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I got a message myself, as did Singe, who nearly fumbled her tray.
Scithe closed in on Rock and rested a hand on his right shoulder. “This is the devil? Four counts of murder? He don’t look the type.” He bent down to whisper, “You’re in the shit deep, sweetheart.”
Rock squirmed. His big brown eyes ached with appeal.
I said, “Bad news, Rock. It was all for naught. The Shadow never came to TunFaire.”
The Rose Purple made noises like a man trying to shout with a gag in his mouth. I think he was upset.
Scithe asked, “He’s not going anywhere, is he?”
“Only if the other villains rescue him.”
Chuckles all around. The other villains were about to have troubles of their own.
Scithe said, “I got to get moving on this. Ah!”
Penny had come down. She looked grimmer than I usually feel at such an absurd hour. She grabbed a cup. Singe poured. Penny added lots of sugar. “’S goin’ on? Cha’ wan’ me for?”
Scithe said, “You were in Torah’s Sweetness last night. Got rowdy.”
“So? Wanna make sumpin’ of it?”
“I do.”
I said, “He does, Penny. Everybody there ended up a drooling moron after you left.”
“Huh? Crap. You ain’t gonna put that on me.”
Her eyes glazed.
She settled on the nearest chair afterward. “There must’ve been twenty kids in there. They didn’t have nothing to do with any of this. Why would somebody do something like that?”
“She wasn’t after them. She expected me to bring that coin home. When her curse homed in on it, Old Bones and I would stop being the threat we turned into when she found out that we didn’t have the Shadow.”
“She would’ve got Singe and Dean and me, too.”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t get all hard-ass about me going with Bottle?”
Her heart wasn’t in that, though.
“I am. That worked out nicely.” Neither I nor the Dead Man chalked that up to luck, though. We believe in intuition. Something down deep had moved me to shed that coin.
I could have done a better job than I did, though.
Scithe asked, “You coming with, Garrett?”
“You inviting?”
“If you don’t get underfoot and don’t run your mouth.”
“I agree for him,” Singe said. “I will smack him if he gets out of line.”
Scithe considered her with eyebrow arched.
“I’m coming, too.”
