Searching through Gordons things wasnt much better. Playing cards were everywherescattered over the carpet and furniture, decks tidy on shelves and the kitchen counter. Chess stopped counting them when she hit twenty-three.
More signs of Gordons habit showed up in other places. Books on poker and blackjack strategy by the bed, in the bathroom, lying with their spines bent on the floor. Racing forms. Sports pages from four different newspapers. Sports magazines. Poker chips made bright circles all over the dirty brown shag carpeting; torn lottery tickets and betting slips covered them, confetti for a losers parade.
Lots of boxes around, she commented as they entered the dim, stale-smelling bedroom. Gordon hadnt been too worried about personal cleanliness; a dark sort of coffin-shaped smudge on the right side of the bed indicated both where he slept and that he didnt change his sheets much. Was he moving or something?
Aint got any on that. Terrible shifted a few of the boxes so he could get to the closet doors, then stopped. Hold up. Check this.
She crossed the dirty carpet to take the paperno, the photographfrom his hand. Two men sitting at a table covered with beer bottles, their arms around each other, drunken grins plastered across their faces. What? Whos that?
sGordon there, aye? An Yellow Pete there.
Gordon and the man hed killed. The man hed been magically directed to kill. They were friends?
Guessing so. Never seen em together what I recall, but aint like I seen either much, ceptin when Pete checked in, handed over he lashers an whatany else. Pete werent a gambler, neither.
She started to sit on the bed, then reconsidered. So somebody didnt just kill Pete, they made his friend kill him?
Aye. Guessing they figure makes it easier, dig? Pete aint be scared on Gordon, he sees him comin.
Did Pete have reason to be scared of someone?
He shook his head once, a quick twitch. Aw, Chess. Always reason to, aye? Aint can trust on nobody you see.
Yeah. She knew that.
He opened the closet doors to reveal the emptiness within. Guessing
Wait. Okay, that could be something. That might get them somewhere. Right? Gordon and Pete knew each other. They were friends.
Lookin so, aye.
So someonewhoever did thisknew that, right? Because its too weird to think they just happened to pick Gordon to kill Pete, and they just happened to be friends. The sorcerer knew.
The approval in his eyes made her feel warm all over. So the spell maker, he knew em too, aye? Knew em both.
Looks like it, huh.
He nodded. Maybe be good talkin to some at the card games. Aint guessin he neighbors be much for knowledge on him.
Terribles phone rang. Shit. Lately it seemed like it was never good news, and this time didnt seem to be an exception. He hung upslammed the phone shut, would be a better termand rubbed his forehead. Gotta go. Gots us another man down.
What? AnotherLex, you mean. Another street guy dead.
He nodded, already pulling his keys out of his pocket and heading for the door. By the docks, this one. Lemme get you home.
Why? Why?
Gettin late, baby, aint wanting you up there
And taking me home is going to cost you at least another twenty minutes or so. No. Im going with you.
Aint safe there, an I dont
But youll be there. There are people there, right? Ill be fine. Come on, take me with you.
Another dealer killed by Lexanother man killed by Lex or at Lexs order. At least so Terrible and Bump thought. But maybe it wasnt him; maybe someone else was doing it. Maybe if Chess saw it, she could find out.
Maybe she just needed to see it. To see that Lex really had done it, that he really was doing his best to fuck up her life.
Whatever the reason, relief blossomed in her chest when Terrible nodded. Aye, right, then. Only you do what I say, dig? I say get in the car, you do. Aye?
Dont I always do what you say? She raised her eyebrows, grinning at the little flash of memorymemoriesthe words invoked and the accompanying heat in her veins.
Aye, guessin you do. His hand brushed her behind when he stepped back to let her in the car, and her temperature kicked up another degree or two. Probably not the most appropriate response right after getting news of a murder, but it wasnt as if they were detouring to her place for a quickie, so what the hell. A second or two of inappropriate thinking was fine.
They were in the Chevelle and speeding up Eightieth before she thought to ask. By the docks? I thought Bump didnt put men up there.
He shook his head. Naw, gots a few locals do some selling, only in the day, dig. This aint one, though. Greenback, he name. Worksworkedround Fiftieth. Only found by the docks.
So what was he doing up there?
He sighed and nosed the Chevelle around the corner. Guessin we gonna find out.
Chapter Six
A crowd of wrong people is still wrong; numbers do not make Right.
The Book of Truth, Veraxis Article 1549
Shed never been this close to the docks before. Terrible had refused to take hernot that she was desperate to see them or anything.
But it was still interesting.
Shed seen a neighborhood like it once before, out by the Nightsedge Market on Lexs side of town, up near the Crematorium. A neighborhood where the few remaining intact buildings almost seemed ashamed of themselves for being so, where crumbling walls and roofless rooms open to the sky were the norm.
And it smelled, the dank rotten scent of the bay mixed with oil and human waste and filth, a horrible fugue that made her wish she had a surgical mask or something to put on. All those germs in the air, bacteria dancing on dust motes and searching for a nice warm body to invade and set up home in.
Terrible noticed her shudder. Can wait in the car, if youre wanting.
No. Whatever the reason she wantedneededto see the body, she still did.
Told you were shitty here.
Yeah, butlook, the water is kind of pretty.
He followed her gaze across the pitted cement to the water, which gleamed with the sunsets reflection between the looming hulks of boats. Under that glow, she knew, lurked filth and muck and death, but the surface the surface was beautiful. Just as with so many things.
He shrugged and took the few steps that brought him to the small circle of people in the middle of the intersection. They moved aside for him without speaking; Chess wondered if a few of them were able to speak. They looked barely human, like evolutionary throwbacks to the period when tiny dark creatures discovered fire. Masses of dirty hair tangled from the tops of their heads to midway down their backs; what appeared to be burlap sacks covered their bodies, and their feet were bare. Even Chess had never seen anything like it. Downside was poor, yes, but these people werent poor, they had nothing. And people who had nothing developed their own world to compensate, and now shed walked into it.
They knew Terrible, though, backing away from him without looking into his face.
Who find him? he asked, and when he stepped to the side Chess saw the body.
Greenback lay on his stomach in a pool of blood on the tar-streaked concrete, his pale face staring at the street beyond. It took Chess a second to realize what had happened, how that was possible; he should have been facedown, but his neck had been cut with so much force it had almost been severed, and his chin rested on the concrete.
Terrible crouched beside the body. Chess tried not to see his boots making dents in the sticky blood puddle. Who find him? he asked again.
Someone stepped forward, a dirty, skinny wraith of a woman with long thin scratches on the outsides of her arms and track marks on the insides. Were me. Seen it, I done. I done seen it.
Mutters ran through the crowd at this; a few people edged away from her. She didnt appear to notice. Were two mens. Jumped outen a car an cut he. Lay he out like so an drive off.
What kinda car, you knowing?
The nest of hair on her headit had once been blondshook, like a leafy branch moving with the breeze. Black one. All I know.
You seen the men, them faces or aught you could know iffen you see em again?
Another shake. Black car. Black clothes.
You touch he? Got him wallet?
Yet another shake, faster, so fast Chess kneweven if she hadnt alreadythat it was a lie.
Terrible glanced at the body, then back at the woman. Any lashers in it you keep, dig? Drugs, too. Aint give a fuck on it. But needing to see he wallet, iffen you got it.
She didnt respond.
Terrible stood up slowly. Chess never could figure out how he managed to make himself look even bigger when he wanted toa particular furrow of his brow, a slight hunch to his shoulders, his arms held just an inch or so farther out from his bodybut he did it then, staring at the woman with a calm intensity Chess felt even from a few feet away.
The woman hiked up her dress in the back and produced a leather wallet. Shit, had she been keeping that thing in her underwear?
Yes, she had. Chess hoped to see some sort of thigh holster or garter, but lifting the excuse for a dress showed the womans spindly bruise-covered legs, and they were bare.
Terrible wasnt coming anywhere near touching Chess with those hands again until theyd been washed. Twice. At least.
He didnt look any happier about where the wallet had been kept, but he opened it anyway. Got any else? Needing to see all it, dig?
Greenback had apparently also had a watch, several small bags of pills and powders, an earring, and a few scraps of paper. That was a lot to keep in a pair of underwear; Chess had to hand it to the woman for that.
Terrible set the items on the ground at his feet and kept digging through the wallet.
He glanced at Chess. No lashers taken, dig, still all in here. Adds up, too, for what bags there is missing.
They didnt steal anything, then.
Naw, aint lookin like. He turned to the woman. You see him before the car come? Were he standin here?
The woman licked her lips, her gaze flicking from the wallet in Terribles hands to the drugs on the ground and back again in constant restless motion. Were in the car.
What? Greenback were?
Greenback dead one?
Aye.
She nodded. Him get outen car. Other two followed. Killed he.
Terribles expression didnt change, but Chess could imagine what he was thinking. Probably it was the same as what she was thinking, which was: What was Greenback doing in the car? If those were Lexs men, why was he in the car with them, and why hadnt they stolen his money and drugs?
He look like him wantin get out the car, you see? Terrible pulled a couple of things out of the walletpapers, she thoughtand tucked them in his pocket before handing the wallet back. Or like them pushed he out?
Said I keep the lashers, you did.
He shrugged. An you keeping em. Werent lashers I took. Papers, an you dont need em, dig?
The woman glared at him. He stared back at her, with that same deadly patience.
The woman gave up. Look like him got pushed. Them follow right on he, cut him throat. Lay him out. Drive on off.
Terrible nodded, then scooped up the bags at his feet. Any else seen? Heard aught? Got any knowledge?
A hand raised at the back, a skinny pole with fingers jutting above the crowd of matted hair. Mr. Terrible? Gots trouble. Mine friend, gots him trouble.
Aye? Whats on?
The man pushed through the crowd, his bright orange hairspray-painted, it looked likeglowing as the last rays of sunlight hit it. Seeing it reminded Chess that the sun had almost set, and with that realization came another, an unpleasant one: The crowd around them had grown, and at the end of the street, mist rolled off the bay and started inching toward them.
The man stopped in front of Terrible. Ribs showed through holes in his thin T-shirt like the bones had cut the fabric, and his ashy ankles protruded from the bottom of tight, gaudy striped pants. He wore mismatched flip-flops on his feet. Mine friend, him taken the speed. Bangin it. Him gone all fluffcutty, aint wont leave him room, screamin them after he, screamin on ghosts in him head.
Aye? Maybe him oughten quit the bangin a day or two, get he some sleepin.
Nay, aint like it. Aint like it. Him The man glanced around, took a step closer to Terrible. Him done gone out on the morn, come back with blood on he. All wet blood. Fucked in crazy, him bein. Talkin to he, aint like he, aint in he eyes. Then him come back, start screamin. Then go all silent on the again.
Terrible looked at Chess, then at the street. The mist had advanced another quarter block or so; it had almost reached them, and the streets darkened by the second.
The crowd grew closer by the second, too. Chess took a step closer to Terribleeasy, because he was moving closer to herbefore realizing the crowd wasnt looking at her. They were looking at the body on the street, and she did not want to know what they had planned for it.
Just keep he locked in, dig? He sobers up, he be right then, aye?
The man shook his head again, his eyes huge in his dark face. Been like this three days gone. Please comin have you a see. Be the speed, gotta be. Got he a bad batch, thinkin.
Another glance at her. Another glance at the mist, at the fading glow of the sun dying behind the buildings. Come back on morrow, dig? I come down see he
The scream, so loud and shrill, so full of darkness and horror that it made Chess cringe, cut Terrible offcut everything off. For a long minute, all there was in the world was that horrible banshee-like shriek, tinged with madness and death and unholy glee.
They all turnedeveryoneto see the figure emerge from one of the intact buildings a few doors down and start running toward them.
He was naked. At least from the waist down. A tattered T-shirt stretched across his chest, stained with ever-darkening sweat-rings of gray, like gathering storm clouds. Black shoes covered his feet. The crowd parted; shit, she was looking at a man even Downside dock-dwellers were afraid of.
He stopped screaming. The silence slapped her, made her body sigh in relief for a split second before he started again.
The closer he got, the weirder he was. Before Terrible stepped in front of her she could see the mans body crisscrossed with scratches and marks, all up and down his skinny legs and arms. Track marks, some of them, but not all of them.