Fortunately, this was one situation I could handle with relative ease.
“Don’t tell her I’m here, Gus,” I instructed.
“But…”
Not waiting to hear the rest of his protest, I grabbed my milkshake, slipped into a chair at a nearby table, and set to work with a fast disguise spell. By the time Tananda, hit the door, the only one she could see in the place besides Gus was a potbellied Deveel sipping on a strawberry milkshake.
“Hi, Gus!” she sang. “Have you seen Skeeve around?”
“He . . . aahh . . . was in earlier.” The gargoyle carefully avoided the lie.
“Oh, well. I guess I’ll just have to leave without saying goodbye to him. then. Too bad. We weren’t on particularly good terms the last time I saw him.”
“You’re leaving?”
Gus said it before the words burst out of my own mouth, saving me from blowing my disguise.
“Yea. I figure it’s about time I moved on.”
“I … umm . . . have been hearing some strange things about my neighbors, but I’ve never been sure how much to believe,” the gargoyle said thoughtfully. “This sudden departure wouldn’t have anything to do with the new moll that’s been foisted off on Skeeve, would it?”
“Bunny? Naw. I’ll admit I was a bit out of sorts when I first heard about it, but Chumley explained the whole thing to me.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Gus was doing a terrific job of beating me to my lines. As long as he kept it up, I’d be able to get all my questions answered without revealing myself. It had occurred to me to confront Tananda directly as soon as I heard what she was up to, but then I realized that this was a rare chance to hear her thoughts when she didn’t think I was around.