Renewing acquaintances with Theverly could wait. I expected to be back before nightfall. We could get together then.

Tinnie and I got out of the gateway to The Pipes only moments before the leading horsemen turned in. We stood across the road and gawked at the cavalcade. Quite a few cavaliers gawked right back at the redhead. Me, I just stood there wrapped in my cloak of invisibility.

Once we did start toward town the Goddamn Parrot began to get excited. He sounded like he was trying to talk again. What language wasn't clear, however.

"He can't stand country life," I explained to Tinnie. "Heh-heh. Maybe I can lose him in the woods."

84

"Speaking of woods," Tinnie said. She gestured to indicate the last copse we'd traversed before we'd gotten to The Pipes coming out. "What became of all those people you said were following us?" She'd seen the feather of smoke leaning above the treetops.

"A question definitely worth consideration, my dear," I said. "Perhaps I should've offered to borrow something sharp before we left your new uncle's establishment."

"You sure should've. It's obvious we can't rely on your rapier wit."

"How sharper than a frog's tooth. I shouldn't have run so fast when that goddess wanted to be my girlfriend."

"You? Run from anything female?"

"She was green and had four arms. And teeth like one of Mr. Venable's pets. But she was affectionate."

"I'll bet. There's somebody in those trees."

Her eyes were better than mine. I didn't see anything. But I took her word. She wouldn't joke about danger. Much. I picked up a stick. "This would be handy if it wasn't rotten." It would shatter the first time I knighted somebody. But if I carried it maybe folks would be discouraged from getting close enough to find out that it was mostly decorative. I mused, "I need to stop by the house and arm up."

"I'd help but I really need to go home. Uncle Willard's probably going crazy."

I told the Goddamn Parrot, "The lady's a gold seam of straight lines but I'm a gentleman." I spotted movement at the wood's edge. Someone wasn't good at sitting still. Then I spotted more movement elsewhere. "I hope those people aren't all working together."

They weren't, apparently, but they were aware of one another and wanted to stay out of each other's way. Which made for a lot of rustle and scurry as Tinnie and I strolled through the wood.

"These are the people you never noticed before?"

"They're city boys. They don't do quite as well when they're surrounded by a whole lot of country."

"A not uncommon problem, evidently."

"Hey!"

"I'm starting to think that you've been telling tall tales about you and the Marines. Tell the truth. You were really the guy who mopped the floors at expeditionary headquarters, weren't you?"

"You found me out. Don't tell anybody. They'll kick me out of The Call. Then what would I do for entertainment?"

"You could always harass yourself."

"Wouldn't want to horn in on your only hobby."

Tinnie took my hand. We ambled. We strolled. She didn't appear to be in a real hurry to ease Uncle Willard's anxiety.

Those following me didn't intrude. Guess they just wanted to play follow the leader.

85

"It's a different city."

Tinnie felt it, too, though nothing was immediately obvious to the eye. There were ample crowds of all ethnic persuasions working hard doing the things that need doing to keep a city going. "Nobody's talking to anybody."

She was right. And it wasn't just that. People were being careful to give one another room and especially careful not to expose their backs to anyone not of a like ethnic conviction.

It was a wary city. Everybody expected something big to happen. Probably sometime soon.

The Call's adventure hadn't been quite the disaster the boys at The Pipes imagined. The world was waiting for the other shoe to fall. When Marengo figured that out...

I was alert, yet not paying close attention. If you can figure that. I ran everything through my head again, trying to find a thread of sense to pick at. But it wouldn't hang together in one big, stinky lump no matter how much I twisted and shoehorned and ignored the usual rules. I could only get it going if I assumed two or more things were going on at the same time. But something down inside me wanted it to be just one big thing that I wasn't seeing right.

"You're the common factor," Tinnie said.

"Huh?" I looked around. We were approaching the Tate compound.

"You were muttering. Doing pretty good, too. You might have a future as a street character. You've already got the wardrobe."

The Goddamn Parrot released a startled blat more like crow slang than the king's parrotese. He flung himself into the air and flapped away. I barked, "What the hell?" Couldn't be my luck turning good.

Tinnie asked, "How did you wake him up?"

"I don't know." But I had a suspicion what was behind his excitement. What's big and sits in the dark and doesn't breathe a lot? "I'm a common thread but I came in after the fact." The Goddamn Parrot disappeared between buildings. "The way my luck runs nothing will get him."

"You going to come inside?" Tinnie asked. She grinned. She knew I didn't want to deal with Uncle Willard.

"I have to get back into that library." We crossed the street. I noted that most people moved around in large groups and that more weapons than usual were in evidence, some of them quite illegal.

"Can't stay away from Tama Montezuma's bony butt, eh?"

"Has she got a bony behind? I never noticed. I see no one else but you." I damaged my case by noticing a devastating set of twins exiting the Tate retail outlet.

"When you stop shaking and get your heels off your tongue you might try for something a little more convincing."

"Damn." Right behind the twins, chattering at them, came Tinnie's cousin Rose. Rose is a brunette as gorgeous as her cousin but she's got snakes and spiders for brains. Her face lit up like a bonfire when she saw me. "Here comes trouble," I said.

"She's not bad if you understand her," Tinnie said. "She'll try to make something out of me being with you but Uncle Willard will say, ‘So what?' and she'll go off and have a good pout." She planted a long, unsisterly kiss on me. "Be careful. Come see me. And stay away from strange women."

"Make up your mind." I kissed her back. Rose was scandalized and excited. "I won't be gone long." I hoped circumstance wouldn't make a liar of me. It did have a habit of doing so.

86

I moved carefully homeward. I hadn't spotted a tail since we left that woods, but I was getting used to the idea that I could be followed without being able to catch somebody doing it. I didn't like it, though.

I was more concerned about the new malice in the streets. Trouble has a way of finding people who look like they're vulnerable.

I spent a little concern on the Goddamn Parrot, too, but because I had no control over that situation I did not let it interfere with business.

Approaching the house cautiously is ancient habit. It felt justified today, though I saw nothing indicating trouble—unless the absence of Mrs. Cardonlos constituted a harbinger. Nor did I note any damage to the house itself. Clearly, the bad boys had not yet worked up the nerve to give it a try.

I let myself inside—and froze before I shut the door all the way. Something was wrong. I smelled an odor that didn't belong.

Somebody had been inside. Somebody who wore lilac water to disguise the fact that he found bathing an unhapppy chore. Maybe Saucerhead? Tharpe wasn't a stickler when it came to personal hygiene. Or maybe Winger?