Shadows Linger




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Chapter Twenty-Eight:
JUNIPER: LISA


Shed spent an entire day lying in his room, staring at the
ceiling, hating himself. He had sunk as low as a man could. There
was no deed too foul for him anymore, and nothing more he could do
to blacken his soul. A million-leva passage fee could not buy him
aboard on Passage Day. His name had to be written in the Black Book
with those of the greatest villains.

“Mr. Shed?” Lisa said from the doorway next morning,
as he was contemplating another day of ceiling study and self-pity.
“Mr. Shed?”

“Yeah?”

“Bo and Lana are here.”

Bo and Lana, with a daughter, were his mother’s servants.
“What do they want?”

“Their accounts settled for the month, I
expect.”

“Oh.” He got up.

Lisa stopped him at the head of the stair. “I was right
about Sue, wasn’t I?”

“You were.”

“I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have said anything if
we could have afforded it.”

“We? What do you mean, we? Oh, hell. Never mind. Forget
about it. I don’t want to hear about it anymore.”

“Whatever you say. But I’m going to hold you to your
promise.”

“What promise?”

“To let me manage the Lily.”

“Oh. All right.” At that moment he did not care. He
collected the monthly accounting from the servants. He had chosen
them well. They were not cheating him. He suggested they deserved a
small bonus.

He returned upstairs for the money. Lisa watched him go,
perplexed. He realized his mistake too late. Now she wondered why
he had money today when he’d had none yesterday. He located
his dirty clothing, emptied his pockets onto his bed. And
gasped.

“Oh, damn! Damn,” he muttered. “What the hell
am I going to do with three gold pieces?”

There was silver, too, and even a fistful of copper,
but . . . It was a gyp! A fortune he could not
spend. Juniper law made it illegal for commoners to hold minted
gold. Even incoming foreigners had to exchange theirs for
silver—though foreign silver was as welcome as local. Lucky, too,
for the black castle mintage was a decidedly odd coinage, though in
the standard weights.

How could he get rid of the gold? Sell it to some ship captain
headed south? That was the usual procedure. He slipped it into his
most secret hiding place, with the amulet from the black castle. A
useless fortune. He assessed the remainder.

Twenty-eight pieces of silver, plus several leva in copper.
Enough to take care of his mother and Sal. Way short of enough to
pry Gilbert off his back. “Still be in the damned money
trap,” he whined.

He recalled Sue’s jewelry, smiled nastily, muttered,
“I’ll do it.” He pocketed everything, returned to
the ground floor, paid his mother’s servants, told Lisa,
“I’m going out for a while.”

First he made sure Wally’s family was cared for, then
ambled down toward Gilbert’s place. No one seemed to be
around. Gilbert was not like Krage, in that he felt he needed an
army on hand, but he did have his bone-breakers. They were all
away. But someone was in Gilbert’s office because lamplight
illuminated the curtains. He smiled thoughtfully, then hustled back
to the Lily. He went to a table back in the shadows, near where
Raven used to sit. A couple of foreign sailors were seated there.
Tough merchandise if he’d ever seen it. They’d been
around for some time. They said they and their friends, who came
and went, had missed their ship. They were waiting for another.
Shed could not recall having heard the name of their home port.

“You men like to pick up some easy money?” he
asked.

“Who doesn’t?” one responded.

And the other, “What you got in mind?”

“I have a little problem. I’ve got to do some
business with a man. He’s liable to get vicious.”

“Want some back-up, eh?”

Shed nodded.

The other sailor looked at him narrowly. “Who is
he?”

“Name’s Gilbert. A moneylender. You heard of
him?”

“Yeah.”

“I was just past his place. Don’t look like
there’s anybody there but him.”

The men exchanged glances. The taller said, “Tell you
what. Let me go get a friend of ours.”

“I can’t afford a whole army.”

“Hey, no problem. You two work out what you’d pay
two of us; he’ll come along free. Just feel more comfortable
having him with us.”

“Tough?”

Both men grinned. One winked at the other. “Yeah. Like you
wouldn’t believe.”

“Then get him.”

One man left. Shed dickered with the other. Lisa watched from
across the room, eyes narrow and hard. Shed decided she was getting
too much into his business too fast.

The third man was a frog-faced character barely five feet tall.
Shed frowned at him. His fetcher reminded, “He’s tough.
Remember?”

“Yeah? All right. Let’s go.” He felt a hundred
percent better with three men accompanying him, though he had no
real assurance they would help if Gilbert started something.

There were a couple of thugs in the front room when Shed
arrived. He told them: “I want to see Gilbert.”

“Suppose he don’t want to see you?” It was
standard tough-guy game-playing. Shed did not know how to respond.
One of his companions saved him the worry.

“He don’t got much choice, does he? Unless that
fat’s all muscle in disguise.” He produced a knife,
began cleaning his nails. The deed was so reminiscent of Raven that
Shed was startled.

“He’s back in the office.” The fat thug
exchanged a look with his companion. Shed figured one would run for
help.

He started moving. His frog-faced companion said,
“I’ll just stay out here.”

Shed pushed into Gilbert’s office. The moneylender had a
sack of leva on his desk, was weighing coins one at a time on a
fine scale, sorting out those that had been clipped. He looked up
angrily. “What the hell is this?”

“Couple of friends wanted to stop by with me and watch how
you do business.”

“I don’t like what this says about our relationship,
Shed. It says you don’t trust me.”

Shed shrugged. “There’s some nasty rumors out there.
About you and Sue working on me. To do me out of the
Lily.”

“Sue, eh? Where is she, Shed?”

“There is a connection, eh?” Shed let his face fall.
“Damn you. That’s why she turned me down. You villain.
Now she won’t even see me. That ape at the door keeps telling
me she isn’t there. You arrange that, Mister Gilbert? You
know, I don’t like you much.”

Gilbert gave the lot of them a nasty one-eyed stare. For a
moment he seemed to consider his chances. Then the small man ambled
in, leaned against the wall, his wide mouth wrinkled into a
sneer.

Gilbert said, “You come to talk or to do business? If
it’s business, get at it. I want these creeps out of here.
They’ll give the neighborhood a bad name.”

Shed
produced a leather bag. “You have the bad name, Gilbert. I hear people saying they won’t do business with
you anymore. They don’t think it’s right you should try
to screw people out of their property.”

“Shut up and give me some money, Shed. You just want to
whine, get out.”

“Sure talks tough for being down four to one,” one
of the men remarked. A companion admonished him in another
language.

Gilbert glared in a way that said he was memorizing faces. The
little man grinned and beckoned with one finger. Gilbert decided it
could wait.

Shed counted coins. Gilbert’s eyes widened as the stack
grew. Shed said, “Told you I was working on a deal.” He
tossed in Sue’s jewelry.

One of his companions picked up a bracelet, examined it.
“How much do you owe this character?”

Gilbert snapped a figure, which Shed suspected to be
inflated.

The sailor observed, “You’re shorting yourself,
Shed.”

“I just want quit of this jackal’s lien on my
place.”

Gilbert stared at the jewelry, pallid, stiff. He licked his lips
and reached for a ring. His hand shook.

Shed was both fearful and filled with malicious glee. Gilbert
knew the ring. Now maybe he would be a little nervous about messing
with Marron Shed. Or he might decide to cut a few throats. Gilbert
had some of the same ego problems Krage had had.

“This should more than cover everything, Mr. Gilbert. The
big, too. Even with the extra points. Let’s have my lien
back.”

Dully, Gilbert retrieved that from a box on a nearby shelf. His
eyes never left the ring.

Shed destroyed the lien immediately. “Don’t I still
owe you a little something, though, Mr. Gilbert? Yes, I think so.
Well, I’ll do my best to see you get everything you’ve
got coming.”

Gilbert squinted angrily. Shed thought he saw a hint of fear,
too. That pleased him. Nobody was ever afraid of Marron Shed,
except maybe Asa, who did not count.

Best make his exit, before he stretched his luck. “Thank
you, Mr. Gilbert. See you again soon.”

Passing through the outer room, he was astonished to find
Gilbert’s men snoring. The frog-faced man grinned. Outside,
Shed paid his guardians. “He wasn’t as much trouble as
I expected.”

“You had us with you,” the little man said.
“Let’s go to your place and have a beer.”

One of the others observed, “He looked like he was in
shock.”

The little man asked, “How’d you ever get that far
into a moneylender, anyway?”

“A skirt. I thought I was going to marry her. She was just
taking me for my money. I finally woke up.”

His companions shook their heads. One said, “Women. Got to
watch them, buddy. They’ll pick your bones.”

“I learned my lesson. Hey. Drinks on the house. I’ve
got some wine I used to keep for a special customer. He left town,
so I’m stuck with it.”

“That bad, eh?”

“No. That good. Nobody can afford it.”

Shed spent his entire evening sipping wine, even after the
sailors decided they had business elsewhere. He broke into a grin
each time he recalled Gilbert’s reaction to the ring.
“Got to be careful now,” he muttered. “He’s
as crazy as Krage.”

In time the good feeling departed. Fear took over. He’d
face anything Gilbert did alone, and he was still very much the
same old Shed under the patina left by Raven and a few deals
since.

“Ought to haul the bastard up the hill,” he muttered
into his mug. Then: “Damn! I’m as bad as Raven. Worse.
Raven never delivered them alive. Wonder what that bastard is doing
now, with his fancy ship and slick young slot?”

He got himself very, very drunk and very, very filled with
self-pity.

The last guest went to his bunk. The last outsider went home.
Shed sat there nursing his wine and glowering at Lisa, angry with
her for no reason he could define. Her body, he thought. Ripe. But
she wouldn’t. Too good for him. And her pushiness lately.
Yeah.

She studied him as she cleaned up. Efficient little witch.
Better even than Darling, who had worked hard but hadn’t the
economy of movement Lisa had. Maybe she did deserve to manage the
place. He hadn’t done such a great job.

He found her seated opposite him. He glowered. She did not
retreat. A hard lass, too. Wouldn’t bluff. Didn’t
scare. Tough Buskin bitch. Be trouble someday.

“What’s the matter, Mr. Shed?”

“Nothing.”

“I hear you paid Gilbert off. On a loan you took on this
place. How could you take a loan on the Lily? It’s been in
your family for ages.”

“Don’t give me that sentimental crap. You
don’t believe it.”

“Where did you get the
money?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be so nosy. Maybe nosiness
could be bad for your health.” He was talking surly and tough
but not meaning what he said.

“You’ve been acting
strange lately.”

“I was in love.”

“That wasn’t it. What happened to that, anyway? I
hear Sue disappeared. Gilbert says you did her in.”

“Did what? I was over to her place today.”

“You see her?”

“No. The door guard said she wasn’t home. Which
means she didn’t want to see me. Probably had somebody else
up there.”

“Maybe it meant she wasn’t home.”

Shed
snorted. “I told you I don’t want to talk about her
anymore. Understand?”

“Sure. Tell me where you got the money.”

Shed
glared. “Why?”

“Because if there’s more, I want a chunk. I
don’t want to spend my life in the Buskin. I’ll do
whatever it takes to get out.”

Shed smirked.

She misunderstood. “This job is just to keep body and soul
together till I find something.”

“A million people have thought that, Lisa. And
they’ve frozen to death in Buskin alleys.”

“Some make it. I don’t intend to fail. Where did you
get the money, Mr. Shed?” She went for a bottle of the good
wine. Vaguely, Shed thought it must be about gone. He told her
about his silent partner. “That’s a crock. I’ve
been here long enough to know that.”

“Better believe it, girl.” He giggled. “You
keep pushing and you’re liable to meet him. You won’t
like him, I guarantee.” He recalled the tall creature telling
him to hurry back.

“What happened to Sue?”

Shed tried to rise. His limbs were limp. He fell back into his
seat. “I’m drunk. Drunker than I thought. Getting out
of shape.” Lisa nodded gravely. “I loved her. I really
loved her. She shouldn’t ought to have done that. I would
have treated her like a queen. Would have gone into hell for her.
Almost did.” He chuckled. “Went in with
her . . . Oops.”

“Would you do that for me, Mr. Shed?”

“What?”

“You’re always trying to get me. What’s it
worth?”

Shed leered. “Don’t know. Can’t
tell till I’ve tried you.”

“You don’t have anything to give me, old
man.”

“Know where to get it, though.”

“Where?”

Shed just sat there grinning, a bit of drool trailing from one
corner of his mouth.

“I give up. You win. Come on. I’ll help you get up
the stairs before I go home.”

The climb was an epic. Shed was one drink short of passing out.
When they reached his room, he just toppled into bed.

“Thanks,” he mumbled. “What’re you
doing?”

“You have to get undressed.”

“Guess so.” He made no effort to help.
“What’re you doing now? Why’re you grabbing me
like that?”

“You want me, don’t you?” A moment later she
was in the bed with him, rubbing her nakedness against his. He was
too drunk to make anything of the situation. He held her, and
became maudlin, spouting his trials. She played to it.



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