Men at Arms (Discworld 15)

'How did you know there was someone dead in here?'

'I . . . just had a feeling.'

The beggars returned, so unnerved that half a dozen of them were trying to carry one piece of string.

Carrot hammered the nail into the frame under the smashed pane to hold one end of the string. He stuck his knife in the groove and affixed the other end of the string to it. Then he lay down and sighted up the string.

'Good grief.' 'What is it?'

'It must have come from the roof of the opera house.' 'Yes? So?'

'That's more than two hundred yards away.' 'Yes?'

'The . . . thing went an inch into an oak floor.'

'Did you know the girl . . . at all?' said Angua, and felt embarrassed at asking.

'Not really.'

'I thought you knew everyone.'

'She was just someone I'd see around. The city's full of people who you just see around.'

'Why do beggars need servants?'

'You don't think my hair gets like this by itself, dear, do you?'

There was an apparition in the doorway. Its face was a mass of sores. There were warts, and they had warts, and they had hair on. It was possibly female, but it was hard to tell under the layers and layers of rags. The aforementioned hair looked as though it had been permed by a hurricane. With treacle on its fingers.

Then it straightened up.

'Oh. Corporal Carrot. Didn't know it was you.'

The voice was normal now, no trace of whine or wheedle. The figure turned and brought her stick down hard on something in the corridor.

'Naughty boy, Dribbling Sidney! You could have told I it were Corporal Carrot!'

'Arrgh!'

The figure strode into the room.

'And who's your ladyfriend, Mr Carrot?'

'This is Lance-Constable Angua. Angua, this is Queen Molly of the Beggars.'

For once, Angua noted, someone wasn't surprised to find a female in the Watch. Queen Molly nodded at her as one working woman to another. The Beggars' Guild was an equal-opportunity non-employer.

'Good day to you. You couldn't spare I ten thousand dollars for a small mansion, could you?'

'No.'

'Just asking.'

Queen Molly prodded at the gown.

'What was it, corporal?'

'I think it's a new kind of weapon.'