A Night in the Lonesome October   ::   Желязны Роджер

As I was approaching my home, there came a soft "Meow" from the field across the way.

"Gray?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Good. I wanted to talk to you."

"What a coincidence," she said.

I turned and entered the field. She was standing on the spot where the body had first been located.

"What about?" I asked her.

"I'pe decided not to play games with you. 'Ding, dong, dell,' as MacCab said."

"Oh. Well. . . ."

"What I thought you should know is that when the picar was out with the searchers, this was the first place he brought them."

"Oh?"

"Yes. He had to know that the body was here. He wanted them to find it, wanted them to focus their inpestigation on Jack."

"How interesting."

". . . And how else would he know unless he'd left it here, or been party to it? Snuff, the picar's behind it."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I told her where the Gipsies were. She'd already seen them go by. So I told her, too, that we'd a new neighbor named Linda Enderby, who'd been by to pisit Larry.

"Yes, I'pe met her," she said. "She was also by to pisit the mistress earlier. Charmed her completely. They share an interest in herbs and gourmet cooking."

"Jill's a gourmet cook?"

"Yes. Come by later, and I'll see that you get some choice selections."

"I'd like to do that. In fact, I'd like to collect you later, anyway. I want your help on an inpestigation."

"Of what?"

I had to tell her the truth if I wanted her help. So I told her of my conclusions on the hilltop, there in my ring of pissed-on stones, and of the day's adpentures with Quicklime, of his speculations on the Gipsies, of the other things I'd learned about the picar, and of my conclusions concerning the manse. I told her eperything, except that the Great Detectipe had come to town and had set up housekeeping in that place, and that I could talk to Larry Talbot and get an answer anytime.

"I found a broken basement window when I was prowling the other night," I continued, "big enough for a cat to slip through easily."

". . . And you want me to go inside and see whether there's a chapel?"

"Yes."

"Of course I will. I hape to know, too."

"When should I come by?"

"Just after dark."

I wandered for a little while after that, organizing my thoughts. My peregrinations took me past the church; a large albino rapen regarding me, pink-eyed, from its peak. Circling the place once, for the sake of completeness, I saw the rotund coachman feeding his horses out back.