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uncivilized to beat up on someone before breakfast.”
    That was Aahz, who for once had approached our gathering without being seen ... or heard. He’s usually not big on quiet entrances.
    For that matter, I had never known him to be at all reluctant about beating up on someone—say, for example, me—before breakfast. Still, I was grateful for his intervention.
    “Hi, Aahz. We were just...”
    “Do you know what your partner is doing!?” Tananda said in a voice that could freeze wine. “He seems to be turning our home into a combination day-care center and...”
    “I know all about it,” Aahz interrupted, “and so will you if you’ll just cool down. We’ll explain everything over breakfast.”
    “Well...”
    “Besides,” Markie piped up, “it’s not your home. It’s my daddy’s. He just lets you live here. He can do anything he wants in his house!”
    I released my hold on her, hoping to dump her on her head.
    Instead, she twisted in midair and landed on her feet like a cat, all the while sneering smugly.
    Tananda had stiffened as if someone had jabbed her with a pin.
    “I suppose you’re right, Markie,” she said through tight lips. “If the ‘Great Skeeve’ wants to romp with some bit of fluff, it’s none of my business. And if I don’t like it, I should just go elsewhere.”
    She spun on her heel and started off down the hall.
    “What about breakfast?” Aahz called after her.
    “I’ll be eating out ... permanently!”
    We watched her departure in helpless silence.
    “I’d better go after her,” Chumley said at last. “In the mood she’s in, she might hurt someone.”
    “Could you take Markie with you?” Aahz requested, still staring after Tananda.
    “Are you kidding?” the troll gaped.
    “Well, at least drop her off in the kitchen. I’ve got to have a few words with Skeeve in private.”
    “I want to stay here!” Markie protested.
    “Go,” I said quietly.
    There must have been something in my voice, because both Markie and Chumley headed off without further argument.
    “Partner, you’ve got a problem.”
    “Don’t I know it. If there was any way I could ship her back to Don Bruce, I’d do it in a minute, but...”
    “I’m not talking about Bunny!”
    That stopped me.
    “You aren’t?”
    “No. Markie’s the problem, not Bunny.”
    “Markie? But she’s just a little girl.”
    Aahz heaved a small sigh and put one hand on my shoulder ... gently, for a change.
    “Skeeve, I’ve given you a lot of advice in the past, some of it better than others. For the most part, you’ve done pretty well at winging it in unfamiliar situations, but this time you’re in over your head. Believe me, you don’t have the vaguest idea of the kind of havoc a kid can cause in your life ... especially a little girl.”
    I didn’t know what to say. My partner was obviously sincere in his concern, and for a change was expressing it in a very calm, low-key manner. Still, I couldn’t go along with what he was saying.
    “C’mon, Aahz. How much trouble can she be? This thing with Tananda happened because of Bunny...”
    “...after Markie started mouthing off at the wrong time. I already had Tananda cooling off when Markie put her two cents in.”
    It also occurred to me that Markie was the one who had spilled the beans to Tananda in the first place. I shoved that thought to the back of my mind.
    “So she doesn’t have enough sense to keep her mouth shut. She’s just a kid. We can’t expect her to...”
    “That’s my point. Think about our operation for a minute, partner. How many times in one day can things go sour if someone says the wrong thing at the right moment? It’s taken us a year to get Guido and Nunzio on board ... and they’re adults. Bringing a kid into the place is like waving a torch around a fireworks factory.”
    As much as I appreciated his efforts to explain a problem to me, I was starting to weary a bit of Aahz’s single-minded pursuit of his point.
    “Okay. So I