."
    Dean stepped into the doorway, nodding. As I'd suspected, he'd been out there eavesdropping. "Miss? If you will?" He could turn on the charm for a guest, that old boy.
    I didn't think about the questions I should've asked till after I heard the door close. But what the hell? I could get the answers from the Dead Man.

10
    Dean came back from the front door as I headed across the hail. "She was lying, Mr. Garrett."
    "She wasn't telling the whole truth, that's for sure."
    "Not telling a word of it if you ask me."
    "It shouldn't matter. Let's find out what old Smiley plucked out of the air between her ears
    Dean shivered. I can't figure it, After all this time he ought to be used to the Dead Man.
    I added the Ramada woman's money to the pile under the Dead Man's chair. I settled into my own, glanced around. Dean had been slacking again. He gets the creeps in there, so he lets cleanup slide till I jump on him or do it myself. The bugs were ready to take over. "What did you think of my visitor?"
    Will you never outgrow that adolescent sense of humor?
    Crumbs. Now he was getting on me for what I was thinking "I hope not, Chuckles." There. Damned for it, I might as well say it. "Grownups are so stodgy."
    As Dean observed, she was lying
    "So what's her real story?"
    I dare not hazard a guess.
    Oh-oh. This didn't sound good
    I was unable to capture any but the most fleeting surface thoughts.
    Oh, my. What the hell? "I thought you could read anybody " This was getting to be a bad habit. Was he getting near the end, slipping over the edge?
    Only simple minds
    Ouch! "And you complain about my sense of humor? What's it mean?"
    That she is no chambermaid. She bears close observation—not that way—though we have no real business mixing in here.
I got the distinct impression he wanted to mix.
    Not in the manner you have in mind.
    "What's wrong with mixing business with pleasure? She was..."
    Yes. She was. And what else?
    "Hey! She's a client now. A paying client."
    And it is quite obvious why. Amaze me sometime, Garrett. Think with your brain instead of your glands. Just once. Astonish your friends and confound your enemies.
    I considered sulking. I considered mentioning the fact that I hadn't broken a sweat over Winger—though even that wouldn't have been a definitive truth. Winger's only distracting feature was her size. "Hell. You're just being sour grapes because you can't anymore."
    Which was near enough the truth that he changed the subject.
How do you propose finding the book she wants? With no more information than you cozened out of her? You are such a clever interrogator.
    "How was I to know you'd gone feeble?"
    You have to learn to carry yourself, Garrett. I cannot do it all for you. Rather than start a quarrel, I suggest you try to overtake Mr. Tharpe and engage him to watch the woman.
    "How about the book she wants? It has to be the book we heard about before. What about it?"
    Nothing about it. A book of shadows, a book of dreams, you tell me. Something mystical, presumably. But the concept is unfamiliar. Knowing what that book is might well illuminate everything else. She suggested a great many dwarves were associated with the woman she called the Serpent. That is unusual. Even unlikely, I would suspect. Perhaps you should visit the local enclave and see if anyone can elucidate. I believe the dwarf Gnorst,