'Bin a bit of an odd murder, sir. Down in one of them old houses on Misbegot Bridge. Some old priest. Dunno much about it. The patrol just said it ought to be looked at.'
'Who found him?'
'Constable Visit sir.'
'Oh, gods.'
'Yessir.'
'I'll try to get along there this morning. Anything else?'
'Corporal Nobbs is sick, sir,'
'Oh, I know that.'
'I mean off sick, sir.'
'Not his granny's funeral this time?'
'Nossir.'
'How many's he had this year, by the way?'
'Seven, sir.'
'Very odd family, the Nobbses.'
'Yessir.'
'Fred, you don't have to keep calling me sir .'
'Got comp'ny, sir,' said the sergeant, glancing meaningfully towards a bench in the main office. 'Come for that alchemy job.'
A dwarf smiled nervously at Vimes. s a warm spring night when a fist knocked at the door so hard that the hinges bent.
A man opened it and peered out into the street. There was mist coming off the river and it was a cloudy night. He might as well have tried to see through white velvet.
But he thought afterwards that there had been shapes out there, just beyond the light spilling out into the road. A lot of shapes, watching him carefully. He thought maybe there'd been very faint points of light...
There was no mistaking the shape right in front of him, though. It was big and dark red and looked like a child's clay model of a man. Its eyes were two embers.
'Well? What do you want at this time of night?'
The golem handed him a slate, on which was written:
WE HEAR YOU WANT A GOLEM.
Of course, golems couldn't speak, could they?
'Hah. Want, yes. Afford, no. I've been asking around but it's wicked the prices you're going for these days...'
The golem rubbed the words off the slate and wrote:
TO YOU, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
'You're for sale?'
NO.