Gleep seemed to have calmed down as fast as he had exploded, now that Bunny and Markie were gone. Nunzio was stroking her neck soothingly while staring at me in wide-eyed amazement.
“I dunno what happened there, Boss, but he seems okay now.”
“What happened,” I said grimly, “was Gleep trying to protect me from something or someone he saw as a threat.”
“But Boss…”
“Look Nunzio, I know you mean well, but Gleep and I go back a long way. I trust his instincts more than I do my own judgment.”
“But…”
“I want you to do two things right away. First, put Gleep back in his stable … I think he’s had enough exercise for one day. Then get word to Don Bruce. I want to have a little talk with him about his ‘present’!”
Chapter Sixteen:
“I thought we were friends!”
-BANQUO
“I TELL you, partner, this is crazy!”
“Like heck it is!”
“Bunny can’t be the Ax! She’s a space cadet.”
“That’s what she’d like us to think. I found out different!”
“Really? How?”
“By … well, by talking to her.”
I spotted the flaw in my logic as soon as I said it, and Aahz wasn’t far behind.
“Skeeve,” he said solemnly, “has it occurred to you that if she’s the Ax and you’re her target, that you would probably be the last person she would relax around? Do you really think you could trick her into giving away her I. Q. in a simple conversation?”
“Well . . . maybe she was being clever. It could be that it was her way of trying to throw us off the track.”
My partner didn’t say anything to that. He just cocked his head and raised one eyebrow very high.