The Fifth Elephant (Discworld 24)

Something about Carrot"s uneasy manner got through to Vimes. And the little file at the back of his brain eventually waved a card.

"Sonky, Sonky... Carrot, we"re not talking about Sonky as in "a packet of Sonkies", are we?"

Now Carrot was bright red with embarrassment. "Yes, sir!"

"My gods, what was he dipping in the vat?"

"He"d been thrown in, sir. Apparently."

"But he"s practically a national hero!"

"Sir?"

"Captain, the housing shortage in Ankh-Morpork would be a good deal worse if it wasn"t for old man Sonky and his penny-a-packet preventatives. Who"d want to do away with him?"

"People do have Views, sir," said Carrot coldly.

Yes, you do, don"t you? Vimes thought. Dwarfs don"t hold with that sort of thing.

"Well, put some men on it. Anything else?"

"A Carter assaulted Constable Swires last night for clamping his cart."

"Assault?"

"Tried to stamp on him, sir."

Vimes had a mental picture of Constable Swires, a gnome six inches tall but a mile high in pent-up aggression.

"How is he?"

"Well, the man can speak, but it"ll be a little while before he can climb back on a cart again. Apart from that, it"s all run-of-the-mill stuff."

"Nothing more about the Scone theft?"

"Not really. Lots of accusations in the dwarf community, but no one really knows anything. Like you say, sir, we"ll probably know more when it goes bad."

"Any word on the street?"

"Yes, sir. It"s "Halt", sir. Sergeant Colon painted it at the top of Lower Broadway. The carters are a lot more careful now. Of course, someone has to shovel the manure off every hour or so."

"This whole traffic thing is not making us very popular, captain."

"No, sir. But we aren"t popular anyway. And at least it"s bringing in money for the city treasury. Er... there is another thing, sir."

"Yes?"

"Have you seen Sergeant Angua, sir?"

"Me? No. I was expecting her to be here." Then Vimes noticed just the very edge of concern in Carrot"s voice. "Something wrong?"

"She didn"t turn up for duty last night. It wasn"t full moon, so it"s a bit... odd. Nobby said she was rather concerned about something when they were on duty the other day."

Vimes nodded. Of course, most people were concerned about something if they were on duty with Nobby. They tended to look at clocks a lot.

"Have you been to her lodgings?"

"Her bed hadn"t been slept in," said Carrot. "Or her basket, either," he added.