Shake Him Till He Rattles by Braly Malcolm

Author:Braly, Malcolm [Braly, Malcolm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime fiction
Publisher: Stark House Press
Published: 2016-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

chapter eleven

The bust was different than the last one. It surprised Cabiness. He'd expected Carver to rage or gloat, but the Narco handled him with weary contempt, and Clair seemed too startled to put up a fuss.

Now in the booking room of the city prison, a stern young sergeant made a calm efficient recording of his certain guilt. Then Carver pulled him aside to shake him down. They went behind a wooden screen that would hide the middle part of his body from Clair, who was sitting on a bench across the room. She was holding up. She'd fallen back on a dead formal tone, calmly accepting what she made clear was a disagreeable experience.

"Strip down," Carver told him, standing back to watch as he piled his clothes on a bench provided for that purpose. Carver picked up each article and went over it. He knocked his shoes out and examined the heels.

"Your socks, too."

Cabiness stripped them off, standing gingerly on the cold cement. Carver lifted his leg as he would examining a horse, running his fingers over the small veins of the ankle. A feeling of humiliation forced its way through the icy reserve Cabiness had imposed in himself. This was something he couldn't get used to. Again he felt the cool fingertips on the inner curves of his buttocks and flinched automatically.

Carver snickered. "Don't worry."

There was buzzing in his ears; above it he was aware of a thin whisper of music from a radio and the voices of two jailers arguing over a play at cards.

"All right, put them back on."

As he was dressing, Carver asked him, "What's the story on the broad?"

"No story," he said, automatically moving to protect her.

"There could be quite a story there." Carver smiled faintly as he looked over the screen to where Clair was sitting. Her hair was still tousled, but the blush of heat had left her face. "Nice piece. Is she a head?"

Cabiness drew his belt tight. "I doubt it."

"She wasn't going to turn on with you?"

"I might have tried that if I couldn't make it any other way. But why waste grass?"

Carver looked doubtful. Cabiness was dressed now, ready to get on with it, anxious to put off the moment when he would have time to think. He caught the scent of fear through the stale routine of the arrest, but he wasn't ready to deal with it even though he knew it would come for him a long time before sleep.

"Sit down a minute," Carver said.

The Narco sat alongside him, holding his hands crossed lightly on his cocked knee. The smooth moldings of his face seemed edged with gray. A gray man all over. Without passion. A regulator.

"You've had a long run," Carver told him, and he thought, here we go again. "But you look clean as far as heavy goes. That's where the real heat is. As for one pothead more or less. . . " Carver made a limp gesture as if he were shooing something away, "no one really gives a damn.

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.