“Cherry, I’m begging you,pleasebe more careful,” he said once we were almost back to the same door we’d come through.
“Iambeing careful,” I argued, pulling my arm out of his grip. I enjoyed the guy’s company, but my more defiant side wasflaring up. “Remember, you don’t see what I see, and we’re not gonna learn anything if we don’t ask questions.”
“And how much have you learned with your two interrogations? A name of a kitten and a new sewing technique?”
“It’scross-stitching,not sewing.”
“Do you want me to pretend to understand the difference?”
I rolled my eyes, but he did have a point, so I tried to be more lowkey as we moved through the enchanted street, watching people for longer before I approached them.
Key word:tried.
“Hey there, I’m Helena Poirot, and this is my partner in crime—heavy on the crime—Captain H. We’re trying to get outta Dodge, but need some dough to do it. Heard of any good hits out lately? We’re in a rush?”
…
“I see you’re playing solitaire. You ever heard of the gameSpeed?I win, you owe me a favor. You beat me, you can have my butler here, Wadsworth McGee.”
…
“Nice finger necklace. You in the market for a hit? Because me and my lover here, Fernando Renaldo, are looking to get rid of my husband so we can finally celebrate our love unfettered.”
…
“You see, it’s not easy being fraternal twins, especially when your evil triplet sister is trying to curse you with eternal sleep. We’ve gotta find an assassin who can take her down and cover all their tracks so no one will know we are responsible.”
…
“Actually, we’re dolls, Annie Bella and Chuckster, that have been turned human by an evil witch. We want to get back to not having to think. Know anyone powerful enough to handle that?”
…
“Yeah, believe it or not, an evil gnome kidnapped our firstborn son and won’t give him back unless we can figure out his name! We need someone really in the know who would have access to all the knowledge of the heavy hitters around here.”
…
“You know, I was just telling my partner here, John Jacob Schmidt—the Jingleheimer is silent—that taking a six-month sabbatical really affects all your connections once you come back to this line of work. I guess everyone thinks you’re dead when you’re gone that long. Don’t suppose you’ve heard of anyone dropping juicy contracts lately to get back in the game, have you?”
My head was beginning to ache from looking for people who were emotionally open or vulnerable enough to risk having a conversation with. And even though I made sure I wasn’t going up to complete sociopaths or people ready to shank us at the drop of a hat, I could tell Paul was growing more nervous with every passing second. Not that I could blame him. I understood that my methods grated against his natural instincts, but hey, we hadn’t gotten killed on my watch!
Hadn’t gotten killedyet.
Still, playing it cautious didn’t seem to be getting us anywhere, because not only did no one know who dropped the contract, no one seemed to know how to pick it up either. I guess the assassins were all out hunting for Jackson and we had somehow missed the boat.
But that didn’t make sense. Surely there had to be some latecomers.
So, I decided to play a little fast and loose and approached someone leaking a bit more of danger than any of the other ne’er-do-wells.
The smaller man sat by himself at one of the farther points of the street, struggling to tune the banged-up guitar on hislap. Although his shoulders were slight, violent chemtrails of malevolence drifted through craggy clouds of his concentration.
“Need help?” I asked. I could feel Paul bristling behind me. I knew I was pushing it, but sometimes it was worth it to risk it for the biscuit.
“No, I’m just fine.”
At this point, I was used to being rebuffed right off the bat, so I turned on my charm for the umpteenth time and tried to connect with a criminal on a personal level. Perhaps it should have been a little surprising or even disconcerting how many of those on the fringes of the law had some neurodivergent tendencies, but that was a conversation for another day. Preferably when I wasn’t investigating a violent murder.
“You sure? Because that’s a parlor guitar, isn’t it? You’re struggling with the short scale because it generally does better with higher tension strings to prevent that buzzing and keep the tone, or you can tune it to an open key, like open A. Maybe even a whole step up.”