Read Book 04 - Old Tin Sorrows for Free Online Page B

up.”
    I supposed I’d have to give them the once-over. You have to go through all the motions. You have to leave no stone unturned, though already, intuitively, I was inclined to think the answer lay inside the big house—if there was an answer.
    Peters read my mind. “If I’m fooling myself and we’ve just got an old man dying, I want to know that, too. Check?”
    “Check.”
    “I’ve spent more time with you than I should. I’d better get back to work.”
    “Where do I find you if I need you?”
    He chuckled. “I’m like horse apples. I’m everywhere. Catch as catch can. A problem you’ll have with everybody, especially during poacher season. Cook’s the only one who stays in one place.”
    We walked toward the house, passing through a small orchard of unidentifiable fruit trees with a white gazebo at its center, climbed a slope, went up the steps to the front door. Peters went inside. I paused to survey the Stantnor domains. The cold wind gnawed my cheeks. The overcast left the land colorless and doleful, like old tin. I wondered if it was losing life with its master.
    But there would be a spring for the land. I doubted there would be for the old man. Unless I found me a poisoner.
     
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6
    I heard Black Pete’s footsteps fading as I stepped into the great hall. The light was dimming there. The place seemed more deserted and gloomy than ever. I went to the fountain, watched our hero work out on his dragon, thought about what to do next. Explore the house? Hell. I was cold already. Why not look at those outbuildings and be done with it?
    I felt eyes on me as I moved. Already habituated, I checked the nearest shadows. The blonde wasn’t there. Nobody was, anywhere. Then I glanced up.
    I caught a flicker on the third floor balcony, east side. Somebody ducking out of sight. Who? One of the majority I hadn’t yet met? Why they wouldn’t want to be seen was a puzzle. I’d see everyone sooner or later.
    I took myself out the back door.
    Immediately behind the house lay a formal garden sort of thing that I’d paid no heed before. Peters had wanted to get away where we could talk. I gave it a look now.
    There was a lot of fancy stonework, statues, fountains, pools that had been drained because at that time of year water tends to freeze. Ice would break the pool walls. There were hedges, shaped trees, beds for spring and summer plantings. It could be impressive in season. Right then it just seemed abandoned and haunted by old sorrows.
    I paused at the hedge bounding the north end of the garden, looked back. The vista seemed a ghost of another time.
    At least one someone was watching me from a third floor window in the west wing.
    Keep that in mind, Garrett. Whatever you do, wherever you go, somebody is going to be watching.
    Twenty feet behind the hedge was a line of poplars. They were there to mask the outbuildings, so the practical side of life wouldn’t offend the eyes of those who lived in the house. The rich are that way. They don’t want to be reminded that their comfort requires sweaty drudge labor.
    There were half a dozen outbuildings of various shapes and sizes. Stone was the main structural material, though it wasn’t stone that matched that in the big house. The stable was obvious. Somebody was at work there. I heard a hammer pounding. There was a second structure for livestock, presumably cattle, maybe dairy cattle. It was nearest me and had that smell. The rest of the buildings, including a greenhouse off to my right, had the look of protracted neglect. Way to the left was a long, low building that looked like a barracks. It also looked like nobody had used it for years. I decided to start with the greenhouse.
    Not much to see there except that someone had spent a fortune on glass and then hadn’t bothered to keep the place up. A few panes were broken. The framework that had been white once needed paint desperately. The door stood open a foot and sagged on its hinges. I had trouble pushing it back enough to get