His daughter, they reminded their readers, had been one of the so-called League of Virgins, and in remarking on this the writers took a paragraph to comment on just how much grief the Grove had endured in its short life. When the identity of one of the two corpses in the pet store was revealed to be that of Jim Hotchkiss one or two of the astuter journalists noted that his had been a life dogged by tragedy.

Davidson couldn't take the atmosphere of hand-me-down machismo in the room any longer. Packard beamed and rubbed his crotch absent mindedly. More hand signals sent the men to their cots to feign sleep and brought Sergeant Maeen and me to his side. He turned back to us and made signs there was a listening spell in place. Whatever he learned from the examination pleased him, for he nodded in satisfaction.

Janos crept to the door and ran his hands lightly over the surface. We heard a strong bolt shoot into place so much for the fiction that we were only guests. As Mortacious' man swung shut the heavy door, Janos signaled us to remain silent. There was a large water vessel in the corner, with a dipper hanging from the mouth, and in another corner there was a hole for wastes. There were cots set up, with soft coverlets that seemed odd amid such barrackslike starkness. He put all twenty of us in a spacious chamber it was window-less, and its walls were barren stone.

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