~2.7~

Ah, thought Ivan, now we are getting somewhere. Nicholas Brown… the very same name mentioned to him by the woman from western intelligence, the man who had been to see her, and had filled her gifted but unpredictable sister with an off-hand certainty that he would wish her harm.

His business with the sisters had ended unsatisfactorily.

None of that was the direct cause of Ivan’s unease… but all of it was of interest to him. If there was a problem with his payments to tribe… well, that was interesting, too.

“What about him?” Mama asked.

“He is now three weeks in arrears,” Finance said.

“Three hundred dollars,” Mama said. “He can’t be the biggest deadbeat in our books at the moment. What makes him so special, that you have to bring him to my attention?”

The minister appeared flustered by this question.

“Well… I thought Mr. Brown was already the subject of your attention,” he said. “You forwarded his name to me, after all… it seemed as though you had some personal interest in the matter.”

“The man is in mourning,” Mama said. “We’re not going to start hassling him for a few hundred when he’s still grieving.”

“I see,” Finance said. It seemed as though this wasn’t the response he’d been expecting. “And… just how long do you intend to allow the account to remain delinquent?”

“As long as it takes,” she said. “But… no more than a year. If a year goes by and he hasn’t started depositing, we’ll hunt up somebody he knows, somebody who came up with him and is still around, to go and pay him a little visit. A friendly visit, I should stress. After all, Nicky Brown is still family.”

“But… does he know that?” Finance asked.

Ivan knew it wasn’t his place to speak, but he would have liked to clap the man on the back and buy him a drink.

“The subject is closed,” Mama said. “Now, does anybody have any new business?”