Book 06 - Red Iron Nights Read Free Page A

figured I ought to calm
him down before he killed somebody, only I couldn’t think
how. I didn’t want to get in his way when he was in that
mood. And I still had a flock of soggy butterflies after me.
    Tharpe calmed himself down. He grabbed the old man by the scruff
of the neck and pitched him into the coach. The old boy made a
sound like a whipped puppy. Tharpe tossed Scarf ace in on top of
him, then looked up. There wasn’t anybody on the
driver’s seat, so he just whacked the nearest horse on the
rump and yelled.
    The team took off.
    Hunching down against the rain, Tharpe turned to me.
“Takes care of those clowns. Hey! What happened to the
girl?”
    She was gone.
    “Damned ingrate. There’s a broad for you.
Hell.” He looked up, let the rain fall into his face a
moment, then said, “I’m going to get my stuff. Then
what say you and me go get drunk and get in a fight?”
    “I thought we just had a fight.”
    “Bah. Bunch of candyasses. Wimps. Come on.”
    I had no intention of going trouble-hunting. But it did seem
like a good idea to get in out of the rain, away from the
butterflies. I told you I hadn’t used up my ration of
sense.
    One of the two thugs was blocking the water flow in the gutter
in front of Morley’s door. The second came flying out as we
started in. “Hey!” Tharpe yelled. “Watch where
you’re throwing your trash.”
    I looked around inside. The girl hadn’t gone back in
there. Morley and Puddle and I settled down to wonder what it was
all about. Saucerhead went off looking for a real challenge.
     
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3
    I did my best to get my money’s worth out of
Puddle’s keg while Morley and I dissected cabbages and kings
and butterflies and the old days that never were that
good—though I’d had me a moment now and then. We solved
the ills of the world but decided there was nobody in authority
with sense enough to implement our program. We were disinclined to
take on the job ourselves.
    Women proved a topic of brief duration. Morley’s recent
luck undershone my own. It was too much to take, seeing that great
blob Puddle tipped back in his chair, thumbs hooked in his belt,
grinning smugly in regard to his own endeavors.
    The rain continued relentless. At last I had to face facts. I
was going to get wet again. I was going to get a lot wet if Dean
failed to respond to my pounding and whooping at the door. With set
jaw and scant optimism I took my leave of Morley and his
establishment. Dotes looked as smug as his man. He was home
already.
    I hunched my chin down against my chest and wished I’d had
the sense to wear a hat. I wear one so seldom it doesn’t
occur to me to top myself off when that would be wise. Right away
rain started sneaking down the back of my neck.
    I paused where we’d rescued Chodo’s mysterious
daughter from her more mysterious assailants. There wasn’t
much light. The rain had swept away most of the evidence. I poked
around and was on the verge of deciding half had been my
imagination before I found one big bedraggled butterfly. I salvaged
the cadaver and carried it as carefully as I could, cradled in my
left palm.
    My place is an old red brick house in a once-prosperous stretch
of Macunado Street, near Wizard’s Reach. The middle-class
types have all abandoned ship. Most of the neighboring places have
been subdivided and rented to families with herds of kids. Usually
when I approach my house I pause to inspect it and reflect on the
good fortune that let me survive the case that paid me enough to
buy it. But cold rain down the back of the neck has a way of
sapping nostalgia.
    I scampered up the steps and gave the secret knock,
bam-bam-bam
, as hard as I could while bellowing,
“Open up, Dean! I’m going to drown out here.” A
big flash of lightning. Thunder rattled my teeth in their sockets.
The sky lords hadn’t been feuding before, just tuning up for
another Great Flood. Thunder and lightning suggested they were
about to get serious. I pounded and