Goblin Precinct (Dragon Precinct) (9 page)

Chuckling, Iaian said, “Damn, two people living in sin, I thought for sure you’d make a remark. You really
are
off your game, ain’tcha?”

Grovis put his hands on his hips. “What is
that
supposed to mean?”

“Never mind.” Iaian turned back to the woman. “Can you tell me what happened here?”

“Can tell you
exactly
what, well, happened. It was Brindy. He, well—all right, see, Brindy? He, well, he likes his Bliss. But after what happened with Jhef and Tiny, Urgoth wouldn’t deal with him no more.”

“Who’s Urgoth?” Iaian asked.

“He’s the dwarf. He deals the, well, Bliss ’round here. Y’know?”

“Okay, so Urgoth wouldn’t deal to Elko?”

“No!” The woman shook her head. “Ain’t you payin’ attention? Urgoth wouldn’t deal to
Brindy
’cause’a what happened to, well, Jhef and Tiny. ’Specially Tiny. Tiny was always a pain in everybody’s ass ever since Grunty left town.”

Iaian held up his hands. “Okay, ma’am, I’m sorry, but—” He shook his head. “I need you to focus. What did Tiny do to Brindy?”

“Tiny didn’t do nothin’ to Brindy! But Brindy went and pissed off Urgoth, so Urgoth wouldn’t give no Bliss to Brindy no more!”

Glancing over at Grovis, Iaian asked, “You gettin’ all this, boy?”

Grovis blinked. He had been thinking about what Daddy must have been going through. The family had only just gotten over the double scandal of his cousin Cam hiring a sex-sim shortly before his fiancée Arra Cynnis was killed by a succubus. Well, actually, it was a hone-onna, but Grovis had given up correcting the rest of the family, who kept insisting it was a succubus, and after a while it just wasn’t worth correcting. But adding this theft to the weight of what happened with Cam and Arra, it was just going to kill the family. Grovis had no idea what he was going to do.

Which meant he had no idea what Iaian was doing or talking about.

“I’m sorry?” he said lamely.

Now it was Iaian’s turn to put his hands on his hips. “Oh for Wiate’s sake, will you get your head in the game?”

“Of course, of course, I’m sorry. Now, then, madam, you say the victim is Brindy?”

The woman wiped a tear off with the back of her hand. “No, the guy who, well, killed the victim is Brindy. Elko.”

Grovis frowned. “I’m sorry, was it Elko or Brindy?”

“C’mon, boy,” Iaian said, “even
I
know that Elko’s the victim.” He turned to the woman. “So Brindy killed him because Urgoth told him to?”

“No! Dammit, ain’t you payin’
any
attention?” The woman sighed. “Urgoth wouldn’t give Brindy Bliss no more, so Elko, well, he said he’d get Brindy his Bliss for him, since Elko didn’t take that stuff, and Brindy did. But then Urgoth got all, well, suspicious and stuff, because Elko, he said that he was, well, buyin’ the Bliss for me, but I can’t actually take Bliss. I mean, I tried once, but I was, well, allergic to it, got all puffy and such-like. So Urgoth, he found that out, and it didn’t take long for him to figure out that Elko was doin’ it for Brindy, and Urgoth was all pissed about what happened with Tiny and Jhef, so there was no way he was selling no more Bliss to Elko because he didn’t want Brindy to get none, and Brindy got all pissed, and that was that. So you gonna arrest Brindy, or what?”

Unable to help himself, Grovis once again said, “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I lost track a bit—is Jhef the one who sold the Bliss to Urgoth, which forced him to kill Brindy?”

Iaian just stared at Grovis. “All right, that’s it. Get your ass back to the castle.”

“I’m s—”

Holding up a hand, Iaian said, “If you say ‘I’m sorry’ one more time, I’m gonna run you through with my sword. Your mind ain’t on the case, and you’re a crappy enough detective when you’re payin’ attention. You ain’t worth shit to me like this. So go back to the castle and see if you can find out what happened to Daddy’s bank. I’ll take care’a this.”

Grovis hesitated. “Are you sure? Regulations are that two detectives are supposed to deal with—”

Iaian rolled his eyes the way he seemed to at least twelve or thirteen times daily. “Please. We know who did it—just have to find Brindy and stick him in the hole. I think I can handle that. Get outta here.”

At that moment, Grovis felt an emotion he’d never felt regarding his partner before. “Thank you,” he said emphatically. He wasn’t even too perturbed that Iaian had insulted him while letting him do what he preferred to do.

Without another word, he turned and left the hovel with its dead body and its annoying woman and her ridiculous story about people taking too much Bliss.

As he worked his way down Orphan’s Lane back toward Meerka Way, the main thoroughfare of the city-state that would lead him back to the castle, he regretted his thoughts. Brindy—or was it Elko?—was a victim, someone whose life was unfairly taken from him.

And for what? For this ridiculous drug? Grovis had no comprehension, none, of why anyone would use a drug to substitute for happiness. Why, all one needed to do was find solace in Ghandurha and his noble teaching, and a happy life was guaranteed!

Although he didn’t do anything quite so ridiculous as turn back, he did regret leaving Iaian with this case. Still, his partner was, in all likelihood, correct in that he could handle this alone. After all, he’d been in the Castle Guard for more than two decades—as he never tired of reminding Grovis—so surely he could handle a simple dispute-turned-murder.

When he reached the tree-lined pathway to the castle entrance, Grovis saw the familiar Cloaks of Dru and Hawk. In truth, what he recognized were Hawk’s dreadlocks, which extended down past the gryphon emblem on his cloak.

“Ahoy, Dru! Hawk!”

The lieutenants stopped walking and turned around. “Oh, hey, Grovis,” Dru said unenthusiastically.

“So, what news?” Grovis asked as he jogged to catch up with the pair of them. “Are you close to finding the malefactors who have soiled my family name?”

Dru and Hawk exchanged quick glances. “Er, well, we ain’t got nothin’ yet,” Hawk finally said. “Witnesses weren’t all that helpful, and far as we can tell, the robbers used glamours, so can’t nobody identify them.”

“What about the security?”

Again, Dru and Hawk exchanged glances. “What security?” Dru asked.

Grovis stared open-mouthed at the detectives. “Didn’t Than tell you about the security?”

Dru grunted. “All Mr. Martel told us was how worried your Daddy was gonna be.”

“Yeah, when he wasn’t bitchin’ that we wasn’t bringin’ the M.E. along.”

“And hey,” Dru said with a sudden smile, inexplicably slapping Grovis on the back, “why didn’t you tell us about your dad?”

Grovis blinked. “I’m sorry?” He was saying that far too often today.

“Martel told us about the big news!”

Now Grovis was completely confused. “Dru, what in Ghandurha’s name are you
talking
about?”

“Your dad,” Hawk said slowly, “gettin’ on the rolls.”

His eyes widening, Grovis said, “What!? Daddy’s going to be on the rolls?”

Dru swallowed, suddenly seeming nervous. “Well, that’s what Martel said. I mean, he coulda been—”

“That’s amazing! Oh, that’s
wonderful
, that the Lord and Lady think highly enough of Daddy that—” He cut himself off. “Hang on—you said Than told you this?”

Hawk nodded.

“I don’t believe it. Why would he tell Than and not me?”

The three of them entered the castle. Grovis was devastated. His father had been wanting to become a member of the Lord and Lady’s court since he was a teenager. Their family had always had money, but not the full-on success that led to a title.

But when the Hazlars had their falling out with Lady Meerka and left Cliff’s End, allowing the Cliff’s End Bank to merge with the Hazlar Bank, Daddy had thought that it would be the step that would enable him to finally become Sir Harcort.

However, that did not explain why Daddy didn’t say anything to his youngest son about it.

Upon entering the east wing, they saw Osric coming from the other side of the castle. He fixed his one-eyed gaze directly on Grovis. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Iaian instructed me to return to the castle, as he felt that my expertise was better suited to assisting the lieutenants here with their case.”

Osric snarled. “More likely he got tired of you being so distracted over Daddy’s bank. This is why I
didn’t
want you on the case.”

“Actually,” Dru said, “we can use him. Turns out there’s a security system in the bank that the robbers worked around. Only reason we even know about it’s Grovis—bank manager never mentioned it”

Leading the detectives into the squadroom, Osric asked, “What kind of security system?”

“Good question.” Hawk stared at Grovis.

Putting his annoyance at Daddy’s lack of communication aside, Grovis said, “It’s a theft deterrent from the Brotherhood of Wizards. All money deposited inside the bank is charmed, and when it’s withdrawn, the charm is removed. If the charm isn’t removed properly, the coins all become coated with a red shell that makes them worthless.”

Sergeant Jonas came dashing out of the kitchen area, shuffling parchments as usual.

“Jonas,” Osric said, “have there been reports of anyone trying to pass red coins?”

Shaking his head, the sergeant said, “Not that I’ve heard, but I can put the word out to the precincts to be on the lookout.”

“Do that.” Osric rubbed the ever-present stubble on his cheeks. “Knowing this sooner would have helped.”

“I think we oughtta be goin’ back,” Hawk said, “with Grovis this time, an’ find out why he wasn’t mentionin’ the security.”

Osric muttered something under his breath. “Oh, all right, since it’s obvious that Grovis is even more useless to me than usual.”

Before Grovis could defend himself against that slander, one of the youth squad came dashing in. Grovis had always been dubious about the notion of relying so heavily upon children to deliver messages, but he had to admit that it was a system that seemed to work. He wished, though, that Lady Meerka—who handled the finances for the demesne—would approve simply putting them on salary instead of forcing the employees of the Castle Guard to use their own hard-earned money to tip them.

This was a freckle-faced girl wearing a dress that looked as if it had been passed down to her through at least six generations. “There’s been another robbery! The bank!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, girl,” Grovis said, “the bank has already been robbed once today.”

“Naw,” she said, “not the main branch, the one on Axe Lane!”

Grovis’s heart started to pound in his chest. “I don’t believe it! First Cam and Arra, now this!”

Dru looked at Hawk. “There’s, what, two branches of the bank?”

“Three,” Grovis said, “plus the main one.”

“That’s half your father’s banks hit in one day.” Osric let out a sigh. “Fine, all three of you go, and find out if the security system actually works.”

“You got it, Cap’n,” Dru said. “C’mon, Grovis, let’s go rescue Sir Daddy’s bank.”

Shooting Dru a nasty look, Grovis followed him and Hawk back out of the castle once again. Daddy wasn’t going to be “Sir” Anything if this kept up.

NINE

TORIN RUBBED HIS TEMPLES WITH THE TIPS OF HIS FINGERS AS HE strode past Fanthral and Danthres, hoping that he could perhaps get far enough ahead of them as they went up Meerka Way that he would be spared their tiresome arguing.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Both his partner and the erstwhile general had the characteristic great height and long legs of the elven race, and that meant they could easily pace Torin and his shorter legs.

So he was subjected to the pair of them going at it for the better part of an hour.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was Danthres’s usual sniping. After a decade, Torin was well used to that.

But no, this was of a different sort. Danthres was asking about Sorlin with a constancy that bordered on obsession.

Well, no, that wasn’t entirely fair. When she needed to focus on the case, she did, but for the long walk through the thoroughfares of Cliff’s End, she started pestering him with questions.

“Did the council just
decide
to disband? How low had the population fallen, anyhow?”

“I do not know the specifics,” Fanthral said tightly. “Perhaps you should send a message to someone you knew from there who would be able to inform you of the details. My reasons for being there were purely to seek out—”

Danthres waved a hand back and forth. “Yes, yes, I know what you were there for, your ridiculous hunt for former elf lords.”

Tartly, Fanthral said, “It is not ‘ridiculous.’ The Elf Queen was not the sole actor in her tyranny. She could not have wielded the power she did, nor commit the despicable acts she committed, without the support and assistance of the nobility.”