The Dark Mirror by Basil Copper

Author:Basil Copper
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: detective, mystery, hard-boiled
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing
Published: 1997-07-15T18:39:56+00:00

Chapter Eight – Paul Mellow

I got out at the ground floor, walked across the lobby and out through the main entrance. It was only around half-seven and no one appeared to be on duty. The air smelled good. I went on over to the parking lot. The car was drenched with a heavy dew and it took three pulls to start her. I tooled gently back along the parkway and stopped the car near the board fence where I had the shoot-out with my friend. I must have slipped a cog not to have thought of it sooner.

I put the car in front of the fence to shield what I was doing, though there was no one about. After a few minutes I found a biggish hole near the top, which had new edges. If the bullet had gone on through without hitting anything else it would be useless to look any farther, for it was a vacant lot beyond and it could have carried a long way. I went back down the fence. There was a small gate let into it. It was unlocked and I went on in. When I got back to the hole I found I was in luck for once.

The bullet had deflected off a metal stanchion belonging to a telephone pole and there, ten minutes later, I found it embedded in the thick timber. It took me another five to prise it out with a pen-knife. It had spread out, of course, but it should be an easy job for the ballistics boys. At least it would tie up, or not, with the joker who was leaving his calling card.

But there couldn’t be two choppers operating with silenced revolvers of the same caliber in the same area.

I put the shapeless piece of lead in my pocket and drove off across town. I couldn’t find a place to park the Buick near my office so I took it in for a wash and polish and then rode up in the creaking lift. As usual, Bert Dexter was nowhere about; it was still a little before nine but even so Stella had already completed two letters and the coffee was beginning to come to the boil. She was sitting behind my desk, pert, freshly groomed and as clean-scrubbed as the morning.

She grinned as I came in through the door and for a minute or two I felt a heel. Then it passed; we had no formal arrangement and I had to let off steam sometimes. I dictated a few notes over a cup of coffee. She never said a word about anything, but she looked quietly sure of herself, like she had caught me out in something crooked. Very likely she had.

Besides being very efficient, Stella was very beautiful, I thought to myself; but not in an obvious, sexy way. More than once I caught myself glancing at her stockings. These were legs I had never seen above the knee. Curious thing was that the sight of them aroused more interest in me than the sight of Carol Channing naked.

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.