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"Don't whine. I hate it when you whine. You were way overdue to kick in
around here anyway. You could've saved me a ton of grief with Maggie Jenn if
you would've just woke up." He had unraveled the mystery at the heart of my
most recent case before I had finished telling the first half of the tale. It
was a case he had slept through stubbornly.
13
It was great to be in the righteous right so solid I could bury my spurs in
the Dead Man.
"Will you hold still?" Dean snapped. "Looks like a little pus here. Let me
clean it out so we won't have to cauterize later."
I had a vision of my handsome face set off by a strip of scar tissue skewed
across my scalp. I held still, but it hurt.
Dean said, "Miss Tate was here while you were away, Mr. Garrett. She . . . "
"She must have been watching the place." To know he was home so soon after he
arrived. Tinnie probably shouldn't be the ex-girlfriend. She was waiting for
me to make the first move toward reconciliation. I liked to think.
"News travels fast, Mr. Garrett."
"Did it have some help?"
"It's possible." Dean is as stubborn as I am. He is determined to get me
hooked up with Tinnie Tate or Maya Stubbs, both of them beautiful,
squared-away sweethearts who deserve Prince Charmings who are the real thing.
The Dead Man sent, Miss Tate was as charming, witty, and beautiful as ever
and her companion, Miss Weider, cannot be encompassed by normal superlatives.
Nevertheless, their petition will have to wait.
"Alyx Weider?" Those two must have buttered him up big. He has no use
whatsoever for the female of my species or any other species, as far as I have
seen. I'm sure that is why he tries to sabotage most of my romances. He
doesn't think most women deserve me.
Them pigs were flying formation today.
Dean tends toward the opposing opinion.
He said, "I believe Miss Tate did introduce her as Alyx." He did something to
my head that sent a ribbon of pain streaking from my scalp to my toenails.
"You're on my list, Dean. Someday I'll get my chance to patch you up."
I am on retainer as chief of security at Weider's brewery. My role is to drop
in unexpectedly and check employee honesty. I saved Weider from being robbed
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blind a long time back. The job was my reward. Old man Weider has been trying
to get me on full time ever since. There are times when a regular job looks
real good, even if I would have to call somebody else boss.
Alyx was the old man's baby, much younger than the rest of his sprats. I had
not seen her for some time. She had been a lovely but shy girl at sixteen. I
was surprised to hear that she had come to the house. Her dad wasn't the sort
to let his baby girl out, especially in today's TunFaire.
Miss Tate brought her. There is something happening within the Weider family,
possibly having to do with The Call and other radical fringe human rights
groups. We owe them an interest but this mess must take precedent. Gods!
Garrett! Garrett! At best you are an agnostic. But still you become entangled
with a clutch of redundant deities.
"Like I went looking for them? I'm not agnostic, though. I'm indifferent. My
philosophy is, you leave the gods alone and usually they'll leave you alone."
"Another one bites the dust," Dean said.
"Huh?" He find a nit?
"Another of your adolescent fantasies."
Dean is a religious man. I never pressed him, but I do not understand his
blind devotion to his peculiar monotheistic mythology when we are plagued by a
thousand other deities and, obviously, those gods occasionally really do mess
around with mortals. The human capacity for selective blindness appears to be
infinite.
For me the religion business becomes problematic when the gods outnumber
their worshippers.
Well, in some cases. One of which I seem to have stumbled into. I told the
Dead Man, "You sound like you're actually interested. Maybe I ought to be
suspicious. But I don't think there's time."
Exactly. Long hours and rigorous self-discipline lie ahead. Your first chore
will be to visit the Royal library and sweet-talk your friend into loaning us
whatever books they have devoted to these religions.
"Uh . . . that might not be so easy."
Make peace.
"It's not that. Linda Lee and I get along fine. I found some rare books she
let get away."
Find me some books. Dean! Put aside your prejudice for a moment. Go to Mr.
Dotes' establishment . . .
"That may not be any good either. Morley has gone upscale. He might be trying
to put his whole past behind him."
Must you interrupt? He rooted around inside my head. He never does that
unless he is seriously provoked or concerned. He reviewed my experiences
during his nap. Usually he is overly careful to respect my privacy.
His behavior was troubling. I had to suspect that he knew something that had
not occurred to me.
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