'Your man here--' Mr Pin began. 'Where did he go?'
Mr Tulip reached behind the counter and hauled up the wizard. ,
'Your man here says you're one of those imps that can repeat everything you hear,' said Pin.
'Yes, Insert Name Here, sir,' said the imp.
'And you don't make stuff up?'
'They can't,' the wizard panted. 'They have no imagination at all.'
'So if someone heard it, they'd know it was real?'
'Yes, indeed.'
'Sounds just the thing we're looking for,' said Mr Pin.
'And how will you be paying?' said the wizard.
Mr Pin snapped his fingers. Mr Tulip drew himself up and out, squared his shoulders and cracked knuckles that were like two bags of pink walnuts.
'Before we --ing talk about paying,' said Mr Tulip, 'we want to talk to the bloke that wrote that --ing warranty.'
What William now had to think of as his office had changed quite a lot. The old laundry fixings, dismembered rocking horses and other rubbish had been spirited away and two desks stood back to back in the middle of the floor. They were ancient and battered and to stop them wobbling they needed, against all common sense, bits of folded cardboard under all four legs.
'I got them from the secondhand shop along the road,' said Sacharissa nervously. They weren't very expensive.'
'Yes, I can see that. Er... Miss Cripslock... I've been thinking... your grandfather can engrave a picture, can he?'
'Yes, of course. Why have you got mud all over you?'
'And if we got an iconograph and learned how to use it to take pictures,' William went on, ignoring this, 'could he engrave the picture that the imp paints?'
'I suppose so.'
'And do you know any good iconographers in the city?'
'I could ask around. What happened to you?'
'Oh, there was a threatened suicide in Welcome Soap.'
'Any good?' Sacharissa looked startled at the sound of her own voice. 'I mean, obviously I wouldn't wish anyone to die, but, er, we've got quite a lot of space
'I might be able to make something of it. He, er, saved the life of the man who climbed up to talk him down.'
'How brave. Did you get the name of the man who climbed up after him?'
'Urn, no. Er, he was a Mystery Man,' said William.
'Oh, well, that's something. There's some people waiting to see you outside,' said Sacharissa. She glanced at her notes. 'There's a man who's lost his watch, a zombie who... well, I can't make out what he wants. There's a troll who wants a job, and there's someone who's got a complaint about the story of the fight at the Mended Drum and wants to behead you.'
'Oh, dear. All right, one at a time
The watch-loser was easy.
'It was one of the new clockwork ones my father gave to me,' said the man. 'I've been looking for it all week!'
'It's not exactly--'