“Doeth it matter? I wath being good and it didn’t help. I had a good thing going and they came for me, attacking my not-tho-thterling reputation.”

“It matters,” I said. “If not for yourself, do it for your pets. They need someone to look after them.”

Ratcatcher shrugged.

Tattletale opened the door, and Ratcatcher rocked back, at the cold air. Tattletale whistled and motioned.

Ratcatcher bent down to scoop up the rat that came bouncing along the floor, running up to her. It shivered, possibly from shock as much as cold.

Tattletale let the door shut. She leaned against the frame, arms in her coat pockets.

As Ratcatcher cupped her pet in her hands, I offered, “Do you want a hand? Your place is next door. But it’s cold, so I could fly you home, or—”

She was already shaking her head. She turned away, walking down the hallway into the dimly lit recesses of the building.

“There’s an underground passage connecting buildings,” Tattletale said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”

“It’s better she’s gone. I can fill you in. We shouldn’t waste too much time, because I do think she sent initial messages and she was being watched closely enough that the moment she passed out or put her phone down, they were ready to pick up. Which confirms that they’re watching you closely. Us. We.”

“Right,” I said.

“This was a multi-pronged attack, on Ratcatcher’s part, and I think yours would be too.”

“Pronged?”

“Ratcatcher isn’t the key target here,” Tattletale said.

I looked in the direction Ratcatcher went. I wanted to go grab her by the arm, tell her.

“No,” Tattletale said. “We’re better off if we keep this contained. It shapes what they do next, and the less messy this is, the easier it is to get a sense of who we’re fighting. I’ll be able to get a sense of them by how long it takes them to respond, how they move, where from.”

I felt uneasy at that, and it took me a second to articulate why.

“If you’re willing to keep her in the dark about particulars, are you doing the same thing to me?”

“As long as you stay more or less in my sight and avoid lying to me or giving me misinformation, I don’t need to. But if we don’t resolve this soon, we’re going to have to part ways, because you have things to look after and so do I… and from that point I’m going to bullshit you.”

I frowned.

“Best you’re going to get, hon.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Ratcatcher was vulnerable and on the fringes, she made a certain kind of target. But Countenance was the real focus, and he, I’m thinking, has a history of, how should I put it—”

“Rooftop liaisons?” I asked.