“. . .To investigate the pilferage problem, which, I’m told, has been settled.”
As we were speaking, Chumley poked his head into my office, saw what was going on, and came in all the way, shifting to his big bad troll persona as he did. In case you are wondering, I was working without a receptionist at the time, having deemed it wise to have both Bunny and Guido lie low for a while after finding out what had really happened on their last assignment. As an additional precaution, I had insisted that they hide out separately, since I was afraid that Bunny would kill Guido if they were alone within an arm’s reach of each other. For some reason my secretary seemed to take Guide’s labor activities very personally.
“… Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Bane, I’m rather busy at the moment. If you wish to pursue the matter further, I suggest you take it up with Big Crunch here. He usually handles the complaints for our company.”
The Deveel started to speak angrily as he glanced behind him, then did a double-take and swallowed whatever it was he was about to say as his gaze went up … and up! As I can testify from firsthand experience, trolls can look very large when viewed from up close.
“Little Deveel want to fight with Big Crunch? Crunch likes to fight!”
Bane pinked slightly, then turned back to me.
“Now look, Sk . . . Mr. Skeeve. All that’s in the past, right? What say we talk about what your outfit can do to help me with this labor thing.”
I leaned back in my chair and put my hand behind my head.