Goodbye California by Alistair MacLean

Author:Alistair MacLean [MacLean, Alistair]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Terrorism
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 1977-03-20T04:00:00+00:00

Parker passed on the requests to Kramer then went up to see Mahler. Mahler viewed him as he was viewing life at the moment, with a harassed and jaundiced eye.

Parker said: I’m going out to Chief Donahure’s place. Some trouble out there.’

‘What trouble?’

‘Something that calls for an ambulance.’

‘Who said so?’

‘Ryder.’

‘Ryder!’ Mahler pushed back his chair and rose. ‘What the hell is Ryder doing out there?’

‘Didn’t say. I think he wanted a talk with him.’

‘I’ll have him behind bars for this. I’ll take charge of this personally.’

‘I’d like to come, Lieutenant.’

‘You stay here. That’s an order, Sergeant Parker.’

‘Nothing personal, Lieutenant.’ Parker put his badge on the desk. ‘I’m not taking orders any more.’

All five of them arrived together – the two ambulance men, Kramer, Major Dunne and Dr Hinkley. As befitted the occasion Dr Hinkley was in the lead. A small wiry man with darting eyes, he was, if not exactly soured by life, at least possessed of a profoundly cynical resignation. He looked at the recumbent figure on the floor.

‘Good lord! Lennie the Linnet. A black day for America.’ He peered more closely at the white tie with the red-rimmed hole through it. ‘Heart damage of some kind. Gets them younger every day. And Chief of Police Donahure!’ He crossed to where a moaning Donahure was sitting on his couch, his left hand tenderly cradling the blood-soaked towel round his right hand. None too gently, Hinkley unwrapped the towel. ‘Dear me. Where’s the rest of those two fingers?’

Ryder said: ‘He tried to shoot me. Through the back, of course.’

‘Ryder.’ Lieutenant Mahler had a pair of handcuffs ready. ‘I’m placing you under arrest.’

‘Put those things away and don’t make more a fool of yourself than you can help if you don’t want to be charged with obstructing the course of justice. I am making, I have made, a perfectly legal citizen’s arrest. The charges are larceny, corruption, bribery, the acceptance of bribes, attempted murder and murder in the first degree. Donahure will admit to all of them and I can prove all of them. Also, he’s an accessory to the wounding of my daughter.’

‘Your daughter shot?’ Oddly, this seemed to affect Mahler more than the murder accusation. He had put his handcuffs away. A disciplinary martinet, he was nonetheless a fair man.

Ryder looked at Kramer. ‘He has a statement to make, but as he’s suffering from a minor speech impairment right now I’ll make it for him and he’ll sign it. Give the usual warnings, of course, about legal rights, that his statement can be used in evidence, you know the form.’ It took Ryder only four minutes to make the statement on Donahure’s behalf, and by the time he had finished the damning indictment there wasn’t a man in that room, Mahler included, who wouldn’t have testified that the statement had been voluntary.

Major Dunne took Ryder aside. ‘So fine, so you’ve cooked Donahure’s goose. It won’t have escaped your attention that you’ve also cooked your own goose. You can’t imprison

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