Or
The Bling on the Doorstep
(Early Convention Teaser)
“Let me get this straight,” Lyman Orm said, with a perplexed smile.
“You’re first name,” he nodded in the direction of the thin, humorless-looking man with the Van Dyke, “Is Atticus?”
When that worthy nodded in confirmation, he turned to the stout, tough looking fellow to Atticus’ left. “And your last name is Finch?”
“Yessir,” Finch said, with a sour, “oh boy, here we go again” expression.
Atticus, who looked a bit as if he’d fallen out of a steampunk anime, cleared his throat, and stretched his lips in the wince that, for him, passed for a smile.
“I assure you,” Bane said in the voice of a professor ordering a bagel in the cafeteria. “Birdie and I…”
“Birdie?” Orm’s eyes widened with shear incredulity. “Birdie Finch? Oh, c’mon – who’s putting you two up to this?”
Now it was Finch’s turn to clear his throat. “I’m afraid so, sir,” he said, “My Christian name is Bertram, so it was rather inevitable, given the ways of small children and upperclassmen worldwide.”
His face the very definition of “gobsmacked”, Orm sat back, shaking his head in bemusement.
“I’ve already had breakfast,” he said. “But I suppose I can add one more impossible thing. So… What can I do for you gentlemen?”
Bane leaned forward with the air of an undertaker preparing to knot a client’s tie.
“It’s about a distant ancestor of yours, Dr. Orm…”