The coins, torpedo, and George

Roy C. Lackey · 04 May 2010, 07:07 · from 2010-May.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 02:07:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) The coins, torpedo, and George
References: <331192.93829.qm at smtp816.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <003501caeb58$69240c60$21d04a0c@rclackey>

Mo Holkar wrote:
[snip]
> On another, unrelated note: do we assume that the 'long, skinny
> torpedo' seen with the Greek (198) is Nicholas the Butler?

I think so.

[snip]
> And a question: how did George get from following Nicholas into the
> house (233) to being picked up 'on the street' by the police (270)?

Just a guess, but it seems that the house may have outlets into faerie at
some remove from the house. That is, Bax left old Nick at the house when he,
Martha, Winker and Toby drove to the Skotos Strip, which is some miles away
and on the other side of the river. Yet, as the river battle ended, Nick
came walking up to the scene. How did he get there?

Nicholas may have left the house in a similar way and come out Here, not
There, and George followed him. Or Nicholas may have come out of the house
There and knew or found another way back Here. On the day of the river
battle, Martha phoned and read Bax an article from that morning's newspaper
about two rural families who had been victims of a tall man in black who had
sucked their children's blood (276). That was Nicholas, so that may be how
George got out of the house and back to town.

It seems that it was the afternoon before the river battle that Kate came to
the house to look for George. After the failed search is when she called the
station and learned that George was back in jail. It had been night when
George let Nicholas out of the trunk and followed him into the house, so
that must have been the night before she and Bax searched the house.

George had not skipped bail, so there was no real reason to keep him in
jail. He may have been released that same day he was picked up or the next,
the day of the river battle.

But all this brings up another nasty problem I should have seen before. In
the middle of the river battle, Bax got that silly phone call from Nicholas,
who was supposed to be locked up again in the trunk. The problem is, the
trunk was on the back of Bax's old car, the same car he and the others drove
out to the Skotos Strip in. So was Nicholas back in the trunk when Bax drove
the car out of the driveway of his house that day? If so, then Nick failed
to tell Bax before he set out, and Bax had talked to him.

Did Doris, Orizia, George and old Nick find and confine Nicholas sometime
earlier on the day of the river battle? It isn't clear the time of day that
Martha phoned Bax, but after the call he got dressed for the trip, talked to
Nick, collected Toby and Winkler, then drove over to pick up Martha and went
out to the Skotos Strip. Or was Nicholas captured the day or night before
the battle? During the phone call with Martha he told her that George was
safe in jail. He must have been wrong about that, but still . . .

The postscript to Doris's last letter just confuses me more. She said that
after they found and locked up Nicholas she went with Orizia to her hotel
room and talked a bit, and was now going to bed. That makes it seem like it
was late in the day if not at night when she was writing. So when did they
put Nicholas in the trunk? The real estate inquiries Nicholas got on her
cell phone suggest the calls came during business hours.

I'm so confused.

-Roy

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