54 Hark! by Ed McBain

Author:Ed McBain
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Detectives, Detective and Mystery Stories, Police, Mystery & Detective, Biographical, 87th Precinct (Imaginary place), Steve (Fictitious character), Fiction, Carella, General
ISBN: 9780752855868
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2004-09-16T04:00:00+00:00

Did this reversal and addition have something to do with the clues they'd already received from him? //you could even call them clues, the son of a bitch. Or were the numerals merely a preamble to what was coming? In much the same way the Deaf Man had prepared them for his Shakespearean quotes by sending them first a fistful of anagrams that culminated in I'M A FATHEAD, MEN!, the anagram for I AM THE DEAF MAN!

So put that in your pipe and smoke it, as Carella's mother used to tell him when he was a kid and she was exercising maternal authority, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Sonny Boy! His mother who was going to marry Mr. Luigi Fontero from Milano, Italy, on Saturday, the twelfth day of June, this Saturday, his mother Luisa, mind you, not to mention his sister Angela, God bless us one and all!

Carella looked at the new note again:

726+627=1353

What the hell is he trying to tell us? he wondered.

YOUR AVERAGE, RUN-of-the-mill, everyday office romance flourished around the water cooler or in the supply closet, secret glances, surreptitious touches, furtive kisses hastily exchanged. Rarely during the daily routine did lovers who worked in the same office find themselves alone in an automobile — unless they were detectives.

The burglary to which they'd responded was in a fish store off Seventh Street. The theft had probably taken place the night before but it hadn't been detected until late this morning, when one of the employees went into the freezer and discovered that thirty pounds of shrimp was missing.

'What kind of a world is this?' the owner of the store wished to know. 'A person steals shrimp? Thirty pounds of shrimp? What's he going to do with thirty pounds of shrimp? He's got nothing better to steal? He has to steal thirty pounds of shrimp?'

'Well, these guys aren't rocket scientists, you know,' Willis said.

'But thirty pounds of shrimp?'

'Anyone but you have a key to the place?' Eileen asked.

In the car later, Eileen driving, Willis riding shotgun, he said, 'I can understand his point. Why would anyone bother? I mean, thirty pounds of shrimp? The guy's risking jail for thirty pounds of shrimp?'

'You and the owner ought to start a rock group,' Eileen said.

'How so?'

'You've already got a name for it. Thirty Pounds of Shrimp. I hear that one more time, I'll scream.'

Willis slipped his hand under her skirt.

'Hey!' she said. 'I'm driving.'

'So pull over.'

'Why?'

'So I can kiss you.'

'I'm a police officer, I want you to know.'

'So am I.'

'Stop that.'

'Not until you pull over.'

She checked the rear-view mirror, signaled, pulled the car over to the curb. He took her in his arms at once, kissed her fiercely. She yanked her mouth away, looked into his face, her own face flushed, fair complexion, the curse of the Irish. This time she kissed him, even more fiercely, pulled her mouth away again, checked the rear-view mirror, the side mirror, kissed him again, pulled back again, breathless.

'We'll get arrested,' she said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.