..Once out of town, Setzer gave the control of his zeppelin to one of his crewmen and joined me in the passenger cabin. It had all the appeal of a flying empty room, which is surprisingly no more than an ordinary empty room. He gave some long speech about turning it into a museum that I really didn’t listen to. I wanted to ask him a few things, and I wasn’t in the mood for his redecorating plans.
..Eventually, I got him talking about my pay, and I happily explained to him that if he didn’t give me what we refer to in the business as a retainer, then he’d be coming with me at all times. I tried being all threatening-like because I was still new to this racket, and I didn’t realize that when it came to muscling people around, I could use a workout.
..He held back his “Just try it” look and gave me a legit response. “One fifth your pay ought to be enough. I’ll throw in another hundred gold pieces if you use it to buy yourself a goddamn hat.” My hair would have winced, but it was too busy imitating modern art. I agreed to his terms. A fifth of my pay would be a handy sum of money, even if he decided to stiff me. I love those wealthy types.
..Anyhow, we eventually landed at a pad Setzer had in Kohlingen. Only the two of us went inside. I didn’t catch what happened to Setzer’s crew, but I assumed they needed to do some things in the zeppelin before disembarking. Setzer led me past his foyer and into his living room. Both had about as much decoration as his ship did, maybe less. I supposed that this house was really only to sleep in once in awhile when the weather wasn’t right for a fine evening of flying. Setzer went up the stairs and vanished for a few minutes.
..I waited patiently. I’d have done some casual observation, if there were anything to observe. When he finally came downstairs with some papers, I said, “You’d think a guy with your assets would at least try to live the luxurious lifestyle.”
.. “Maybe if I ever came down to the land, I might consider it. Here.” He gave me the sheets. They weren’t deeds, as I was first led to believe, but the pages of a letter. It’s too long to repeat here, but the gist of it was as follows:
..Shinra had wrote Setzer a letter telling him that he was routinely trespassing on property that they rightfully owned and would soon be the site of a new factory. It warned him that he could be getting in the way of construction and that legal action for vagrancy would be taken against him if he didn’t start keeping himself away from the area. I put the notes down.
.. “This is all you have to show me?”
.. “Yes. I don’t own the land. A trusted friend does, or did, before this Shinra nonsense came out. I can’t make any sense of it.”
.. “This the first letter you ever got out of them?”
.. “Yeah. I haven’t heard a peep from Shinra before then. Like I said, the land always belonged to a friend of mine. He despises big businesses like the Shinra and it seems out of character for him to up and sell them the land. I have no idea how someone can go in and track land sales. That’s what your job is.”
..I nodded. It shouldn’t be hard to get a look at the city’s idea of how the property lines were drawn. I could check out and see whether or not Shinra even owned the land—don’t ask me how we could go about beating them in a court battle, if they just up and decided it was theirs—and I could also verify when the land was sold to them. I told Setzer all this, and that I could probably have a fairly easy time of it, and he nodded at me.
.. “Just one thing’s been bugging me,” I said. “You don’t exactly seem like the type to be out walking around on evening strolls through the countryside. Would you mind telling me what’s so dang important that you’re willing to hire a sleuth just to see if the people telling you to get off their property really own it?”
.. “Daryl’s tomb,” he said.
..I would have asked, “Who’s Daryl?” but he gave me a look then that told me that I really, really shouldn’t. I just shrugged and told him that I’d be willing to look into things for him. I took my retainer with me and made for the exit.
.. “Don’t forget to buy yourself a damn hat,” he called out after me. “If I have to keep looking at that rat’s nest, I’ll dock your pay.”
..Smartass.



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