"Last night was the first time. He stayed about two hours. I guess you can figure what they were doing. Then he came back this morning."
I was all over her then, trying to pin down the order of events. But she couldn't get straight who had come when. "I think the cloaked man was first. Maybe not. Maybe it was the one who killed himself. The other one came last, though, I'm pretty sure. Two of them was here at the same time, I think, but I don't know which two."
She wasn't very bright, this woman. Also, she had been very scared. Donni's third visitor, who, it developed, had visited almost every night, had spooked her.
She was sure, almost, that the cloaked man had been the first to leave. Maybe.
"Tell me about this third man. This regular visitor. This guy who scared you so bad. He sounds interesting."
He wasn't interesting to her. She didn't want to talk about him at all. He was bad mojo. I took that as a good sign. She knew something here. With a little sweet talk... "I'm badder mojo, lover. I'm here." A little deft work with the knife...
"All right, Bruno. All right. You don't have to get mean. He can take care of you himself. The guys he ran with him called him Gorgeous. If you ever saw him, you'd know why. He was meaner than a wolfman on weed."
"Ugly?" Part ogre, I thought. What else? There had to be an ogre in it somewhere.
"Ugly! So ugly you couldn't tell if he was a breed or not. He came with different guys different times, some of them breeds, some of them not. But always with this one breed he called Skredli."
My eyes must have lit up, and not entirely with joy. She backed away a step, threw up a hand, looked for some place to hide. "Easy, woman. Skredli? Now that's a name I've been wanting to hear. Are you sure?"
"Sure I'm sure."
"You told me only three men ever came here. But now you've got this Gorgeous visiting with a crowd."
"The ones who came with him never came inside. They were like bodyguards or something. Except that Skredli guy did come inside this morning, I think, and maybe one other time. Yeah. That's right. I think he even come here one other time, too, by himself, and stayed with her a couple hours. I forgot about that. Ick." She shuddered. "Doing it with an ogre." "I want this Skredli. Where do I find him?" She shrugged. "I don't know. Ogre Town, I guess. But when you find him, you're going to find Gorgeous, too. And maybe the girl. Only she'll probably be dressed like a boy again. Using Donny Pell. Why don't you get out of here? Why don't you leave me the hell alone?"
"Do you know anything else?"
"No."
"Of course you do. Who came for the body? What were they going to do with it?"
"I guess they were his family. Or from his family. Fancy people off the Hill with their own private soldiers and no charity in them for poor people. They talked like they were going to have him cremated."
I grunted. That was the thing to do if you didn't want anybody getting too close a look at the stiff. Like, say, the woman who had given life to the flesh.
Or maybe I was
I stared at the woman. She wouldn't know. I doubted that she knew anything more worth digging out. "Step back into the corner, please. That's fine. Now sit yourself down."
She grew pale. Her hands, clasped around her knees, were bone white as she fought to keep them from shaking.
"You'll be all right," I promised. "I just want to know where you are while I go over this place again."
I found exactly what I expected to find. Zip. I took the doeskin bag and headed out.
As I passed through the doorway the woman called after me, "Mister, do you know anybody who wants to rent a room?"
