Bad Dreams & Broken Hearts 15:“Have a seat. Tell me a story.”

When we got to the station house they had the jail surgeon check out my arms. Naturally, he didn't find anything, so I explained that officer saw the kid's blood on me and assumed it had been mine, and that's why he bandaged my forearms. Since the surgeon hadn't been there and I was clearly unmarked, he shrugged and turned me back over to the cops.

The surgeon had taken off my cuffs and the cops didn't put them back on. Instead they stuck me in an interview room. Table, two chairs, and a big wall mirror that I'm sure was a window from the other side. No way to tell if anyone was watching me, of course.

They let me sit there for maybe half an hour before a cop in a suit came in and started asking questions. I stuck to the truth—just not all of it. I left out why Karin had decided to look up her old art teacher, and while I gave them a good description of the tigerberry dealer's human guise I didn't mention that I had seen through it to the rashling underneath.

The cop wrote it all down and said that they needed to verify a few points, and he left. A few minutes later a different cop came in and asked me all the same questions and I gave him all the same answers. I asked him about Karin because I figured they expected me to, and he said that she was fine, but didn't volunteer any more than that.

When he left I wondered how long this was going to take. I was keeping control of my temper with an effort. I knew that the whole game was designed to make me upset, off-balance, and get me to blurt out something in anger and frustration that they could use against me. Knowing that didn't make it any easier, though.

My suit was absolutely ruined, and while I was waiting this thing out the stain was setting into the cravat, so that was a total loss, too. This affair was taking a serious toll on my wardrobe. Yesterday hadn't been too bad—I'd worn those clothes expecting trouble. Today, though, just wasn't fair. Marji had damn well better take me shopping when all this was done.

The next cop who came in was different. For one thing, he was older, and his suit was not off the rack. He didn't wear a badge and holster on his belt, either. Big brass, then.

He held out his hand and I took it. “Mr. Jackknife,” he said, “I am Deputy Director for Public Safety Hendricks.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I said.

He didn't sit on the other side of the table instead he motioned for me to get up and follow him out of the door. As we went down the hallway he said, “The department would to thank you for your cooperation.”

I didn't point out that I hadn't been give any choice in the matter. Instead I said, “I'd like to thank the department for saving my life.” An exaggeration, but it never hurts to be gracious.

That earned me a glance back. “That was a brave thing you did, tackling that junkie.”

I shrugged.

He looked forward again and continued, as if making idle conversation, “Our techs say that the metalycanthomine must have been chemically pure to cause that drastic a reaction. You almost never see chemically pure Nivose metapharmacuticals on this side of the sea. The morauxe cut them with inert materials—usually bean curd.”

“I didn't know that,” I said. We didn't seem to be heading back the way I'd been brought in.

“This Pietr Orlov was nobody special, as far as we can tell,” Hendricks said. “A junkie, just released after serving a term for burglary. I can't think of any reason why someone would gift him with a fix of uncut junk.” He paused to open a heavy fire door that led into a stairwell. “Can you?”

I followed through the door and waited until it was shut behind us. The stairs had the feel of a place that nobody used.

“Why do I rate an escort from a Deputy Director?” I asked.

He nodded as if I had just scored a point. “I got a call from from the Honorable Member from Guilden Reach.”

Guilden Reach was the district that included Summerisle. So this intervention was courtesy of Marji's contacts rather than the Mayor's office.

“Have you seen my CPS file?” I asked.

He didn't look back as he answered, “If you're asking if I know your status as a registered alien, yes, I do.”

“Then you know that I am considered an Envoy of Messidor,” I continued.

“I do,” he admitted. “Is this going to be an internecine incident?”

I shook my head. “No, not at all. The fine officers of the Dracoheim Police treated me with the utmost courtesy and respect.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” he said. We had reached one landing and headed down the next level.

“The person who sold the hotshot to Orlov was a rashling,” I said.

He stopped dead on the stairs. Turned to look at me. “A rashling?” he asked. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “It was veiled, but it was a rashling.”

He started walking again. “That is very interesting.”

The stairs ended in an unmarked metal door. Hendricks paused with his hand on the knob. “Anything else you think we ought to know?” he asked, his voice deliberately casual.

“I can't think of anything,” I said back, trying to match his tone.

“If you do,” he said, “give me a call, okay? This number goes to my departmental aide. He'll know how to reach me.”

He handed me a business card and I put it in my wallet.

He nodded and pushed open the door.

We were in an underground parking garage. Just outside the door was Marji's little red convertible, Marji and Karin in the front seat. Hendricks waved me at the car and went back through the metal door.

Karin looked like she had been crying.

“Mr. Vetch?” I asked softly, already sure of the answer.

“He didn't make it,” Marji said.

“I'm sorry,” I told Karin.

“Nothing you could have done,” Karin said in a small voice. “I just wish... oh, it doesn't matter now.”

I got in the back seat. “Can you take me to my place?” I asked Marji.

“We'll go there first,” she agreed.

I didn't ask where we were going after that. No doubt Marji had a plan. I just needed to get cleaned up, then I could think.

My building has an attached lot. Technically it's for the cars of residents only, but since I don't own a car the attendant agreed to park Marji's convertible in the spot that went with my place. I handed him a hefty tip along with the keys.

Upstairs I waved the girls towards the kitchen. “Help yourself.”

Then I took a very long and very hot shower. I got out, toweled off, and put on my robe.

Marji and Karin were sitting together on my couch when I got out. They each had a drink, and Marji handed me an absinthe, the way I like it—in a glass. No ice, no water, no sugar cube. It's not a cup of tea.

I knocked back half of it and sat in my recliner, facing the girls. “So what now?” I asked.

Karin raised an eyebrow. “Were you going to get dressed?”

I nodded. “As soon as I know what we do next. I can't dress unless I know where we're going.”

Karin rolled her eyes. Marji shrugged.

I said, “We still don't know who the Magus is, and that means—”

Marji cut me off. “That's not the problem.”

I frowned at that. “Wait—we do know who he is?”

Karin reached to hand me a photograph. It showed three figures, two of them human. Leonid Vetch sat at a table, a mess of what looked like magical equipment on it. To one side Grandmother Wolf stood, looking away, her lupine face in profile. On the other side was a man in a severe suit, smiling at the camera.

I recognized the other man. It was Castor Tak.

“Is this supposed to mean what I think it's supposed to mean?” I asked slowly.

Karin nodded. “That's the magus.”

“Castor Tak,” I asked. “The MP for Temple Court? The Lord Mayor's privy councilor? That was your magus?”

Karin looked down.

“Evidently,” Marji said.

I thought over the implications for a long moment. “Shit,” was all I could come up with. Then I knocked back the rest of my drink.

Without looking up Karin said, “He should die for what he's done.”

“Maybe so,” I said, “but it's not like we can just whack a member of parliament.”

She looked up then, her eyes red. “Why not?”

I took her question seriously. “Well, in the first place, we may not be able to. I assume that 'Magus' wasn't just a pseudonym? I mean, he had to be a pretty high level practitioner to come up with binding he put on you. So even if he's not currently casting, he knows his stuff. He'll have serious wards. Plus, he's an MP—they have bodyguards and surveillance. And, if that weren't enough, he's also in bed with at least one major criminal gang operating out of Nivose, maybe others both in Nightmare and the Midworld.”

I paused. Karin started to speak and I cut her off. “But let's forget all that for a moment. I am here at the sufferance of the Lord Mayor. As a resident alien there are certain protocols that I have to observe. Arbitrarily slaughtering members of the Lord Mayor's government would violate pretty much all of them. It could start a war between Dracoheim and Messidor. In fact, if I were aware that anyone was planning to assassinate Castor Tak and I didn't tell His Honor, that might be enough to start a war all by itself.”

“No one,” Marji said, looking harshly at Karin, “is planning to kill Castor Tak. Or to violate any of Dracoheim's criminal statutes in any way.”

“I am very happy to hear that,” I said.

“I'm not going to let him get away with killing Mr. Vetch,” Karin said. Her voice was soft but very, very determined.

Marji reached to put her arm around the girl's slim shoulders. “He won't get away with it,” she said. “I promise you that. But this will have to handled... carefully.”

Karin looked unconvinced.

“We'll get him, my love,” Marji continued. “He will pay.”

“I'm all for that,” I said. “We just need to figure out how.”

“We need more evidence,” Marji said. “Tak has enemies. The Theosophists would love to get their hands on proof that he has a criminal past.”

“What about the Centrists?” I objected.

Marji shook her head. “No, Centrists won't touch this. It's too extreme. Oh, they'll jump on the bandwagon once it gets rolling, but the initial accusation should come from Theosophists. Well, or the Crazy Grays, but I don't have any solid contacts there.”

I didn't know that she had any solid contacts with the Theosophists, but I let that slide. “What kind of evidence do we need?”

“We need Grandmother Wolf,” Marji said thoughtfully.

“That bitch!” Karin snarled.

“Literally,” I observed. “But Marji's right. Grandmother Wolf could destroy Tak.” I considered the matter. “Tak must have something on her, too. There's no way a guy like that would let anyone have so much power over him.”

Marji was nodding. “We find Tak's hold over the Wolf, and we neutralize it. Then we get what she has on him and take it public.”

“Why would she cooperate with us?” Karin asked.

“It gets her out from under him,” Marji said.

I thought it over and got to my feet. “I'm going to get dressed.”

“Figured out where we're going?” Karin asked.

“You aren't going anywhere,” I told her firmly. “You two stay here. Don't leave until I get back.”

“Where are you going?” Marji asked.

“I need to talk to somebody. Somebody who doesn't use phones,” I said on my way back to my bedroom.

I don't like using the back way into Government House during the day, so I dug out one of my more conservative suits and put on a white shirt and solid blue tie. I added a leather satchel that my human father had given me years ago when I was clerking at one of his factories.

Marji raised her eyebrows at how I was dressed. Karin said, “You look like you're going to job interview.”

“Something like that, yeah,” I said on my way out of the door.

I took the freight elevator and went out the back alley. Then I walked straight to Government House and in through the front doors. I went down a hallway under a sign that said “Public Works” then through a door labeled “Sewer Department” and through a big room full of clerks typing and filing who knew what in a maze of big steel cabinets. There was a door at the back of the room labeled “Office Of Rainwater Management.” I unlocked it and went through.

Inside there was a concrete staircase that went down two levels and opened out into the underground maze of the Mayor's office. I saw the same sour receptionist as before.

“Samhain Jackknife for His Honor,” I said. “Please tell him it's urgent.”

She nodded and made the call. She was still looking at me like I was tracking mud on her freshly mopped kitchen floor, but I didn't take it personally. She probably looked at the Lord Mayor the same way.

I had just barely sat down when a young man in a crisp suit came to lead me to His Honor's chamber.

He opened the huge iron bound door for me and I saw that there was a group of men surrounding the Mayor, sitting in chairs with attached desks, like school desks, that hadn't been there the last time I'd seen the chamber.

The dragon looked up at my entrance and rumbled, “Gentlemen, we shall break for lunch now. Return in three quarters of an hour, please. I have a matter which requires prompt attention.”

The men gathered their papers and left without comment, filing away towards another door. Most of them didn't even bother to glance in my direction. I didn't recognize any of them. Hopefully that meant this was just a low level planning session and word of my appearance wouldn't get back to Castor Tak.

“Envoy Jackknife,” His Honor said as the door shut behind the departing crowd, “Have a seat. Tell me a story.”

I did, and then I did. I told him everything, even, after a moment's hesitation, how Jake had killed the morauxe in the Bone Fortress.

“He should not have brought a firearm into Nightmare,” the Mayor growled.

“It never even occurred to me that he would,” I said.

“Naturally not,” the Mayor said. “Continue.”

I did and when I finished the Mayor closed his eyes. He sat, still as a statue, for a long moment. Then, moving nothing but his fearsome jaws, he said, “This is... troubling. Not, perhaps, entirely unexpected, however. How certain are you that Mr. Tak is this criminal Magus that your friend was associated with?”

“Not certain enough to act,” I said quickly. “The photograph is damning, but it is hardly conclusive.”

“Agreed,” said the Mayor quietly. “Mrs. Karnes is right, I fear. You must gather more evidence.”

“Can you help us?” I asked.

One huge eye opened and looked at me. “You may offer any citizens of Nightmare my personal assurance that any testimony that they give regarding crimes committed within the Midword will be held in the strictest confidence, and that they will not be prevented from returning to their home realms following their testimony, even if they are themselves implicated in domestic crimes.”

I waited. The huge eye closed again. That was it. Well, maybe it would be enough. “Thank you, Your Honor,” I said.

“Do keep me informed of your progress,” he said.

“Yes, Sir,” I said, and left the chamber.